Rosie Lee Tompkins: A Retrospective

February 19, 2020–July 18, 2021

The largest exhibition of Rosie Lee Tompkins’s work to date, this retrospective reveals her as a brilliantly inventive quiltmaker and an artist of stunning variety, depth, and impact.

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Rosie Lee Tompkins: Untitled, 2005; quilted by Irene Bankhead, 2008; cotton, corduroy, rayon linen, polyester print, cotton terry, cotton embroidery, cotton bedding, and other fabrics with cotton muslin backing; 26 x 39 in.; BAMPFA, Bequest of the Eli Leon Living Trust. Reproduced courtesy of the Estate of Effie Mae Howard. Photo: Ben Blackwell.
Rosie Lee Tompkins: Untitled, 1986; quilted by Willia Ette Graham, 1986; velvet, velveteen, faux fur, panné velvet, and velvet backing; 86 x 74 in.; BAMPFA, Bequest of the Eli Leon Living Trust. Reproduced courtesy of the Estate of Effie Mae Howard. Photo: Sharon Risedorph Photography.
Rosie Lee Tompkins: Three Sixes, 1996; quilted by Irene Bankhead, 1996; polyester double knit, linen-weave cotton or polyester, cotton, rayon, and cotton muslin backing; 96 × 96 in.; BAMPFA, bequest of the Eli Leon Living Trust. Reproduced courtesy of the Estate of Effie Mae Howard. Photo: Ben Blackwell.
Rosie Lee Tompkins: Untitled, c. 1987; quilted by Willia Ette Graham and Johnnie Wade, 1991; rayon, polyester, double knit, and cotton knit; 100 x 60 ½ in.; BAMPFA, Bequest of the Eli Leon Living Trust. Reproduced courtesy of the Estate of Effie Mae Howard. Photo: Sharon Risedorph Photography.
Rosie Lee Tompkins: Untitled, 1991; quilted by Irene Bankhead, 1991; velvet, velveteen, velour, and cotton backing; 73 x 67 in.; BAMPFA, Bequest of the Eli Leon Living Trust. Reproduced courtesy of the Estate of Effie Mae Howard. Photo: Ben Blackwell.

Upcoming
Films
Upcoming
Events
Selected
Objects
Past
Films
Past
Events

Wednesday, April 21, 4 PM PDT
Quilts, Blankets, and Tapestry: Contemporary Art and Textiles with Aaron McIntosh, Marie Watt, and Ebony G. Patterson

Discover the innovative practices of three artists who have turned to textiles—incorporating or referring to them in their work—in this discussion moderated by BAMPFA Director Julie Rodrigues Widholm, presented in conjunction with Rosie Lee Tompkins: A Retrospective.
Sunday, May 16, 2 PM PDT
Say It Like You Mean It: Textile Collage as Storytelling

Join artist and educator Sara Knight to explore storytelling through textile collage in this workshop for all ages and skill levels.

Programmed by Alayna Tinney
Saturday, June 12, 12:30 PM PDT
Virtual Gallery + Studio: World-Building Drawing Session

With Rosie Lee Tompkins’s quilts as inspiration, explore symbols, patterns, and text in a drawing workshop focused on world building with artist Veronica Graham.

For ages 6–12 with accompanying adult(s)
Recorded Saturday, February 20, 2021
Livestream: Among Quilters: Carolyn Mazloomi and Ora Clay on Rosie Lee Tompkins

Two leading African American quilt artists explore Rosie Lee Tompkins’s work and its resonance with their own in a live conversation moderated by Elaine Yau, cocurator of BAMPFA’s Tompkins retrospective.
Presented Saturday, February 20, 2021
Workshop: Community Quiltmaking

Celebrate quilting as a communal act and collaborate on a patchwork quilt in this virtual workshop for all ages, led by artist Nelli Astvatsatrian. Register in advance to receive materials in the mail; after the workshop, your piece will become part of a finished community quilt.
Recorded Saturday, February 29, 2020
Colloquium: Re-visioning the Art of Rosie Lee Tompkins

Scholars Elaine Yau, Horace Ballard, and Lisa Gail Collins shed new light on Tompkins, her cultural context, and her place in modern and contemporary art.

BAMPFA
Thursday, June 10, 6 PM PDT
From the Estate of Eli Leon: Textile Improvisations

Artists Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo, Olaitan Callender-Scott, Angela Hennessy, and Ramekon O’Arwisters share new work created with fabrics from the collection of the late Eli Leon, an Oakland-based collector, scholar, and champion of African American quiltmakers.
Presented Saturday, December 12, 2020
Virtual Gallery + Studio: Collaged Quilt Tops

Inspired by Rosie Lee Tompkins’s textiles, combine scrap fabrics with other found materials to collage a personal quilt top all your own!

For ages 6–12 with accompanying adult(s)
Recorded Saturday, July 11, 2020
Virtual Gallery + Studio: Visual Rhythms in Rosie Lee Tompkins's Quilts

Meet artist and educator Kaya Fortune on Zoom to look at exciting and colorful quilts by Rosie Lee Tompkins, then discover your own visual rhythms using materials easily found at home.

For ages 6–12 with accompanying adult(s)
Family Guide: Rosie Lee Tompkins

This guide invites you to look closely at the art of Rosie Lee Tompkins and do related hands-on art activities!
Recorded Thursday, October 22, 2020
Roberta Smith and Lawrence Rinder on Rosie Lee Tompkins

Join New York Times art critic Roberta Smith and BAMPFA Director Emeritus Lawrence Rinder for a lively and searching conversation about the art of Rosie Lee Tompkins.
Presented Wednesday, February 19, 12 PM
Curator’s Talk: Elaine Yau on Rosie Lee Tompkins

Explore the art and life of Rosie Lee Tompkins with a gallery talk by exhibition cocurator Elaine Yau.

BAMPFA
Presented Saturday, March 7, 2020
Fabric Postcard Collage Workshop

Join quiltmakers Stacey Sharman and Kristen Takakuwa of Berkeley’s Hello Stitch Studio to explore the art of quilting as you create fabric postcards.

BAMPFA

Rosie Lee Tompkins: A Retrospective

February 19, 2020–July 18, 2021

BAMPFA from Home

While the museum is temporarily closed, please enjoy the exhibition through these online resources:

Rosie Lee Tompkins (1936–2006) is widely considered one of the most brilliant and inventive quiltmakers of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Her...

BAMPFA from Home

While the museum is temporarily closed, please enjoy the exhibition through these online resources:

Rosie Lee Tompkins (1936–2006) is widely considered one of the most brilliant and inventive quiltmakers of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Her reputation has grown to the point where her work is no longer considered solely within the context of quilting, but celebrated among the great American artistic achievements of our time. Rosie Lee Tompkins: A Retrospective is the largest and most comprehensive exhibition of the artist’s work to date, featuring approximately seventy quilts, pieced tops, embroideries, assemblages, and decorated objects. It reveals Tompkins to be an artist of extraordinary variety, depth, and impact.

Born Effie Mae Howard in 1936 in Arkansas, the artist later adopted the pseudonym Rosie Lee Tompkins. She learned quilting from her mother as a child but did not begin to practice the craft seriously until the 1980s, when she was living in the Bay Area city of Richmond. Often inspired by her belief in God, Tompkins made quilts directed toward her own healing and spirituality and to honor family members. She employed a wide variety of traditional patterns, including half-squares, medallions, and yo-yos, exploring and adapting these approaches through her individual sensibility and integrating such favorite fabrics as velvet, artificial fur, and various types of glittery material. She also frequently incorporated embroidery—stitching words and citations of Christian scripture—as well as printed images on recycled clothes, which suggest the artist’s commentary on contemporary social, political, and cultural events.

Made up almost entirely of works from BAMPFA’s collection, Rosie Lee Tompkins: A Retrospective is the first in a series of exhibitions celebrating the donation of approximately 3,000 quilts by African American artists from the estate of the collector Eli Leon. This transformative bequest makes BAMPFA a leader in the field of African American art with what is probably the largest public collection of African American quilts in the world.

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Thanks

Rosie Lee Tompkins: A Retrospective is organized by Director and Chief Curator Lawrence Rinder and Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow Elaine Y. Yau, with Curatorial Assistant Lucia Olubunmi Momoh. The exhibition is made possible with major support from Nion McEvoy and Leslie Berriman and the Estate of Eli Leon. Additional support is provided by Frances Bowes, Anthony and Celeste Meier, Margarita Gandia and Diana Campoamor, Topher Delaney, Faith and Stephen Brown, Joyce and Mark Hulbert, and Myra G. Block.

Rosie Lee Tompkins: A Retrospective

February 19, 2020–July 18, 2021

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