About Gee's Bend Gallery and Pitkin Studio

Kat Pettway and Steve Pitkin at work, 2024

In 1999, more than 250 previously undocumented quilts created by the women of Gee’s Bend, Alabama, were assembled by Atlanta-based collector and scholar William Arnett. The collection was brought to Pitkin Studio in Rockford, Illinois, where the quilts were professionally photographed for the first time. Those images became the foundation for a broader recognition of the artistic significance of the Gee’s Bend quilting tradition and helped spark conversations that led to major museum exhibitions, scholarly research, and publications.

In 2002, The Quilts of Gee’s Bend debuted at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The exhibition featured sixty quilts by forty-five artists and traveled to museums across the United States, introducing audiences to a body of work that would come to be recognized as one of the most important artistic traditions in American culture. The exhibition launched international acclaim for the quilters of Gee’s Bend and established their place in the history of American art.

Pitkin Studio played a unique role in this moment. The photographs created in our studio provided many people with their first opportunity to experience these extraordinary works. Through publications, exhibitions, and educational initiatives, those images helped bring the quilts from the clotheslines and homes of rural Alabama to the collections and walls of major institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Two decades later, interest in Gee’s Bend entered a new chapter. In 2019, with support from the Souls Grown Deep Foundation, Pitkin Studio returned to document the continuing work of the Gee’s Bend artists. Since then, we have photographed and archived more than 3,000 historic and contemporary quilts, while also documenting the artists themselves, their environment, and the creative process that continues to sustain this remarkable tradition.

Today, Pitkin Studio remains closely connected to the quilters and their families through publications, film projects, digital media, and ongoing documentation efforts. These relationships, built over more than twenty-five years, form the foundation of Gee’s Bend Gallery.

Gee’s Bend Gallery was created to support the artists directly by connecting their work with collectors around the world. The artists and their families have entrusted us with the stewardship and presentation of their work, and we are honored to help share these important cultural treasures with a wider audience. Our business model reflects that commitment: 75 percent of every sale is paid directly to the artist, while the remaining 25 percent supports the operational costs required to document, preserve, promote, and distribute the work.

For more than 27 years, our mission has remained the same, to help preserve the legacy of Gee’s Bend, support the artists who carry that tradition forward, and ensure that their work continues to be seen, appreciated, and collected for generations to come.

Steve Pitkin, Pitkin Studio,  2026