Jan 9, 2025 - Culture

High Museum acquires Black quilts and a Noguchi playscape model

Thomas Wheatley

Side by side photos of a large maze-like assemblage that spells "freedom" and a quilt of a woman with storytelling patches in the background — Hank Willis Thomas' "Freedom" (left) and Carolyn Mazloomi's "Ode to Harriet Powers: Mother of African American Quilting." Courtesy of The High Museum

The High Museum expanded its megacollection in 2024 with important works of queer photography, African modernism and a tribute to "the godmother of African American story quilting."

Why it matters: The Atlanta arts powerhouse's recent acquisitions increase access to works in diverse and underrepresented corners of the art world.

Zoom in: New works include Hank Willis Thomas' "Freedom," a large-format maze-like work made from upcycled American flags.

The work speaks to enslaved people's labyrinth to escape to the North for freedom and the ongoing fight for racial equality, the museum said.
The museum says the work can also serve as a "response" to self-taught artist Jessie Telfair's "Freedom Quilt," another work in the High's collection.

Carolyn L. Mazloomi's ode to Harriet Powers honors the Georgia quiltmaker, whose rare surviving works hang in the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

"Le verger à Moret-sur-Loing, printemps" by Alfred Sisley has been exhibited only once since 1977. It is the museum's fifth work by the 19th-century British plein air painter.

Zoom out: The High's collection has more than 20,000 works ranging from "prehistory to the present" and includes a focus on well-regarded folk and self-taught artists and a growing body of African works.

Fun fact: Another acquisition, a model called "Play Mountain" by Isamu Noguchi, captures the sculptor and landscape architect's fascination with simple and creative playscapes, one of which stands in Piedmont Park.

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High Museum acquires Black quilts and a Noguchi playscape model

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