ALICE BEASLEY
BROWSE ARTISTSB. 1945
American
Alice Beasley is a long-time colleague and friend of Louise Rothman Riemer and Davis Riemer. Beasley, a retired attorney, created her piece Follow the Money in 2002 in response to President George W. Bush’s refusal to authorize the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to release its full report on the Harken Energy Scandal, which investigated allegations of insider trading by Bush. This instance, coupled with other dubious scandals, like the Enron Corporation scandal of the early 2000s, influenced Beasley’s work of this period when she found herself consistently outraged by the hypocrisy of the Federal Government. The Riemer’s appreciated how Beasley used textiles to tell the stories of corporate greed and corruption, and government entanglement, elevating the medium from homely craft to activist art.
Beasley says of her quilt, “the piece is made entirely of fabric. Rather than using paint, dyes, or other surface treatments, I rely instead on finding color, line, and texture in the print of commercial fabric and thread (although I did create the words using a printer I work directly, gradually building a composition like a painter working on a canvas, cutting all pieces free-hand from fabric. I machine appliqueing them, then quilt the finished image.” Look closely to find statements seemingly drawn from news headlines like “George W. Strained to Stay on Message” and “Corporate Reprehensibility.”
In her post-law life, Beasley has created quite a successful art career. Her work has been exhibited in many venues throughout the United States, including the American Folk Art Museum in New York and the Smithsonian Anacostia Museum and abroad in Madrid, France, Japan, and Namibia. Her work is also in the collection of the DeYoung Museum, the city and county of San Francisco, the County of Alameda, CA, and many hospitals and medical facilities throughout the Bay Area. Beasley currently lives and works in Oakland, CA.
