Rosie Lee Tompkins (1936–2006) is the art

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...

of Effie Mae Martin Howard, a widely-acclaimed African-American quiltmaker and fiber artist of

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. ''

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'' called her "one of the great American artists," and her work "one of the century’s major artistic accomplishments." More than 500 works by Tompkins reside at the

Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA, formerly abbreviated as BAM/PFA) are a combined art museum, repertory movie theater, and archive associated with the University of California, Berkeley. Lawrence Rinder was Director from ...

Early life

Born Effie Mae Martin, she was born September 6, 1936 to a

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family in southeastern

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. She was the oldest of 15 half-siblings, growing up working picking cotton and piecing quilts with her mother.

Work

Tompkins, who had helped her mother make quilts as a child, began to quilt seriously about 1980, while making a living as a practical nurse in the Bay Are

She said she believed God directed her hand and her art. Her abstract, improvisational compositions often had a personal significance: one of her more well-known works, "Three Sixes," involves three relatives whose birthdays include the number 6. Despite the fact that she was a deeply private person and rarely sold her quilts, her work was discovered in 1985 by Eli Leon, an Oakland-based collector specializing in African-American quilts. Leon featured her work on the cover of the catalog for an exhibition he organized, ''Who'd A Thought It: Improvisation in African-American Quiltmaking'', which debuted at the San Francisco Craft and Folk Art Museum in 1987 and traveled for several years. Tompkins' quilts were featured in a solo exhibition at the

(BAMPFA) in 1997, at Peter Blum Gallery in

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in 2003, and at the

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in 2007. They were also included in the 2002 Biennial of the

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), ...

and have been shown at the

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; one image is available on their web site. In 2016, her quilts were featured in an exhibition of five quilt artists at the

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. The curator of the Berkeley show,

Lawrence Rinder Lawrence R. Rinder is a contemporary art curator and museum director. He directed the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) from 2008 to 2020. Education Rinder received a B.A. in art from Reed College and an M.A. in art history fro ...

, wrote:

In front of Tompkins's work I feel that certain
Modernist Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...
ambitions may in fact be achievable. Here are feelings of awe, elation, and sublimity; here is an absolute mastery of color, texture and composition; here is inventiveness and originality so palpable and intense that each work seems like a new and total risk, a risk so extreme that only utter faith in the power of the creative spirit could have engendered it."

Critics were equal in their praise: "Tompkins' textile art

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... demolish the category"; "These quilts are works of such distinction and devotion that they supersede established art-historical categories, forcing reviewers to retreat to that dumbfounded admiration that attracted us to art in the first place". Rosie-Lee-Tompkins BAMPFA Flash-Art-00

Throughout her career, Tompkins focused much of her work on storytelling as well as religious themes. Tompkins was deeply religious and used this as the main motivator in creating her quilts.

Artwork

Works pieced by Tompkins include ''Tents of Armageddon Four Patch'' (1986), ''Three Sixes'' (1987), ''Half-Squares Put-Together'' (1988), ''Half-Squares Medallion'' (1986), ''Half-squares Four-patch'' (1986), and ''Put Together with Letter "F"'' (1985).

Style and materials

Tompkins's quilts were not made from old clothes or other scraps but from fabrics she purchased for their textures and light-reflecting qualities, including velvet, fake fur, wool, silk and Lurex. She worked with the convention of the quilt block but with enormous variation in size, free distortions of shape and vivid color contrasts that have been described as "geometric anarchy" and "riotous mosaics."

Tompkins' Retrospective at BAMPFA

In 2019, as a bequest, the

(BAMPFA) acquired the Eli Leon Collection of almost 3,000 works by African-American quilt makers, including more than 500 works by Tompkins, which will find a permanent home at the museum. Drawing from the Eli Leon Collection, BAMPFA presented ''Rosie Lee Tompkins: A Retrospective''. The exhibition, which opened February 19, 2020, closed prematurely due to

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shut-down, but not before ''The New York Times'' called it "a triumphal retrospective" that "confirms her standing as one of the great American artists–transcending craft, challenging painting and reshaping the canon."

Personal life

She was married and divorced twice. "Howard" was a married name. She was reclusive and fiercely protective of her privacy and the right to privacy of family.Fox, Margalit
"Rosie Lee Tompkins, African-American Quiltmaker, Dies at 70"
(obituary), ''The New York Times'', Dec. 6, 2006. Family included her mother; several children and stepchildren; and many siblings, grandchildren and great-grandchildren who survived her.

Death

Tompkins was found dead at her home in Richmond, California on Friday December 1, 2006. She died aged 70.