17 Facts About Molly Upton

Martha Neill Upton was a watercolorist, sculptor and studio quilt artist.

Molly Upton's quilts were shown in the first major museum exhibition of non-traditional quilts, The New American Quilt at New York's Museum of Arts and Design, then called the Museum of Contemporary Craft, in 1976.

Molly Upton's father was a graduate of the Princeton University in the Class of 1944 and a veteran of the United States Army Air Force as a C-47 pilot.

Molly Upton's mother graduated from Vassar College in 1943 with a degree in political science.

Molly Upton attended the Hindley Elementary School and the Thomas School in Darien, Connecticut where she first met Susan Hoffman, who introduced her to quilting.

Molly Upton graduated from the Dana Hall School in Wellesley, Massachusetts in 1971 just prior to the July1 opening of the exhibition Abstract Design in American Quilts at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.

Molly Upton attended Macalester College, for her freshman year in 1971 and 1972 and the University of New Hampshire during the Fall of 1972 and Fall 1973 as an art major.

Molly Upton spent the summer of 1972 in Weston, Vermont while Hoffman spent that summer in Dorset, Vermont.

Molly Upton moved to San Francisco between 1975 and 1976.

Molly Upton designed and created over 27 quilted tapestries between 1974 and 1977.

Molly Upton was 21 years old when she created her first quilt, Nocturn Regalis, and was 23 when she completed her last quilt, Alchemy.

Molly Upton abandoned the use of the grid structure and dismissed the use of a repeated block motif.

In 1975, the landmark "Quilts by Radka Donnell, Susan Hoffman, and Molly Upton" exhibit opened at the Carpenter Center for Visual Arts at Harvard University.

Molly Upton was awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and was selected as one of ten artists to participate in the "Works in Progress" Program, demonstrating her work in City Hall, Boston and later exhibited at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in Boston.

Molly Upton's work was illustrated in the 1976 book by Beth and Jeffrey Gutcheon: The Quilt Design Workbook.

Torrid Dwelling, considered Molly Upton's groundbreaking work, was selected as one of the 100 Best Quilts of the 20th Century in 1999 through a collaboration between Quilter's Newsletter Magazine, the International Quilt Festival, Quiltmaker and McCall's.

Molly Upton's tapestries are considered benchmarks for what is recognized today as pure art: "any art form that is considered to have purely aesthetic value".