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In Pennsylvania, long
before Malevich’s „Black Square on White Background“ (1913-5),
pure geometry and pure color arose in a radically abstract vein, made
of rhomboids, squares and strips, i.e., “diamonds“ and “bars“.
Quilts are covers. But Amish quilts are something else, too. In 1971, renowned
New York Times art critic Hilton Kramer celebrated them as genuinely American
Modernism before Modernism. The age of Op Art, Minimal Art, Hard Edge Painting
and Concrete Art opened everyone’s eyes for the aesthetic of these quilts.
Nevertheless, the exceptionally modern feel of these patchwork blankets derived
from the creative will of a consciously antiquated Christian community in the
States in the 19th century, a community that turned its back on the world. The
Amish quilts originated at the time of Queen Victoria, Art Nouveau and Art Déco.
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