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Miss Ruby's Crown

Smithsonian American Art Museum and its Renwick Gallery

Object Details

Artist
Gwendolyn Aqui-Brooks, born Washington, DC 1947
Exhibition Label
Gwendolyn Aqui-Brooks
born 1947, Washington, DC
resides Wesley Chapel, FL
Miss Ruby’s Crown
2009
hand dyed cotton, silk, netting, metallic fabric, lamé, beads, buttons, shells, found objects, cotton batting, sequins, and cording
Gwendolyn Aqui-Brooks remembers the services she attended with her parents at Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC, as times of worship, pride, and beauty. This quilt’s subject, Miss Ruby, modeled after Brooks’s mother, Hazel Dobbins Carter, represents the sophisticated and thoughtfully styled church woman. She wears a showstopper hat, white gloves, and purse, embodying the observation by anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston that “the will to adorn is the second most notable characteristic in Negro expression. Perhaps his idea of ornament does not attempt to meet conventional standards, but it satisfies the soul of its creator.”
Handmade, abstract, and inclusive of found objects, the quilt embodies Brooks’s signature style. It also has painterly qualities, a callback to her training in painting at Howard University’s College of Fine Arts.
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Fleur S. Bresler, 2023.40.11, © 2023, Gwendolyn Aqui-Brooks
We Gather at the Edge: Contemporary Quilts of Black Women Artists, 2025
Credit Line
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Fleur S. Bresler
Copyright
© 2023, Gwendolyn Aqui-Brooks
2009
Object number
2023.40.11
Restrictions & Rights
Usage conditions apply
Type
Decorative Arts-Fiber
Quilt
Crafts
Medium
hand dyed cotton, silk, netting, metallic fabric, lame, beads, buttons shells, found objects, cotton batt, sequins, and cording
Dimensions
40 3/4 × 40 1/8 × 2 1/2 in. (103.5 × 101.9 × 6.4 cm) irregular
See more items in
Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection
Department
Renwick Gallery
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Topic
Figure\fragment\hand
Dress\accessory\handbag
Record ID
saam_2023.40.11
Metadata Usage (text)
Not determined
GUID (Link to Original Record)
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/vk730421379-f1d2-45e3-ac2e-e841ba7af7e2

Related Content

  • American Quilts: Art and Craft

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