Unseen works by quilting genius on display in S.F

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Renowned East Bay artist Rosie Lee Tompkins was considered one of the greatest quilt makers of all time. “In the stillunfolding field of AfricanAmerican quiltmaking, she has no equal,” critic Roberta Smith wrote of Tompkins. Now, a new show of her work at Anthony Meier Fine Arts reveals neverbeforeseen pieces from her prolific career.

Rosie Lee Tompkins was the nom d’art used by Effie Mae Howard. Born during the Great Depression into an Arkansas sharecropping family, she learned quilting from her mother. Most of Tompkins’ quilts break traditional rules, experimenting with asymmetry and concepts of deconstruction.

The seven artworks included in the exhibition date from 1974 to 2006, the year of Tompkins’ death in Richmond. The show coincides with a retrospective of Tompkins’ work at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive and includes a newly commissioned essay by Lawrence Rinder, the former director of the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive and a longtime champion of Tompkins.

Anthony Meier Fine Arts