Cubist Art Quilter

A look at the Cubistic style of quilting.

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On New York's upper west side, on the border of Harlem and Washington Heights, artist Michael Cummings creates colorful and evocative quilts in the studio of this 19th century brownstone that he's lovingly restored. Cummings draws a great deal of inspiration from his formative years as a painter. He's heavily influenced by the masters of the Cubist art movement.

"The Cubistic style has always fascinated me in terms of how you can break up an image into sections and turn it into something else," said Cummings. "When I transferred that style into fabric, it was quite easy."

Cummings consistently uses the series format to render narrative content using Cubist principles. Perhaps his best known is a collection of 12 art quilts called "African-Jazz" series, inspired by a black-and-white photo in a 1954 poster.