In a roundup of the best art of 2023, a Doylestown artist of old continues to impress art aficionados with her quilt work, write Roberta Smith and Holland Cotter for The New York Times.

One of the best exhibits of the year was ‘What That Quilt Knows About Me’, at the American Folk Art Museum in New York City. The exhibit offered one of the most invigorating outbursts of color with its immersive display of textiles made in the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries by free and enslaved people.

The artists included a British soldier, a German tailor, and an Amish farm woman.

The most powerful example among the many stunning quilts was a bedcover made in 1853 by Sarah “Sallie” Ann Garges of Doylestown.

On a blazing orange background, she used embroidery and appliqué to depict many of the laborers, buildings, animals, and plants that were present in America’s everyday farm life.

Read more about Doylestown’s Sarah Ann Garges’ work in The New York Times.

Virtual Insights: Intimate Stories Through Textiles