id: 172600 accession number: 2015.82 share license status: Copyrighted url: https://clevelandart.org/art/2015.82 updated: 2023-03-22 03:05:08.988000 Cumulo, 2014. Sanford Biggers (American, b. 1970). Spray paint, interior paint, fabric-treated acrylic paint; overall: 182.8 x 189.2 cm (71 15/16 x 74 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Agnes Gund 2015.82 © Sanford Biggers title: Cumulo title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 2014 creation date earliest: 2014 creation date latest: 2014 current location: creditline: Gift of Agnes Gund copyright: © Sanford Biggers --- culture: America, 21st century technique: Spray paint, interior paint, fabric-treated acrylic paint department: Contemporary Art collection: CONTEMP - Painting type: Painting find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Sanford Biggers (American, b. 1970) - artist --- measurements: Overall: 182.8 x 189.2 cm (71 15/16 x 74 1/2 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Currents and Constellations: Black Art in Focus opening date: 2022-02-20T05:00:00 Currents and Constellations: Black Art in Focus. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 20-June 26, 2022). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS --- PROVENANCE Agnes Gund, New York, NY, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art date: 2015 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 2015– footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: Using spray paint in this work, the artist adds imagery to historic quilts. digital description: Inspired by research indicating that quilts may have been used as coded signposts along the Underground Railroad, Sanford Biggers began employing them as his canvases. Gold paint and the inclusion of a heavenly body—a cumulus cloud—elevate the status of this quilt, and the women who crafted them, from mundane to sacred. Historically, quilts were often made from fabric scraps by enslaved women. They served as both a conduit for creativity and a way to beautify spaces. “I consider myself a late collaborator,” Biggers states, “working with this patchwork that goes over a span of decades and generations.” wall description: Inspired by research indicating that quilts may have been used as coded signposts along the Underground Railroad, Sanford Biggers began employing them as his canvases. Gold paint and the inclusion of a heavenly body—a cumulus cloud—elevate the status of this quilt, and the women who crafted them, from mundane to sacred. Historically, quilts were often made from fabric scraps by enslaved women. They served as both a conduit for creativity and a way to beautify spaces. “I consider myself a late collaborator,” Biggers states, “working with this patchwork that goes over a span of decades and generations.” --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS "Currents and Constellations.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 61, no. 4 (Fall 2021): 23. page number: Reproduced and Mentioned: P. 23 url: --- IMAGES