Perhaps the best known of the famous Gee’s Bend quilters of Alabama, Mary Lee Bendolph is an icon of American folk art and a virtuoso of abstraction. To create her free-form quilts, Bendolph uses salvaged materials in strings (wedges and triangles) or strips (rectangles) to create rhythmic and unpredictable patterns inspired by the world around her. The resulting compositions, which she has also created as prints, speak to a modernist language that, like other African-American traditions such as jazz and blues, emphasizes virtuosity and improvisation. The New York Times has hailed the Gee’s Bend quilts as “some of the most miraculous works of modern art America has produced.” Bendolph’s work has been shown at U.S. embassies around the world.