Molly Upton | The Plaid Portico

The Quilts of Molly Upton, a special exhibition sponsored by Bloc-loc at QuiltCon West 2016 in Pasadena, was a bit of a showstopper. All the quilts were done in the 1974-1976 timeframe, before Molly died in 1977 at age 23. A watercolorist, sculptor and quilt artist, her quilts were shown in the first major museum exhibition of non-traditional quilts, The New American Quilt at New York’s Museum of Arts and Design in 1976.

“Molly Upton (1953-1977) was a pioneer in the nascent art quilt movement of the 1970′.While others around her were making traditional quilts of the few available calicos, Molly found a way to paint with the many other fabrics available to her -velvets, silks, corduroy, and polyester blends.

Molly Upton’s quilts range from huge to tiny, but all exhibit a mastery of color, rhythm, and composition. Molly left this planet at the age of 23, leaving us a legacy of many quilts, most of them exhibited here”.

A legacy it is.