The Clarion (Spring/summer 1984)

THE CLARION AMERICA'S FOLK ART MAGAZINE

The Museum of American Folk Art New York City SPRING/SUMMER 1984 $4.50

An exceptional selection of furniture, quilts, paintings, weathervanes, sculptures and accessories.

The Woodbridge Figures 15 of95 wood carvings, painted and unpainted. Maximum height 8". Found in Woodbridge, New Jersey.

Anonymous,late 19th - early 20th century.

STEVE MILLER American Folk Art • 17 East 96th Street, New York, New York 10128 • 212-348-5219 •

By Appointment Only • Dealing in Investment Quality American Folk Art

19th Century Carved and Painted Trade Sign 231/2"x 26" 19th Century Wood and Tin Goat Weather Vane 33"Long.

Grain Painted Two Drawer Blanket Chest, New England, Early 19th 1 2"deep.

Century, 42" wide, 40" high, 17/ Cast and Sheet Iron Horse Weather Vane, CA. 1840, 36"long.

19th Century Multi-colored Hooked Rug, New England, 35"x 46".

BONNER'S BARN 25 Washington Street Malone, New York 12953 Phone 518-483-4001

JOHN BREWSTER,JR.

(1766-after 1846)

CAPTAIN SAMUEL AND ABIGAIL LEWIS Painted circa 1800 Oil on canvas; 30V x 253% inches(each)

Abigail Lewis and the painterJohn Brewster Jr were cousins. Both were seventh-generation descendants of William Brewster the Elder ofPlymouth Colony.

Samuel Lewis'title of Captain was an honorary one commonly given to ship owners in the late 1700s and early 1800s.

In 1813, be relocated hisfamilyfrom Falmouth, Massachusetts to Pittsburgh, Ohio because ofthe blockade ofthe New England coast by the British during the War of1812. Captain Lewis and his wife Abigail remained in Ohio until their deaths in 1841 and 1843, respectively.

This pair ofportraits descended in the family ofthe sitters to the present day.

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(AMERICAN ANTIQUESG&QUILTS BLANCHE GREENSTEIN

TOM WOODARD

Baltimore album quilt top. Maryland, mid-19th century. 87 x 87 inches.

We are always interested in purchasing exceptional quilts, collections or individual pieces.

Mail or telephone inquiries invited. Photos returned promptly.

K35 MADISON AVENUE, NEW YORK, N.Y. 10021(BETWEEN 69TH AND 70TH STREETS)TELEPHONE(212)98$-2906

4

THE CLA ' ION 4 .

Detailfrom

Baltimore Album Quilt; Artist

CONTENTS

unknown; Baltimore, Maryland; c. 1850; Appliqued cotton and india ink; 109 x 105"; From the Collections of Mr. and Mrs. James 0.Keene

CROSS CURRENTS:

The Clarion is published three times a year by the Museum of American Folk Art, 49 West 53rd St., New York, NY 10019;(212) 581-2474. Annual subscription rate for MAFA members is included in membership dues. Copies are mailed to all members. Single copy $4.50.

The Clarion, America's Folk Art Magazine.

SPRING 1984 Published and copyright 1984 by the Museum of American Folk Art, 49 West 53rd Street, New York, New York 10019.

The cover and contents of The Clarion are fully protected by copyright and may not be reproduced in any manner without written consent. Opinions expressed by contributors are not necessarily those of the Museum of American Folk Art. Unsolicited manuscripts or photographs should be accompanied by return postage. The Clarion assumes no responsibility for the loss or damage of such material.

SPRING/SUMMER 1984

by Joyce Hill

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Faces, Figureheads and Scrimshaw Fancies

THE KEENE EYE: Selections from the American Folk Art Collections of Mr. and Mrs. James 0. Keene

JOHN KANE:

by Charlotte M. Emans

Catalog Insert

by Jane Kallir

49

by David W. Courtney

56

by James T. Wills

62

Modern America's First Folk Painter

ACQUIRING MASTERWORKS: The Robert and Betty Marcus Collection

J. RUSSELL HARPER,1914-1983 Canada's Pioneer Art Historian

Change of Address Please send both old and new addresses and allow five weeks for change.

Advertising.

The Clarion accepts advertisements only from advertisers whose reputation is recognized in the trade, but despite the care with which the advertising department screens photographs and texts submitted by its advertisers, it cannot guarantee the unquestionable authenticity of objects of quality or services advertised in its pages or offered for sale by its advertisers, nor can it accept responsibility for misunderstandings that may arise from the purchase or sale of objects or services advertised in its pages.

The Museum is dedicated to the exhibition and interpretation of folk art and feels it is a violation of its principles to be involved in or to appear to be involved in the sale of works of art. For this reason, the Museum will not knowingly accept advertisements for The Clarion which illustrate or describe objects that have been exhibited at the Museum within one year of the placing of the advertisement.

Letter from the Director

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Current Major Donors

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Museum News

68

Calendar

70

Membership

71

Index to Advertisers

80

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JoyPiscopo Carved head of sailor13" high from Five Islands, Georgetown, Me. Complete provenance available to buyer.

141 Middle St., Portland Maine,(207)774-1479

April 17-May 25, 1984

John Kane Modern America's First Folk Painter Including loans from major museums and private collections Illustrated catalogue $15 (post incl.)

Detailed checklist available on request

Galerie St.Etienne 24 W. 57th St. NYC 10019 (212) 245-6734 Tues.-Sat. 11-5

PHYLLIS HADERS ,

Log Cabin windmill blades variation.

Cotton, Pennsylvania, circa 1880. 82 x 91 inches.

Published in QUILTS/83 Calendar.

I am always interested in purchasing exceptional quilts.

(212)832-8181 York 10021 New Mail address: 136 East 64th Street, New York,

By Appointment

7

Highly unusual and rare pictorial quilt exhibiting extraordinarily fine quilting and stuffed work, c. 1840. American statesman Henry Clay portrayed in center. Consigned from direct descendent of political ally of Mr. Clay. To be offered at Guernseys summer Boat Sale.

IMPORTANT CONSIGNMENTS AND ADVANCE SEAT RESERVATIONS NOW BEING ACCEPTED FOR OUR THIRD ANNUAL SUMMER QUILT AUCTION ABOARD SHIP.

Guernsey's New York, N.Y. • 212-628-1702 • Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Extraordinary collections sought for Fall sales.

(Mailing Address: Guernseys Auction, Tuxedo Park. N.Y. 10987)

American Sculpture

--••••.‘„

FRA MARESCA

236 West 26 Street New York City 212•620•0955 Architectural cast iron head of Columbia from New York City.

17" h x 16" w X 22" deep. 1870-1880.

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KENNETH & IDA MANKO Quality Folk Art (207) 646-2595 We are located in Moody, Maine, mid-way between Ogunquit and Wells on coastal Route 1. Our barn gallery is always stocked with country furniture, paintings, weathervanes,and folk art for the advanced collector.

American Folk Artat Sotheby's

Very fine and important whalebone and whale ivory swift with its original box, circa 1850, sold at our New York Galleries in December 1983 for $20,900.

Fine sheet-copper and zinc jumping horse weathervane, A.L. Jewell & Co., Waltham, Massachusetts, third quarter 19th century, sold at our New York Galleries in January 1984 for $37,400.

Rare painted and decorated pine miniature blanket chest, Pennsylvania, circa 1800, sold at our New York Galleries in October 1983 for $23,100.

Charles G. Hoffmann, View ofHenry Z. Van Reed's Farm,sold at our New York Galleries in January 1984 for $88,000.

Each year in New York, Sotheby's holds regularly scheduled auctions of American Folk Art. Sotheby's, the only international art auction firm with 100 years of experience in America, offers the most expertise and the finest auction facilities in the world.

For information about buying and selling at Sotheby's, please contact Nancy Druclunan at(212)472-3511. Sotheby Parke Bernet Inc., 1334 York Avenue at 72nd Street, New York, N.Y. 10021.

SOTHEBY'S Founded 1744

1262 MADISON AVENUE • NEW YORK,N.Y. 10128 Monday—Saturday 10-6

TELEPHONE •212.876,5775

Pat Ross, Owner

Photo copyright 01984 by Joan Tedeschi

Antique Quilts • Handwoven Rugs & Blankets• Contemporary Folk Art Handmade Children's Clothes • Country Accessories

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12

A • COUNTRY • STORE

Letter from the Director Dr. Robert Bishop

..•

This message is being written to you soon after my return from the opening of "American Folk Art: Expressions of a New Spirit" at the Barbican Centre's Art Gallery in London. As you know, this exhibition, which is generously supported by United Technologies Corporation, has been on the move since it opened at the Pavillon des Arts in Paris last April. Each of the gala openings which I have had the privilege of attending, including those in Germany at the Munchner Stadtmuseum and the Altonaer Museum, has filled me with pride that the efforts of the Museum of American Folk Art are being recognized throughout the world. Although each of these celebrations has been a special event, none is more important than the reception scheduled for April 25 which marks the opening of our interim gallery at 125 West 55th Street.

With the kind support of our good friends at Shearson/American Express, this event marks a major milestone in the history ofthe Museum. This gallery represents a significant improvement in our exhibition facilities, as I observed in my letter to you in the Winter, 1983/84 issue of The Clarion. This relocation is indicative of the imminent preparations for our expansion on 53rd Street, our permanent site.

In designing our interim gallery, we have had the good fortune of working with Clifford LaFontaine, whose excellent efforts are already well known to regular visitors at the Museum through "Children's Children: American Folk Dolls" and "The Museum Collects: New Directions, New Accessions:' Mr. LaFontaine's wonderful sense of design has created a new visual impact and excitement in our exhibitions, and I am sure that you will agree that his design for "The Keene Eye: Selections from the American Folk Art Collections of Mr. and Mrs. James 0. Keene" is further proof of his considerable ability.

Overall architects and designers for the renovation at 55th Street have been the

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

•

Museum's new interim gallery at125 West 55th Street.

firms of Bennett-Wallace and Superstructures. Please visit us at 125 West 55th Street soon and follow our progress as we build for the future.

When our Museum was founded in 1961 it was pursuant to a charter granted by the Board of Regents of the Department of Education of the State of New York, which charged us with the responsibility ofcreating not only a museum but also a library of folk art in the City of New York. Through the years our library has grown so that today its holdings form a valuable research resource for the study of American folk and decorative arts. During the last year an active acquisitions program has added valuable titles to our holdings, and,as!have previously informed you, the library is being organized and catalogued by Edith Wise,former head reference librarian at New York University. Mrs. Wise's efforts have been aided in part by generous grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and from the Larsen Fund, Incorporated. It is a pleasure to acknowledge with thanks the generosity of both organizations.

From time to time I have been pleased to write about our graduate program at New York University, which now offers degrees at the mas-

ter's and doctoral levels in Folk Art Studies. Two special intensive weeklong seminars will be given this summer: one in New York City at New York University from July 2-7; the second at the New York Historical Association at Cooperstown from July 8-14. This is the second year of our association with Cooperstown, and we are delighted with the continued affiliation. Both programs will offer a week of concentrated study of American folk art and culture, including insightful lectures and visits to museum exhibitions and private collections.

As this issue of The Clarion goes to press, plans are in progress for our spring fundraising event,the Museum's eighth annual Manhattan House Tour.

This year the emphasis is on the art and architecture of "Downtown" New York. Many regular fans of this event have already expressed their pleasure in having the opportunity once again of visiting some of New York's most interesting private collections and unusual spaces. The Tour has been organized

by Ellen Donohue and Ronald Sosinski, members of the Friends Committee, with the able assistance of the many Friends of the Museum who have worked to ensure the success of this event.

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Museum of American Folk Art Adrienne Krug, Membership Coordinator Nancy Mead,Assistant Shop Manager Carleton Palmer,StaffPhotographer

Administration Dr. Robert Bishop, Director Gerard C. Wertkin, Assistant Director Charles Salamey, Controller Donna Kanner, Accountant Lillian Grossman, Assistant to the Director Jeanne Bornstein, Administrative Assistant Richard Griffin, Clerk Collections & Exhibitions Joyce Hill, Curator Claire Hartman,Registrar/Exhibitions Coordinator Mary Black, Consulting Curator Cynthia Sutherland, Assistant Curator Jeff Waingrow, Curatorial Associate Michael McManus,Curatorial Associate Charlotte Emans,Assistant Registrar/Assistant Exhibitions Coordinator Pat Locke, Assistant/Curatorial Department Rohini Coomara, Rose Klimowicz, Gallery Receptionists Joseph Minus, Gallery Assistant Howard Lanser, and Joseph D'Agostino,Installations

Programs Irene Goodkind, Nancy Brown, Co-Chairwomen Friends Committee Dr. Marilynn Karp, Director, New York University Master's Program in Folk Art Studies Dr. Judith Reiter Weissman, New York University Program Coordinator Lucy Danziger, Susan Klein, Docent Program Consultants Eleanora Walker, Exhibitions Previews Coordinator Sallie Nelson, Junior League Liaison Nancy Higgerson, Outreach Coordinator The Clarion Joan G. Lowenthal, Editor Sara Robinson Farhi, Associate Editor Faye Eng, Anthony Yee,Art Directors Ira Howard Levy, Design Consultant Craftsmen Litho, Printers Ace Typographers, Typesetters Museum Shop Staff Dianne Browning, Elizabeth Cassidy, Sharon Cortell, Anne DeCamp, Betsy Evert, Rita Geake, Elena Gordon, Lisa Haber, Caroline Hohenrath, Pat Hough,Timothy Korns, Annette Levande, Laurie McClendon, Robin McCoy, Sally O'Day, Pat Pancer, Rita Pollitt, Linda Ruoss, Eleanor Seymour, Myra Shaskan, Barbara Smith, Caroline Smith, Paula Spruck, Mary Wamsley, Norbert Wills, Ann Wilson, Helen Zimmerman

Departments Anne Minich, Director ofDevelopment Marie DiManno, Museum Shop Manager Nancy Dorer, Curator ofEducation Susan Flamm,Director ofPublic Relations Joan Lowenthal, Director ofPublications Edith Wise,Librarian Daniel Pagano,Development Assistant

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IN 1830 AT THE AGE OF 12

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AMERICAN PRIMITIVE GALLERY Mon.-Fri. 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. or by appt.

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Museum of American Folk Art Board of Trustees

Executive Committee Ralph Esmerian President Frances Sirota Martinson, Esq. Executive Vice President Lucy Danziger Vice President Karen S. Schuster Secretary George E Shaskan, Jr. Treasurer Judith A. Jedlicka Margery G. Kahn Theodore L. Kesselman Susan Klein

Members Catherine G. Cahill Karen D. Cohen Adele Earnest Barbara Johnson, Esq. Alice M. Kaplan Jana Klauer William I. Leffler Ira Howard Levy Cyril I. Nelson Cynthia V.A. Schaffner Bonnie Strauss

Maureen Taylor Robert N. Wilson William E. Wiltshire III Trustees Emeritus Mary Allis Cordelia Hamilton Herbert W. Hemphill, Jr. Marian W. Johnson Louis C. Jones Jean Lipman

Development Advisory Committee

Virginia W. Brieant, Director, Contributions to the Arts, Warner Communications, Inc. Jeanne R. Kerr, Vice President, Corporate Contributions, Time Incorporated

Richard S. Locke, Executive Vice President, The E. E Hutton Group Robert M. Meltzer, Chairman ofthe Board, Miami-Carey Corporation

Richard G. Mund,Secretary and Executive Director, Mobil Foundation Dee Topol, Manager, Shearson/American Express Contributions Program

Current Major Donors

The Museum of American Folk Art thanks its current major donors for their generous support:

Over $20,000 Mr. and Mrs. Frederick M. Danziger Mrs. Eva Feld Estate of Morris Feld Margery G. Kahn Foundation Krikor Foundation Tarex *General Mills Toy Group Institute for Museum Services

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*IBM Corporation Japan-United States Friendship Commission Jean and Howard Lipman *Manufacturers Hanover Trust Joseph Martinson Memorial Fund National Endowment for the Arts New York State Council on the Arts *Shearson/American Express Inc. *United Technologies Corporation Estate of Jeannette B. Virgin

$10,000-$19,999 *American Express Company Margery & Harry Kahn Philanthropic Fund J. M. Kaplan Fund, Inc.

Henry R. Kravis New York Council for the Humanities Rockefeller Brothers Fund Mr. & Mrs. George Shaskan

$4,000-$9,999 Amicus Foundation *Bankers Trust Company Bernhill Fund *Chase Manhattan Bank, N.A. Mr. & Mrs. Edgar Cullmann Adele Earnest Mr. & Mrs. Austin Fine *International Paper Company Barbara Johnson

Current Major Donors

Mrs. Ruth Kapnek Mr. & Mrs. Robert Klein Ira Howard Levy *Mobil Corporation Swedish Council of America *Time Incorporated Norman & Rosita Winston Foundation $2,00043,000 *Bristol-Myers Fund *Caterpillar Foundation *Chemical Bank *Coach Leatherware Joseph E. Cullman III *Exxon Corporation *Grace Foundation *E.F. Hutton Foundation *Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies Patricia & Richard Locke *Marsh & McLennan Companies Helen R. & Harold C. Mayer Foundation *Metropolitan Life Foundation *Morgan Guaranty Trust Company *Morgan Stanley & Company *New York Telephone Company *Ortho Pharmaceutical Corporation *Philip Morris, Inc. *Rockefeller Center, Inc. *Schlumberger Horizons, Inc. *Seamen's Bank for Savings Alfred Tananbaum Foundation,Inc. *Warner Communications, Inc. William Wiltshire III Robert N. Wilson *Xerox Corporation $1,000-$1,999 *American Stock Exchange *American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. *Arthur Anderson & Co. Babtkis Foundation *Bank of New York *B.E.A. Associates Mr. & Mrs. Joseph A. Bena, Jr. *Bill Blass Ltd. *Bloomingdale's *Bozell & Jacobs *Bunge Corporation Robert & Judith Burger *CBS,Inc. *Citibank, N.A. *Chesebrough-Pond's Inc. Mr. & Mrs. Peter Cohen The Compton Foundation *Con Edison Joyce & Daniel Cowin *Culbro Corporation John K. Davenport *Echo Scarfs Susan Zises Green *Gulf+ Western Foundation Sumner Gerard Foundation

Justus Heijmans Foundation *Institutional Investor *International Telephone and Telegraph *Lehman Brothers Kuhn Loeb Inc. *Macy's New York Christopher Mayer Estate of Myron L. Mayer Meryl and Robert Meltzer *The New York Times Foundation *Polo/Ralph Lauren *RA Controls Incorporated Richard Ravitch Foundation *Reader's Digest Association *Reliance Group Inc. Marguerite Riordon Mrs. John D. Rockefeller LII Jon and Sue Rotenstreich Foundation Lorna Saleh Mr. & Mrs. Samuel Schwartz Rev. & Mrs. Alfred R. Shands III Arman & Louise Simone Foundation Herbert M.& Nell Singer *Sotheby's The Stitchery, Inc. Barbara & Thomas W. Strauss Mr. & Mrs. Stanley Tananbaum Issac H. Tuttle Fund H. van Ameringen Foundation David Walentas $500-$999 American Stock Exchange Louis Bachmann Foundation Edward J. Brown Catherine D. Callegar Colgate Palmolive Corp.

Cowen & Company Mr. & Mrs. R.W. Dammann John K. Davenport Mr. & Mrs. James DeSilva, Jr. Doyle Dane Bernbach E.M.D.L. American Folk Art Richard C.& Susan B. Ernst Foundation Fischbach Corporation Dr. & Mrs. Joseph French Mr. & Mrs. Edward Gardner General Foods Corporation Great Northern Nekoosa Corporation Joyce & Stephen Hill Joan & Victor Johnson Theodore & Shirley Kesselman Susan C. Kudlow Mr. & Mrs. Arthur Levitt, Jr. Mainzer Minton Company Enid Michelman N.L. Industries Foundation Eleanor & Lewis Newman Milton Petrie Mr. & Mrs. Moe Rosenman Mrs. Robert Steinberg Betty Sterling Jeannemarie Volk

The Museum is grateful to the CoChairwomen of its Special Events Committee for the significant support received through the Museum's major fund raising events chaired by them.

Cynthia V. A. Schaffner Karen S. Schuster The Museum also thanks the following donors for their recent gifts to the Permanent Collection and Library: Pam Benedict Robert Bishop Mr. and Mrs. Erwin C. Braman Dr. Stanley Burns Mr. W B. Carnochan Ms. Jane Cohen and Mr. Julius Cohen Allan Daniel David L. Davies Ralph Esmerian John Esteves Family Jessie Lie Farber and Daniel Farber Jacqueline Fowler Mr. and Mrs. Merle H. Glick Dr. and Mrs. Alfred Halpern Cordelia Hamilton Barbara Johnson The Executors of the Estate of Otto Kallir on behalf of one of the heirs.

Barbara Kaufman Dr. and Mrs. Arthur B. Kern Bruce Lacont Wendy Lavitt Howard and Jean Lipman Rachel Martens Mrs. Clara Morthland Cyril I. Nelson Marion Prigoff Gail Gomberg Propp Marguerite Riordan Gertrude Schweitzer Jane Scott Jon Seri Dorothy Small Mrs. Philip C. Staples Gary J. Stass Mrs. Henry Tumen

*Corporate Member A portion of the Museum's general operating funds for this fiscal year was provided by a General Operating Support grant from the Institute of Museum Services, a Federal agency that administers to the nation's museums, and with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts.

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Your Treasure Could Be Our NextDiscovery William Doyle Galleries, Inc. is this country's third largest auction house. As we've grown, so has the quality ofour sales. However, world record prices have not changed our personal approach in dealing with our clients.

Now is the time...to consign Amercan furniture, decorative works of art, waterfowl and shorebird decoys and paintings to our November auction of Americana.

Property accepted through the end ofSeptember

PIETER VANDERLYN "Young Lady of the Van Rensselaer Family" 3 4 x 35 inches 44/ Oil on canvas Estimate: $30,000-$40,000 ON APRIL 13, 1983 sold for $115,000

Federal inlaid mahogany tambour enclosed pier table, Salem, Massachusetts, circa 1800-1810.

Estimate: $1,500- $2,500 ON NOVEMBER 9, 1983 sold for: $19,000

For a Gallery appointment or gratis visit to your home, please contact: Joseph Keiffer—Paintings,Jenny Lavin—Furniture & Decorative Works of Art, Glenn Martin—Waterfowl & Shorebird Decoys.

175 East 87th Street• New York, New York 10128•Telephone(212)427-2730

361 Bleecker St. New York City 10014 Tues.—Sat. 12-8 p.m.

212-989-6760 IN GREENWICH VILLAGE

ANTIQUES

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From Frederick, Maryland.

42 inches long, 24 inches high.

London's Centre for English Folk Art and Americana'

Left to Right: Mahogany Gainsborough Chair, c. 1860 Unusual Primitive Clock, 36 Hour pendulum movement.

Plantation desk c. 1840, painted and grained.

Pewter Ink Stand c. 1850 Silhouette watercolour 'Man on horseback' Staffordshire Lion, c. 1840 Stick-up Decoy; Yellow Legs Pair of twist Candle Holders, c. 1840 Portrait of Leicestershire Ram,signed H. Minshell, c. 1870

Crane Galery

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Albert Zahn "Family Tree" Carved/Painted Wood 31 inches high Circa 1950

Randall Morris/Shari Cavin-Morris 56 Crosby Street New York City, New York 10012

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NA\CY IL A\TIQUQS A fine pair of early 18th-century brass andirons of Rhode Island origin.

The low arch legs terminate in large penny feet.

A front iron support gives added strength to the billet bar.

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24

Fig. 1 Portrait of James Francis Smith Attributed to Isaac Sheffield New London, Connecticut Dated 1837 Oil on canvas 48 X 351 / 2" Lyman Allyn Museum, New London, Connecticut The inscription on this painting reads "James F Smith born decr 19th 1831/this represents him in the dress he wore when he landed/from a voyage in the Ship-Chelsea from the/South Seas—island of desolation. Oct 12th 1837/aged at that time 5 years and 10 months:'

CROSS CURRENTS

• •

FACES,FIGUREHEADS AND SCRIMSHAW FANCIES MI BY JOYCE HILL• The expansion of American whaling from 1820 to 1850 brought certain ports with whaling vessel capacity to unprecedented levels of growth and activity. The numbers of sea captains, whaling masters, and shipping agents as well as those offering auxiliary services vital to whaling—ship chandlers, provisioners, sail and rope makers,iron and boat works owners—swelled to impressive strengths. The prosperity of the ports and these residents attracted another increasingly visible force—the itinerant and quasi-local portrait painters who flourished in the pre-daguerreotype days prior to 18401 The forthcoming exhibit, "Cross Currents," opening June 26, 1984, focuses on several little-explored painters who recorded families primarily related to seafaring activities in ports

such as New London, Connecticut; Sag Harbor, Long Island; and New Bedford, Massachusetts. The three painters to be considered—Isaac Sheffield, Orlando Hand Bears and Frederick Mayhew— were all conditioned by seaport life and the sea. Each portrayed a sea constituency as well as friends and family. "Cross Currents" will also include other sea-related folk art: scrimshaw, ship figureheads and illustrated ship logs.

Isaac Sheffield (18072-1845), the painter central to "Cross Currents," was the son of Captain Isaac Sheffield and Betsy Sizer of New London, Connecticut. Captain Isaac advertised frequently in Stonington, New London and Sag Harbor newspapers from 17981808 seeking passengers and cargo for various vessels. From 1815 until his 25

Fig. 4 Portrait of a Woman in a Mulberry Dress Attributed to Isaac Sheffield Probably New London, Connecticut c. 1835 Oil on canvas 33/ 1 2x 27" Collection of the Museum of American Folk Art

Fig. 2 Portrait of Captain John Manwaring Attributed to Isaac Sheffield Probably New London or Waterford, Connecticut c. 1835 Oil on canvas / 2" 32/ 1 2x 261 Collection of Wunderlich & Company, Inc.

Fig. 3 Portrait of Martha Pool Manwaring Attributed to Isaac Sheffield Probably New London or Waterford, Connecticut c. 1835 Oil on canvas 32 x 26/ 1 2" Collection of Wunderlich and Company, Inc.

death January 22, 1830, Captain Sheffield was listed intermittently in New York Directories, often designated as "shipmaster." Not surprisingly, Isaac the painter included convincing vignettes incorporating the sea, ships, often a whaleboat, in his portraits of the whaling captains he portrayed.

Probably the earliest documentation' of the younger Sheffield's career as a painter comes via a New York City directory of 1828 in which Sheffield lists himself as a "miniature painter." By 1829 the New York City directory listings indicate that Sheffield had moved a few blocks away to 47 Chatham Street. His new location placed him on the same street as painter Hubbard Fordham, a Sag Harbor artist of con-

26

siderable skill who probably influenced the younger, less experienced Sheffield. The next year's directories show that both Fordham and Sheffield were established in Brooklyn. For the first time in 1830, Sheffield called himself a "miniature and portrait painter."

Undoubtedly, the death of Captain Isaac Sheffield in 1830 prompted Isaac the painter to return to New London, Connecticut, presumably to visit or stay with his widowed mother and grandparents, Jonathan and Mary Sizer. By October 13, 1830, Sheffield advertised in the New London Gazette as a portrait and miniature painter "now carrying on his business in Court Street, a few doors from Mr. Allen's City Hotel." The accommodating painter "would be willing to attend upon his Patrons at their residence.

Terms moderate."

Thereafter, Sheffield consistently painted prominent New London area sea captains and their relations. Of all the families he painted, perhaps none was better chronicled than that of Captain Franklin F Smith, one of the five Smith brothers, famous whaling captains of New London. Captain Franklin's portrait was painted in May 1833, established from Sheffield's penciled signature and date on the reverse of the panel; his wife, Mary Chappell Smith, was not only painted then, but was subsequently given an updated costume and hair style about 1837 in a revision of the original portrait'. A child's portrait, circa 1832, which also descended in the family, has been attributed to Isaac Sheffield', and probably depicts

Fig. 5 Portrait of Captain John Harris Attributed to Isaac Sheffield Probably New London, Connecticut c. 1835 Oil on canvas 33 x 27" Collection of Nathan Liverant and Son

Franklin Smith, Jr., born in 1831. But it is Sheffield's portrait of the Smiths' second child, James Francis Smith (Fig. 1), resplendent in his coat of penguin skins, that is perhaps the painter's best known portrait. A painting of the whaling ship Chelsea, which carried Captain Franklin Smith and his family to the South Seas and to Desolation Island, is also extant and possibly attributable to Sheffield.

Several pairs of portraits, including the paintings of Captain John (Fig. 2) and Martha Pool Manwaring (Fig. 3), were probably wedding portraits.

Sheffield's portrait of Mrs. Manwaring, who married Captain John in 1835, shows a marked similarity to Portrait of a Woman in a Mulberry Dress(Fig. 4).

The women are positioned in nearly

identical poses, figures marked by a triangularity reminiscent of Erastus Salisbury Field's portraits of women circa 1835. Lace is intricately defined in the portraits; red draperies are caught by the carefully delineated gold cord and tassle typically included by Sheffield; interlocked hands are stylized rather than realistically rendered.

Some of Sheffield's best work is seen in his miniaturesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;typically in watercolor on ivory. Sheffield's signature, usually "I. Sheffield," is often incised on the surface of the miniature. In other instances, his signature with the date appears on a paper affixed to the inside of the miniature's case. Only rarely does a miniature incorporate the familiar elements of his whaling captain's portraits and include a whaleship, whaleboat and struggling whale (Fig. 5).

Sheffield's difficulty in rendering hands and the figure seems to be explained by the fact that he spent his initial years as a portrait miniature painter, concentrating mainly on painting faces. His limitations were also evident in his frequent reliance on formula backgrounds. The predictability of most of his portraiture prompted art historian H.W. French in 1879 to write in Art and Artists in Connecticut that Sheffield's portraits were "all redfaced and most of them sea captains, with one single telescope in the hand of every one, while they all stand before a red curtain." Nevertheless, the painter was capable of painting faces with sensitivity and, if later photographs of some portrait subjects are an indication, of producing a reasonable, albeit

27

Fig. 7 Self-Portrait by Orlando Hand Bears Probably Sag Harbor, Long Island c. 1840 Oil on canvas 27 x 23" Collection of Helen Rattray

Fig. 6 Portrait of Sarah Ann Eldredge Signed on reverse "0. H. Bears" Sag Harbor, Long Island Dated on reverse "1836" Oil on canvas 28 x 2314" Private Collection

stylized, likeness.

By December 20, 1837, Isaac Sheffield offered more than portraits and miniatures to New London residents and advertised "landscape, marine, and fancy painting at 3 Johnes Brick Building on Bridge Street."6 Another addition, "Old paintings cleaned and repaired," suggests still another aspect of his career.

When Sheffield died on January 14, 1845, his death notice appeared in the New Haven, Hartford and New London papers. Very possibly Sheffield left a widow, Caroline, and two daughters', but attemps to verify these links have been unsuccessful to date.

A second painter who worked along Long Island Sound at the same time as Sheffield was Sag Harbor native Or-

28

lando Hand Bears. Born on July 4, 1811, the son of Miranda and Moses Bears, Bears was distantly related to Hubbard Fordham, also from Sag Harbor.' Both painters painted seafaring men and their families on Long Island as well as in Connecticut. Fordham was, if not briefly, Bears' teacher, a strong influence on his painting. Since no advertisements concerning Bears' work have been located, presumably most of his portraits were commissioned through friends and relatives.

Painting may have even been a secondary pursuit for the artist.

The "Cross Currents" exhibition will bring together a number of key paintings by Bearsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;several signed works, including the portrait of Sara Ann Eldredge (Fig. 6), as well as three portraits not previously exhibited. The

latter portraits, probably painted at different times, include the artist's selfportrait(Fig. 7); that of his wife, Mary L. Bears; and a painting of their young son, Alfred W. Bears (Fig. 8).

But Bears' paintings and his miniatures have certain characteristics which remain constant, even with his advancing technical skill. His subjects face the viewer in three-quarter pose, their eyes in frontal gaze with highlights usually placed at the top of the pupil. Eyelids are well defined. In his early portraits, tiny eyelashes are carefully painted.

Lips, with separation marked by a definite line, turn upwards at the corners and are usually full and sensitive. A shadow appears under the lower lip.

Bears endows his adult portrait sitters with hands both graceful and well-

Fig.8 Portrait of Alfred William Bears Orlando Hand Bears Probably Sag Harbor, Long Island 1841-42 Oil on canvas 32/ 1 2x 23/ 1 4" Collection of Helen Rattray

Fig. 9 Portrait of Captain and Mrs. Caleb Kempton Attributed to Frederick Mayhew Probably New Bedford, Massachusetts c. 1825 Oil on canvas 231 / 2x 33/ 1 2" Collection of The Kendall Whaling Museum, Sharon, Massachusetts

articulated. He uses reddish brown— probably burnt sienna—to outline and shade not only hands but ears.

Bears' paintings, in their original untouched state, indicate a progressively sophisticated use of glazes. Despite his adeptness in suggesting fabric and texture in women's costumes, Bears could not always camouflage his inability to foreshorten the arm. Whereas early portraits tend to ignore background development, Bears' later works employ the ubiquitous drapery, column and elaborate landscape vignette. These romanticized vistas sometimes include rocky cliffs jutting from placid waters, trees, even a spired church. Several men's portraits have backdrops reminiscent of the Portrait of Nathaniel Cooke,circa 1838,attributed to Erastus

Salisbury Field.

Although Orlando Bears continued painting, at least for his family, as late as 1842, other commissions seem to have diminished. Daguerrean artists such as Parker and Marcel1us9,who advertised in Sag Harbor in 1842, unquestionably encroached upon the portrait market. In addition, Hubbard Fordham returned and set up a permanent studio in Sag Harbor. Consequently, Bears' partnership with his brother-in-law, David J. Youngs, in a tinning and stove business in the 1840's is not surprising.

By the 1850 census, Bears lists himself as a tinner; no reference is made to his art. The painter died in Sag Harbor in 1851 at the early age of 40. Just two years later, Mary L. Bears died leaving two young boys in the care of their grandparents, Moses and Miranda Bears.

New Bedford, Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard all attracted, indeed spawned, painters who faithfully recorded the masters of whaling ships and the managers of maritime interests.

Painters Thomas Hinckley, Edward Marchant, William Swain, Moses Cole,as well as New Bedford's resident artist, William A. Wall, portrayed many a seafarer.

Periodically through the years, distinctive, naive portraits—often of sea captains and their families (Fig. 9)— have surfaced in Martha's Vineyard and in the New Bedford, Massachusetts area. These portraits have been attributed to Frederick Mayhew on the basis of stylistic similarities shared with two signed pairs of watercolors in the collection of the Old Dartmouth

29

Fig. 10 Mrs.Sylvia Howland Almy and Her Daughter Sarah Signed E Mayhew; photographed before relining Probably New Bedford, Massachusetts Dated 1823 Oil on canvas 4" 3 22% x 29/ Collection of Stephen Walker

Historical Society Whaling Museum, New Bedford, Massachusetts. A recently located oil portrait of Sylvia Ann Howland Almy and her daughter Sarah (Fig. 10) has offered another important touchstone for the Mayhew work. Photographed before relining, the inscription on the Almy portrait read: "Painted by E Mayhew 1823."

This portrait is closely related to the rendering of Mrs. John Harrison and daughter Maria in the Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch Collection of the National Gallery of Art. The later Mayhew paintings of sea captains generally depict the captain's vessel, placed not within a traditional vignette but curiously suspended in mid-air and riding on a stylized bed of waves. The portrait of Captain James

30

Townsend (Fig. 11) is typical of captains attributed to Frederick Mayhew.

Townsend, who was master of six whaling vessels from 1821 to 1838, including the Pindus, the Nile and the General Pike of New Bedford, died at sea in 1838.

Another ship captain's likeness, the portrait of Captain Arnold Crowell, had a note written by the subject's son affixed to the back which read: "Painting of Arnold Crowell at the age of281836. Artist a Mr.— Mayhew of West Tisbury of Chilmark. Cost of painting $12.00." According to Vineyard tradition, it was Chi'mark's Frederick Mayhew who mixed "Gay Head clay" with "Dog Fish Oil" for his paintings. Mayhew is thought to have been the Frederick, born in 1785, who married Zelinda Tilton of Chilmark, Massachu-

setts. In the 1830s,the Mayhewsjoined Zelinda's relatives in Olive Township, Ohio. In the Noble County History, Mayhew is cited as a landscape painter and sailor.' According to recently discovered information, Mayhew lived in Olive until his death in 1854; he is buried in the Tilton Cemetery there The sea and ships evoked the creative spirit not only of painters, but of seafaring men. The longjourneys to the whaling grounds and the tedious hours searching for the catch provided time for whalemen—captains as well as crew —to work sperm whale teeth and whale bone into scrimshaw wonders. Objects were fashioned in many ways: carved, engraved, inlaid, turned, scribed. The utilitarian and fanciful concoctions made by imaginative scrimshanders

Fig. 11 Portrait of Captain James Townsend Attributed to Frederick Mayhew Probably New Bedford, Massachusetts c. 1830 Oil on canvas 261 / 4 x 23" Collection of The Kendall Whaling Museum, Sharon, Massachusetts

Fig. 12 Busk Engraved with Views of New Bedford Harbour Maker unknown Location unknown c. 1845 Engraved whalebone 13" in length Private Collection

ranged from corset busks to jagging wheels, from dominoes to dolls.

Scrimshaw was largely an anonymous art. The exhibit of scrimshaw within "Cross Currents," however, includes several objects where the maker and/or owner are known: a tooth engraved by crewman George Penney of the Concordia, now in the collection of the Whaling Museum, Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island; a sailmaker's box inscribed "John Howland/Nantucket/Sailmaker 1830," from the Mystic Seaport Museum collection, Mystic, Connecticut.

Among the most unusual and detailed engraving on whalebone in the exhibit is a busk depicting harbor views of New Bedford, Massachusetts. This panoramic scene not only includes

whaling vessels, identifiable landmarks, but an American sailor with an American flag as well (Fig. 12).

For centuries ship figureheads, always important symbols endowed with tradition and legend, provided creative challenges for carvers. The American carvers, who provided whaling ships and barks with proud shipfigures, were frequently clustered in major port cities 窶年ew York, Boston, Portland. But these carvers frequently created figureheads for ships built in other ports.

Consequently, attributing the carved figures to a specific carver is difficult at best.

One figurehead which has solid ties to a specific port, ship and owner is that of the Jefferson II(Fig. 13). Sailing out ofSag Harborfrom 1835-55,the Jefferson II had as its last master, Captain

Benjamin Huntting. Huntting built the Main Street mansion which currently houses the Sag Harbor Whaling and Historical Museum. The figurehead of the Jefferson II, now a part of that Museum's permanent collection, is on loan for the exhibit.

Ship logs offered still another outlet for artistic expression, usually that of the captain or first mate. Most daily chronicles of whaling voyages were sprinkled with whale stamps indicating whales caught or a tail for those whales that got away. Some logs included drawings of ships sighted or land on the horizon. But few records are as accurately and colorfully illustrated as the 1840-44 log from the collection of the New Bedford (Massachusetts) Free Library kept by Captain Cornelius How-

31

Fig. 13 Figurehead of the Jefferson II Carver unknown Possibly Long Island Before 1835 Polychromed pine, red gum 37" high Sag Harbor Whaling and Historical Museum

land, recording the voyage of the Lafayette. Captain Howland chose to highlight places, happenings and sightings in watercolor renderings that were both accurate and whimsical. Under Howland's gifted pen and brush, whales emerge with individual personalities and vessels sail tall.

"Cross Currents" remembers the arts fostered by ships, the sea, the seaports, the seafarer. The faces, the figureheads and the scrimshaw fancies remind us that the currents carried more than people and cargo. The currents churned ideas and challenged the creative spirit.

Joyce Hill is Curator at the Museum of American Folk Art.

32

CROSS CURRENTS: Faces, Figureheads and Scrimshaw Fancies will be on view at the Museum's new interim exhibition gallery(125 West 55th Street) from June 26,1984â&#x20AC;&#x201D;September 2,1984.

Funding for this exhibition has been contributed by the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council for the Arts.

Special appreciation for the information and guidance on artist research for Isaac Sheffield is extended to Dr. Edgar DeN. Mayhew, director of the Lyman Allyn Museum, and for Orlando Hand Bears, to James Abbe, Jr. Research assistance from Susan Klafke, now assistant director for education at the Museums at Stony Brook, and Alyce Assael, student in the Museum of American Folk Art/New York University Folk Art Studies program, is also gratefully acknowledged.

FOOTNOTES I. The daguerreotype, invented by Louis J.M. Daguerre and described at a meeting of the French Academy of Sciences on August 19, 1839, was introduced into the United States

by Samuel F.B. Morse, American painter and inventor. This early photographic method enjoyed almost instant success and virtually eliminated the demand for inexpensive painted portraits once provided by the naive or minimally trained portrait painters.

2. Despite an intensive search of both Connecticut and New York records, no exact birth or baptismal date has been found for Isaac Sheffield. At his death on January 14, 1845, however, he was reported in newspaper accounts to be 38 years old, suggesting 1807 as an almost certain year of birth.

3. An advertisement for theorem painting instruction was placed in a Rhode Island newspaper on May 4, 1822 by a J. Sheffield.

(Reference courtesy Arthur J. Kern) However, no concrete evidence has been found to date to link J. Sheffield to Isaac or to prove that they were one and the same painter.

4. The outlines of Mrs. Smith's original costume as well as ofthe stenciled chair in which she was painted in 1833 are still visible under certain lights. Her original portrait conforms almost exactly to a portrait of Connecticut Sea Captain's Wife, attributed to Isaac Sheffield, in the Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch Collection at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. 5. This portrait is now in the collection of Dartmouth College. Although the subject has been thought probably to be James Francis Smith, born in 1834, descendants now think the sitter to have been Franklin Smith, Jr., who was born in 1831 and died in 1832.

(Information courtesy Mrs. Paul Goddard) 6. New London Gazette.

7. The 1840 census shows Isaac Sheffield in New London, Connecticut, as the head of a household which includes a young woman under 20 years of age, and a child under 5. A Mrs. Caroline Sheffield, widow, married a Joseph H. Scott in Waterford, Connecticut in 1849. Both were listed as "of New London."

In the 1850 census, the Scotts are listed with the two Sheffield children, Elizabeth and Sarah, living with them in New London. In 1853 Joseph H.Scott was named guardian for both of the Sheffield children, according to probate records on file in New London.

8. Hubbard Fordham's grandfather, Daniel Fordham, and Orlando Bears' great-grandmother, Prudence Fordham, were brother and sister.

9. Sag Harbor Corrector Parker was probably Thomas Hazard Parker, Sag Harbor portrait miniature painter, whose failing health and eyesight caused his abandonment of miniature painting.

10. Noble County History, L.H. Watkins, 1887.

II. Probate records at the Noble County Probate Office at Caldwell,Ohio,show a will entered for probate December 4, 1854.

THE

FINE Selections from the American Folk Art Collections of Mr. and Mrs. James 0. Keene

YE:

Cover caption: iger Among Flowers Wilhelm Schimmel (1817-1890) Pennsylvania ca. 1870 Carved and polychromed pine 5 x 4/ 1 2x 23/4" A few paintbrushes, a jackknife and bits of glass to smooth away knife marks are believed to be the only tools used by Wilhelm Schimmel to create such lively and imaginative carvings as this fierce tiger.

THE

EENE

YE:

Selections from the American Folk Art Collections of Mr. and Mrs. James 0. Keene

by Charlotte M.Emans, Guest Curator

MtTSFITM OF AM ERIOVN FOLK-ART

he intrinsic personality of an art collection reflects the vision of the person who assembles it. A collector is credited with having a "keen eye" when his collection provides evidence that he has been guided by a keen mind. At this time, the Museum of American Folk Art is pleased to present selections of American folk art from the private collections of Ruth and James 0. Keene of Birmingham, Michigan. The pieces chosen and researched for this exhibition illuminate the foresight and sophistication of Ruth and James Keene and their "Keene Eye" for collecting.

For over forty-five years, the Keenes have been avid, even passionate, collectors of American folk and fine decorative arts. Their collections are well-known throughout the American art world, and many of their pieces have been exhibited at the Detroit Institute of Fine Arts, the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village and other prominent museums across the country. They have also donated many important objects of art and artifacts to these institutions, and to the State Department's Americana Collection in Washington, D.C. Their collections, containing approximately 3,500 objects, encompass art and artifacts from most early periods of American history and document the interests, values and contributions made by a variety of ethnic groups and individuals to the social fabric and cultural heritage of American society.

Defining the nature of folk art as a distinctive area of human endeavor is a task that can enlighten all people. As a dedicated and talented student, Jim Keene has developed criteria for guiding his evaluation and selection of folk art. Keene interprets the nature of the contributions of folk artists to society when he says, "They were basically untrained; they did the bestjob they knew how, and they reflected their time and their environment and the people around them:" Artistic expression by the common man, maintains Mr. Keene, is well-documented in the work of Wilhelm Schimmel, an itinerant folk carver from Carlisle, Pennsylvania whose work is richly represented in the Keene collections. Carving from wood throughout the second half of the nineteenth century, Schimmel fashioned many personal renderings of eagles, dogs, parrots and tigers. When he was unable to sell these carvings, he bartered them for food and spirits.

Reflected in the small number of portraits displayed in this exhibition are Jim Keene's interesting opinions and noteworthy humor regarding the art of folk portraiture. As he states, "To me, genre painting is more than just some flat faced, itinerant painting that doesn't tell you anything except that somebody wanted to look prettier than they really were, and they give somebody a dollar to paint them, and maybe a costume that they brought with them and put on the subject. To me, that doesn't tell you too much about folk art': For Keene, the best of American folk art tells a story. "I lean toward genre folk art; it gives you a picture of the time and place in which it was done:' This philosophy is illustrated by the fact that Mr. Keene collected Michigan landscape scenes painted by FE. Cohen, a British-born, Canadian Jew who painted primarily in the Michigan and Ohio regions during the mid-nineteenth century. The examples of Cohen's work displayed in this collection romantically depict the life of the American Indian and also the hunter, both of whom lived along the Detroit River.

Artistically decorated utilitarian objects are strongly represented in the Keenes' folk art collections. Among those exhibited are: slip-decorated redware plates, woven baskets, quilts, tin coffee pots with wriggle-worked decoration and cast iron cooking utensils. Considered significant forms of folk art by Mr. Keene, he comments that these wares, decorated with artistic motifs, "represent the art of the people, and of the time, and those are the things that I like to collect as examples of folk art. The man who did exactly as he could with the tools that he had to work with, to me that's folk art:' According to Keene, the artist should convey a sense of community or 2

cultural association. Keene further interprets folk art when he comments, "It is not something that you can invent; it's something you feel from the heart; it's something that people did to the best of their ability and skills, and according to their environment. You can't create folk art; it's something you have to live, and it has to be a product of your environment, your nationality:' The Keenes'extensive fraktur collection exemplifies the above ideals. The artistic sensibility of the Pennsylvania German people is combined with a need for birth, baptismal and other family records, resulting in an extraordinary religious and cultural art.

The American Indian's creativity is expressed in ornately decorated objects used for both ceremonial functions and domestic activities. Examples of the cultural heritage of the native American are also represented in this exhibition, and illustrate the interests and varied tastes of Mr. and Mrs. Keene. These objects suggest the adaptations made by the people to their environment, tell a story, and as Mr. Keene comments, inform us of the "history of this country:' A Potlatch ladle, for example, is fashioned of wood and inlaid with abalone and ivory: the Northwest coast Indians who made such objects utilized the yieldings of the forest and seaâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the world around themâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;to create utensils that were useful as well as beautiful. Aspects of history are told by such pieces as the Potawatomi Crucifix, found in Detroit, Michigan, dated 1796 and carved from wood; and the mid-nineteenth century Ottawa nativity scene from Cross Village, Michigan. The influence of the Christian missionaries on the culture of various Indian tribes is evident in the artistic interpretation of such religious themes as the birth and death of Christ.

Folk artists from most ethnic groups frequently make use of basic shapes and decorative motifs unique to their cultural heritage. They pass on these forms with only minor variation, from one generation to another.

Recurring subjects such as Saint Francis of Assisi, the Crucifixion and the Virgin and Child are found in the religious effigies or "Santos" made and cherished by Spanish Catholics who settled in the Southwestern states. The art of these people is also well-represented in the Keene folk art collections.

Over the years, the Keenes have skillfully assembled a significant group of objects reflecting their love and knowledge of folk art. Jim Keene's philosophy has required him to adopt the methods of the detective. As he says, "I think something's good, and I research it and go through all that mishmash and sometimes it turns out that it's not as good as I thought; sometimes it's a lot better. So you win a few and you lose a few. But to me, that's the attraction of collecting. It's the researching that goes with it and what you learn about history and about the people, and so it's an educational process:' Ideally, the field of American folk art has yet to be conquered. There is still much to learn and discover. Great strides have already been made by scholars in attempts to further define, document and interpret the significance of folk art. Museum exhibitions provide a unique opportunity for new research to be presented and evaluated. What might appear as one, small clue noted today may provide the solution to an unanswered question tomorrow. The objects illustrated serve to illuminate the collecting ideals of the Keenes. Like all the pieces presented in the exhibition, these examples communicate true artistic form as well as tell a story about the time, place, history and culture of the artists who made them.

Mr. and Mrs. Keene bring a perspective to the study and collection of folk art reaffirming the Museum's own commitment to the pursuit of excellence and encouraging visitors to enrich their own lives by developing a "keen eye:' 1. This quotation and all others following were taken from an interview with Mr. James 0. Keene on December 15, 1983 in Birmingham, Michigan.

Charlotte M. Emans is the Assistant Registrar/Assistant Exhibition Coordinator at the Museum of American Folk Art. She will graduate this June from the Master's Degree Program in Folk Art Studies, jointly sponsored by the Museum and New York University.

3

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altimore Album Quilt Artist unknown Baltimore, Maryland ca. 1850 Appliqued cotton and india ink 109 x 105" In Baltimore between 1846 and 1852 a group of quilts with exceptional and distinctive features emerged. At present, only fifty examples with one or more outstandingly executed blocks have been recorded. These quilts served many purposes: to honor a popular minister or teacher, to commemorate a special occasion, to celebrate a wedding or serve as a sentimental remembrance for a departing friend, or, like this extraordinary example, to function as a token of affection.

Inspiration for the elaborately designed blocks of the Baltimore Album quilts may be found in the politics, religion and local commerce of life in nineteenth century Baltimore. Thus far, two other Baltimore Album quilts have been recorded with squares depicting the identical hunting scene and patriotic American eagle found in the Keenes' Baltimore Album quilt. Whether these blocks were actually the creation of one woman, subjects taken directly from printed sources or the result of cultural exchange within a community is still to be determined.

S

pread Winged Eagle Wilhelm Schimmel (1817-1890) Pennsylvania ca. 1870 Carved and polychromed pine 101 / 4 x 171 / 4 x 3/ 1 2" Wilhelm Schimmel carved so many eagles that they virtually became his trademark. However, this is the only recorded instance in which Schimmel carved and painted a shield with the American flag onto the eagle's breast.

5

ocument Box Artist unknown Probably Massachusetts ca. 1670 White oak and wrought iron 33/4 x 9/ 1 4 x 53/4" This flat scroll design, in shallow relief on a punched background, is stylistically similar to the carving of Thomas Dennis, a joiner who worked in Ipswich, Massachusetts from 1663 until his death in 1706.

rammel with Ratchet Attachment Artist unknown Possibly Bethlehem, Pennsylvania 1837 Cast and wrought iron 3 4" 41 x 12 x / Hung inside the kitchen fireplace, trammels were used to support cooking pots and pans over the fire. The pierced inscription, "BEL l'A"." on this particularly decorative example suggests that it may be from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and, therefore, possibly Moravian.

6

ie Crimper Artist unknown New England Nineteenth century Cast steel 9/ 1 4 x 3" A New England artisan transformed this common kitchen tool into an attractive sculptural form, raising it from the realm of the utilitarian into the world of the aesthetic.

est of Three Lightship Baskets Artist unknown Nantucket Island, Massachusetts ca. 1885 Rattan and oak; plank bases A: 111 / 2x 191 / 2" d.

1 4" d.

13: 11 x 17/ / 4" d.

C: 101 / 2x 151 During the mid-nineteenth century, the name "Lightship Basket" became a popular term for the unique baskets made by seamen stationed on board lightships, anchored just off the coast of Nantucket Island. Tightly woven rattan, wooden bases and narrow, well-carved handles are characteristic of these graceful yet sturdy baskets.

A distinctive and homogeneous art form was created as these men of an isolated community shared methods of weaving.

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7

unting Scene Attributed to E E. Cohen Michigan ca. 1840 Oil on canvas 26 x 42" Frederick E. Cohen, a British born Jew, moved from Woodstock, Ontario to Detroit, Michigan in 1837. Cohen is best known for his romantic landscape scenes depicting life along the Detroit River and for his portraits of Michigan citizens.

Much of Cohen's early work presents him as a painter with little understanding of technique and form. However, in his later period, it appears that he has gained some sophistication and knowledge about painting, rendering his subjects in a more academic fashion. Married in 1850, E E. Cohen moved to Mount Vernon, Ohio in 1855, where he died in 1858.

8

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ertificate of Merit Artist unknown; probably a tribute given to a student by a schoolmaster Pennsylvania or New York Nineteenth century Watercolor and ink on paper 16 x 14" Commemoratives such as this example, presumably given to "A.N.7 were most often made by country parochial schoolteachers who gave them to outstanding students as certificates of merit.

Whether it served as a record, a reward, a greeting, a blessing, or a note of ownership, fraktur was almost always an individual possession. It was not usually framed nor hung as a decoration in a house, but, depending upon its form, it was kept between the pages of the family Bible, in a singing book, or pasted in the lid of a chest, as it is here.

ower Chest Artist unknown; initialed "A.N' Pennsylvania or New York 1829 Polychromed pine 173/4 x 42 x 18" This initialed and dated dower chest bears a symmetrical spray of potted tulips and four-petal flowers on its front panel. Interestingly, during the course of research conducted for this exhibition, a similar chest, initialed "E.N7 and dated "18297 was encountered in another private collection; it too is painted with the tulip motif.

Whether this painted decoration is the work of an itinerant artist who traveled from one community to another using a standard pictorial composition or the work of a local artisan who simply painted these identical chests for members of the same family has not yet been determined.

9

ongratulatory Message Artist unknown Found in lyron, North Carolina 1780 Ink on cut paper 203/4 x 15/ 1 4" Talented children made this twenty-fifth wedding anniversary message for their parents. With text written in Dutch, this extraordinary paper-cut features delicate renderings of flowers, human figures, birds and other animals. .• •.

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late with Bird and Inscribed Slip Decoration Artist unknown Possibly Old Salem, North Carolina 1816 Slip decorated redware 4" d. / 111 The products of the Moravian potters in Old Salem, North Carolina are closely related to the traditional earthenware made by Pennsylvania Germans. The Carolina Moravians maintained ties with the Moravians in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and some potters even traveled between the two communities. Designs seen on North Carolina wares are generally floral and less stylized than those of Pennsylvania examples, and human and animal representations are rare.

Inscriptions, as well, are not often found on this Southern pottery.

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cissors Used by Sally De Hart Maker unknown Probably New England ca. 1800 Cast iron 4" 1 2V4 x 3/

ollow-cut Silhouette Self-Portrait of Sally De Hart Sally De Hart Elizabethtown, New Jersey Late eighteenth century Paper 2" 1 4 x 6/ 3 9/ During the late eighteenth century and into the nineteenth century, Sally De Hart, a socially prominent woman from New Jersey, rendered hollow-cut silhouettes of socialites and politicians.

Ten of these silhouettes were chosen for exhibition from the Keenes'collection of more than 125 such works by De Hart. Illustrated are her self-portrait and the scissors she used to cut the paper profiles. The significant number of pieces created by one artist offers the researcher a rare opportunity to study the historical, social and artistic contributions made by Sally De Hart.

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irth and Baptismal Certificate for Georg Beiges Attributed to Arnold Hoevelmann (1749-1804) York County, Pennsylvania ca. 1787 Watercolor and ink on paper 121 / 2x 151 / 2" Considered one of the earliest works attributed to Arnold Noevelmann, this certificate includes a stylized floral vine, geometric motifs and striking presentation of a military officer, all typical elements of tioevelmann's work.

From the late eighteenth century into the mid-nineteenth century, the art of fraktur flourished primarily in rural areas of Southeastern Pennsylvania that were heavily populated by recently arrived Germans. While the religious text was central to the spiritual significance of fraktur, decorative motifs such as birds, angels, flowers and elaborate script suggest its celebratory nature as well.

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otlatch Ladle Artist unknown, American Indian Northwest Coast Late nineteenth century Polychromed wood, abalone and ivory inlay 5 x 161 / 2x 7/ 1 4" By incorporating an abstract bird motif into the carving of this ladle, the American Indian has combined a ritual activity with a domestic need to create this impressive artistic form.

12

ommemorative for Georg Zoller Artist unknown Probably Pennsylvania ca. 1836 Watercolor and ink on cut paper 211 / 2 x 161 / 2" This colorful and decorative example of fraktur commemorates the life of Georg Zoller. According to oral tradition, Zoller is depicted here as civilian, soldier and married man.

In early examples of Pennsylvania German fraktur, attention to proper letter formation was of primary concern to the artist. By the last quarter of the eighteenth century, decorative borders, artistic motifs and diversity of color became characteristic features of fraktur. The use of vibrant shades of red, green and yellow brought the art to its zenith by 1810. Forty years later, fraktur was a dying art form in the Pennsylvania German community.

13

THE

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Selections from the American Folk Art Collections of Mr. and Mrs. James 0. Keene

by Charlotte M.Emans,Guest Curator 1. Indians on the Detroit River EE. Cohen (?-1858) Michigan ca. 1840 Oil on canvas 26 x 42" 2. Hunting Scene on the Detroit River Attributed to FE. Cohen (?-1858) Michigan ca. 1840 Oil on canvas 26 x 42" 3. Portrait of a Man in Profile Artist unknown Found in Ashland, Ohio ca. 1840 Oil on board; original frame 14/ 3 4 x 123/4" 4. Portrait of a Woman in Profile Artist unknown Found in Ashland, Ohio ca. 1840 Oil on board; original frame 141 / 2 x 12/ 3 4" 5. Portrait of a Young Man with Dog Artist unknown, possibly Hudson River Valley School Possibly New York ca. 1770 Oil on canvas 341 / 2 x 29W 6. Double Portrait of a Man and Woman in Profile Jacob Mantel (Maentel) Possibly Pennsylvania ca. 1818 Watercolor and pencil on paper 145/8 x 12/ 1 4" 7. Birth and Baptismal Certificate for 14

Jacob Otto (1761-1841) Pennsylvania ca. 1764 Watercolor and ink on paper 19 x 221 / 4" 13. Birth and Baptismal Certificate for Daniel Steiner Artist unknown Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania ca. 1802 Watercolor and ink on paper 23 x 20/ 1 2"

Mary Minerva Rahrer Attributed to Francis Portzline Union County, Pennsylvania ca. 1851 Watercolor and ink on paper 14/ 3 4 x 171 / 2"

14. Birth and Baptismal Certificate for Elizabetga Oberberken Artist unknown Northampton County, Forks Township, Pennsylvania ca. 1783 Watercolor and ink on paper 14 x 18"

8. Birth and Baptismal Certificate for Georg Heiges Attributed to Arnold Hoevelmann (1749-1804) York County, Pennsylvania ca. 1787 Watercolor and ink on paper 14% x 123 / 4"

15. Birth and Baptismal Certificate for "Levi" Daniel Peterman York County, Pennsylvania ca. 1862 Watercolor and ink on paper 191 / 4 x 151 / 4"

9. Hollow-cut Silhouette of Georg Heiges Artist unknown Probably York County, Pennsylvania ca. 1815 Black silk, paper 3/ 3 4"d.

10. Birth Letter for George W. Marsh Attributed to the Early Centre County Artist; Possibly H. Young Pennsylvania 1812 Watercolor and ink on paper 13% x 111 / 2" 11. Birth and Baptismal Certificate for Anna Ba-er-?

Artist unknown Probably Pennsylvania ca. 1806 Watercolor and ink on paper 13 x 17" 12. Birth and Baptismal Certificate for Barbara Tannerin Woodcut by Henrich Otto (ca. 1733-ca. 1800) Handcolored by William

16. Commemorative for Georg Zoller Artist unknown Probably Pennsylvania ca. 1836 Watercolor and ink on cut paper 211 / 2 x 161 / 2" 17. Favor Presented to Miss Sarah Warfield Artist unknown Possibly New York 1818 Watercolor on cut paper 53/8 x 7/ 3 4" 18. Embroidered Picture of Dexter House Artist unknown Albany, New York ca. 1820 Pencil, silk threads and watercolor on silk 26 x 30" 19. Congratulatory Message for TWenty-Fifth Wedding Anniversary Artist unknown Found in1yron, North Carolina 1780 Ink on cut paper 20/ 3 4 x 153 / 4"

20. Pinprick Picture Artist unknown Found in lyron, North Carolina 1783 Watercolor on pinpricked paper 121 / 2 x 153/4" 21. Hollow-cut Silhouette Self-Portrait of Sally De Hart Sally De Hart Elizabethtown, New Jersey Late eighteenth century Black silk, paper / 2" 9/ 1 4 x 61 22. Scissors Used by Sally De Hart Maker unknown Probably New England ca. 1800 Cast iron 1 4" 21 / 4 x 3/ 23. Hollow-cut Silhouette of Colonial Soldier Sally De Hart Elizabethtown, New Jersey Late eighteenth century Paper 2Y2 x 2" 24. Hollow-cut Silhouette of Uncle Wm. Delseate, M.D. Sally De Hart Elizabethtown, New Jersey 1786 Paper 2 x 3" 25. Hollow-cut Silhouette of Sam Stockton Sally De Hart Elizabethtown, New Jersey Late eighteenth century Paper 21 / 2 x 2" 26. Hollow-cut Silhouette of Gideon De Hart Sally De Hart Elizabethtown, New Jersey Late eighteenth century Paper 11 / 2" d.

27. Hollow-cut Silhouette of John De Hart, Esq. Sally De Hart Elizabethtown, New Jersey Late eighteenth century Paper 3 x 2" 28. Hollow-cut Silhouette of Wm. Temple Sally De Hart

Elizabethtown, New Jersey Late eighteenth century Paper 1 2" 2/ 1 4 x 1/ 29. Hollow-cut Silhouette of Mrs. Meredith of Philadelphia Sally De Hart Elizabethtown, New Jersey Late eighteenth century Paper 3/ 1 4 x 2" 30. Hollow-cut Silhouette of Peter Kean Sally De Hart Elizabethtown, New Jersey Late eighteenth century Paper 2/ 3 4 x 2/ 1 2" 31. Hollow-cut Silhouette of General LaFayette Sally De Hart Elizabethtown, New Jersey Late eighteenth century Paper 2/ 1 2 x 2" 32. The Holy Child of Atocha Artist unknown New Mexico Mid-nineteenth century Tempera on cottonwood panel 3 4" 10 x 6/ 33. St. Francis of Assisi Artist unknown New Mexico 1850-1890 Tempera on cottonwood panel / 4" 16V8 x 113 34. Virgin and Child Artist unknown New Mexico Late nineteenth century Carved, polychromed and gessoed cottonwood / 4" 32 x 23/ 1 2 x 101 35. Station of the Cross Penitente Artist unknown New Mexico Early twentieth century Carved and polychromed cottonwood 1 2 x 10/ 3 4" 16 x 8/ 36. St. Acacius Crucifix Artist unknown New Mexico Late nineteenth century Carved and polychromed cottonwood

21 x 11 x 3" 37. Spread Winged Eagle Wilhelm Schimmel (1817-1890) Pennsylvania ca. 1870 Carved and polychromed pine 101 / 4 x 17/ 1 4 x 3/ 1 2" 38. Poodle with Basket Wilhelm Schimmel (1817-1890) Pennsylvania ca. 1880 Carved and polychromed pine 5 x 3 x 8" 39. Tiger Among Flowers Wilhelm Schimmel (1817-1890) Pennsylvania ca. 1870 Carved and polychromed pine 5 x 41 / 2 x 23/4" 40. Parrot Wilhelm Schimmel (1817-1890) Pennsylvania ca. 1875 Carved and polychromed pine 5 x 11 / 2 x 2" 41. Parrot Wilhelm Schimmel (1817-1890) Pennsylvania ca. 1875 Carved and polychromed pine 5 x 1Y4 x 2/ 1 2" 42. Parrot Wilhelm Schimmel (1817-1890) Pennsylvania ca. 1875 Carved and polychromed pine 6/ 1 2 x 2/ 1 2 x 5"

ca. 1875 Carved and polychromed pine 1 4 x 6/ 1 4" 8/ 1 2 x 3/ 45. Miniature Eagle Wilhelm Schimmel (1817-1890) Pennsylvania ca. 1880 Carved and polychromed pine 2/ 1 2 x 4/ 1 2 x 3/ 1 2" 46. Dog on Base Wilhelm Schimmel (1817-1890) Pennsylvania ca. 1875 Carved and polychromed pine 1 2" 3/ 3 4 x 2 x 6/ 47. Spread Winged Eagle Aaron Mountz (1873-1949) Carlisle area, Pennsylvania ca. 1900 Pine 141 / 2 x 24 x 131 / 2" 48. Coffee Pot with Wrigglework Decoration Artist unknown Pennsylvania ca. 1820 Tin-coated sheet iron 9/ 1 2 x 7/ 1 2" d.

49. Coffee Pot with Wrigglework Decoration Artist unknown Pennsylvania ca. 1820 Tin-coated sheet iron / 2 x 11 x 6/ 3 4" 141 50. Trammel with Ratchet Attachment Artist unknown, possibly Moravian Possibly Bethlehem, Pennsylvania 1837 Wrought and pierced cast iron 41 x 12 x 3/4"

43. Squirrel Wilhelm Schimmel (1817-1890) Pennsylvania ca. 1870 Carved and polychromed pine / 2" 5 x 11 / 4 x 21

51. Lantern Artist unknown Inscribed "H. Howard" New England ca. 1850 Pierced tin 181 / 2 x 9" d.

44. Rooster Wilhelm Schimmel (1817-1890) Pennsylvania

52. Pie Crimper Artist unknown New England Nineteenth century 15

Cast steel 9/ 1 4 x 3" 53. Lyre-shaped 'Rivet Artist unknown Pennsylvania Nineteenth century Cast iron 2 x 7 x 5" 54. Two-sided Buttermold Artist unknown Probably Pennsylvania ca. 1810 Carved and incised maple 8 x 4 x 1" 55. Logging Camp Figures Artist unknown Lake Odessa, Michigan 1850-1880 Carved and polychromed wood, tin Various sizes 56. Crow Decoy Chas. Perdew Henry, Illinois Early 20th century Polychromed pine 12 x 33/4 x 13" 57. Nest of Three Lightship Baskets Artist unknown Nantucket Island, Massachusetts ca. 1885 Rattan and oak; plank bases A: 111 / 2 x 191 / 2" d.

B: 11 x 17/ 1 4"d.

C: 101 / 2 x 15W d.

58. Ottawa Nativity Scene Artist unknown, Ottawa Indian Cross Village, Michigan ca. 1850 Polychromed wood Various sizes 59. Potawatomi Crucifix Artist unknown, Potawatomi Indian Probably Detroit, Michigan 1796 Carved wood / 4 X Y2" 5/ 1 2 x 11 60. Potlatch Ladle Artist unknown, American Indian Northwest Coast Late nineteenth century Polychromed wood; abalone and ivory inlay / 2 x 7/ 1 4" 5 x 161 61. Potato Stamped Splint 16

Basket Artist unknown, probably Iroquois Indian Probably Upstate New York Potato stamped splint, vegetable dye 13 x 17" d.

62. Basket Artist unknown, Aleute Indian Aleutian Islands Late nineteenth century Embroidered rye grass 4/ 1 2 x 5/ 1 2" d.

63. Box Artist unknown, possibly Micmac Indian Possibly Maine or Nova Scotia ca. 1900 Polychromed bentwood with chip-carved serpentine decoration 7 x 181 / 2" 64. Bride's Box Artist unknown Probably Pennsylvania 1787 Polychromed bentwood 53/4 x 18/ 3 4 x 111 / 2" 65. Double Salt Box Artist unknown Probably Pennsylvania 1835 Polychromed poplar 14 x 10 x 8" 66. Document Box Artist unknown Probably Massachusetts ca. 1670 White oak and wrought iron 33/4 x 9/ 1 4 x 53/4" 67. Mirror Artist unknown Boston, Massachusetts Descended in Sparrow family ca. 1770 Red lacquered pine, original glass 171 / 2 x 93/4" 68. Mirror Artist unknown Plymouth, Massachusetts; Descended in the White family Eighteenth century Carved and incised pine, original glass 18 x 12" 69. Courting Mirror Artist unknown

Connecticut Late eighteenth century Cherry, original glass 20 x 13/ 1 2 x 2" 70. Child's Chair with Tilters Artist unknown, Shaker New England ca. 1855 Curly maple and rush seat 32 x 16 x 14" 71. Chair Artist unknown, possibly Moravian Possibly Bethlehem, Pennsylvania ca. 1740 American black walnut 44 x 24 x 24" 72. Chest Artist unknown Union County, Pennsylvania ca. 1830 Stained pine 101 / 2 x 23" 73. Dower Chest Artist unknown; initialed, "AN:' Pennsylvania or New York 1829 Polychromed pine 17/ 3 4 x 42 x 18" 74. Illuminated Calligraphic Document Artist unknown; Tribute given to a student by schoolmaster Pennsylvania or New York Nineteenth century Watercolor and ink on paper 16 x 14" 75. Dower Chest Artist unknown Lancaster County, Pennsylvania 1773 Polychromed poplar and wrought iron strap hinges 20/ 1 2 x 511 / 2 x 241 / 2" 76. Sgraffito Mug Possibly Friedrich Hildebrand Probably Pennsylvania ca. 1825 Slip-decorated redware 41 / 4 x 41 / 4 x 5/ 1 2" 77. Plate with Star and Inscribed Slip Decoration Artist unknown Probably Pennsylvania 1792 Slip-decorated redware

111 / 2" d.

78. Plate with Bird and Inscribed Slip Decoration Artist unknown Possibly Old Salem, North Carolina 1816 Slip-decorated redware 111 / 4" d.

79. Plate with Inscribed Slip Decoration Artist unknown Probably Pennsylvania ca. 1840 Slip-decorated redware 101 / 4" d.

80. Show Towel Anna Rosinahil Deverand Probably Pennsylvania 1772 Cotton thread on linen 67 x 16" 81. Baltimore Album Quilt Artist unknown Baltimore, Maryland ca. 1850 Appliqued cotton and india ink 109 x 105" 82. Feathered Star Quilt "Anna Maria Wurtz" New Paltz, New York 1848 Pieced cotton 85 x 99" 83. Temperance Blanket "Ann Marie Wurts" New Paltz, New York 1848 Wool threads on wool 67 x 82" 84. Tablecover Artist unknown Region unknown; possibly English ca. 1780 Appliqued English chintz on linen 84 x 85" with fringe 85. Rose of Sharon Variation Quilt Artist unknown Region unknown ca. 1880 Appliqued cotton 811 / 2 x 82" Design: Faye H. Eng and Anthony T. Yee, Photographs: Carleton Palmer.

Ken Hicks, p. 4.

Back cover caption:

li

irgin and Child Artist unknown New Mexico Late nineteenth century Carved, polychromed and gessoed cottonwood 4" / 2x 101 1 32 X 23/ During a period of approximately one hundred years, from the late eighteenth century to the late nineteenth century, representations of saints, or Santos, emerged in New Mexico as a distinctive and significant body of religious folk art. Drawing from traditional, Spanish Catholic religious imagery and a strong communal folk aesthetic, these local artists, or Santeros, created persuasive and sacred art forms unique to the New Mexican cultural experience.

Vit

•

The erratic painting career and late-life success of John Kane may be considered a turning point in the history of American folk art. By the time Kane was born, in 1860, the heyday of the itinerant limner was well past. Amateur artists were fairly plentiful in the

OHN

NE: MODERN AMERICAS FIRST FOLK PAINTER

BY JANE KALLIR

late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but their hopes of being taken seriously by the cultural elite were nil.

Their work,like that ofthe professional limners before them, was considered crude by academic standards and could not be appreciated at all until those standards toppled.

As is well known,it wasjust this sort ofchallenge to academic standards that led to the rediscovery and eventual preservation of America's folk tradition.

Modern artists such as Pablo Picasso, endeavoring to escape the confines of European aesthetic convention, found inspiration in the example of the untrained artist Henri Rousseau. Soon the search was on for painters of similar spirit, first in Europe and then in the United States. The initial American exhibitions of folk art' concentrated on eighteenth and nineteenth century pieces but paved the way for contemporary exponents of the genre. By 1927, so prestigious an event as the Carnegie Institute's Annual International Exhibition ofPaintings was ready to honor the humble efforts of John Kane.

Kane was the first twentieth century American folk painter to win acclaim during his lifetime. He started a trend that fostered other genuine folk artists such as Horace Pippin and Grandma Moses, and also an entire flock of pseudo-naives. Indeed, the present proliferation of spurious folk art may

cause one to momentarily forget that Kane, in his day, was quite a novelty.

When, on his third try, he made it into the Carnegie International, the press eagerly took up his story. Nothing could be more appealing nor, at the time, more unusual than a common housepainter crashing the gates of the art establishment. The story had a strong human interest angle and also played to the public's instinctive mistrust of lofty cultural institutions. People could simultaneously sympathize with Kane and laugh at the Carnegie.

Because of the perceived ties between the then-nascent modernist movement and the folk tradition, Kane received a kind of dual support that, in today's more specialized climate, would be unthinkable. He was accepted as both a folk artist and a "modern" artist, and collected by such pioneering patrons of the avant-garde as Duncan Phillips, A.S. Barnes and the Rockefellers. Throughout the 1930s, his work was routinely included in exhibitions devoted to contemporary trends. He appeared in "annuals" at such well-heeled museums as the Art Institute of Chicago and the Cincinnati Art Museum, continued to show every year at the Carnegie International and was included in the first and second Biennial Exhibitions of the Whitney Museum. The newly founded Museum of Modern Art placed Kane in no fewer than five exhibitions during the first decade of its existence, among them the museum's fifth anniversary show, "Modern Works of Art:' and also its groundbreaking survery of contemporary folk art, "Masters of Popular Painting:' The immediate effects of Kane's socalled success were more apparent than real. For two years after his museum debut, he continued to support himself as a housepainter, until finally, handicapped by old age and the Depression, he could no longer get this type of work. Fortune did not necessarily follow fame, he quickly learned. Inexperienced in sophisticated business matters, Kane fell prey to unscrupulous collectors2 and would-be dealers.

When he died of tuberculosis in 1934, the press made a scandal of his impoverished living conditions. Though such journalistic reports were exagge49

rated, it is probably true that Kane earned less money as an artist than he had in his best days painting offices for the National Tube Company.

It is understandable that Kane was not overly impressed with his newfound status as an artist. "I have lived too long the life of the poor to attach undue importance to the honors of the art world or to any honors that come from man and not from God:' he wrote? His hard and often unrewarding working life had begun when,at the age of nine, he took his first job in the Scottish coal mines. After emigrating to America in 1879, he helped lay the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, paved the streets of Pittsburgh, worked in a tubing factory, in coal mines, steel mines, and finally, as a painter and carpenter. Fluctuations in the economy,

Fig. 1 Dad's Pay Day; 1925; Oil on photograph backed with cardboard; Private collection.

In his early days, Kane earned his living peddling over-painted photographs door-todoor, When one of these turned up in a Pittsburgh exhibition,a local newspaper created a scandal by exposing the photographic underpinnings of the painting.

77,(1

layoffs and strikes forced him to change jobs frequently, but nothing disrupted his life as much as the sudden death, in 1904,of his son, John Jr. In 1897 he had married Maggie Halloran and settled in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, to raise a family. In time Maggie gave birth to two daughters, Mary and Margaret, but.

John dreamed of a son. When the boy died the day after he was born, Kane was shattered. The future artist suc, cumbed to drink, leaving his family for long periods and finally losing track of them altogether. For years he traveledthroughout Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia in search of work. Only in 1927, after reading about the Carnegie exhibition in the newspapers, did Maggie rejoin her husband in Pittsburgh, where he had made his final home.

Because Kane spent so much of his life in isolation, far from conventional art circles, a good deal of information on his creative evolution has been irretrievably lost.' Nonetheless, his instant celebrity prompted a newspaper reporter, Marie McSwigan, to take down his autobiography, and this idiosyncratic document remains the chief source for any account of the artist's working methods. Like many folk painters who were recognized only in old age, Kane had a childhood interest in art. On of his earliest memories was of being reprimanded by the schoolteacher for drawing in class. He returned to drawing as an adult in his mid-twenties and pursued the pastime uninterruptedly for the rest of his life. "Beauty of whatever kind, I wanted to draw it' ho explained. Going to and from work, pr on his lunch hour, he made sketches of the factories, the houses, the hills and the valleys around him. According to Kane,these drawings, which date back to the 1880s, were very similar to the drawings he made as a full-fledged artist in the 1920s and '30s. The only difference was that in the beginning he did not have the wherewithal or the inclination to translate his pencil sketches into paint.

Artistically speaking, the turning point in Kane's life came in 1898, when he got a job painting boxcars.'Enticed by the bare walls of the cars, he whiled away his lunch hours decorating them with pictures. Much to his.relief, the

r; foreman did not mind so long as the artist painted over his concoctions after the lunch break. This first encounter with paint taught Kane methods and techniques that he used for the rest of his life. From the three primary colors, lightened or darkened with white or black, he learned to "get any shade under the sue He developed a permanent disdain for premixed colors and would later insist that "the best thing in the world for a young artist would be to hire himself out to a good painting contractor': When the boxcar business slackened and Kane was laid off, he decided to put his new interest in painting to practical use. In the spirit of the erstwhile limners, he went door-to-door peddling overpainted photographic portraits.'

Thus he mingled a nineteenth century tradition with twentieth century technology, and, like his predecessors, merged art with craft. Judging from similar works done later in his career, Kane's commissioned portraits (none of which has ever come to light) well exceeded the limits of conventional retouching or tinting.' Whereas the retoucher normally works in glazes, preserving the original structure of the photograph, Kane obliterated the image entirely. In fact, it is difficult at first glance to distinguish his photo-paintings from his independent pictures.

The artist's embellishments are such that they deserve to be classified as original works.

One of the reasons so much is known about John Kane's seemingly innocuous photo-paintings is that they caused him a good deal of trouble in his later career as a "high" artist. Kane saw little difference between these and his "freehand" paintings, and when the Pittsburgh Junior League mounted his first one-man show in 1931, he sent them both kinds of work. After the show opened, one discerning visitor guessed the secret of the photo-paintings and leaked the word to the local newspapers. Each of the two competing dailies bought one of the suspect pictures, and after removing half the paint with thinner, published the "evidence:' They were as eager to declare Kane a fraud as they had been, just a short time ago, to hail him as a hero.

The resultant controversy may seem

Fig 2 Expectations; c.1925, Oil on panel, Courtesy Galerie St. Etienne, New York. The artist reworked his photographic subject into an original composition.

incomprehensible today, when the incorporation of photographic imagery â&#x20AC;&#x201D;whether through collage, photo-silkscreen, or the sort ofoversized enlargements painted by the photorealists â&#x20AC;&#x201D; has become routine practice. It may be said that Kane,in his nonchalant acceptance of the photograph as a natural component of his visual environment, anticipated his more sophisticated successors by nearly half a century. Dad's Pay Day (Figure 1), the only one of the two "exposed" paintings that still exists, supports more than it damns Kane's talents as an artist. Comparison of the two halves permits a before-andafter examination ofthe transformation the artist effected on a rather banal snapshot. His sensitivity to the photo51

Fig. 3 The Agony in the Garden; Oil on canvas, Courtesy Galerie St Etienne, New York In 1926, this painting was rejected by the jury of the Carnegie International because it was a copy of an old master

graph's basic formal qualities caused him to isolate and exaggerate block shapes, creating a more stylized and aesthetically pleasing composition.

More important, however, is the intangible emotional quality with which he invested the children. -"The little girls reminded me of Mary and Margie!' he wrote, "and the boy was how I fancied our John would look if he lived to be a tot of two or three!' Into the frozen faces of someone else's children, the artist breathed the life of his own. The resultant painting portrayed not actual people, but the feeling in his heart. It is interesting to note that he later painted a larger version of the same subject, Expectations (Figure 2), that gave his creative interpretation of the photograph freer reign.

The issue of "copying" in folk art history is one that deserves further study. In fact, almost all folk artistsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;

Fig. 4 Anders Zorn, Swedish Peasant Girl in Winter Costume; Photo-offset color reproduction

Fig. 5 Study of a Woman and Bagpiper (Detail); Pencil on paper. Kane copied the woman's face from the Zorn reproduction, one of the few instances in which he retained an example of his source material

52

M from Hicks to Hirshfield,from Phillips to Pippinâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;could, in one sense or another, be accused of copying. This is the manner in which such artists, remote from the academies, have traditionally taught themselves to paint.

However, early champions of folk art, wishing to idealize these painters as exponents of primordial creative innocence, attempted to deny their dependence on outside influences and, in so doing, denied them the visual heritage necessary to establish their place in art history. Kane was one of the first to understand that reliance on photographic or printed source images does not make the folk artist any less original, and his defense of such practices is worth quoting.

"All artists:' Kane wrote,"are copying nature. They see the hills, the valleys,the trees and they copy those. Ifan artist sees something in a book he likes he will copy that, too,enlarging upon it or lessening it according to his requirements. So it makes no difference where he sees it, whether it is the work of nature or of another man or work in a book. He is bound to react to the inspiration he feels. He will copy in part and adapt and take out what he likes!'

By his own account, Kane was fond of museums, and his daughter' recalls that he spent hours poring through art books at the library. Nonetheless, his use of pre-existing source materials other than the aforementioned photographs is difficult to document. The Biblical paintings(Figure 3)that form a small, but not insignificant, portion of his oeuvre are clearly derived from the work of the "masters:' whom he revered! On the whole, however, he seems to have been less interested in copying entire compositions than in examining the formal makeup of smaller details. His seventy-odd surviving drawings include numerous figural studies, some of which may have been done from life but most of which were probably copied from books. Exhaustive research would be required to uncover the specific sources of these images. In one instance, the artist preserved an offset reproduction of a painting by Anders Zorn (Figure 4), making identification of the related copy (Figure 5)quite easy. Most interesting is an extensive series of facial

Fig.6 Rage/Fear and Contemptuous Rage; Pencil on paper This is partof a series of emotion studies, many of which were based on Charles le Brunt TraitO des passions.

studies depicting a vast range of emotions and labeled accordingly (Figure 6). Because this emotional spectrum is far broader than that found in Kane's paintings, it can be surmised that he made these sketches not with any practical application in mind, but simply to learn.

Kane wanted to learn to be a true artist, and he dedicated himself to this ambition with the seriousness of any academic painter. On several occasions, he endeavored to enroll in art classes but was always discouraged by the high tuition fees. Thus denied formal training, he resolved to acquire an education on his own,through practice and observation. Starting around 1910, he adopted the habit of taking his drawing and painting supplies with him wherever he went. "I devoted every possible second of my spare time to making pictures, to getting down the snatches of beauty I saw every day:' he recalled. It was at this time that, using 53

Fig. 7 Study for "Junction Hollow"; c. 1932; Pencil on paper All Kane's landscape paintings were based on actual observations. Many were composite views composed of multiple snatches of scenery such as this.

Fig.9 Study_ for "Monongahela Valley": c. 1931; Pencil on paper- -

John Kane: Modern America's First Folk Painter is the subject of the Galerie St. Etienne's main exhibition of the spring season and will run from April 17 through May 25. The Galerie St. Etienne is located at 24 West 57th Street, New York City.

54

scraps of beaver-board left over from one of his construction jobs, he made some of his first original paintings.'

There is little doubt that Kane's landscape sketches were all done from nature. Like his other drawings, they present fragmentary rather than complete views (Figures 7 and 9). Faced with vistas of awesome complexity, the artist focused on isolated details: a segment of skyline, perhaps,or a cluster of dockside buildings. Sometimes several vignettes that would eventually appear in entirely different paintings were drawn on the same sheet of paper. One may hypothesize that Kane's finished compositions were assembled from a multitude of such single images, enabling him to obtain panoramas far broader than anything visible to the naked eye(Figures 8 and 10). He probably used these drawings as a form of shorthand note-taking, rather than as part of any systematic method. It is unlikely that everything in his paintings was sketched out in advance, though he often made a small-scale oil on the spot before working up the larger canvas in his apartment.' The final composition was an amalgam of the artist's observations of the scene in questionâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;aided by, but not entirely dependent on, preliminary studies.

Thus Kane, by observing nature and studying the "masters evolved an original folk style. He was neither the first nor the last to do so, but his unexpected entrance into the world of "high" art permanently changed the circumstances under which folk artists work. Kane himself remained unaffected by these changes. Just as he had never paid any attention to the superficial distinctions that separate "high" and "low" art, he did not consider "folk art" a separate creative category, to be nurtured as such by a special class of curators and dealers.

He saw himself as an artist, plain and simple. "Of far greater importance than technical accomplishment;' he wrote, "is that combination of handiwork with deep convictions, profound thought and lofty taste that, working together, create a great work of art': Kane worked hard all his life to live up to these standards, standards well worth remembering in judging any kind of art, folk or otherwise.

Jane Kallir is the co-director of the Galerie St. Etienne in New York City, and also is the author of Grandma Moses: The Artist Behind the Myth.

FOOTNOTES 1. The first major American folk art exhibition, at the Whitney Studio Club in 1924, bore the telling title "Early American Are: Other exhibitions on the same subject were mounted by private galleries throughout the 1920s.

2. Kane's daughter, Margaret Corbett, tells of one especially prominent collector who,taking advantage of the artist's inability to handle liquor, apparently absconded with a number of major works.

3. This and all subsequent quotations by John Kane are taken from his autobiography, Sky Hooks, ed. Marie McSwigan, as reprinted in Leon Anthony Arkus, John Kane, Painter Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1971).

4. The failure to keep records is a problem endemic to Kane's oeuvre. Kane himself was inconsistent about titles, and after his death his paintings seem to have changed titles almost every time they changed hands. The resultant confusion, aggravated by the artist's failure to date most of his work, makes it virtually impossible to posit a chronological development.

5. Kane began by asking people if they had a favorite snapshot they would like transformed into a painting. He then had the snapshot enlarged and painted his picture over the enlargement.

6. The fact that Kane offered his customers black-and-white as well as color work suggests that his paintings must have been substantially different from the underlying black-and-white photographs.

7. Margaret Corbett 8. Among these are the paintings that he submitted to the Carnegie Institute in 1925 and, again, in 1926, before learning the hard way, through rejection, that only "original" works were allowed.

9. The photo-portrait business naturally led Kane to attempt "freehand" works of a similar nature. He started by making unsolicited paintings of houses and then offering them to the residents for purchase.

10. Like many of Kane's verbal descriptions of his working methods, this one is difficult to substantiate visually. Though duplicate (or even triplicate) versions of the same scene occur in Kane's oeuvre, one cannot prove conclusively that any one is a study for another.

Fig. 8 Junction Hollow;1932,Oil on canvas,Collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Gift of Dr and Mrs. Allan Roos in memory of Robert M. Benjamin

Fig 10 Monongahela Valley; 1931; Oil on canvas, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Bequest of Adelaide Milton de Groot (1876-1967), 1967

55

It is said of great works of art that the power of their expressions transcends time. This statement has been made often about works of art in the realm of the "fine arts." It is this same enduring quality of profound aesthetic expression that led to the initiation of the Robert and Betty Marcus collection of American folk art.

The Marcuses began acquiring exceptional works of American folk art in the early 1970s. Mrs. Marcus' father had been a collector of oriental art. He instilled in her a philosophy that the only art works worth having are masterpieces. He believed that only the finest examples of an artistic style or tradition would remain challenging and enlightening over a lifetime. The result of the influence of this philosophy is one of the finest collections of nineteenth and twentieth century folk art.

The collection contains 123 major works, including both one-of-a-kind and commercial weathervanes of the nineteenth century; paintings by William Matthew Prior, John Hillings, Malcah Zeldis, Manic Lou O'Kelley, Kathy Jacobsen and other painters; sculpture by Edgar Tolson, John Cross, Mary Shelly, Filipe Archuleta and others; Amish quilts and many pieces of Shaker furniture.

The Marcuses had been collectors of contemporary fine art for many years.

It was while they were enrolled in a lecture series at Sarah Lawrence College that they discovered the exquisite aesthetic found in folk art. As Dr. Robert Bishop lectured on American folk art, the Marcuses were awestruck by the work of two twentieth century folk artists, Mattie Lou O'Kelley and Malcah Zeldis. The Marcuses cornered Dr. Bishop after his lecture and voiced their enthusiasm and appreciation of what they had just seen. Mrs. Marcus, reflecting back to that time, com-

"Jumping Horse" Weathervane; Maker unknown; c. 1850; Carved pine with paint traces; 28 x41."

ACQUIRING MASTER1

THE Râ&#x20AC;˘Oâ&#x20AC;˘

M. 56

DRKS:

mented, "There was right away a love match between our love for modern art and folk art; the folk art seemed to us very modern in its pure,raw,expressive power."

Though the Marcuses' assemblage of folk paintings has become extensive, their assortment of weathervanes may be the most remarkable aspect of the collection. And it is the weathervanes of horses, especially, that give us a unique insight into the Marcuses' reasons for collecting American folk art.

The Marcuses breed, own and race thoroughbreds. Their joy in the expressive power of their vanes is most likely precisely the same as that of the original owners. Charles Klamkin, in his book on weathervanes remarked: If twentieth century Americans are said to be having a love affair with the automobile, Americans of the nineteenth century had an equal passion for the horse. The horse provided transportation, a means of making a living, sport, and recreation!

Blonde Boy with Wagon; William Matthew Prior; ex-Garbisch Collection; Mid-I9th century; Oil on canvas; 30 x26."

7•R•T AND B•E•T•T•Y

•C•U•S C-0•L•L•E•C•T•I•0•N

by David W. Courtney

Late nineteenth century manufacturers of weathervanes such as J.W. Fiske, WA. Snow, L.W. Cusing and E.G. Washburne made three-dimensional vanes of horses. Breeders and owners of horses desired vanes of great realism, reflecting the qualities of champion horses such as Maud S., Ethan Allen, Dexter and St. Julian. The designs chosen were of the premier jumping and racing horses of the day, and symbolized the pinnacle of their sport.

Horses such as Maud S. were rendered with exceptional detail. Shown in the position of greatest extension, this horse cuts through the wind with such power that the mane flies straight back 57

and stands like a flag in a stiff wind.

The right front leg reaches for the ground, yet the horse defies gravity and skates almost effortlessly along in spite of the driver and sulky it must pull.

This horse has been idealized, reflecting the perfect melding of speed, grace, strength and discipline in a physical form. The natural patina on the copper surface has developed over the years; it accentuates the powerful lines and forms of the horse and has become an aesthetic element itself.

One should assume that these weathervanes were valued as much by their nineteenth century owners as by their twentieth century collectors. For example, originally the vanes were mounted on a roof, far from viewer inspection, and yet they were rendered with great detail and enhanced with gold leaf. In the nineteenth century the buyer was purchasing more than merely a functional weathervane; he was acquiring a symbol of an activity he valued highly. Though the detail of the horse could not be seen at a distance, anyone would know whether or not the vane reflected the quality and "Maud S. and Sulky" Weathervane; J.W. Fiske & Co.; Late 19th century; Gilt copper; 24/ 1 2x 41."

58

"Full Length Portrait of Gentleman"; Artist unknown; Pennsylvania; c. 1830; Watercolor on paper; One ofa pair, 24 x 18" each.

"Full Length Portrait of Lady"; Artist Unknown; Pennsylvania; c. 1830; Watercolor on paper; One ofa pair, 24 x 18" each.

perfection associated with the ideals of the sport.

The weathervane artist was well aware of these needs and sought to infuse the energy of the champion horse into each one crafted. The weathervane maker, as a folk artist, did not look upon his craft as an avenue of personal aesthetic expression; instead, he was a participant in a community. As John Vlach says: It should be recognized that folk art is a very distinctive form of human expression in which aspects of social philosophy dominate personal desires, in which tradition is preserved and perpetuated. Folk art is not made byjust anyone with talentâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;although talent and skill are certainly necessary. Connection and commitment are also required; connection to one's community and commitment to its values. Folk art is an expression of involvement, of sharine

"Destruction of Congregational Church in Bath, Maine by the Know Nothings; John Hillings; c. 1854: Oil on canvas; One ofa pair, 18 x 24" each.

"Destruction of Congregational Church in Bath, Maine by the Know Nothings"; John Hillings; c. 1854; Oil on canvas; One ofa pair, 18 X 24" each.

This commitment to the quality and detail of the craft lavished upon the weathervane subject was no less true of commercial manufacturers. The commercial vanes, too, had to be entirely handwrought by carving wooden patterns, shaping cast iron molds from them, and finally, by hammering a sheet ofcopper or tin into it to shape the elaborate details The horse weathervanes were among the most popular, as the makers' understanding of their clientele's tastes made the objects very appealing to members of the horseracing circles. The horse weathervane for a breeder or owner represented an object that was, even more than a means of livelihood, an object of constant interest and devotion. Often, as a testimony to its everlasting importance, the weathervane was gilded. It is not difficult to imagine

"Squirrel" Weathervane; Signed "Cushing and White"; c. 1870; Gilt copper;18 X 19."

59

the nineteenth century breeder pointing with pride to the golden figure silhouetted in an azure sky.

The Marcuses' weathervanes demonstrate an eye for collecting works expressing the dynamics of nature. The horse is a particularly suitable metaphor for the force of the wind. The running horse carved of pine(pictured) displays "the sense of power and motion which is appropriate to a device controlled by an element with the potential power and velocity of the wind ...[it] demonstrates a sense of effortless speed."'

The Marcuses' collection of weathervanes and other works offolk art speaks of the pursuits of communities searching for an aesthetic expression reflecting their values and beliefs; when those ideals are profound and enduring, the culture can cherish an artistic legacy as remarkable as that found in any work of fine art.

David W. Courtney is assistant professor of art history at Florida Atlantic University. Dr. Courtney is also the director of the University's Ritter Art Gallery and, with Mr. David Miller,is curator of the exhibition "Two centuries of American Folk Art." "Massasoit Indian" Weathervane; WA. Snow & Co.; Late 19th century; Gilt copper; 24 x 32."

"Fire Engine with Horses" Weathervane; Maker unknown;Southern Illinois; c. 1880; Copper, zinc and tin; 27 x 57."

60

FOOTNOTES 1. Charles Klarnkin, Weather Vanes, Hawthorn Books, New York, 1973, p.95 2. John Michael Vlach, "American Folk Art: Questions and Quandaries," Winterthur Portfolio, Vol. 15, No. 4, Winter 1980, p.354.

3. J.W. Fiske catalog of 1893 (reprinted 1971 by Pyne Press, Des Moines).

4. Robert L. Polley, ed., America's Folk Art, Putnam, New York, 1968, p.75.

farmiTton

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;._

es -wiv Weekend 507 EXHIBITORS ppm,. - many under tenting

June 9 & 10 Sept. 1 & 2 Sat. 10am-6pm Sun. 9am-4pm Free parking Admission: $2.00

Iâ&#x20AC;&#x17E;

ill I I I A national antiques event with leading dealers offering folk art, china, quilts, baskets, glass, copper, clocks, dolls, primitives, advertising, jewelry, country items, silver, Americana, vintage clothing, paintings, Orientalia, early lighting, tools, pewter, toys, a great variety offurniture, and 1000's offine collectibles.

Early admission (no passes valid)Saturday 8am - $5.00

1

Farmington(CT)Polo Grounds mg% Exit 39 off 1-84, 9 miles west of Hartford Don Mackey Shows,Inc.

Wir Suffield, Connecticut

61

J. Russell Harper, 1914-1983 Canada's Pioneer Art Historian ByJames T Wills

On November 17th, 1983, Canada's foremost art historian, Dr. J. Russell Harper, died in Cornwall, Ontario. For any country to have had a scholar of such stature, understanding and dedication is rare; to be without him now that his work is bearing such wonderful fruit is a great loss.

If it is possible to summarize a lifetime of painstaking scholarship, it should be said that he is the single person responsible for the present interest in and understanding of Canadian art, both academic and folk. The standards he set are high, and it remains for those who follow to match them.

Before Russell Harper entered the field, the term "Canadian art" was not used in any positive, coherent way; no university courses were offered; no comprehensive books had been written; it was considered less than important. The Group of Seven, that most Canadian league of painters organized in the 1920s, was looked on with contempt by the critics and not looked on at all by the public. Earlier works, both fine and folk, were little regarded and considered in a highly regional manner when considered at all.

Russell Harper's Painting in Canada: A History appeared in 1966. To say that it ended the period of neglect and began an epoch of understanding are both understatements; to say it remains the standard text in the university courses that have since sprung up from coast to coast does it at least some justice.

Confidence in the validity of Canadian art grew out of Harper's early archaeological work at Indian and French village sites in eastern Canada and was honed during years of study at the Ontario College of Art and the University of Toronto. Judging it in an international context was made possible during European travels with the newspaper magnate Lord Beaverbrook in 1957-58 and later, when he was Curator of Canadian

Art at the National Gallery in Ottawa, during trips to Paris and Venice where he met with Riopelle, Giacommetti, Nevelson, and Karel Appel.

Not content with the great contributions already made as an author and curator, Harper quickly followed Painting in Canada with Early Painters and Engravers in Canada (1970), Notman: A Portrait of a Period (1970) and the definitive Paul Kane's Frontier (1971).

At this point Harper was also teaching as a Professor of Fine Art at Concordia University in Montreal, a position he held from 1967 to 1979 after being Chief Curator at Montreal's McCord Museum. In 1973, under the auspices of the National Gallery of Canada, he organized a travelling exhibition called A People's Art, leading in 1974 to a book with the same title and the intriguing sub-title: Primitive, Na誰ve, Provincial, and Folk Painting in Canada. This was the first serious attempt to deal with Canadian folk painting, and it became a seminal influence that still pervades the field today.

It is not possible here to detail all the positions Russell Harper held, all the books and articles he wrote, or all the collections he helped form, but even in failing health he was able to contribute yet another definitive work, Krieghoff in 1979.

J. Russell Harper, D.Litt, D.E A., holder of the Order of Canada and Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, was born in 1914 in the tiny Scottish farming village of Caledonia in western Ontario. He maintained a life-long belief in the value of the early images and traditions he experienced on the family farm. These were the themes to which he continually returned during more than forty years devoted to things of beauty in Canadian art. He was a rare scholar and a good man.

James T. Wills is a free-lance writer and editorial consultant based in Toronto. He is currently writing a book on William Blake.

CLEMENTINE HUNTER (1887-

)

c.41-

Bruce Brice David Butler Rev. Howard Finster O.W. "Poppy" Kitchens John Landry Sr. Gertrude Morgan Popeye Reed Nellie Mae Rowe James "Son Ford" Thomas Mose Tolliver Bill Traylor Chief Willey

'DOG 'WAR' ", Oil on paper, 1945

Estate of Charles Hutson

GASPERI FOLK ART GALLERY 831 St. Peter Street New Orleans, Louisiana 70116 (504) 524-9373

FOLK ART GALLERY

Moved to: 1187 Lexington Avenue New York, N.Y. 10028 Between 80th & 81st Streets Phone:(212)628-5454 210" Height x 4' Width

Photo: Beth Hughes Hall C

The Ames Gallery features the work of contemporary California artists and American folk art & artifacts.

Concurrent with the changing exhibits, our extensive collection of tramp art, cookware, quilts, contemporary folk painting, and sculpture are always on view.

For current exhibit information, hours, or for an appointment, phone us or write to:

AMESâ&#x20AC;˘GALLERY

Ames Gallery 2661 Cedar Street Berkeley, CA 94708 415 845-4949

EPSTEIN/POWELL 22 Wooster St., New York, N.Y. 10013

By Appointment(212)226-7316

Jesse Aaron Steve Ashby Peter Charlie William Dawson Uncle Jack Dey Antonio Esteves Howard Finster Victor Joseph Gatto

S.L. Jones Justin McCarthy Sister Gertrude Morgan Inez Nathaniel Old Ironsides Pry Nellie Mae Rowe Jack Savitsky Mose Tolliver and others

Luster Willis 64

Christopher Sclscr American Indian Art

15 Park Avenue New York, NY 10016 (212)684-5853 by appointment

Apache doll, 11" Circa 1880

PATRICIA ADAMS Box959 Evanston, Illinois 60202 Phone:312-869-6296 By appointment 30 minutesfrom downtown Chicago

Specializing in 18th & 19th Century Americanfurniture, paintings andfolk art.

-.„ •,•••'•

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65

Woodcarving as an American Contemporary Folk Art New York Woodcarving By appointment only 212-925-4907 240 Lafayette Street NewYork, N.Y. 10012 Seated Man Emil Janel 1935

Fo€4 Country,Alanor cAntiques

Fifael

since March, 1980

THE HIGH TOUCH NEINSLETTER of contemporary folk art

1165 Coast Village Road Montecito (805)969-6841 Monday -Saturday 10-6 Sunday 1-5 Personal vignettes of folk artists, topical news, calendar, commentary, new finds and new directions in 20th century folk art.

Primitives • Quilts Folk Art • Paintings Furniture

Amply illustrated. Five issues per year.

Standing Mustached Man, John Vivolo, 1976. Painted wood, height 291 / 2".

Send $9 to Folk Art Finder, 117 North Main, Essex, CT. 06426, Phone 201-767-0313

THE LAST FRONTIER OF AMERICAN FOLK ART THE ALASKAN ESKIMO! Box Handle.

Running Weasel.

Central Alaska C 1880.

A Blend of Form and Function.

MARTIN ELLMAN • Early Alaskan Eskimo • American Indian • Americana by appointment (914) 457 - 3847 P.O. Box 26 Montgomery, N.Y. 12549

PANORAMAS FOR THE PEOPLE r

An exhibition of selected watercolors originally used in panoramas painted by two amateur artists sometimes referred to collectively as the "Utica artist."

March 3—May 13,1984 Museum of Art Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute

Historical Scenes of the United States, 17" x 14", on loan from Isabel and Bates Lowry, Washington, D.C.

Catalogue available through the Art Shop, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute 310 Genesee Street, Utica, New York 13502 315/797-0000

67

C

Museum News

CURRENT AND UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS "The Keene Eye: Selections from the American Folk Art Collections of Mr. and Mrs. James 0. Keene" April 27—June 17, 1984 The Museum's current exhibition, "The Keene Eye inaugurates the new exhibition space and provides visitors with an excellent opportunity to see many fine examples of folk art—from fraktur to santo—culled over a period of forty-five years by a discriminating pair of collectors from Birmingham, Michigan. Please see catalog insert for further information.

"Cross Currents: Faces, Figureheads and Scrimshaw Fancies" June 26—September 2, 1984 This exhibition with a maritime theme traces the activities of three major painters who recorded the likenesses of many of the major sea captains living along the Eastern seaboard from Massachusetts to Long Island. Isaac Sheffield, Orlando Hand Bears and Frederick Mayhew are represented, as are the accoutrements of the maritime life: ships' figureheads, a captain's log and a variety of scrimshaw objects. Please see page 25 for further information.

"The World of Grandma Moses" September 10—October 28, 1984 This exhibition of Grandma Moses' work is unique in that her paintings are examined in an art historical context, by tracing her sources, techniques and stylistic growth.

New research has provided valuable material, including preliminary drawings and sources helping to unravel the story of Anna Mary Robertson's development and evolution as a painter. Fifty paintings are included in the exhibition, which features, among many of Grandma Moses' finest paintings, "Hoosick Falls, New York, in Winter:' "The Dividing of the Ways' "Wash Day" and "Christmas at Home!' In order to illustrate the many different ways the artist treated the same theme, five "sugaring off" scenes will be on view. Jane Kallir, co-director of the Galerie St. Etienne, which represents the artist's estate, 68

Pinprick Picture; Artist unknown; Found in Tyron, North Carolina; 1783; Watercolor on pinpricked paper; 12/ 1 2x 15/ 3 4"; From the Collections ofMr. and Mrs. James 0. Keene is Guest Curator of"The World of Grandma Moses!'

THE MUSEUM'S EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

"The Jewish Heritage in American Folk Art" Fall 1984

The Museum is offering two ongoing lecture series this spring. These lectures are open to museum members and the general public.

The Museum of American Folk Art and The Jewish Museum have jointly organized this exhibition of American folk art relating to the Jewish experience in the United States, including paintings, sculpture, textiles, pottery and ritual objects spanning a period from the eighteenth century to the present.

This first in-depth study of a fascinating subject will explore the manner in which American life has impressed itself upon the collective consciousness of an immigrant group, as well as the problem of ethnic cohesion in the face of America's pluralistic society. To be presented at The Jewish Museum, 1109 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York.

SPRING LECTURES OFFERED BY

Lectures A Wednesday afternoon lecture series,THE EXPERTS' EXPERTISE: THE MUSEUM OF AMERICAN FOLK ART SPEAKS, features scholars and collectors associated with the Museum who talk about subjects of interest to the folk art community.

April 18 —New Directions in Folk Art Research—Dr. Robert Bishop, Director, Museum of American Folk Art April 25 —Folk Art by American Women —Dr. Judith Reiter Weissman, Coordinator of Museum of American Folk Art/NYU

May 2 —

May 9 —

May 16 —

May 23 —

May 30 —

June 6 —

Graduate Program in Folk Art Studies Pennsylvania German Folk Art—Ralph Esmerian, President, Museum of American Folk Art Shaker Gift Drawings—Gerard C. Wertkin, Assistant Director, Museum of American Folk Art American Folk Painting from the French and Indian Wars to the Centennial—Mary Black, Consulting Curator, Museum of American Folk Art A Collector Collects—Herbert W. Hemphill, Jr., Trustee Emeritus, Museum of American Folk Art The Benjamin Russel Whaling Panorama—Barbara Johnson, Trustee, Museum of American Folk Art. This film and lecture will preview the Museum's June exhibition, Cross Currents: Faces, Figureheads and Scrimshaw Fancies The Itinerant Artist—Joyce Hill, Curator, Museum of American Folk Art. A slide lecture focusing on Isaac Sheffield, Orlando Hand Bears and Frederick Mayhew whose paintings of sea captains and their families will be shown in the exhibition Cross Currents: Faces, Figureheads and Scrimshaw Fancies curated

by Joyce Hill and on view from June 26—September 2, 1984.

Drummond • Noah North: Nineteenth Century American Folk Painter—Michael McManus •The Midwestern Corn Palaces: A "Maize" of Detail and Wonder— Cynthia Rubin •Miz Minnie Evans: Dreamer by the Dunes—Nancy Jo Fox This seminar is open to all free of charge.

Reservations are necessary. Please call the Museum's Education Department for further information: 212/581-2474.

SUMMER STUDIES The Museum of American Folk Art/New York University Graduate Degree Program in Folk Art Studies will offer two exceptional summer programs for students and others interested in folk art.

Folk Art in New York City July 2-7, 1984

3 credits

One week of concentrated study of American folk art will feature daily lectures given by recognized experts in the field and visits to museums and private collections. Topics to be covered include folk portraiture, land-

Folk Art Week in Cooperstown July 8-14, 1984 3 credits This week long series oflectures by experts on American social, community and oral history, genealogy and museum practices will be offered in conjunction with The New York State Historical Association and held at the Association's headquarters at Fenimore House in Cooperstown, New York. Students will also have access to the extensive collections at the Farmer's Museum and other buildings, including the tavern, shops and farmstead, and will be able to watch folk artisans at work. Coordinator/Instructor of this course is Gerard C. Wertkin, Assistant Director of the Museum of American Folk Art. For further information and details, please contact: Summer Sessions Office New York University 60 Press Building Washington Square New York, NY 10003 Attn.: Ms. Nancy Graham 212-598-2772 Professor Judith Weissman is Folk Art Studies Coordinator.

TWO NEW TRUSTEES ELECTED

The lectures are held at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church at 7 West 55 Street, Wednesdays at 1 p.m.

A one day FOLK ART SEMINAR will be held on Thursday, May 31 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Junior League of the City of New York, 130 East 80 Street. Six papers will be presented by graduate students in the Museum of American Folk Art's master and doctoral Folk Art Studies Program at NYU. Topics will include: •Rio Grande Textiles: An American Folk Art Tradition—Alexandra deLallier •Ruth Henshaw Bascom: American Pastel Profile Artist—Lois Avigad •In Search of Samuel Miller—Patricia

scape and genre paintings, sculpture, environmental folk art, quilts, samplers, pottery and Shaker gift drawings. Professor of this course is Dr. Robert Bishop, Director of the Museum of American Folk Art.

A study in concentration at the Museum's doll. makingworkshop held at Citicorp lastDecember.

The Museum is delighted to announce the re-election to the Board of Trustees of Maureen(Mrs. Richard)Taylor, who rejoins the Board after a brief absence. Mrs. Taylor has provided years of dedicated service to the institution.

The Board has been further strengthened by the election of Bonnie (Mrs. Thomas) Strauss, a member of the Museum's Friends Committee. Mrs. Strauss served on the committee which successfully organized the Museum's Benefit Gala Auction held last year at Sotheby Parke Bernet.

The Trustees and staff of the Museum are pleased to welcome Mrs. Strauss and Mrs. Taylor.

69

Calendar

with the Museum of Our National Heritage to present this comprehensive view of pewter in American life. A variety of pewter pieces from three centuries will be shown that illustrate the technology, the trade and the uses of pewter by all segments of American society.

FIRE FIGHTING ON PARADE Through the end ofMay, and possibly longer The New-York Historical Society New York, New York ... Engines rushing, sirens blaring, traffic stopping ... Only through personal experience or a noteworthy conflagration does one ever stop and contemplate the act offirefighting. Yet the tales of fires and the men and equipment that fight them forms one of the most exciting chapters in the history of America. That story is being told today at the New-York Historical Society, where some 2,000 items chronicle the romance and rivalries of the early days of firefighting. "Firefighting" takes the visitor from the era of the colonial bucket brigade, when stalwarts were recruited from the highest social ranks—through the Civil War, when a volunteer fire company's members would enlist together in a gesture of fraternalism—to the demise of the volunteers and the establishment of professional firefighting departments. The exhibition is organized chronologically, and its highlight is a "parade" of mid-19th century vehicles.

QUILTS AND COVERLETS Through June 10,/984 Denver Art Museum Denver, Colorado A representative group of quilts and coverlets is always on view in the Meyer Neusteter Gallery with periodic changes made to protect the objects from over-exposure and to give museum visitors the opportunity to enjoy the full scope of this 300-plus piece collection. Recent acquisitions include an unusual pieced quilt and a fanciful Jacquard coverlet.

OHIO CLOCKS April 3—June 17,/984 Warren County Historical Society Lebanon, Ohio Approximately forty Ohio clocks will be on exhibit at the Warren County Historical Society Museum this spring. Featured will be both tall case and shelf clocks dating from 1814 to the early 20th century. Of interest to collectors will be early clocks by Reed and Watson and Loomin Watson. A small catalog will accompany the exhibition.

A SPLENDID TRADITION: FOLK AND DECORATIVE ARTS OF LANCASTER COUNTY May 1—November 17, /984 The Heritage Center of Lancaster County Lancaster, Pennsylvania 70

TAPA CLOTHS June 5—August 13, /984 Center for the Visual Arts Gallery Illinois State University Normal, Illinois Birth and baptismal certificate of Jacob Weydmann born October 28, 1762 in Cocalico Township, Lancaster County. Printed at Ephrata in 1784. The decoration of this taufschein is attributed to Henrich Otto. Collection of the Heritage Center ofLancaster County. Gift ofthe James Hale Steinman Foundation.

This special exhibition features Lancaster Chippendale furniture, renowned for the extensive use of relief carving; more than 50 examples of the fraktur of Henrich Otto,a prominent early fraktur artist, and his sons; a collection of examples of printing in Lancaster County in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, including almanacs, lottery tickets, newspapers, maps, books and the like; and paintings, photographs and sculpture by the versatile artist Lloyd Mifflin.

Selected pieces form the folk art collection of Clyde Youtz and the Heritage Center's permanent collection will also be on view.

ANIMALS: FOLK ART FROM THE KANSAS GRASSROOTS ART ASSOCIATION May I3—June 9, 1984 Kansas Grassroots Art Association Lawrence, Kansas

Bold designs, contrasting colors and distinctive regional artistry characterize the native fabric of the South Pacific featured in this exhibit. Polynesians created bark cloth, or tapa as it is usually called, for clothing, bedding, room partitions and gifts of great social significance. The pieces in this exhibit are from Samoan. Fijian and Tongan Islands where tapa continues to play an important role in the lives of Polynesians. Guest curator for this exhibit is Anthropologist Dr. Joyce Hammon.

MASKS IN MOTION June 5—August 19, 1984 Craft & Folk Art Museum Los Angeles, California This international exhibition will offer examples of masks from countries participating in the Olympics; some of them are being carried by hand from as far away as Java. Edith Wyle,curator of the exhibition says, "Currently, more than fifty countries have responded favorably to our request for masks for 'Masks in Motion: We are more convinced than ever of the universality of the symbol we use to celebrate the cultural diversity of our city and country': A series of films and videotapes showing the actual masks being used in the functions for which they were made will accompany the exhibition.

This exhibition, on view at the Topeka Public Libary, presents sculpture and paintings by naive artists who operate outside the mainstream of folk or fine art. All of the objects are concerned with animal life. A lecture on the topic of grassroots art is scheduled for June 6, 1984 at 7:00 p.m.

GIFT OF MOTHER EARTH:CERAMICS IN THE ZUNI TRADITION July 1—September 4, 1984 The Millicent Rogers Museum Taos, New Mexico

PEWTER IN AMERICAN LIFE,1635-1875 May 13—October 28, /984 Museum of Our National Heritage Lexington, Massachusetts

This exhibition, sponsored and circulated by the Heard Museum of Phoenix, examines continuity and change in Zuni Pueblo pottery manufactured over two centuries, utilizing historical material from the Smithsonian Institution as well as numerous examples of contemporary work produced in the ongoing revival of Zuni ceramics.

"Zuni Pueblo Painting" will serve as an adjunct exhibition.

In celebration of its 50th anniversary, the Pewter Collectors' Club of America has joined forces

Our Increased Membership Contributions September—December 1983

We wish to thank the following members for their increased membership contributions and for their expression of confidence in the Museum: Elizabeth G. Aberg, Dallas, TX Allan Albert, New York, NY Mrs. Paul Angiolillo, Roslyn Harbor, NY Mr. & Mrs. Eldridge Arnold, Greenwich, CT Mr. & Mrs. Carlton R. Asher, Jr., New York, NY Paula Bennett, New York, NY Dr. Irwin Berman, St. Simons Island, GA Stephanie Bemheim, New York, NY Thomas & Marilyn Block, New York, NY Anne S. Bradford, New York, NY Marilyn & Milton Brechner, Sands Point, NY Mrs. Robert S. Carlson, New York, NY W.B. Carnochan, Stanford, CA Mr. & Mrs. David Chambers, Ann Arbor, MI Mr. & Mrs. James D. Clokey, III, Pleasant Valley, NY Michele Cohen, New York, NY Mrs. G.W. Cox, Galveston, TX Leslie G. Crossman, Mentor, OH John K. Davenport, S. Yarmouth, MA Dr. & Mrs. W.J. Davies, Rockville Center; NY Mrs. W.H. De Camp III, Woodmere, NY Mr. & Mrs. Albert Efron, Staten Island, NY Gene Epstein, New York, NY Elizabeth M. Felton, Bronx, NY

Mr. & Mrs. Stephen Fenster, Oradell, NJ Christopher Forbes, New York, NY Mr. & Mrs. Norman Freedman, Mamaroneck, NY Brenda & Kenneth Fritz, Los Angeles, CA Mrs. B. Goodman, Scarsdale, NY Linda L. Goodyear, Darien, CT Ellin B. & Baron J. Gordon, Williamsburg, VA Bonnie Grossman, Berkeley, CA Lillian Hess, New York, NY Mr. & Mrs. Roger Hess, New York, NY Mr. & Mrs. David S. Howe, New York, NY Mike & Hope Hudner, New York, NY Mr. & Mrs. S. Jacoff, Great Neck, NY Earl Jamison, Lahaska, PA George Klein, Akron, OH Joel & Kate Kopp, New York, NY Wendy Lavitt, New York, NY Mr. & Mrs. Dean Levy, New York, NY Patricia & Richard Locke, Brooklyn, NY Alden R. Ludlow III, New York, NY Mr. & Mrs. Robert Marcus, Palm Beach, FL Mr. & Mrs. William M. McCardell, Stamford, CT Donna & Harry Miller, E. Greenbush, NY Warren Miller, Cresco, PA Arthur Moebius, Aurora, OH Joy Molloy, Colchester, CT Didi Moore & David Barrett, New York, NY Marcia Ann Moore, Malibu, CA Mr. & Mrs. Mace Neufeld, Beverly Hills, CA

Joe Nicholson, San Antonio, TX Lucille E. Ogle, New York, NY William T. Overgard, Stony Point, NY Laura Palmer, New York, NY Katy & Harold Pearson, New York, NY Hon. & Mrs. Thomas E. Petri, Washington, DC Rosine Pezzello, New York, NY Louis & Colleen Picek, West Branch, IA Mr. & Mrs. Lawrence B. Pike, Scarsdale, NY Leonore B. Planert, Sarasota, FL Milton Prigoff, Alpine, NJ Burt Purnell, New York, NY Mrs. Dorothy H. Roberts, New York, NY Margo M. Sawyer, Garrison, NY Anita Schorsch, Meadowbrook,PA Mary & Alan Shapiro, Scarsdale, NY Phillip Snyder, New York, NY Stephanie Snyder, Los Angeles, CA Mr. & Mrs. J. Straka, New York, NY Mrs. DI Strathdee, Ontario, Canada Carol Strober, New York, NY Mr. & Mrs. H.S. Vander Poel, Oyster Bay Cove, NY Carl E. Watt, Stratford, CT Mr. & Mrs. Willard, New York, NY Anne Wright Wilson, Hopewell, NJ Mark B. Winchester, Dallas, TX Mrs. Joseph C. Woodle, New York, NY Mr.& Mrs. John R. Young, Old Greenwich, CT Joel Zakow, New York, NY Mr. & Mrs. Daniel A. Zillcha, New York, NY

Our Growing Membership September—December 1983

The Museum Trustees and Staff extend a special welcome to these new members: Nancy Abraham, New York, NY Rita Abraham, New York, NY Gwendolyn J. Ackerman, New York, NY Acquire Publishing Inc., New York, NY Pamela Adams, East Brunswick, NJ Jonathan Airey, Westonville, OH Karen Alexander, Metairie, LA Dr. Seymour Algus, Brooklyn, NY Judi Allen, Oradell, NJ Nancy R. Allen, Murfreesboro, TN Marsha Allison, Morehead City, NC Mary Ann Anders,Oklahoma City, OK Ann Andrus, Auburn Heights, MI Sharon Archer, McLean, VA Jacob Arkush, New York, NY Ashton Antiques, New York, NY Mary Bailey, El Paso, TX

Shelley Brenner Baird, Columbus,OH Eliot H. Bank, Birmingham, MI William & Mary Ann Baron, New York, NY Muriel T Barrow, Downsville, NY Mrs. Georgia M. Bass, Ridgewood, NJ Beryl Bayes, Long Island City, NY Cordalie Bennt, Danbury, CT Helen Berger, Harrisburg, PA Anne Marit Bergstrom, Devils Lake, ND Eleanor Berman, New York, NY David J. Bernstein, Arlington, MA Mrs. Arthur N. Berry, Westminster, VT Louis Bertrand, Los Angeles, CA Natasha Beshenkovsky, New York, NY Marian E. Bestor, Oronoco, MN Theresa A. Beyer, Brooklyn, NY Gloria M. Bielstein, San Antonio, TX Jody Bishel, South Norwalk, CT Tish Blackford, Owensboro, KY Dorothy Blackwell, New Smyrna Beach,FL Louise J. Bloom, Sherman Oaks,CA Brenda Blumenshine, New York, NY

Robert Bokor, Plainfield, NJ Sharyn M. Borek, New York Mills, NY Mrs. Barbara S. Borsch, Princeton, NJ Russell & Barbara Bowman, Milwaukee, WI Ruth B. Bracewell, Madison, GA Sherry & Paul Brandt-Rauf, New York, NY Catherine C. Brawer, Chappaqua, New York Georgia E Brereton, Wilmington, DE Ramona A. Broadbent, North Bergen, NJ Marianne Broecker, Indianapolis, IN Mrs. Pearl Brooks, Bronx, NY Mr. Andreas Brown, New York, NY Meredith M. Brown, New York, NY Tauni Brustin, Venice, CA Glenn A. Bucher, Chesapeake, VA Irene D. Buckley, New Fairfield, CT Mrs. John Bullis, Tehachapi, CA Mrs. Charles Burgess, Bethalto,IL Diane A. Burrows, Albany, NY Barbara P. Campbell, Darien, CT Betty Capshaw, Houston, TX

71

Our Growing Membership

Susan Carlino, Port Washington, NY Kathie Carlson, Fairfield, CT Deborah Carter, New York, NY Catherine CasteIli, New York, NY Dr. John Cech, Gainesville, FL Mabel Charles Antiques, Augusta, ME Richard Chamov, Brooklyn, NY Joyce E. Cleveland, Wayne, NJ Mary Jean Clouse, Columbus,OH Gretchen Coates-Reynolds, New York, NY Mark B. Codd, Detroit, MI Marvin T. Cohen, Teaneck, NJ Columbus Memorial Library, Washington, DC Kristin G. Congdon, Shaker Heights, OH Cornell University Library, Ithaca, NY Theda Court, Mount Vernon, NY Patricia Cox, Minneapolis, MN Ms. Sandra Alwin Coyne, New York, NY Karen E. Crawford, Norwalk, CT Jack D. Crutchfield, New York, NY Anne P Curtin, Larchmont, NY Lucile Dahl, Edina, MN Aaron Daniels, Barrington, RI Evelyn Daniels, Allentown,PA Davidson Aluminum Corp., Deer Park, NY Lynn De La Valette, Newport, RI Judy DeGanno,Oak Park, IL Mary Ann Demos, New York, NY Richard Diamond, New York, NY Mrs. Charlean Dickson, Shreveport, LA Kristina DieIs, Stamford, CT Jeffrey C. Dodge, Alexandria, VA Lisa Donneson & Henry Weisberg, Brooklyn, NY Mrs. James D. Dowd,Oakmont,PA Mrs. Norma Dreiding, Herrliberg, Switzerland Julia Duane, Bedminster, PA EBSCO Industries Inc., Birmingham, AL Louise Edmonson, New York, NY Sarah L. Edwards, New York, NY Steve Eisendrath, New York, NY Roxanne Everett, Red Hook, NY C.R. Farhi, New York, NY Mrs. Gordon S. Fearing, Columbia, SC AR Fenderson, Modesto, CA Jacquelyn Ffolliott, Hanover, NH Norma Finger, Georgetown, KY Hilda Fins, New York, NY Judith H. Fischer, Wayland, MA Margaret M. Flint, New York, NY Maribeth Fonner, New York, NY Marcia R. Fox, New York, NY Karen Frame, Corinth, MS Lee Freedman, Southwest Harbor, ME Jenny Kuntz Frost, New York, NY Linda M. Fruin, New York, NY Constance Gaffey, Ho-Ho-Kus, NJ Joel Galewski, New York, NY Mr. & Mrs. Stephen M. Gans, New York, NY 72

James W. Gick, Irvine, CA Nancy H. Gilbert, Pittford, VT Sam Ginsburg, Briarcliff, NY Mr. & Mrs. William L. Gladstone, Larchmont, NY Mr. & Mrs. Eric Gluckman, Scarsdale, NY H. Goldenberg, Huntington, IN Ronda Gomez-Quinones, Los Angeles, CA Alyson Gonsalves, Little Rock, AR Francoise C. Graf, Larchmont, NY Barbara S. Gross, Wilmington, DE Harold L. Gross, Endwell, NY H. Gurnee, Sharon,CF Marcy Gumett, Whittier, CA Elizabeth Haderer, East Quogue, NY Emily Halligan, Huntington, NY Judith Halpern, New York, NY Rhonda Hamilton, Tasmania, Australia Vivian Harnett, Piermont, NY Glennda Harralson, Princeton, KY David & Caroline Hart, Andover, NJ Mary C. Hart, Westwood, MA Anne Havens, Rochester, NY Sharryl Davis Hawke, Boulder, CO Penny Hays, New York, NY Ms. M.L. Heller, Lusanne, Switzerland Richard Helphand, Glendale, CA Marilyn Henrion, New York, NY Lowell M. Herrero, San Francisco, CA Nancy Hersom, Manchester, VT Doris Herzon, Westport, CT Claudia & Carroll Hoff, Salem, MA Victoria Hoffman, New York, NY Constance L. Holmberg, New York, NY David Horowitz, Los Angeles, CA Ann Horton, New York, NY Allison M. Hoye, Lebanon, NJ Jean Hughes, Hubbard Woods,IL Olivia Hurd, Berkeley, CA Franklin H. Ingham, East Orange, NJ Mr. Yuichi Ishii, Beechhurst, NY Thyrza Jacocks, Key Biscayne, FL Mrs. Betty D. Jenkins, Denville, NJ Jann Johnson, New York, NY Gillian Jolis, New York, NY Mr. B.L. Jones, Toronto, Canada Dr. Irvin & Barbara Kalb, Westport, CT Mark I. Kalish, Brooklyn, NY Kansas Grassroots Art Association, Lawrence, KS Barry Kaplan, New York, NY Cathy M. Kaplan, New York, NY Roland Karlen, New York, NY Leona & Nathan Karten, Flushing, NY Mr.& Mrs. Jeff Kenner, New York, NY Marjorie B. Kern, Kings Point, NY Katherine B. Ketcham,Greenlawn, NY Russ Kiuclrick, Centerville, OH

Mr. Norman Kleblatt, New York, NY Mrs. Charlotte Kobrin, Yonkers, NY Jody Kolodzey, Philadelphia, PA Mrs. Judi M. Krauss, New York, NY Patricia Kubo, Upland, CA Hannelore Kumik, North Miami,FL Sandra Kurtz, Minneapolis, MN Judy & Lou La Sorsa, Long Island City, NY Ramona Lampell, Meadow Bridge, WV Leslie S. Larkin, Brookline, MA Louanne LaRoche, Hilton Head Island, SC Mrs. Linda L. Lawson, High Point, NC Ms. Jeanne LeMonnier, New York, NY Martha Leversuch, Chicago, IL Mr. & Mrs. Robert J. Levine, New York, NY Kathy Lewin, Forest Hills, NY Sara Lindberg, Iowa City, IA Marianne Lixie, Houston, TX Alexander Lotsch, New York, NY Ann K. Lowder, Worthington, OH June Lu, Forest Hills, NY Linda Lukes, Binghamton, NY J.P. Mabray, Monroe, LA Edward Mabry, Norfolk, VA Sheila Mackay, Toronto, Canada Susan L. Mackay, Cooperstown, NY Maine State Museum, Augusta, ME Susan Malone, New York, NY Kern Manahan, Mission Viejo, CA Mrs. John Manka,Indianapolis, IN Lauri & Susan Martin, San Pedro,CA Michele Martin, Astoria, NY Marilyn Massey, Denver, CO Mrs. Ruth D. McCauley, Grand Island, NE Margery McCracken, Euclid, OH Michael McCue, Bryn Athyn, PA Blake McKendry, Elginburg, Canada Memorial Art Gallery Library, Rochester, NY Louis Mercado, New York, NY Bill Mercia, South Burlington VT Elizabeth J. Merrin, Fairfield, CT Anne G. Merson, New York, NY Phyllis Milazzo, New York, NY PH. Mildner, Jackson, WY Irene Preston Miller, Croton-on-Hudson, NY Minneapolis Society of Fine Arts, Minneapolis, MN Michael W Mitchell, New York, NY D. Mollenkopf, Mercersburg, PA Sidney H. Monis, Littleton, CO William Mooneyham Inc., Livonia, MI Juliet Moore, South Egremont, MA Ronnie Morgenstein, New York, NY Laura Moseley, Huntington, NY Jean M. Muiznicks, Cranbury, NJ Nancy C. Muller, New London, NH Martin A. Murbach, New York, NY Mrs. Peter G. Murphy, St. Johns, MI Marjorie B. Murray, West Hartford, CT Michael & Gail Musante, Jersey City, NJ

Our Growing Membership

Fran Musso, Venice, CA Ann Myers, Austin, TX Mrs. Talcaro Nara, Harrison, NY Barbara Nashner, Philadelphia, PA National Maritime Historical Society, Croton-on-Hudson, NY National Society of the D.A.R., Washington, DC Janet Neary, Pepper Pike, OH Janet F Neiswenter, Guilderland, NY Mrs. Janet S. Nelson, Milwaukee, WI Ann Newman, London, England Mrs. George Q. Nichols, Lafayette Hill, PA Lucy J. Nielsen, Aurora, CO Susan R. Niles, Brooklyn, NY Shirley Noe, Hudson, OH Janet Southwick Norwood, Woodcliff Lake, NJ Susan & Barry Nova, Greenwich, CT Mrs. Wilma Nuetzman, Flushing, NY

David W Rhodes, White Plains, NY Carla W. Ricci, Lincoln, MA Mrs. Susanne Ridlen, Logansport, IN Mary M. Risei, Fairlake, AL Mary Ann Robertson, Nashville, IN Dr. and Mrs. Eugene W. Robinson, Watertown, NY Linda Rogers, New York, NY Marilyn Rogers, Signal Mountain, TN Sally Rogers, Pomfret, CT A. Rogula, PenningIon, NJ Andrea & David Rosen, New York, NY Mona D. Rowell, Pepperell, MA Sally Ruark, Geneva, IL Rebecca Rubin, Chicago, IL Mimi Russell, New York, NY Joyce Russo, New York, NY Mary Jane Ryburn, Dallas, TX Lynne Rzepecki, North Scituate, RI

Mary W. O'Connor, Ransomville, NY Mr. & Mrs. Arthur E O'Day, New York, NY Stephen O'Donnell, New York, NY Jan Johnson Oddy, Powell, OH Ohio Gallery, Columbus, OH Ann Frederick Oppenheimer, Richmond, VA Nancy Orr, Media, PA Jo Anne Ottoson, Jamestown, NY

James G. Sagris, Pittsfield, MA Mrs. J. Salvatore, Alpine, NJ Ms. Evelyn Samad, New York, NY Pat Sant'Angelo, Edison, NJ Rochelle Schaevitz, Brooklyn, NY Betty Schatzberg, Riverside, CT Philip Scheffler, New York, NY Mary Schlesinger, Cold Spring, NY Nancy Lynn Schlutow, Larchmont, NY Mimi Schneider, New York, NY Mr. Richard W Schneider, New York, NY Beverly Schoninger, Colorado Springs, CO Mariana Schwartz, Yonkers, NY Sylvia Schwartz, Plymouth, MN Laura J. Scott, Cranbury, NJ Sally Scrimgeour, Bethesda, MD Selective Antiques, Sarasota, FL B. Selfe, New York, NY Emily Sendler, Rosemont, PA Kathleen Sheeran, Miami, FL Mrs. Margaret Shengold, Tenafly, NJ Lori Shepard, New York, NY Ruth Shimomura, Woodland, CA Sheila Shively, Boston, MA Irma J. Shore, Katoneh, NY Judy S. Short, Lake Placid, NY Patty Simon, Amherst, NH Claudia Simpson, Ramsey, NJ Mr. & Mrs. A.B. Sims, New York, NY Arlene Singer, Great Neck, NY Mariam Slater, New York, NY Eric Sloane, Santa Fe, NM Anne Small, South Yarmouth, MA Mr. & Mrs. F. Samuel Smith, Darien, CT Linda Joan Smith, Des Moines,IA Pamela Smith, Bristol, VT Linda Solano, Columbia, MD Janet A. Solow, New York, NY Carole Sore11, New York, NY Mrs. Samuel Speyer, New York, NY Nancy L. Stamper, Athens, GA Jane L. Stanley, New York, NY

Drs. LeRoy & Alicia Pagano, Staten Island, NY Tom Patterson, Atlanta, GA Robert Peck, Larchmont, NY Ms. Terry C. Pelster, New York, NY Donna Penyak, New York, NY The Pergams, Omaha, NE Patricia Perito, Harrison, NY Jean M. Perry, Bayport, NY Barbara S. Peskin, New York, NY W. Newcomb Peterson, Mystic, CT Florence Petruchik, Windham, CT Mrs. Desa Philippi, Zug, Switzerland Mrs. Robert H. Phinny, Washington, DC Janet Pinkerton, Portsmouth, NH Pioneer Valley Art Foundation, Longmeadow, MA Alice Playten, New York, NY Irene Polowy, Thomaston, CT Nancy Prevo, Tucson, AZ Dorothy M. Pritchard, Homer, NY Mary Pritchard, Columbus, OH Public Library of Cincinnati, Cincinnatti, OH The Quilt Collector, Napa, CA Caroline C. Ramsay, Washington, DC Joan S. Randall, Mount Vernon, NY Mrs. Ray S. Rausch, Fenton, MI Elizabeth C. Reilly, Hardwick, MA Mrs. John Reilly, New York, NY Andrew Dennis Reis, Bronx, NY Mrs. Bert Reisman, Westport, CT Col. Richard Revie, Galena, MD

Patricia Duffy Stegmaier, Davenport, IA Jean-Sebastien and Laure Stehli, Paris, France Nancy Stein, Mastic Beach, NY Dr. Michael Steinberg, Farmington Hills, MI Randall Ian Stempler, New York, NY Ms. Nancy Sterne, Atlanta, GA Betty Jean Stetson, Corrales, NM Charles G. & Joan Stiefvater, Lititz, PA Dr. Edmund Sullivan, Suffield, CT Ross A. Sussman, Minneapolis, MN William J. Swanson, New York, NY Ms. Denise Velon Sweeney, Poughkeepsie, NY Mr. & Mrs. Robert Tardell, Brooklyn, NY Ada M. Taylor, Louisville, KY Joanna Taylor, Camarillo, CA John K. Taylor, Brooklyn, NY Kathleen Taylor, Gillette, NJ Sandra J. Taylor, New York, NY Tiffany Teeter, Pipersville, PA Brenda Teleen, East Dennis, MA Dr. & Mrs. Luther L. Terry, Philadelphia, PA Mr. & Mrs. David B. Tischler, Brewster, NY Ms. Doris Tobias, New York, NY Maria Tomlinson, Morris Plains, NJ John Tongate, Austin, TX Karen Narpad Tucker, Brookline, MA Vickie Tucker, Houston, TX Judy Tyler, Auburn, ME Diane Ullman, Wheat Ridge, CO Mary-Leslie Ullman, Knoxville, TN Susan Unterberg, New York, NY Valley Stream Union Free School, Valley Stream, NY Mary Ellen Van Buskirk, East Peoria, IL Ronald L. Vent, Harrington Park, NJ Patricia A. Wakefield, Mendon, VT Irving M. Wall, New York, NY D. Ann Wallingford, New York, NY M.C. Walton, Seattle, WA Elmer R. Webster, Dayton, OH Inez S. Weinstein, New York, NY Mrs. Albert Weiss, Deerfield, IL S.T. Weiss, Purchase, NY Elizabeth Wheeler, Chicago, IL Frank G. Whitson, Baltimore, MD M. Wieland, Irvine, CA Betty G. Williams, North Canton, OH Carol M. Wilson, Naples, FL Tom & Nora Wilson, New York, NY Cheryl C. Woods, Eden, NY Sandra Wyngaard, Boulder, CO Dr. & Mrs. C. B. Yeoh, New York, NY Richard Young, M.D., New York, NY Lori Zabar, New York, NY Judy Zerv11, Redding, CA Marianne Zipp, New Rochelle, NY 73

ink and watercolor

Animal Portraits and Fracturs commemorating personal events ( marriages, births, anniversaries, memorials,family trees etc.) By commission. Inquiries welcomed.

Susan Gray oil on wood

Portrait of Katherine

17x 20

42 WEST TWELFTH STREET, N.Y.C. 10 011 (212)675. 2 2 4 3

RESTORATION AND CONSERVATION

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ALPHABET AND LANDSCAPE E. G. Bolt Circa 1760 201/4" x 141/2" $12.00

ON DILIGENCE Ann Martin Circa 1808 20" x 13/ 1 2" $12.00

TELL ME YE KNOWING & DISCERNING FEW Jane Ballard Circa 1799 20" x 111 / 2" $12.00

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HEDGEROW HOUSE Sampler reproductions from the Worcester Art Museum Collection. To place an order enclose check and add $4.00 for shipping. Send for our free color brochure featuring the finest collection ofAmerican folk art reproductions available today. Write or call: Hedgerow House, 230 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10001 (212) 679-2532 75

FOLK ART CHILDREN BYARLENE STRADER

BETSY with red shoes wears a white LITTLE SISTER and her big brother in dress with blue ribbons and lace and sits yellow, golds, dark green, and rust.

16x20 print.. $20 Canvas.. $75 on a stenciled slate/blue floor.

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Portraits done from photos

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me s -1,ncance peaalists HUNTINGTON T. BLOCK INSURANCE 2101 L Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20037 Telephone 202/223-0673 or Toll Free 800/424-8830 Telex 892596

MUSEUM OF AMERICAN FOLKART

Celebrate the opening of our new interim gallery 125 West 55th Street

Give us a gift of membership and we'll give you a gift, too!

With a tax-deductible membership of $100 or more, new or renewing members will receive a stunning, full-color, 146-page hardcover edition of American Folk Art: Expressions of a New Spirit, valued at $29.95. This oversize book highlights over 130 works ofart from the Museum's permanent collection, including the finest examples of American folk paintings, sculpture, painted and decorated furniture, quilts and other folk textiles from the 18th through the 20th centuries, with text by Museum Director, Dr. Robert Bishop. The book received an Award of Merit from the

American Association of Museums 1983 Museum Publication Competition, and is a best seller at the Museum Shop in New York City.

Yes, I want to he part of the celebration!

Please send me a complimentary copy of American Folk Art: Expressions ofa New Spirit.

I enclose a check payable to the Museum of American Folk Art, 49 West 53rd St., New York, NY 10019, in the amount of: CI $100 Benefactor LI $500 Patron $1000 Sponsor El $250 Sustaining

Join the celebration and send in your upper-category membership today. To receive your copy of this outstanding collector's edition, compliments of the Museum of American Folk Art, just enclose this coupon along with your check for $100 or more in the member- Name ship application envelope provided (see Address opposite page). Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery.

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liAltIOIL 1885-1969

Polish-American Folk Painter Exhaustively researched account of the life of a newly-acclaimed folk artist, prepared for the 1984 premiere exhibition of his work at the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center, Williamsburg, Virginia. 72 pages, 26 plates(11 in color)of cheerful, intricately detailed scenes, and comprehensive catalog notes.

Also: Premiere exhibition poster,limited edition, 18" x 24", four-color.

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"After viewing the first edition of The Quilt Digest, one feels that the 1984 offering cannot arrive too soon." — The Indianapolis Star

PENNSYLVANIA CARRIAGE

Black, Dove Gray or Old Yellow Overall Size (excluding handle) 23-1/2" long, 21-1/4" high, 14-1/2" wide $240 ppd One in a select series. Brochure on request.

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8o pages 6o color photographs x s black-and-white photographs and illustrations If you are a quilt lover, you won't want to miss The Quilt Digest. Available in fine antique, quilt, book and museum shops across the country, including: Museum of American Folk Art Book and Gift Shops 55 West 53 Street 610 Fifth Avenue, Rockefeller Promenade New York City or directly from the publisher by using the convenient order form below.

The Quilt Digest 1, our inaugural edition, is still available.

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A WinterDay

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Index to Advertisers

Patricia Adams American Primitive Ames Gallery Marna Anderson Huntington T. Block Bonner's Barn Bettie Carrie Country Manor Antiques Crane Gallery William Doyle Galleries Leslie Eisenberg Martin Ellman Epstein/Powell Ethnographic Arts Farmington Antiques Shows Folk Art Finder S.K. French 80

65 17 64 24 76 2 79 66 22 20 63 67 64 23 61 66 78

Galerie St. Etienne Pie Galinat Gasperi Folk Art Gallery Guernsey's Susan Gray Phyllis Haders Carl Hammer Gallery Hedgerow House Nancy Iliff Antiques Kelter-Malce Jay Johnson R.H. Love Galleries Kenneth and Ida Manko Frank Maresca Steve Miller Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute Museum of American Folk Art

6 78 63 8 74 7 23 75 24 21 80 14 10 9 1 67 77

New York Woodcarving 66 Joy Piscopo 6 The Quilt Digest 79 Ricco-Johnson Inside Front Cover John Keith Russell 15 Schoolhouse Antiques 65 David A. Schorsch Inside Back Cover Christopher Selser 65 A. Strader Folk Art Company 76 Sotheby's 11 Summertime Press 78 Sweet Nellie 12 Woodshed Originals 79 Thomas K. Woodard 4 Wunderlich & Company, Inc. 3 Yolanda Fine Arts 16 Joel and Teresa Zakow 74

An exceptional pair of carved,painted and decorated cherrywood obelisks, New Hampshire, circa 1840. Height 30 inches.

Ranking as masterpieces ofAmerican folk artsculpture, these "whimseys"elevate this "craft" into an art form,

David A.Schorsch South Salem,N.Y. 10590 P.O. Box 413 Telephone: 914-234-9556 By appointment only

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MUSEUM OF AMERICAN FOLK ART 125 WEST 55th STREE'l NEW YORK, N.Y. 10019