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The Checkered Quilt

Oil on canvas
15 x 40 inches
1963
Now on view: TJC Gallery, Spartanburg, South Carolina

Although he lacked formal training in art, Claude Howell established the art department at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. Claiming that “the light [here] is unbelievably beautiful,” Howell spent most of his life there, except for summers when he traveled.

In Checkered Quilt a series of warm-colored rectangles representing items on a clothesline re-enforces the horizontality of the canvas. In the background skinny trees and wooden structures serve to balance the composition. The quilt of the title—larger than the other items on the clothesline—dominates the foreground and is reflected below.

 

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