MILWAUKEE, May 19 /PRNewswire/ -- One of the world's finest collections of early American quilts is on view at the Milwaukee Art Museum May 22-September 6, 2010. Featuring rare surviving textiles of the late 1700s and early 1800s from Winterthur Museum, Delaware, American Quilts outlines America's earliest cultural landscape in stunning detail.

American Quilts features more than 40 exquisite quilts whose fabric, design, and stitching provide an extraordinary visual experience. The exhibition includes some of the earliest American printed textiles, a quilted Indian palampore, and a kaleidoscopic sunburst quilt featuring over 6,700 pieces of printed cotton.

"At first, fabric itself was a status symbol reflecting wealth and worldliness," said Mel Buchanan, assistant curator of 20th-century design. "But the technological advances of the Industrial Revolution and the establishment of an American textile industry made fabrics to more widely available."

Through skillful needlework, graphic patterning, and an eye for color, American women transformed both common and exotic textiles into these singular works of art.

For additional information, please visit www.mam.org/american_quilts.

The NAMES Project Foundation AIDS Memorial Quilt

In conjunction with American Quilts, the Milwaukee Art Museum presents The NAMES Project Foundation AIDS Memorial Quilt, on view June 8-20, 2010. The exhibition features the original quilt designed in 1987 by AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin honoring people from Milwaukee who have lost their lives to AIDS. In addition, eight AIDS Quilt panels designed by 30 of the world's foremost fashion designers, including Dolce & Gabbana, B.C.B.G. and Versace, will be on display.

AMISH QUILT AUCTION

On July 24, Mader & Mader Auction Services will auction 200 authentic Amish quilts. Museum admission is required to receive a bidding number. There is a 10% buyers' fee in addition to the final bid. The auction is presented as part of the Museum's 6th annual Milwaukee Artist Marketplace, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

EXHIBITION SPONSORS/ORGANIZERS

American Quilts: Selections from the Winterthur Collection is sponsored at the Milwaukee Art Museum by the Museum's Friends of Art. The exhibition is organized by Winterthur Museum and curated by Linda Eaton. It is organized at the Milwaukee Art Museum by Mel Buchanan, Liz Flaig, and Catherine Sawinski.

The Milwaukee Art Museum's presentation of the AIDS Memorial Quilt is supported by the Greater Milwaukee Foundation, Johnson and Pabst LGBT Humanity Fund and the AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin.

ABOUT THE MUSEUM

The Milwaukee Art Museum's far-reaching holdings include more than 20,000 works spanning antiquity to the present day. With a history dating back to 1888, the Museum houses a collection with strengths in 19th- and 20th-century American and European art, contemporary art, American decorative arts, and folk and self-taught art. The Museum includes the Santiago Calatrava-designed Quadracci Pavilion, named by Time magazine as "Best Design of 2001." For more information, please visit www.mam.org.

SOURCE The Milwaukee Art Museum