In rural Chinese villages today, women are creating dynamic patchwork textiles, as their mothers and grandmothers did before them. This art form, which evolved from ancient Buddhist and Daoist customs of monks dressing in patched rags to project a sense of humility, is rooted in practicality, with the fabrics serving as bed and window covers, door curtains, and children’s clothing. The vibrant abstract compositions demonstrate creativity and fine artistic sensibilities that flourish far beyond the borders of established Chinese art canons.

This exhibition presents nearly 20 kaleidoscopic Chinese patchwork textiles, which are rarely seen outside the villages where they are made. The textiles, coming from the Hebei, Shanxi, Shandong, Gansu, and Shaanxi provinces, reveal a wide variety of compositions, patterns, and techniques, which reflect local styles and individual aesthetics alike. Visitors can explore the historical impacts on materials and designs, and discover the personal histories and artistic intuitions behind the works. Improvising with available cloth, riffing on patterns, and injecting their own creativity, the makers have produced stunning and inspiring imagery. Though viewers familiar with American quilt patterns may be surprised to notice many similar designs, these Chinese works represent a tradition all their own.

Nancy Berliner, Wu Tung Senior Curator of Chinese Art and exhibition curator, traveled to many villages in northern China, interviewing artists and collecting the works on view here for the MFA’s collection directly from the makers and their descendants. Photographer Lois Conner accompanied her, documenting the multiple trips through images and film—featured in the exhibition—of the artists, villages, and objects in their original environments.

“One Hundred Stitches, One Hundred Villages” is accompanied by the first English-language publication on the art of Chinese patchwork textiles, authored by Berliner and with photographs by Conner.