calsfoundation@cals.org
September 6, 1936
Effie Mae Howard was born in Arkansas. Under the assumed name Rosie Lee Tompkins, she became a widely acclaimed African-American quiltmaker whose prodigious talents catapulted her to the forefront of contemporary art. As New York Times critic Roberta Smith put it, “Tompkins’s textile art [works]…demolish the category.”