Folk Art (Winter 1992/1993)

74382

FRANK J. MIELE gallery A PREVIEW OF WINTER EXHIBITIONS

The Merry Menagerie December 8 through January 3

Larry Zingale: A Retrospective January 5 through February 7

Aritist's Reception Saturday, January 16 3:00 to 5:00 PM

Malcah Zeldis: In Celebration of Honest Abe February 9 through March 14

Artist's Reception and Book Signing Friday, February 12 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM

The Gallery features the work of self-taught American artists of the 20th and 19th centuries.

Tues-Fn 11-6, Sat 10-5, Sun 12-5

1262 Madison Avenue New York, N.Y. 10128 (212) 876-5775

STEVE MILLER • AMERICAN FOLK ART •

"PADDLE STEAMER GREY EAGLE ON THE MISSISSIPPI WITH THE MISSOURI DELEGATION" 19"x 23", watercolor,signed N.Hewil,last quarter ofthe 19th century.

17 East 96th Street, New York, New York 10128 (212) 348-5219 Hours: 2:00 PM. to 6:00 P.M. Tues. through Sat. & By Appointment

AMERICAN • PRIMITIVE • GALLERY 596 Broadway Suite 205 New York, N.Y. 10012 Mon.-Fri. 10-6 Sat.12-6 Aarne Anton

Tina Anton

212-966-1530

Ted Lodwizaks carved his first head while building a stone wall after retirement. This began an environment of stone heads set on a hillside inspired by images of Easter Island. The stone heads will be featured in our January show and at the Outsider Art Fair. ht. 13"

JOEL AND KATE KOPP

AMERICA I-11J RAH 766 MADISON AVENUE NEW YORK NY 10021 tel 212.535.1930 fax 212.249.9718

RARE NAVAJO BI-WING AIRPLANE RUG Mabel Walker Willebrandt was Assistant Attorney General of the United States in the Harding, Coolidge and Hoover administrations. An active prohibitionist, she was drafted by the Christian Party as a candidate for Vice President in 1928.

Upon leaving government service, she entered private law practice. In the early 1930s, she successfully represented Navajo clients in a 125,000 acre land grant suit against the U.S. Government. She was a well-known

aviatrix, and she flew her own plane from Washington, D.C., to the Navajo reservation for the case. This rug was made specifically for her as a gift from her Navajo clients. In addition to the airplane, this weaving includes two stylized monograms of MWW which appear as streaks of lightning.

58" x 431/2," c.1933. Extensive documentation and photographs are also included.

FROM OUR COLLECTION OF ANTIQUE NATIVE AMERICAN ART

JOEL AND KATE KOPP

AMERICA HURRAH 766 MADISON AVENUE NEW YORK NY 1002.1 tel 212.535.1930

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THE JONATHAN AND PHEBE HURD FAMILY REGISTER Accompanying this colorful family register is the following inscription: "This was drawn in Pompey, Onondaga Co. N.Y. by Mr. David Smith, in the year, 1812." Watercolor on paper, 91/2"x 71/2!'

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JOHN HEWSON BLOCK PRINT CENTRAL MEDALLION QUILT John Hewson emigrated to America from England in 1773, and by July of 1774, he had established a calico bleaching and printing business at Gunner's Run, Pennsylvania. Hewson printed and sold squares that were specifically made for quilt centers from the end of the eighteenth century until his retirement in 1810. He is

considered to be America's pioneer textile printer, and quilts with his printed centers are among the rarest and most desired of American bedcovers. This 1790 example is one of fewer than ten surviving quilts with a Hewson block printed center and is in extremely fine condition.

86" x 74"

JOEL AND KATE KOPP

AMERICA HURRAH 766 MADISON AVENUE NEW YORK NY 10021 tel 212.535.1930

fax

212.249.9718

SAILOR'S FOLDOUT VALENTINE Four sailing ships with American flags flying (one ship is identified as the "H.H. Old Maid") decorate this exceptional watercolor on paper.

First quarter of the 19th century, 11" x 11:' decorated and annotated on both sides.

Offering Q.J. Stephenson's Prehistoric creatures

Contemporary art by the self-taught southern hand

By appointment • 174 Rick Road • Milford, NJ 08848 • 908-996-4786 • Fax 908-996-4505 Photos available of works by other OUTSIDER/SELF-TAUGHT artists Visit us at The Outsider Art Fair in New York City • January 30-31, 1993 • Booth 30

AV _TRO A Masterpiece of Southern Folk Pottery Monumental Devil Jug

by Brown Pottery, Arden, North Carolina, circa 1925.

Exhibiting: The Winter Antiques Show, January 23-31, Seventh Regiment Armory, New York City.

Specializing in American Folk Art for the discerning collector.

Fred & Kathryn Giampietro • 203-787-3851 • 1531/2 Bradley St., New Haven, CT 06511

AMERICAN ANTIQUES & QUILTS

Liberty applique table cover,signed and dated 1864.

Made by Persius Bradbury of Norway, Maine.

Wool,27 x 43 inches.

Illustrated: Crib Quilts & OtherSmall Wonders, plate 134.

BLANCHE GREENSTEIN THOMAS K. WOODARD 799 Madison Avenue New York, N.Y. 10021 •(212) 988-2906m

We are always interested in purchasing exceptional quilts Photographs returned promptly. Telephone responses welcome

FOLK ART VOLUME 17, NUMBER 4/ WINTER 1992/93 (FORMERLY THE CLARION)

FEATURES

COVER: Detail ofCHILICAT DANCING BLANKET;Klukwan, Alaska; Wool and cedar bark; approx. 66'across top; Collection of The University Museum, University ofPennsylvania, Philadelphia.

Folk Art is published four times a year by the Museum of American Folk Art, 61 West 62nd Street, NY, NY 10023, Tel. 212/977-7170, Fax 212/977-8134. Prior to Fall 1992, Volume 17, Number 3, Folk Art was published as The Clarion. Annual subscription rate for members is included in membership dues. Copies are mailed to all members. Single copy $5.00.

Published and copyright C 1992 by the Museum of American Folk Art, 61 West 62nd Street, NY, NY 10023. The cover and contents of Folk Art 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.

Folk Art assumes no responsibility for the loss or damage of such materials.

Change of address: Please send both old and new addresses and allow five weeks for change. Advertising: Folk Art 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 or quality of services advertised in its pages or offered for sale by its advertisers, nor can it accept responsiblity 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 offolk 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 Folk Art which illustrate or describe objects that have been exhibited at the Museum within one year of placing an advertisement.

DESIGN AND CULTURAL ANALYSIS OF CHILICAT DANCING BLANKETS Julia Arvin

40

WHAT KIND OF ART IS THIS? JUSTIN McCARTHY AND THE AGE OF OUTSIDERISM Gene Epstein

49

A VISIT TO L'ARACINE: A MUSEUM OF ART BRUT N. E Karlins

57

SELECTED WORKS BY AFRICAN-AMERICAN FOLK ARTISTS: A RECENT INSTALLATION AT THE PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM OF ART Jack L. Lindsey

DEPARTMENTS

EDITOR'S COLUMN

18

BOOK REVIEWS

22

DIRECTOR'S LETTER

25

MINIATURES

28

DEVELOPMENTS

70

TRUSTEES/ADVISORS/DONORS

72

MUSEUM NEWS

78

TRAVELING EXHIBITIONS

86

INDEX TO ADVERTISERS

88

WINTER 1992/93

FOLK ART 11

WOMEN BATHING—Artist unknown, Pennsylvania, circa 1870, oil on canvas, 30 x 50"

CAROL AND GENE RAPPAPORT 105 EAST CHARLOTTE STREET - MILLERSVILLE, PENNSYLVANIA 17551 -717-872-43 59

Exhibiting at Dick and Libby Kramer's HEART OF COUNTRY Antique Show February 25-28, 1993

A

RICCO/MARESCA

Laura Craig McNellis January 21 - March 6, 1993

We are pleased to announce

Untitled, tempera and watercolor on paper, 22"H x 28'/2"W

our representation of the work of Laura Craig McNellis whose paintings are included in the Collection de l'Art Brut, Lausanne, Switzerland.

Untitled, tempera and watercolor on paper, 22"H x 28/ 1 2"W

Gallery hours are Tuesday-Saturday, 11-6

105 HUDSON STREET/ NEW YORK, NY 10013 212-219-2756/FAX•212.431.7996 Untitled, tempera and watercolor on paper, 22"H x 281/2"W

WOODIE LONG, "Jumping on Grandma's Bed" Acrylic on paper 18" x 24".

Other artists include...

MARCIA

WEBER/ART

OBJECTS, INC.

3218 LEXINGTON ROAD • MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA 36106 205/262.5349 ONGOING EXHIBITIONS BY APPOINTMENT

• NEW YORK SHOWING OF WORKS • JANUARY 29, 30, 31.& FEBRUARY 5, 6,7 10 AM UNTIL 4 PM 47-59 NINTH AVENUE(BETWEEN 14TH & 15TH ST.)2ND FLOOR, NYC

Leroy Almon Chuck Crosby Howard Finster Lonnie Holley Clementine Hunter James Harold Jennings M. C. "5c"Jones Calvin Livingston Woodie Long Annie Lucas Charlie Lucas R.A. Miller B. F. Perkins Sarah Rakes Juanita Rogers Bernice Sims Jimmie Lee Sudduth Annie Tolliver Charles Tolliver Mose Tolliver Bill Traylor Derek Webster Myrtice West "Artist Chuckie" Williams

WILLIAM 0. GOLDING 1874-1943

U.S. Brig of War Albatross, 1933 Colored pencil on paper 9 x 11 3/4 inches

William 0. Golding, a self-taught black artist, was born in Savannah, Georgia an January 15, 1874.

Golding worked at sea on vessels ranging from whalers to men-of war, and he traveled "from north to south, east to west and plenty of ports in the seven seas, from England to China, Japan, India, Australia, Africa, West Indies, Central America, South America, around Cape Horn 23 times, Cape of Good Hope 25 or 30 times."

Writing in July, 1933 he continued, "am now old, 59 years old, can't get along as I used to doon a ship, so I have to give up going to sea. Now only goes to sea in my sleep and get among other old shellbacks, swap yarns of old time, is all I can do now."

He was encouraged to draw by the recreational director at the marine hospital in Savannah, where Golding was occasionally confined in the 1920's and 1930's, probably for tuberculosis. Sixty pencil and crayon drawings in vibrant colors resulted.

4WOM:LIZNfoiff.1; %WA:Int:fr.> Yunnan Island, China, 1934 Colored pencil on paper 9 x 12 inches

Janet Fleisher GALLERY

Steamer Altamaha, 1939 Colored pencil on paper 9 x 12 inches

211 South 17th Street matesevanwmArz. 47:411.6itai*.T.Irit*r2.14474

PHILADELPHIA 1 9 1 0 3 (215)545.7562/7589

FOLK ART Rosemary Gabriel, Editor and Publisher Johnson & Simpson, Graphic Designers Mell Cohen,Publications Associate Benjamin J. Boyington, Copy Editor Marilyn Brechner, Advertising Manager Hildegard 0.Vetter, Production Manager Craftsmen Litho, Printers Grid Typographic Services, Inc., Typography MUSEUM OF AMERICAN FOLK ART Dr. Robert Bishop, Director 1977-1991 Administration Gerard C. Wertkin, Director Karen S. Schuster, Director ofMuseum Operations Luanne Cantor, Controller Maryann Warakomski, Assistant Controller Mary Ziegler, Administrative Assistant Sylvia Sinckler, Shop Accountant Jeffrey Grand, Accountant Brent Erdy, Reception Darren McGill, Manager, Mailroom and Maintenance Collections& Exhibitions Stacy C. Hollander, Curator ofCollections/Lore Kann Research Fellow Alice J. Hoffman, Director ofExhibitions Ann-Marie Reilly, Registrar Catherine Fukushima, Director ofthe Eva and Morris Feld Gallery/Director ofPublic Programs Robin A. Richenaker, Gallery Education Assistant Elizabeth V Warren, Consulting Curator Howard Lanser, Consulting Exhibition Designer Departments Beth Bergin, Membership Director Marie S. DiManno,Director ofMuseum Shops Susan Flamm,Public Relations Director Constance J. Collins, Director ofDevelopment Edith C. Wise, Director ofLibrary Services Janey Fire, Photographic Services Chris Cappiello, Membership Associate Catherine Dunworth, Associate Director ofDevelopment Alice J. Hoffman, Director ofLicensing and Product Development Programs Barbara W. Cate, Director, Folk Art Institute Lee Kogan,Assistant Director, Folk Art Institute/Senior Research Fellow Phyllis A. Tepper, Registrar, Folk Art InstitutelDirector, New York State Quilt Project Dr. Marilynn Karp, Director, New York University Master's and Ph.D. Program in Folk Art Studies Dr. Judith Reiter Weissman, Coordinator, New York University Program Cathy Rasmussen,Director ofSpecial Projects Eugene P Sheehy, Museum Bibliographer Arlene Hochman, Coordinator, Docent Programs Howard P Fertig, Chairman, Friends Committee Katie Cochran, Coordinator, Fall Antiques Show

SQUAW CIGAR STORE INDIAN, C. 1860-1880 Attributed to Samuel Robb Painted wood and plaster Height 67" including original plinth base Ex Haffenreffer collection

SPLENDID PEASANTE ANTIQUE,

MARTIN JACOBS COUNTRY• FOLK ART• PAINT

ROUTE 23

SO. EGREMONT,MASS.01258

413-528-5755

Museum Shop Staff Managers: Dorothy Gargiulo, Caroline Hohenrath, Rita Pollitt; Mail Order: Beverly McCarthy; Coordinator: Diana Robertson; Volunteers: Marie Anderson, Claudia Andrade, Laura Aswad, Judy Baker, Olive Bates, Catherine Barreto, Marsha Becker, Ben Bienvenido, Jennifer Bigelow, Frances Burton, Evelyn Chugerman, Ann Coppinger, Sally Elfant, Millie Gladstone, Elli Gordon,Inge Graff, Cyndi Gruber,Edith Gusoff,Lynne Hellman, Elizabeth Howe, Bonnie Hunt, Eileen lea', Annette Levande, Arleen Luden, Katie McAuliffe, Laura McCormick,Nancy Mayer,Joseph Minus, Theresa Naglack, Pat Pancer, Marie Peluso, Frances Rojack, Phyllis Selnick, Lorraine Seubert, Myra Shaskan, Denise Siracusa, Lola Silvergleid, Blair Sorrel, Maxine Spiegel, Doris Stack-Green, Sonya Stern, Mary Wamsley, Marian Whitley, Doris Wolfson.

Museum of American Folk Art Book and Gift Shops 62 West 50th Street, New York, NY 10112-1507 212/247-5611 Two Lincoln Square(Columbus Avenue between 65th and 66th) New York,NY 10023-0214 212/496-2966

1111 WINTER 1992/93 FOLK ART

SEEALRE4DY -% POSSESSES

Dwight Mackintosh,(Two women), 1988. mixed media

MI

paper. 15" x 22"

bi\fi44,,"0-1;c\ ANITAV-4q

Donald Walker,(Man and bird), 1992, oil pastel on paper, 22" x 30"

Introducing Dwight Mackintosh, A.G. Rizzoli,and Donald Walker Exhibiting at Sanford Smith's

Outsider Art Fair [naive • self-taught • visionary • intuitive • outsider • art nut] The Puck Building, New York, NY January 30 Se 31, 1993 Preview January 29 and at

11SArt Fort Mason Center, San Francisco, CA February 5-7, 1993 Preview February 4

RirfAlli. Gi17i ill Thritke Symbolically liepresenled. 1935. colored ink on paper, 34" x 12"

A ES GAL ERY () ANIE ICAN

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2661 Cedar Street Berkeley, California 94708 510/845-4949 Bonnie Grossman Director We specialize in exceptional 19th and 20th Century handmade objects. Our extensive inventory includes quilts. carved canes, and tramp art.

Also naive, outsider, and visionary art.

EDITOR'S

SOUTHERN ANTIQUES SYMPOSIUM

DISCOVERIES IN c7

ROSEMARY GABRIEL

A Premiere Event ofthe HEART OF COUNTRY ANTIQUES SHOW Opryland Hotel Nashville, Tennessee February 23,24, 25

urtesy of: Camden Archives and Museum, SC

e an eyewitness to history as you learn ofthe newest discoveries about America's decorative heritage in the South.

Experts reveal the latest information about southern furniture, pottery textiles, art and metalwork & give guidelines for attributing and collecting. Target Feb. 23-25 for this exciting antiques event that gives you the cutting edge.

The SOUTHERN ANTIQUES SYMPOSIUM includes: ✓ Two day lecture series featuring new information from prominent authorities.

•Candlelight reception 8c tour ofTennessee State Museum's fine Southern collections.

•Festive Southern Supper in the home of a noted Tennessee furniture connoisseur.

•The famous Heart ofCountry Preview Party and Antiques Show •A behind-the-scenes, early bird walking tour ofthe show with a team offour outstanding collectors.

King Haigler Iron weathervane ofCatawba chiefby J.B Mathieu, SC, 1826 FOR FREE BROCHURE WITH ALL DETAILS To find out how to attend the Southern Antiques Symposium, Call or write: Richard E. Kramer & Associates 427 Midvale Avenue St. Louis, MO 63130 314/862-1091

NAME ADDRESS CITY STATE

HEART OF COUNTRY ANTIQUES SHOW

18 WINTER 1992/93 FOLK ART

ith the promise of a stronger economy for 1993 and interest rates still quite low, collectors are again starting to collect in earnest, generating a new excitement in the possibility of an upturning market. We at Folk Art can feel the upturn through the increase in our advertising pages, the recent success of the Fall Antiques Show at the Pier, and the anticipation of the upcoming Outsider Art Fair in New York. What we are impressed with most is the diversity of the art being shown and the interest—and sometimes controversy—it has generated. It is our aim to address that diversity in the pages of Folk Art. Our lead story, Design and Cultural Analysis ofChilkat Dancing Blankets, by Julia Arvin,focuses on the historical, cultural, and technical aspects of a fascinating and beautiful Pacific Northwest NativeAmerican art form. For this essay, Ms. Arvin received the first Susan B. Ernst American Textile Award, which is given biennially by the Museum of American Folk Art. I know you will find it as interesting, informative, and compelling as our judges did.

We are also featuring two essays on outsider and Art Brut expressions. The first, What Kind ofArt is This? by Gene Epstein, is a provocative and very personal exploration of outsider art. In his article, Epstein asks us to consider that "it may take outsider characteristics to appreciate outsider art" and uses Justin McCarthy's work and life to illustrate what he calls "outsiderism." The second, A Visit to Dtracine,

by N.E Karlins, is an account of her recent trip to a museum near Paris devoted to Art Brat. ICarlins recounts her conversations with Madeleine Lommel and Michel Nedjar, two of the museum's founders, and discusses the works of some of the artists represented.

Our final article, Selected Works by African-American Folk Artists: A RecentInstallation at the Philadelphia Museum ofArt, by Jack L. Lindsey, discusses his museum's "branching out" to include early nineteenth-century African-American folk artists. Featured in the exhibition and this essay are three exquisite Face Vessels, circa 1860-1870, attributed to Thomas Davies Potteries, Edgefield, South Carolina, and an intricately crafted Alligator box, carved by William Meyers(1827-1879)of Philadelphia.

Our Spring issue will cover our upcoming exhibition Bob Bishop: A Life in Folk Art; Trustee Cyril I. Nelson will be writing on Bishop's scope and influence in the folk art field and on his championing of quilts and quilt collecting. We will also highlight the many exciting exhibits and programs scheduled for The Great American Quilt Festival 4, sponsored by the Museum.

I would like to take a moment to thank the donors to the Susan B. Ernst American Textile Award Program and Alastair B. Martin, Bruce and Karen Ellsweig, Mary Mhoon Walker and James Perry Walker, and George and Sue Viener for contributing the necessary funds for additional color in this issue. Until March then, I would like to extend to you the best wishes of the Folk Art staff and the entire Museum for a delightful holiday season and a happy, healthy New Year!

1111

B

COLUMN

Robert Cargo

FOLK ART GALLERY Southern,Folk,and African-American Quilts Contemporary Folk Art R.A. Miller Minnie Adkins Emma Lee Moss Garland Adkins Rev. Benjamin F. Perkins Leroy Almon Roger Rice Linvel Barker Sandra Rice Jerry Brown Royal Robertson Richard Burnside Sulton Rogers Jerry Coker Ferdinand Roy Raymond Coins Jack Savitsky Calvin Cooper Inez Shell Burgess Dulaney Bernice Sims Sybil Gibson Herbert Singleton John and Larry Gilley Mary T. Smith Ralph Griffin Robert E. Smith Joseph Hardin Georgia Speller Rev. Herman Hayes Henry Speller Lonnie Holley Jimmie Lee Sudduth Rev.J.L. Hunter Sarah Mary Taylor M.G."Five-Cent" Jones Son Ford Thomas S.L. Jones Mose Tolliver Charley Kinney Inez Nathaniel Walker Junior Lewis Derek Webster Charlie Lucas Fred Webster Sam Martin Yvonne Wells Willie Massey Chuckie Williams Thomas May Jeff Williams Carl McKenzie

In addition to works by these artists, the gallery carries an extensive stock of antique quilts, including museum-quality pieces, as well as a large, carefully selected and constantly changing group of contemporary African-American quilts and Haitian voodoo flags.

2314 Sixth Street, Downtown,Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35401 • Home phone 205-758-8884 Open weekends only and by appointment•Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday 2 to 5 p.m.

MARTHAJACKSON Specializing in 19th and Early 20th Century Quilts

Exhibiting: Holiday Antique Show, Wilton, Connecticut, December 6, 1992 and White Plains, New York Antique Show, January 8-10, 1993

Formerly of Riverside, CT and Main Street Cellar, New Canaan, CT Vermont in-house showroom,By Appointment

P.O. Box 430 Middlebury, Vermont 05753 (802)462-3152

CONTEMPORARY FOLK ART

Sybil Gibscrrt

FROM THE DEEP SOUTH

ANTON HAARDT GALLERY 1220 SOUTH HULL STREET U MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA 36104 (205) 263-5494 U FAX (205) 264-9241

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Business Week The New Yorker The New York Times The Village Voice True American Folk Art Guaranteed to be as described

36 West, 44th Street New York, NY 10036 (212) 391-0688 VISA, MASTERCARD, AMEX ACCEPTED

0(900 cl)

22 WINTER 1992/93 FOLK ART

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REVIEWS

Ralph Earl: The Face of the Young Republic Catalog of the exhibition by Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser, with Richard L. Bushman, Stephen H. Kornhauser, and Aileen Ribeiro.

Published by Yale University Press, Hartford, CT, 1991 $60.00 hardcover $34.95 softcover

They're here!

RARE DUCK & FISH DECOYS

ci.e.DIPOJGDOct.1,

BOOK

020

Every once in a while a book is published that adds an important chapter to art history. Elizabeth Kornhauser's fine book on the eighteenth-century artist Ralph Earl provides information that is absolutely new and vital to our larger understanding of American portraiture and patronage.

From now on, no professor or author will be able to say that little is known about Ralph Earl.

I assure you that in my American Art courses Earl has won new stature, giving the Copley-PealeTrumbull-Stuart group a run for their money. I, in the tiny precincts of my classroom, have become an authority on Ralph Earl, and no one there is any the wiser that it is due in part to this wonderful book.

Ralph Earl left little paperwork behind; the only existing documents include his Loyalist Claim of 1778, a 1784 letter to a friend, and a newly found letter from 1795. The only nineteenthcentury biography, William Dunlap's History ofthe Rise and Progress ofthe Arts ofDesign in the United States, formerly the primary authority, is brief and unreliable. With the publication of this book, we finally have an extensive and reliable source. Dr. Kornhauser not only analyzes the physical evidence of Earl's ample ouevre, but gives serious attention to locale, patrons, and contemporary artists working in the same region. In addition, Richard

L. Bushman, professor of American history at Columbia University, has included a chapter on portraiture and society in lateeighteenth-century Connecticut; Stephen H. Kornhauser, chief conservator at the Wadsworth Atheneum, has written a chapter on the artist's working methods and materials; and finally, in the catalog of 74 paintings, Aileen Ribeiro, head of the History of Dress Department at the Courtauld Institute of Art, has added notes on costume to Dr. Kornhauser's entries.

Ralph Earl was once one of the most elusive figures in American art history, but that was ante-Kornhauser. While Ralph Earl is the centerpiece of this book, it is far more than a monograph; included is an astonishing amount of information about the early republic, rural societies, costumes as an indication of status, and the tools and techniques of the painter. The following four extracts, by E. Kornhauser, Bushman, S. Kornhauser, and Ribeiro, respectively, are from this new and important study: Earl was among the debtors who were imprisoned in New York after the evacuation ofthe British. With the help of the Societyfor the ReliefofDistressed Debtors he received many sitters inside the prison walls and was able to make good his debts. That indebtedness was only one of his majorfailings, to which we must add bigamy, disloyalty to his native country, and alcoholism, all of which add up to the compelling story ofone of America's most fascinating artists.

Sixty-nine ofEarl's one hundred Connecticut portraits werefor sittersfrom small towns along the

WILTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY

ELIJAH BOARDMAN Ralph Earl Oil on canvas, 83 x 51 The Metropolitan Museum of Art, bequest of Susan W.Tyler, 1979

begins with the white dresses worn until the age ofthree orfour; at which time boys were "breeched" into "skeleton suits" which buttoned together at the waist, and finally the step to adult clothing at the age ofeight to ten. Much attention is given to women's hair styles and headdresses as a clue to distinguishing earlier portraits with theirfrizzed and powdered stylesfrom later portraits with their looser curls and naturallycolored hair, but it is clearly noted that at all times "straight hair was anathema."

Ralph Earl: The Face of the Young Republic was published in conjunction with a major exhibition of the same name.

When it opened in November of 1991 at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. there emerged previously unknown correspondence between the painter and his patron, Elijah Boardman, documents which added important additional information, exact and implicit, about Earl and Boardman. Kornhauser is a catalyst—her work is already spawning more discoveries—and her book is a triumph of scholarly research written with scrupulous illusEarl's working methods and mate- art-historical concern and color state-of-the-art with trated rials reveal thatfor his elitist of reminded am I photographs. cool smooth, clients he adopted emperor the about told story the white primings, butfor his New Vespasian who said, as he lay England clients he often reverted his deathbed, "I believe I on to the mid-century darker grounds about to become a god." am conservative more with keeping in Kornhauser could well have Dr. taste. It is noted that during his as she sent her final draft said, itinerant years in New England University Press, "I think Yale to never hisfabric supports were I am about to become a footnote." more than a yard wide, thus —Barbara Cate larger portraits were pieced with a pressed-open seam on the reverse.

Barbara Cate is Professor ofArt History at Seton Hall University and The reader may readily adapt the Director ofthe Folk Art Institute of the costume notes to all ofthe porMuseum ofAmerican Folk Art. traits ofthe period. For example, the distinction in what boys wear

Connecticut River rather thanfor his more sophisticated clients. Dr. Kornhauser previously indicated that Earl adopted a morefolk art approach to theformer and a morefashionable approach to the latter(a mostjudicious and important distinction). Bushman then analyzes "what did the demandfor portraits in smaller towns mean?" Therefollows a determination of the stature and the wealth ofthe sitters by such assessable luxuries asfireplaces (which are rated byfour different categories), watches and carriages.

ANNUAL ANTIQUES SHOW

26

MARCH 13 & 14, 1993 SATURDAY 10 to 5 & SUNDAY 11 to 5 ADMISSION $7.00

WILTON HIGH SCHOOL FIELD HOUSE ROUTE 7 WILTON CONNECTICUT EARLY BUYING AND CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST SATURDAY 8:30 - 10:00 am ADMISSION $25.00 This distinguished and comprehensive event features American country (including Shaker) and period formal furniture of the 18th and 19th centuries shown by some of America's finest dealers.

In addition, it offers appropriate period decorative accessories, with an emphasis on fine ceramics, textiles, fine art, a strong representation of folk art; also prints, rare maps, early glass, jewelry and silver of the American Arts & Crafts Movement.

One of the most highly regarded shows in New England, it offers quality and variety at a range of prices. It has been planned to appeal to both the advanced collector and novices in the field and is extremely popular with dealers. It is easy to reach and offers ample parking and food services.

Wilton High School is 5.5 miles north of the Merritt Parkway, 8 miles north of 1-95 and 12 miles south of 1-84, 50 miles from New York City and within walking distance of Cannondale station on the Metro North rail line.

For additional information about the show or overnight accommodations, call the Wilton Historical Society at 203 762-7257.

MANAGED BY MARILYN GOULD

WINTER 1992:93 FOLK ART 23

Pair of Blue Heron Decoys, New England, circa 1870.

Carved wood with original blue paint.

Height 28 and 31 inches.

The only other known comparable pair of blue herons are owned by the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, Rochester, New York, illustrated in Jean Lipman and Alice Winchester, The Flowering ofAmerican Folk Art, p. 169.

DAVID A. SCI-ICORSCH J-Iwo/I/taxa/la .

30 EAST 76TH STREET, NEW YORK, NY 10021 212-439-6100

LETTER

FROM

THE

DIRECTOR

ew developments at the Museum of American Folk Art during the last decade have been as satisfying as the organization of the Museum library under the superb professional direction of Edith Croft Wise. The charter granted to the Museum in 1961 by the Board of Regents of the New York State Education Department mandated the creation of a museum, library, and educational center dedicated to the American folk arts. Despite two decades of earnest effort by Museum volunteers, among them the highly regarded costume expert Millia Davenport Harkavy, the library remained an unfulfilled objective until Edith Wise joined the staff in 1983.

Mrs. Wise came to the Museum after a distinguished career in libraries here and in Latin America spanning almost sixty years. Her vitality, creativity, and youthful determination to see the job done at a time in life when many prefer retirement provided the Museum with the needed incentive. With Mrs. Wise on board, the Museum developed the resources required to support her efforts. Generous grants to the library from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Larsen Fund, and Dorothy and Leo Rabkin, among others, enabled the Museum to retain Mrs. Wise's services on a professional basis, and the work of acquisition and cataloging was begun.

Edith Wise and!used to laugh about her initial request following as a Museum shop volunteer. She asked for"a corner of a table stint her and a budget of $1,000:' Within a year, the Museum's library budget reached a level of many times this modest request. What began as a small collection of about 800 volumes now consists of 10,000 books and pamphlets and thousands of auction catalogs, periodicals, and other materials. Professional librarians who have visited the Museum's library have commented upon its excellent organization and cataloging. Indeed, there was universal praise for the library when the members of ARLIS, the professional organization of art librarians, held their meeting in the Museum's library several months ago.

As an admiring colleague and friend, I received notice of Mrs. Wise's recent retirement with a heavy heart. She asked that no special fuss be made over her departure and reminded me that she refused to allow New York University to arrange a banquet in her honor at the time of her retirement as Head of Reference there earlier in her career. I was delighted, however, when she relented and allowed us to thank her in an appropriate manner. On October 10, 1992, the Museum's trustees, staff, and friends joined together at New York's American Festival Cafe to pay tribute to Edith Croft Wise. Among the special guests present were librarians who had offered their services to the Museum at Mrs. Wise's invitation over the years, including Eugene Sheehy, retired Head Reference Librarian, Butler Library at Columbia University; Rita Keckeissen, Reference Librarian at Columbia University; Linda LoSchiavo, Director, Fotrlham University Library at Lincoln Center; Joseph LoSchiavo, formerly of Fordham and now Director of the Sylvia and Danny Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College; June Griffith, Librarian of the Lehigh Historical Society, Allentown, Pennsylvania; and Emily Nixon, retired Librarian at the Bobst Library, New York University and City College, a longtime friend of Mrs. Wise who brought her expertise to bear on the

F

MICHAEL FRANCESE

GERARD C. WERTKIN

Edith Croft Wise

cataloging of foreign titles and other technically difficult materials.

These good friends, whose contributions through the years I am pleased to acknowledge with deep thanks,joined us in warmly saluting Edith Wise. It was a fitting tribute and a lovely evening.

Even as she accepted the accolades of those present, Mrs. Wise characteristically referred to the future and to the library's continued needs. In an age marked by a revolution in information retrieval, the Museum's library remains uncomputerized and without the benefits of the latest technologies. For traditionalists such as myself, this may be refreshing, but Mrs. Wise emphasized the necessity of these technologies to the continued excellence of the library. She always has been an eloquent and forceful advocate for the library, and this evening was no exception. To the delight of the entire Museum family, Mrs. Wise has agreed to be an occasional consultant for us. As Consulting Librarian she will help ensure the future of the library that bears the impress of almost ten years of her dedication. Several friends have generously donated to the Museum's library in Edith Wise's honor. I invite all members and friends of the Museum to join in this important effort (see list of donors on page 76).

Recent contributions to the fund in memory of Daniel Cowin from Mrs. Sylvia Josephs Berger, Mr. and Mrs. Frederick M. Danziger, Mr. and Mrs. David T. Green, Mr. and Mrs. Leonard S. Gruenberg, Jr., and Mr. and Mrs. Robert Schaffner are gratefully acknowledged, as well as contributions from Ronald J. Gard and Phyllis Selnick to the fund in memory of Robert Bishop.

These remarks are being written approximately nine months after my appointment as Director of the Museum of American Folk Art. I have been overwhelmed by the extent of the caring commitment of the Museum's members and friends. American folk art has a profoundly important role to play in the cultural life of our nation. Thank you all for your recognition of the significance of the Museum's mission and your generosity in helping it to realize its goals.

WINTER 1992/93 FOLK ART 2$

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FOLK ART

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MINIATURES

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Scranton Area Folk Artist

New York City's largest, most exciting selection of antique quilts, coverlets, hooked rugs, paisley shawls, Indian blankets, linens, vintage decorative objects and American folk art.

WHAT A CRAZY YEAR!

John Peernock's World: American Memories, Ethics and Beliefs, an exhibition of paintings by the 80year-old American folk artist, can be seen at the Everhart Museum in Scranton, Pennsylvania from November 8, 1992 through January 10, 1993. Born to Ukrainian immigrant parents, Peernock spent his life working in the anthracite mines and in the fruit and produce business. Although untrained in art, he began to paint

in his retirement, drawing on vivid memories of northeastern Pennsylvania and his strong beliefs, which are rooted in his Ukrainian Catholic heritage. The exhibition is curated by Suzanne Shawe, a student of the Folk Art Institute of the Museum of American Folk Art.

MY MOTHER WASHING CLOTHES John Peernock Pennsylvania,1989 Oil on canvas board 18 x 21'

Tennessee Aquarium窶認olk Life Wall

Applique. flowers and pieced blocks in a remarkable crazy quilt from an incredible collection of Victorian silks.

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Manhattan Art&Antiques Center The Nation's Largest and Finest Antiques Center.

104 Galleries Featuring Furniture, Silver, Jewelry,Oriental and Other Objets d'Art

2/ WINTER 1992/93 FOLK ART

1050 Second Ave. at 56th St New York, NY 10022 (212)355.4400 Open Daily 1030-6,Sun.12-6.

Convenient Parking.

Open to the Public.

The Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga, Tennessee is the first major freshwater life center to explore the rarely observed world of the Tennessee River and other great river systems. The 130,000-square-foot Aquarium, which rises to the height of a twelve-story building,contains more than 4,000 living specimens.

Those visiting the Tennessee Aquarium with fish solely on their minds will be in for a big surprise. Individual folk art exhibitions will accompany the aquatic exhibits, and a fine collection of fish-related Appalachian folk art known as the Folk Life

Wall provides a whimsical end to the Aquarium tour. Some of the region's premier folk artists whose works are on display are Jerry Brown, Rev. Howard Finster, Homer Green, Bessie Harvey, Joe Light, Woodie Long, Charlie Lucas, R.A. Miller, J.L. Nipper, Rev. B.E Perkins, Frank Pickle, Vanoy Streeter, Sarah M. Taylor, Annie Tolliver, Jimmy Tolliver, and Fred Webster. For additional information contact Brooks Folk Art at 615/265-2760.

is

la a ta 1 Shown working on the quilt gia

Mother Africa's Children, designed by Roland L.

JUSTIN McCARTHY

In. Freeman, are quiltmakers 1 Gertrude Braun, Vivian a Olt; Hoban, Joyce Nixon, and Viola Canady.

Exhibition Showcases African-American Quilters The Museum of the American Quilter's Society announces the opening of an exhibition featuring forty quilts crafted by African Americans. The exhibit More Than Just Something to Keep You Warm, a cross-section of

traditional and contemporary quilts, will be on display through February 23, 1993 at the MAQS, 216 Jefferson Street, Paducah, Kentucky. For more information, call 502/442-8856.

"Eleanor Parker", crayon and pencil on paper, 12"x9", exact date unknown

Outsider Artists Represented Bill Traylor's granddaughters Margaret Staffney and Myrtha Delks.

Eddie Arning Loy "Rhinestone Cowboy" Bowlin Leon Box, deceased Powell"Glassman" Darmafall Justin McCarthy, deceased Ike Morgan Continually Representing Johnson Antonio Johnny Banks Ned Cartledge Patrick Davis Mamie Deschillie

Bill Trayloes Descendants Located On June 16, 1992, Margaret Traylor Staffney, granddaughter of the artist Bill Traylor, and her niece Antoinette Staffney Beeks visited the Leon Loard Gallery in Montgomery, Alabama in search of information about their relative. The unexpected visit was

prompted by a newspaper article that appeared in the Montgomery Advertiser, Spring 1991, quoting Marcia Weber,formerly of the Leon Loard Gallery. In the article, Ms. Weber spoke of her search for descendants of Bill Traylor. The whereabouts of living family members of this renowned

"Uncle Pete" Drgac Bessie Harvey Naomi Polk Rev. Johnnie Swearingen Derek Webster among others

(LESLIE MUTH GALLERY Contemporary American Folk Art 225 East de Vargas St. Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 (505) 989-4620

WINTER 1992/93 FOLK ART 2111

MINIATURES

Continued contemporary folk artist were previously unknown.

On the weekend of August 7, 1992, Miriam Fowler, Gallery Director of the Alabama Arts Council; Marcia Weber of Art Objects, Inc., Montgomery, Alabama; and Luise Ross of the Luise Ross Gallery in New York attended a Traylor family reunion in Atlanta, Georgia. At the reunion, two granddaughters shared reminiscences, and one

Descendants

recalled that when Traylor became too old and sick to remain on Monroe Street, Montgomery, where he was known to have lived, he moved first to Bell Street, then moved again, to 314 Bragg Street, Montgomery, to be cared for by his daughter, Sarah. Research is in progress to verify Traylor family claims that the artist's death occurred in 1949, not 1947, as previously documented.

Cane Carver "Mike/Orion" Identified An unknown major cane carver whose work was featured in the Museum of American Folk Art's recent exhibition Step Lively: The Art of the Folk Cane and in George Meyer's accompanying book, American Folk Art Canes: Personal Sculpture (Sandringham Press, Bloomfield Hills, Mich., 1992), has been identified. The carver, referred to as "Mike/ Orion" because these words appear on many of his canes, was in fact Michael Cribbins, who was born in Ireland in 1839 and died in Orion, Michigan in 1917.

Cribbins fought in the Civil War,

and in his later years worked as a photographer. His canes are prized by collectors for their highly imaginative carving and the integration of Civil War, animal, and other motifs with diamond willow wood. George Meyer, who has been actively trying to identify the carver for years, first learned Cribbins' name when a telephone caller told him he had seen a picture of a "Mike/Orion" cane in a story about Meyer's collection and that he was the great-great grandson of "Mike/Orion."

Michael Cribbins (left) and his brothers, circa 1895. Photo courtesy of the descendants of Michael Cribbins.

30 WINTER 1992/93 FOLK ART

Horacio Valdez 1929-1992 Horacio Valdez, one of the finest carvers in New Mexico, died on August 16, 1992 at his home in Apodaca, a village just east of Dixon. A carpenter by trade, Valdez became a santero(a creator of religious images) in the mid-1970s after he sustained a near-fatal injury at the Nambe Dam project where he was employed. He crushed his right hand and was unable to return to his former trade. "I couldn't hold a hammer?' he said, "but I could whittle."

Fine examples of his carving skills are his Penitenteinspired death carts (the Brotherhood of the Penitentes is a religious group in the Southwest), one of which was shown at the

Museum of American Folk Art in the 1990 exhibition The Cutting Edge. Valdez carvings were also exhibited at the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, the Taylor Museum in Colorado Springs, and the Albuquerque Museum. Valdez is included in the 1990 Museum ofAmerican Folk Art Encyclopedia of TwentiethCentury American Folk Art and Artists, by Chuck and Jan Rosenak.

Morton Riddle 1909-1992 Morton Riddle, a California carver of articulated dolls, clock cases, and small objects, died after suffering a heart attack on August 22, 1992. A retired watchmaker, Riddle learned to carve as a child by observing folk craftsmen in the small mining town of Peastick, Kentucky, where he was born.

In the late 1970s, Riddle was discovered by Liz Blackman, the owner of Outside-in, an art gallery in Hollywood, California (now in Los Angeles). Riddle's woodcarvings were included in two West Coast exhibitions: Pioneers in Paradise (1984) and

Cat and Ball on a Waterfall (1986). Riddle is included in the 1990 Museum ofAmerican Folk Art Encyclopedia of TwentiethCentury American Folk Art and Artists, by Chuck and Jan Rosenak. He is survived by his wife, Florence, and his children and grandchildren. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Lee Kogan

Correction: Through an oversight, there was a misspelling in the Miniatures Column of the Summer 1992 issue of The Clarion. The artist's name in the caption for San Francisco to NY in One Hour should have been Alex A. Maldonado, not A. Maldonaldo.

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Rex Clawson

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Victor Joseph Gatto (Estate) Reverend Hunter James Harold Jennings

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Emma Lee Moses

Justin McCarthy

Peter Minchell

Inez Nathaniel

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Max Romain

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Mose Tolliver

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George Williams

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SAM MCMillAN R. A. MILLER MATFiE LOU O'KEllEy REV. B. F. PERkirgs DANIEL PRESSLEy Robou Robunq PROpkET ROyAl RObERISON JUANITA ROCIERS NELLIE MAE ROWE 0. L SamuEls J. P. Scan HERbERT SiNCATON RObERT E. Smirli 0.1. STEpEliENSON JIMMIE LEE SuddErh WILLIE TARVER SON TkOMAS MOSE TOLLIVER TERRY TURREll HERbERT WAITERS DEREk WEbSTER Wilk Whim

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0

. 1992 John L. Marion. principal auctioneer, *52472

A fine pieced and appliqued cotton Adam and Eve Quilt, possibly Southern, late 19th/early 20th Century,87 in by 88 in. (2.21 m. by 2.24 m.)

Auction estimate: $60,000-80,000

Adam and Eve discover the birds and the bees.

Adam and Eve frolic beneath the apple tree, while a myriad of animals, birds, and butterflies - if not bees - celebrate their joyful union.

This quilt is a highlight in our Fine Americana auction.

Auction: January 28-30, 10:15 a.m. and 2:15 p.m. each day. Exhibition: OpensJanuary 23 Illustrated catalogues are available at our offices and galleries worldwide. To order with a credit card, please call (800)444-3709.

Inquiries: Nancy Druckman at (212)606-7225, Sotheby's, 1334 York Avenue, New York, NY 10021

SOTHEBY'S FOUNDED 1744 THE WORLD'S LEADING FINE ART AUCTION HOUSE a

a

THE TARTT GALLERY

The Carpenter and his helper, acrylic on paper, 1991, 23 X 19"

Feeding time, acrylic on attist board, 1990, 24 X 30"

GENE BEECHER 2017 QUE STREET NW

WASHINGTON, D.C.

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DOUBLE

1,GALLERY

M AMERICAN FOLK ART/VINTAGE DESIGN•

318 North La Cienega Boulevard Los Angeles, CA 90048 310/652-5990

PHOTO:SUSAN EINSTEIN

ARTICULATED PULL TOY Wood Carving 20" H Early 20th Century

We Specialize in Unusual American Folk Art Gallery Hours: Wednesday — Saturday 12:00-6:00

RARE HORSE WEATHERVANE Very unusual solid cast iron horse weathervane with excellent old red painted surface.

Circa 1880. Found in Maine. Length 30.

This beautiful form in cast iron was previously unknown to us.

H

errup &Wolfner 12 East 86th St., New York, N.Y. 10028 • (212) 737-9051

íA ,12,

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Important American Furniture, Silver, Prints, Folk Art and Decorative Arts Auction to be held Saturday,January 23 at 10 am and 2 pm in our galleries at 502 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10022. Viewing is January 16 through January 22.

For further information please contactJohn Hays, Susan Kleckner orJohanna McBrien at 212/546-1181.

For catalogues telephone 718/784-1480.

An unusual carved and painted wood figure, American, late 19th century, 243/4 inches high. Estimate: $4,000-6,000

CHRISTIE'S

Art From The Heart.

From the Red Piano collection of work by Sam Doyle, J.T. McCord, B.F. Perkins and Calvin Black. See these and other selections at the OUTSIDER ART FAIR Booth 14D.

Call for more information.

(800)972-2034

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)05 fa WILL eF TRUE R TMEKE KE 1HoSE

mo TRUST ME

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Three Locations: 220 Cordillo Parkway, Hilton Head Is., SC The Westin Resort at Port Royal Plantation, Hilton Head Is., SC Highway 21, St. Helena's Island, SC Louanne LaRoche, Director

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UTE STEBICH

GALLERY 104 Main Street Lenox, MA 01240 Tel (413) 637-3566

VERY FINE FOLK ART FROM AROUND THE WORLD

Visit us at The Outsider Art Fair in New York City • January 30-31 • Booth B-27•

36

WINTER 1992/93 FOLK ART

Shelly Zegart • Fine quilts bought and sold • Lectures • Exhibits • Appraisals For offices and corporate spaces.

For city and country settings.

For collecting.

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By appointment.

SADDLEBRED HORSE. Pieced quilt; Kentucky; c. 1900; cotton, 82 x 78"

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RICHARD D. HAZEL AMERICAN FOLK ARTIST Richard D. Hazel invites you to visit his studio in historic and picturesque Warren County, New Jersey.

As a self-taught master of the hand-painted surface, his works have been placed in many prestigious collections. Each piece is signed and documented with a certificate of authenticity.

SPECIAL EXHIBITION Recently completed pieces by the artist now on view and available

RICHARD D. HAZEL 14:s.

atterp 1775

Route 31 & Quarry Road, P.O. Box 253, Oxford, New Jersey 07863 â&#x20AC;˘(908)453-3762 Hand-painted cabinet with marble top, 33"1. x 16"cl. x 281/2"h.

19,111MA.(,0`,41141R-4V1, '41 sa.

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AMISH CRIB QUILTS DAVID WHEATCROFT

/

220 E. MAIN WESTBOROUGH, MA 01581 (508) 366-1723 44'

:1 Roman Stripes Variation, Holmes County, Ohio, Circa 1920

Mary T Smith • Ruth Mae McCrane • Mose T. & Annie T • Bill Traylor • Thornton Dial • Willie White • Singleton Jimmie Lee Sudduth • Bernice Sims • Royal Robertson • B. F. Perkins • Clementine Hunter • Roy Ferdinand Artist Chuckie • Virgil Perry • Fred Webster • Sybil Gibson • Buzz Busby • Reginald Mitchell

Bourbon Street

Reginald Mitchell acrylic on artist board 14" x 19"

225 SOUTH DECATUR STREET MONTGOMERY,AL 36104 205 834-5544 • 263-5970

BY APPOINTMENT

Selma March - 3/65 Bernice Sims acrylic on canvas 16" x 20"

BARRISTER'S GALLERY 526 ROYAL STREET NEW ORLEANS, LA 70130 504 525-2767

WINTER 1992/93 FOLK ART

39

DESIGN C AND CULTURAL ANALYSIS OF

hilkat Dancing

40

WINTER 1992/93

FOLK ART

n the realm of native weaving, the Alaskan coast Chilkat dancing blanket has few rivals. Woven of strong, soft mountain goat hair and tough cedar bark, the blanket is a masterpiece of design and structure. It is the child born of the dramatic painted totemic designs and the weft-twined and braided basket structure native to the area. Chilkat weaving challenges the viewer to rearrange his or her preconceived ideas of space, proportion, and relativity.

The term Chilkat dancing blanket is a double misnomer bestowed by European traders in the late nineteenth century to give the garment promotional value. The "blanket" is not a blanket at all, but a ceremonial garment worn like a robe or cloak. Its weaving was not restricted to the Chilkat band of the Tlingit Indians,1 but also involved the Tongass and Stikine Tlingit bands, as well as the Tsimshian Indians.2 Since the examples studied for this paper were woven by Tlingit women,this analysis will focus on Tlingit society.

The Chilkat blanket, called Nakheen by the Tlingit and gus-halai't by the Tsimshian,3 has a prominent position in the legends of these peoples. The early twentieth-century collector Lieutenant George Emmons recorded several divergent stories on how they came to weave Nakheen. One story describes how a Tsimshian girl became possessed by the painted walls of her home; the figures on the wall inspired her to weave an apron. When completed,the apron embodied the painted figured designs.4 Another legend tells of a chief's daughter who married the sea spirit Gonaqadet.

To honor her new husband, the woman wove a totemic garment that narrated the story of their marriage. Gonaqadet gave the robe to Raven, who took it to man to unweave and reweave, thereby learning the secret of Nakheen.5 Louis Shotridge, a full-blooded Tlingit, who worked for the University of Pennsylvania's University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology for twenty years, relays a different account of the origin of the Chilkat blanket, free of supernatural forces. Shotridge states that "At the beginning of the foreign influence upon our land,"6 a Tsimshian chief, Kuhe-gu,intercepted a box of rare berries intended as a gift for his rival, the Haida chief Weha. Kuhe-gu stated as he gulped the berries, "Ha, if only Weha could see me now.

Methinks the old greasy face would swallow hard."7 In the conflict that ensued, valuables were placed with the neutral Chilkat Tlingit for safekeeping. Among these artifacts was a beaver apron, the forerunner of the full blanket. This, Shotridge explains, was the Chillcat's first exposure to the skill of weaving totemic design, and led to the creation and popularization of Nakheen.

The Chilkat blanket evolved into its present form during the late eighteenth century. The explorers La Perouse, Ismailov, and Bocharov visited the Tlingit in the 1780s and noted "woolen clothes of their manufacture," but did not mention totemic designs, while sketches from this period show the all-wool nobility robes with geometric designs interspersed with tassels.8 It could be that, in accordance with Tlingit legend, the dancing blankets existed as early as this time, but were used only in ceremonies not viewed by white men. It is generally thought that the plain bark robes from the south and the geometric wool robes from the north combined with the Tlingit and Tsimshian

I

Blankets JULIA ARVIN

CHILKAT DANCING BLANKET Weftâ&#x20AC;˘twined weaving Klukwan, Alaska Wool and cedar bark Approx. 66"across top Collected by George Gordon in 1905.

Collection of The University Museum, University of Pennsylvania NA1285, Neg. #T35321 The use of the blue color in this blanket suggests that this is a late example of Chilkat weaving.

WINTER 1992/93 FOLK ART 41

A Chilkat dancing blanket on the loom. Note that the weavTwo Chilkat dancers wearing

ing proceeds from the top

alternative costumes to the

down and that the pattern is

dancing blanket. One wears a

depicted on the wooden

tunic with painted designs, the

pattern board.

other a tunic and leggings that feature the applied design of a beaver,

northwest style of painting and twined basketry to evolve into the Chilkat dance blanket.(The beaver apron, with its similar totemic design, was an intermediary step, although it ceased to be woven in the early 1800s.) In 1827 or 1828 the Russian artist Pavel Mikhailov, assigned by the Russian Academy of Arts to the naval ship Moller, observed and documented a classic Chilkat blanket, so apparently, the blankets were fully developed by this time.9 The Chilkat blankets chosen for this analysis belong to the collection of the University of Pennsylvania's University Museum. Typical examples, these blankets are fivesided textiles measuring approximately 66" across the top, 24" down each side, and 32" on each of the sloping bottom edges. In addition, these blankets are adorned with 24" fringe on the bottom.

The Chilkat dancing blanket is formed using a complex combination of several weaving techniques. The base structure is a tapestry textile made of two sets of paired elements interlacing in two-strand weft twining. Each weft engages in a half twist between each warp pair. The warp pair is then encased between the two wefts. Weft twining, as described by Irene Emery, occurs when "each twining element passes alternately over and under successive elements of the opposite set as it twines about its companion element." m The blanket utilizes compact weft twining, wherein the wefts are packed so that the warp is hidden, resulting in a weft-faced textile.

The design of the robe is achieved through the tapestry structure. The descriptive term tapestry refers to a weave in which individual weft yarns do not span the entire width of the textile; instead, various wefts travel back and

42 WINTER 1992/93 FOLK ART

forth within a specific area to produce a localized field of color or texture. Even the solid horizontal bands, where it appears that the wefts continue across the width of the textile, are the result oftapestry techniques. Tapestry weave can be further identified as slit, dovetail, or interlock, according to the structure of the textile at the point where two discontinuous wefts meet. The Chilkat blanket contains slit and interlock joins, as well as a variation on dovetailing called a drawstring join. Slit tapestry is the term given when the wefts within each area share no warps with wefts in horizontally adjacent areas; each weft turns back on the last warp within its own colored area. Interlock tapestry occurs when a weft from one area links with a weft from a horizontally adjoining area in the space between the warp boundaries. A drawstring join is a dovetail join that uses a discontinuous warp inserted only for the length of the join; wefts from two side-to-side design fields turn back on this inserted warp, or drawstring.

The various joins are concealed by a series of threestrand braids that lie on top of the textile. Although integrated into the weaving, these braided wefts are independent of the ground wefts, allowing them to be manipulated so that a single braid can travel vertically and horizontally on the face of the textile.

The undyed warp is formed through the spinning of white mountain goat wool and cedar bark. The mountain goat was believed to be a magical animal, because, as it blended with the snow, it seemed to appear and disappear while being suspended among the rocky ledges. By using the wool of this goat, the weaver hoped that some of these powers would be incorporated into the blanket and could

Victoria, British Columbia, PN urtesy of the Royal British Columbia

DANCE LEGGINGS Klukwan, Alaska Collected by George Gordon in 1905.

Collection of The University Museum, University of Pennsylvania A Kitwanga chief wears a

NA 1284, Neg. #T35322

Chilkat dancing blanket accompanied by a traditional

These leggings were made

dance outfit of leggings,

from pieces of Chilkat

rattle, and headdress of

blankets distributed at a pot-

ermine, sea lion whiskers,

latch; they were worn on the

and abalone headpiece.

shins so that the small flap covered the top of the foot.

then be used by the wearer. The warp spinning was done by hand, without the use of a spindle, in a method called thighspinning. Two loose lengths of fibers on a core of wet cedar bark were held in the left hand and pressed against the thigh with the right palm. The fibers were twisted into two yarns in the "S" direction by rolling the right hand down the thigh. The right hand was then rolled back up the thigh so that the two yarns combined to form a two-ply yarn with a "Z" twist. Aurel Krause of the Geographic Society of Bremen observed this method in the mid-nineteenth century: "The spinner rests on her knees, takes a bit of wool from the pile at her left and rolls with her right hand on her bare right thigh into a thread of the desired thickness."'

The warp ends form the fringe, and an additional layer of fringe is attached.

Spun down the calf with the use of a spindle, the weft, although it contains no cedar bark and is slightly thinner than the wrap, also becomes a "Z" twist yarn of two "S" twist singles. The weft was dyed seagreen, yellowgreen, black, or, rarely, red, as well as sometimes being left white. Because the weft does not always travel perpendicular to the warp, but frequently slants to accommodate the angle of the design, the wrap is sometimes distorted, causing gaps; in these cases, the weaver must add extra wraps, a few inches long, to preserve the evenness of the weave.

The side selvages are folded strips of oblique interlacing, to which a short fringe is attached. The most common manifestation ofoblique interlacing is the three-strand braid, but here up to forty-eight strands were used. The bottom of the side braids are finished with a signature pattern unique to each weaver, called the tie-off. This was

the only place where the weaver was allowed to incorporate her own design.

Chilkat blankets were designed by men and woven by women,although sometimes the design Was based on an inspirational dream of the weaver's translated by the designer. The pattern for the center section and one side was painted onto a full-size wooden board, to which the weaver referred during weaving; the side not shown on the pattern board was a mirror image of this design.

Weft twining has been called finger weaving because each pair of wefts must be separately interlaced between each pair of warps due to the twining action. This meant that an upright loom without a bottom crossbar was used, since the formation of a shed was not necessary and shuttles and heddles were not used. The warps were attached to the top bar and allowed to hang freely, precut in a curved pattern, to outline the hem of the finished robe. The weaving was done from top to bottom. Krause observed, "The weaving of the blanket is done without a loom. From a round stick which rests on two uprights of nicely carved wood, the warps hang straight down and are gathered in small bundles into animal bladder bags."12 Livingston Jones, a missionary, discussed the weaving of a Chilkat blanket in 1914: The pattern is always totemic; on the best blankets it bears the head of the trout(squatz). It is painted on a board from three to four feet long and two and a half feet wide. The weaving is done on a frame about five feet long and three feet wide, but the blankets are of different sizes. The weaver sits in front of the frame

WINTER 1992/93 FOLK ART 43

Susan B. Ernst American Textile Award he Museum of American Folk Art is pleased to sponsor an important program to promote research in the field of American textiles. The first Susan B. Ernst American Textile Award was announced in September 1991. The award, established by Margot and John Ernst in memory of his mother, carries a cash prize of $1,000 and is given biennially to the best previously unpublished research paper on any aspect of American textiles.

A call for submissions was published in this magazine and mailed to textile museums, textile schools, quilting groups, and historical societies around the country.

The entries were reviewed by a panel comprised of Mimi Sherman, curator of the Old Merchant's House in New York City, Folk Art Institute Fellow and candidate for a Master's Degree in Textile Studies from the Fashion Institute of Technology; Elizabeth Warren, the Museum's Consulting Curator; Dr. Judith Weissman, Associate Professor of Art, New York University; and

T

selected members of the Museum staff and its Board of Trustees.

We are pleased to announce that the 1992 Award has been won by Julia Arvin for her paper Design and Analysis of Chi/kat Dancing Blankets. Ms. Arvin's paper combines a detailed analysis of the Chi!kat weaving technique with an insightful examination of the highly sophisticated culture that gave birth to this unique textile form.

Papers are now being accepted for the 1994 Susan B. Ernst American Textile Award. Submissions of up to 5,000 words in length will be accepted until September 1, 1994. For further information concerning the Award, please write to the Department of Public Programs, Museum of American Folk Art, Two Lincoln Square, New York, NY 10023.

This program, established at the Museum of American Folk Art in memory of Susan B. Ernst, has been made possible through the generosity of the following donors:

Elinor Arnason

Alexandra Ernst and Dean Siegel

Julian Bach

Mr. and Mrs. John Ernst and family

Mr. and Mrs. Sylvan Barnett

Mr. and Mrs. Mathew Ernst

Lyman G. Bloomingdale

John Fletcher

The Samuel J. Bloomingdale

Mrs. Robert Gordon

Foundation

Eleanor Rossbach

Mrs. Arthur Cowen

Dan W.Sicher

Mr. and Mrs. Edgar M. Cullman

Mrs. Samuel Sicher

and family Mr. and Mrs. Frederick M. Danziger and family Cornelia and Timothy Eland

44 WINTER 1992/93 FOLK ART

with her pattern at one side where she can readily see it as she weaves....The patterns are faultlessly woven into the blanket, entirely by eye, a feat requiring nice skill. We have watched the weaver by the hour as she deftly wove her yarns in to this artistic fabric, and wondered how she could follow the design so accurately just by glancing at the pattern board.I3 Perhaps the most puzzling aspect of Nakheen to outside cultures is the totemic design concept and the artistic convention of dismembering bodies and manipulating them to fit a given design space. The animals depicted are dissected into their basic parts and rearranged, often being shown in profile and frontal views at the same time, or split down the middle and shown flat. Each body part is sometimes seen as an entire entity within itself, and the figures are frequently overlapped or interlocked. So unfamiliar is this to those whose view is informed by traditional classical form that many outsiders never see the distorted figures. To the untutored observer, the designs may seem chaotic and disjointed, while to the Pacific coast native, who abandons or has abandoned the formal constraints of space and relativity, the designs are an obvious outgrowth of his culture.

Louis Shotridge defended the northwest motifs in this way: "All of these [design examples] display sufficient evidence of a well-developed aesthetic sense in the mind ofthe native artist; instantly it becomes evident that the taste for ornamentation here is not rudimentary."I4 Because there is no set picture-language, the same figure can be represented in a variety of ways; each animal, however, does have specific symbols associated with it. The ethnologist Franz Boas wrote: "The artist is allowed wide latitude in the selection ofthe form ofthe animal. Whatever its form may be, as long as the recognized symbols are present, its identity is established."15 These symbols often consist of a part of or something related to a face, and only the symbol is necessary for the entire figure to be perceived. For instance, a long tongue signifies the bear, a hooked beak the hawk, and the labret(an ornament worn in a perforation of the lip) the shark. This convention is carried throughout northwest coast art, in every medium; woodcarvings, paintings, and the famous totem poles all follow the same formula, and the figures are always created in low- or high-relief.

The first step to understanding the designs on Nakheen is to realize that it is the thick, black, curved outlines, not the smaller interior shapes, that form the design. Also, the form of the interior shapes does not necessarily correspond with their function in the design;for example, a face shape does not mean that that motif is the face of the animal being depicted. To the Tlingit the head and face are the most important part of a being. Therefore, the face motif is repeated wherever the artist wishes to convey a sense of significance. Claws, however, are always feet, and "U" shapes designate muscles, while rounded shapes denote joints.I6 All joints are depicted as ball-andsocket joints because, according to Emmons, this type of joint attributes vitality, movement, intelligence, and skill to these areas of the body.

Typically, a Chilkat blanket features a central figure with two identical smaller figures on each side, although

CHILKAT DANCING BLANKET Weft-twined weaving Date and place of origin unknown Wool and cedar bark Approx. 66"across top Collection of The University Museum, University of Pennsylvania Accessioned in 1948 (48-19-1) Neg.#135320 The totemic design concept is clearly displayed in this example.

some blankets display only one animal. The colors used are representative ofthe Tlingit priorities: black for the crow,or raven, moiety; yellow for the eagle moiety; and white for the mountain goat.17 Specific colors are always used for the same shapes and in the same relation to each other; a thorough knowledge of the guidelines of the art was required to know which colors were acceptable for each area. The pattern boards were painted only in black.

To fully appreciate the significance of the blankets' designs, it is essential for the viewer to understand the importance of totemism to the Tlingit. A person's totem, somewhat like an elaborate monogram or heraldic crest, defines his or her identity in relation to all other people and animals. Tlingit society is divided into two moieties, or lineages: Raven and Eagle(or Wolf in the southern regions).

Each side is further divided into distantly related clans, such as Killer Whale and Grizzly Bear, and further still into family houses, such as the Mountain house and the Shark house. Each individual's spouse must be of the opposite moiety, and children always belong to the mother's side.18 According to Jones, totemism "is the foundation of their entire social structure."19 It is a common misconception that the totemic figures contain religious significance. Early ethnologists contend that the natives would claim the totems were idols in order to avoid revealing their true meanings. Jones wrote:

If a white man shows much eagerness to learn about [totems] they [the Tlingit] will almost invariably, especially if they are not well acquainted with him, refuse to talk about them, or tell him some nonsense both to mislead him and that they may smile at his credulity. Because totems consist of carved images, some declare them to be idols. They were never regarded as such, so far as we have been able to learn, by the native....The totem poles of the natives of Alaska, while bearing images of creatures, were never erected to represent any imaginary deity or god. Nor were they ever worshipped. They are highly revered because they carried the tribal emblem.20 Shotridge firmly stated that the totem figures carried the significance offamily identity only, and were in no way worshiped or representative of god figures.2t Although the clan may have gained its identity from a legendary encounter with mythical or real beings, "the totemic animal crest, however, was the secular momento of a similar supernatural encounter, inherited as the emblem of a kin group."22 Among the Tlingit, Nakheen is an extremely prized and valuable possession. The honor of wearing a dancing blanket must be inherited, and both men and women are eligible for this legacy. Because of the great amount of time

WINTER 1992/93 FOLK ART 45

and the high level of skill required to create a dancing blanket, the Nakheen became an important symbol of rank and wealth within the Tlingit society, for both the maker and the wearer. Jones noted that "men of wealth, that is, those possessing many blankets, trunks, and dancing paraphernalia such as masks, hats, dancing robes, etc., are very highly esteemed."23 In an ultimate show of conspicuous consumption, a blanket was nailed to the outside of the burial house of a Tlingit chief and left to disintegrate. The blanket had four prevailing uses: to be worn during the dance, to be distributed as a potlatch gift, to act as a burial shroud, and to serve as a trade item.

The primary function of Nakheen was to complete the dancing costume of its owner. Shotridge explained that "The purpose of the blanket was that of a ceremonial robe.

Its great value, then, placed it beyond the reach of all but the man of wealth, and it became a necessary part of a chief's possession."24 The most coveted dancing outfit for the Alaskan coast cultures was comprised of totemic garments, but partial ensembles were more frequent. A complete costume, in addition to Nakheen, would include leggings, ears, bag, cartridge pouch, hat, and apron or tunic, all in the totemic patterns. The brilliant focal point of the dance was Nakheen; the blanket was worn around the shoulders and tied at the chest, the long fringe almost touching the floor. The English translation of Nakheen is "fringe about the body," and nowhere was this more evident than in the dance.25 Another important function of the blanket was to serve as a potlatch gift. The potlatch was a complicated gift-giving ceremony usually given by a chief in order to validate his rank among his people â&#x20AC;&#x201D;that is, his privilege to erect a totem pole, display a crest, or possess a nameâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and to preserve the rights of his clan, such as claims to hunting grounds and water sources. These privileges were inherited, but became validated only by the giving of a potlatch. The guests at a potlatch were always ofa different totem than the host. The acceptance of the gifts by the opposite moiety was an acknowledgement of the host's rights. The potlatch also was a means of returning favors and debts and of honoring the dead. In Tlingit society any gift or favor was returned with an act several times its value.

The luxury of giving gifts established the host as a wealthy man; the greater the gift, the greater his wealth, and, subsequently, his social prestige. The potlatch was initially an object of much misunderstanding and mocking by many scholars, who saw it as perpetuating poverty and materialism, as a chief would impoverish his clan in order to overwhelm and humiliate his rival by showering him with more gifts than he could return.(The same object could not be used as part of a return potlatch gift.) In defense of his culture, an elderly chiefexplained the precious nature ofthe potlatch to the Tlingit in 1980: If we did not perform the potlatch, we would have lost our Tlingit culture [kusteeyi, or "way of life"] a long time ago. This is what is holding up our Tlingit culture: the money that we bring out and the ceremonies that we conduct. Our past is sacred and there is no price tag on it. That is why we make such an effort to earn this money and then give it to our in-

46 WINTER 1992/93 FOLK ART

The interior of the Klukwan Whale House. Note the extensive use of totemic design on the carved wooden panels and posts and the painted tunics and beaver apron.

WINTER 1992/93

FOLK ART 47

orical Photograph Collection. Winter and Pond. PCA 87-11

laws who help us in times of sorrow. This is what is keeping our Tlingit culture alive. Many things stem from our Tlingit culture and our [potlatch] ceremonies. Love for each other stems from it. Respect for each other stems from it. That is why it is so close to our hearts.26 To be able to give an object as valuable as a Chilkat blanket established the host as immensely powerful. Giving a Chilkat blanket was on a level equal with giving a slave.27 Additionally, Gonaqadet, the sea spirit, was the token spirit of the potlatch. Since in one version of the legend it was Gonaqadet who gave the Chilkat blanket to the people, the blanket was an especially appropriate potlach gift.28 If the host was unable to give entire blankets, one or two blankets were cut into strips and the pieces distributed. These shreds were made into tunics, shirts, leggings, and other smaller items. Matching patterns were not a priority for the "potlatch garments," as the cloth itself gave value to the item into which these strips were incorporated.

Unlike most heraldic items, the dancing blanket was not communally owned, but was the private property of the wearer. Therefore it could be given away, sold, or traded.29 Although always traded among other tribes, by the end of the nineteenth century the Chilkat blanket had become a commercial item for the Tlingits to trade with Russians and Americans.30 Jones noted in 1914 that whites would pay up to $175 for a Chilkat dancing blanket.31 In June of this year, a Chilkat blanket was sold at Sotheby's for $22,000.* Acknowledgments: The author would like to thank The University Museum of the University of Pennsylvania for the unselfish access to its collections and archives while researching this paper.

Julia Arvin received her Bachelor ofScience degreefrom the Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science and is currently working on a Master ofArts in costume and textile museum studies at the Fashion Institute of Technology.

NOTES 1 Tlingit is pronounced "Thleen-git" and also spelled Thlinget, G-tinkit, S-chinkit, Chtlingit, Chlingit, Thlinkith, and Thlinkithen; the Russians use the spellings Kaljusch, Kalosch, and Kolosch.

2 Also spelled Chimmesyan or Tsimpshean.

3 George T. Emmons,"The Chilkat Blanket," with notes on the blanket designs by Franz Boas, Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History Vol III, Part IV (New York: American Museum of Natural History, 1907); also Called na-xe-n and nahaen in Louis Shotridge, "Notes on the Origin of the Ceremonial Robes Called Chilkat Blanket," in "Expedition and Field Records: North America and Arctic, Louis Shotridge Collection," box 2 "Indexed Ethnographic Research Card File," The University Museum Archives, the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, p. 4; also called dschenu in Aurel Krause, The Tlingit Indians, trans. Erna Gunther (Seattle: University of Washington Press for the American Ethnological Society, 1956).

4 Emmons, op. cit., pp. 345-346.

5 Mid, pp. 329-330.

6 Shotridge, "Notes on the Origin...," p.5.

7 Ibid. p. 12.

48

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8 Frederica de Laguna, Under Mount Saint Elias; The History of the Yakutat Tlingit(Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1972), p. 431.

9 William W. Fitzhugh and Aron Crowell, Crossroads of Continents: Cultures of Siberia and Alaska (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1988), p. 60.

10 Irene Emery, The Primary Structure of Fabrics: an Illustrated Classification (Washington, D.C.: The Textile Museum, 1980), p. 196.

11 Krause, op. cit., p. 139.

12 Ibid.

13 Livingston Jones, A Study ofthe Thlingets ofAlaska(New York: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1914), pp. 77-78.

14 Louis Shotridge, "The Emblems of Tlingit Culture," in "Expedition and Field Records: North America and Arctic, Louis Shotridge Collection," box 1, folder 9, The University Museum Archives, the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, p. 1.

15 Franz Boas, Primitive Art(Oslo: H. Aschehoug & Co., 1927), p. 217.

16 Daphne Swingle, "Totems in Tapestry," Handweaver and Craftsman, Spring 1971, p. 5.

17 Jones, op. cit., p. 77.

18 See John Swanton's Social Conditions, Beliefs, and Linguistic Relationships of the Tlingit Indians for a full listing of side, clan, and house names and relationships.

19 Jones, op. cit., p. 171.

20 Ibid. pp. 168-169.

21 Louis Shotridge and Florence Shotridge, "Indians of the Northwest," The Museum Journal, University of Pennsylvania, 4:3 (1913).

22 Fitzhugh and Crowell, Crossroads of Continents: Cultures of Siberia and Alaska, p. 274.

23 Jones, op. cit., p. 61.

24 Shotridge "Notes on the Origin..." p. 24.

25 Emmons, op. cit., p. 329.

26 Sergei Kan, Symbolic Immortality: The Tlingit Potlatch of the Nineteenth Century (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1989), p. 302.

27 Ibid. p. 238.

28 Ibid. p. 144.

29 Ibid. pp. 130-131.

30 Kalvero Oberg, The Social Economy of the Tlingit Indian, (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1973) p. 107.

31 Jones, A Study ofthe Thlingets ofAlaska, p. 77.

FURTHER READING Gunther, Erna. Indian Life on the Northwest Coast of North America as Seen by Early Explorers and Fur Traders during the Last Decades of the Eighteenth Century. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1972.

Krause, Aurel. The Tlingit Indians: Results ofa Trip to the Northwest Coast of America and Bering Straits. Translated by Erna Gunther and with an introduction by Arthur Krause. Jena, Germany, 1885. Publisher unknown.

Samuel, Cheryl. The Chilkat Dance Blanket. Seattle: Pacific Search Press, 1982.

What kind of art th-s?

Justin McCarthy and the Age of Outsiderism GENE EPSTEIN

THE LAST SUPPER C. 1960 Oil on board 24 x 36" Private collection

It may take outsider characteristics to appreciate outsider art.

WINTER 1992/93

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49

he classification of nonmainstream art as outsider art, a term first used by Roger Cardinal,is as inclusive as any I know. Outsider implies no subjective description of the art, nor does it divide artists into further special categories. Under this umbrella, the viewer is most able to see this art in its nakedness without the often misleading cover of such terms as folk, naive, primitive, brut, and insaneâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;terms that tend to lend a negative connotation.

Equally misleading are visionary and intuitive, terms meant to imply approval, but which can apply to all art. I favor outsider, because once agreed on, it enables one to avoid an intricate, tentative, and in the end, inconclusive discussion about nomenclature and concentrate instead on the art.

Only one outsider artist, Henri Rousseau, has been accepted into the

T

SIX SWIMMERS 1921 Mixed media on paper 22 x 28" Private collection

... outsider art can be found anywhere, be created by anyone, and offer as much aesthetic intensity as any kind of art.

mainstream. We know this not only because of the reverence with which his work is displayed at the Museum of Modern Art, but because longaccepted language identifying him as the first of the modern primitives is conspicuously avoided in the museum's catalog of his 1985 exhibition. While it is conceded that Rousseau is "selftaught" the classification preferred by William Rubin and Carolyn Lanchner is clearly surrealist.

Such classic American outsiders as Pippin, Kane, Sullivan, Hirshfield, Moses, Lebduska, Gatto, and others, no matter how respected, must wait their turns for equal acceptance. Still, when one considers that Rousseau's work was first collected as an example of what we now call kitsch by a turn-of-the-century Parisian connoisseur, it is remarkable that this transformation has occurred at all. If

50

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Photography by D. James Dee except page 5;

WINTER 1992/93 FOLK ART 51

VEGETABLES c. 1962 Oil on board 22 x 36" Private collection

BELLE BENNETT (MOVIE STAR) c. 1933 Mixed media on paper 8x10" Private collection

52 WINTER 1992/93 FOLK ART

FOUR LADIES IN RED c. 1964 Oil on board 24x 36" Strauser collection

Rousseau's mainstream contemporaries(especially the surrealists) hadn't taken so freely from his work, thus making it appear that he was one of them, he would undoubtedly have remained who he was—an outsider.

Whatever his current classification, Rousseau's phenomenal effect on the history of twentieth-century art is not to be ignored. Since his emergence into the light it has become increasingly evident that outsider art can be found anywhere, be created by anyone, and offer as much aesthetic intensity as any kind of art. With this expanded vision has come the means for those whom we now call outsiders to have their work taken seriously; before Rousseau, they probably had no such chance. Today, an artist can be untrained, lacking in dexterity, emotionally disabled, even legally blind, yet still be recognized and rewarded for artistic excellence.

There may be no better way to

understand this progression than to search for art in thrift shops, flea markets, and yard sales.' There, amid the dental irrigators, stuffed animals, and coffee mugs, you're on your own—as are the unknown artists whose works are haphazardly offered. But if you search long enough, and are fortunate, you'll not only find something worth keeping, you'll also develop an eye that will enable you to recognize excellence in other unlikely places—in backyards, down dirt roads, in senior citizen centers, in homeless shelters—in short, wherever someone, however "unqualified," decides to be graphically expressive.

That there are collectors who are more than willing to make this kind of search is also an expression of outsiderism. Like the artists whose works they seek, these collectors have an inclination to ignore the recommended road and go off on their own. It is as if outsiderism is a characteristic shared

by those who make the art with those who look for it. To me, this is not so much a revelation as a gradual realization of an obvious truth within myself and, I suspect, other collectors. This awareness comes after many years of intimate exposure to this kind of art— first looking (in thrift shops), then collecting, then dealing, and finally, writing about it, all without any formal art education or particular goal. I merely liked what I saw, continued to look for and live with it, and found that the relationship had become permanent.

Sympathetic vibrations are undoubtedly part of my attitude toward the work of Justin McCarthy (18911977), but I also feel he illustrates the attraction that any outsider artist can exercise, that is, the ability to create the kind of art that speaks to the viewer with great emotional directness. This is art that, in my experience, does not condescend or intimidate (it can frighten) or mislead. The mind's eye is

WINTER 1992/93 FOLK ART 53

PARAMOUNT BREAKER ECKLEY, PA MOLLY MAGUIRES 1965 Oil on board 24 x 24" Collection of Mickey Cartin

not overwhelmed by technique or presentation.

There's another kind of comprehension that takes place when!look at successful outsider art, a feeling that is significantly different from viewing mainstream art. I believe that in many cases one is looking at the attempt by those who in some way lack fluency to describe or perhaps to construct their lives' missing parts through their work.

This is not to imply a connection between misfortune or disability on the one hand and talent on the other, or to suggest that all outsider artists share any single characteristic relative to their work. However, it does seem to me that outsider artists bring their identities into their work in a way that

54 WINTER 1992/93 FOLK ART

is more candid and uncalculated than their mainstream counterparts.

McCarthy's large and widely known body of work, created over a lifetime, exemplifies this process very well.

McCarthy's biography by N.E Karlins2 reads like a tragicomic screenplay and reveals him to be a person incapable of living up to normal social expectations. He was an oddly behaved firstborn child who, because of his failings, was blatantly disliked and ignored by his dashing father, whose suicide followed the loss of his fortune in the 1907 panic and the death of his favored second son. Justin's mother, left with little money, scraped up enough to send her son to law school, but he couldn't pass the

second-year exams and did not return to his studies. His odd behavior intensified and he was admitted into a Pennsylvania state mental hospital, where he was kept for five years, apparently diagnosed as schizophrenic.

After his release, McCarthy couldn't keep even the simplest job and, though not uneducated, became a peddler of produce and liniment in his hometown, Weatherly, Pennsylvania.

World War II enabled him to find steady employment for the first time in his life. He worked at Bethlehem Steel as a helper on the second shift, but on VJ Day was promptly dismissed.

Later, he took a job as an aide at the mental hospital where he'd previously been a patient. He was dismissed from

THREE BIRDS c. 1967 Oil on Formica 8 x 35" Private collection

BOB MATHIAS DECATHLON CHAMPION 1952 OLYMPICS 1952 Pen and watercolor on paper 8010 Private collection

WINTER 1992/93 FOLK ART 58

that position as well, and went back to peddling and living a shabby recluse's life in the decaying family mansion.

Pitied and helped by some, ignored and avoided by others, McCarthy might have died unnoticed and unmourned had it not been for the fact that all this time he had been creating a body of work for which, late in life, he was finally recognized.

Appropriately, it was another artist, Dorothy Strauser, who discovered McCarthy. She and her husband, Sterling Strauser, an artist and a collector, took an intense interest in McCarthy and his work. Until then, McCarthy had been drawing and painting on whatever surfaces he could find —formica sink cutouts, for instance— that were handy, or inexpensive, or useless for any other purpose. He treated the finished works irreverently— folding them, stacking them atop one another, leaving them exposed to leaky roofs, unheated rooms, and vermin as To see many McCarthy paintings at once is to have the color come suddenly swirling out at you, as if your eye has suddenly gone from halfshut to fully open. he gradually retreated to the mansion's former servants' quarters. His attempts at exhibiting his own work were inept —he would hang paintings on fences by pounding nails through them, or he would lay them out on lawns. His prices were unexpectedly high, and sales were seldom consummated.

With the Strausers' assistance, however, he entered the market that exists for his kind of art —that of the outsider. Now McCarthy's paintings and drawings have become part of well-known collections, are exhibited in respected museums, and are reproduced in books.3 He has achieved a reputation that transcends the ineffectual image he presented to the world for most of his life and is accepted as one of the century's most important outsider artists.

SI WINTER 1992/93 FOLK ART

Unsurprisingly, McCarthy's outsiderism remains ever-present in his work. There, it is evident that the subject, be it face or hand or foot or animal, was drawn by someone who could not draw skillfully or create a recognizable likeness, who found it difficult to concentrate on details and who sometimes was unable to see a work through to its finish. And McCarthy's subjects, like the self-aggrandizing fantasies he interjected into his everyday conversation, hover between who he was and who he thought he could become. His biographer relates how, when he painted biblical and historical figures, or celebrities, he assumed their identities—he became the inventor or originator of the pastimes he depicted, such as baseball or hockey. Yet, however unreal these imaginings were in McCarthy's everyday life, there is something actual and permanent on the surfaces that he used for his work.

His movie stars and socialites and athletes, while identifiable only by the names he drew on their portraits, have an essential charm and grace even in repose. His figures, both animal and human, have movement and an inner familiarity with form that goes beyond dexterity.

McCarthy's oils and acrylics look as if they were done without reflection or restraint, spontaneously and, in some instances, carelessly or incompletely laid down, yet the effect is of a sure hand. To see many McCarthy paintings at once is to have the color come suddenly swirling out at you, as if your eye has suddenly gone from half-shut to fully open. In 1985, standing in the middle of the main exhibit room of the Allentown Museum, which was given over entirely to McCarthy's work, I experienced such a moment. I had the same sensation in 1964, while standing in a roomful of Van Goghs at the then recently opened Guggenheim Museum.

This sudden burst of intensity, of nothing withheld, is another widely shared outsider characteristic. In McCarthy's case, it compensates for many technical shortcomings, which not only tend to get brushed aside, but have the further effect of arousing the viewer's sense of creativity. Is, for instance, the painting not quite finished? I'll finish it for him in my mind.

Is, say, an eyebrow missing or a limb out of place? I'm ready to correct that mentally. It's a kind of partnership, with the viewer becoming part of the process. I find myself able to look into myselffor what isn't altogether there — and see it. This adds to the attraction, which is there in the first place because these paintings—some more than others, to be sure, and some for reasons that aren't quite clear—are appealing.

Whatever the artist had in mind, or thought he had in mind, they work.

This is how it is, I find, with all talented outsider artists, living or dead.

I am seldom quite sure why the artist has gone a particular route, or made these particular choices, and to ask the artist such questions may or may not be illuminating. It seems to be enough to look for answers in the art.

Similarly, it's uncertain whether any of the foregoing provides a distinct dividing line between outsider and mainstream art. There probably is no such line. What is certain, however, is that outsider art exists and has permeated the world of art to the point where a further discovery has emerged: Here —outside of art history, outside of the establishment, created by people who as outsiders are thought by many to not know what they're doing—is where the real, the churning excitement of original, unthought of, untried, unapproved art is now most likely to be found.* Acknowledgment: Additional research by Jim Linderman Gene Epstein, writer and co-owner ofthe Epstein/Powell Gallery in New York City, has been collecting outsider art since 1976.

He has written articles on artist Victor Joseph Gattofor The Clarion (Spring 1988) and Raw Visions(Summer 1992).

NOTES 1 The widespread interest generated by the watershed exhibit Thrift Store Paintings, curated by Jim Shaw at the Metro Pictures Gallery in New York City, 1991, anticipates this point.

2 Justin McCarthy(1891-1977): The Making ofa Twentieth-Century Self-Taught Painter(Ann Arbor, Mich.:UMI Dissertation Information Service, 1986).

3 Chuck Rosenak and Jan Rosenak, Museum ofAmerican Folk Art Encyclopedia of7iventieth-Century American Folk Art and Artists(New York: Abbeville Press, 1990), p. 198.

A VISIT TO CARACINE

GEORGINE HU (1939— ) Ballpoint pen,felt-tipped pen and colored crayon on toilet paper Each 10.5 x 17 cm (approx. 4% x 6%")

A MUSEUM OF ART BRUT

Photography by Pascal Martin and Yves Paris for the 1988 LAracine catalog, reproduced with permission from L'Aracine Music d'Art Brut. Neuilly-subMarne, France.

N. E KARLINS

he museum L'Aracine, an institution near Paris devoted to Art Brut—a term originated by artist and collector Jean Dubuffet to describe the raw and abstract work of untrained twentieth-century artists—is a must-see for lovers of twentieth-century folk art.

Now twelve years old, the museum, which boasts a collection of over two thousand works, shares the charming Chateau Guerin with the local Conservatoire du Music.

L'Aracine's home is a two-story, Second Empire building of brick and limestone, topped with a steep mansard roof that hides a third floor. One facade faces a busy street in the town of Neuilly-sur-Marne, which is only 4miles) 1 about 10 kilometers(roughly 6/ from Paris. The entrance is through a

T

side door that faces an oasis of park that includes the Hotel de Ville, or town hall, and a small parking area.

These structures are nestled beneath a stand of ancient chestnut trees.

In July 1992, I was fortunate enough to visit the museum and speak with two of its three founders, Madame Madeleine Lommel and Michel Nedjar. Together with Claire Teller, the third founding member,they work to organize temporary exhibitions in the first-floor gallery and to rearrange the works from the permanent collection that can be seen in a series of low-ceilinged rooms below ground level.

The foyer is airy and welcoming, and filled with music wafting down from the Conservatoire. The walls are covered with paintings. One eye-catching work is Le train bleu (The

WINTER 1992/93 FOLK ART 57

Blue Train) by Willem Van Genk (1927â&#x20AC;&#x201D; ), a phantasmagoric work in mixed media that is more than six feet wide and consists of a number of city scenes; the most prominent features of these scenes are trains, parts of which have been snipped from magazines or glossy travel folders, applied in layers,

and colored with paint and ink to create a shape-shifting fresco that offers a dark and bewitching commentary on urban life. Across the room hangs a painting by Augustin Lesage (18761954), an important early creator of Art Brut who completed more than eight hundred paintings before his death. In his Quelque des siecles du lointaire passe (Some Centuries from the Distant Past), an oil painting from 1929, birds and human faces materialize and then fade into vivid patterning.

At first glance, the painting seems a feat of mirror symmetry, but a closer look reveals subtle and compelling inconsistencies. Originally a miner by profession, Lesage never took credit for the complexities of his compositions, claiming that they were really the work of "spirit guides."

The work of Lesage, like that of many other Art Brut figures, was discovered and championed by Jean Dubuffet, who in contrast to the painters whose work he has brought to the public eye, is an extremely knowledgeable and sophisticated artist. All three founders of L'Aracine were profoundly influenced by Dubuffet's dedication to

IS WINTER 1992/93 FOLK ART

Art Brut and his extensive personal collection. Madeleine Lonrunel had seen an exhibition of Dubuffet's collection in Paris at the Museum of Decorative Arts in 1967 and was deeply moved by its power. Dubuffet offered his collection to the French government in return for what he deemed suitable housing

for it, but disagreements led to its removal to Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1976, where it has since lured millions of visitors.

At another exhibition of Art Brut in a Paris suburb after the Dubuffet collection had been lost to Switzerland, the three soon-to-be founders of L'Aracine met and determined to follow their dreams of creating another refuge for Art Brut in France. None were trained art historians, but, taking their inspiration from the success of the untutored artists they admired, they plunged ahead anyway. Working on their own and with a network of other Art Brat lovers that they developed, Lommel, Nedjar, and Teller amassed a collection of four hundred pieces. They named their collection L'Aracine to emphasize that Art Brut springs from the roots of mankind ("un art issu des racines memes de l'homme"). Since 1984, L'Aracine has been recognized as a state museum, and through careful purchases with state funds and donations, has developed its extensive collection of more than two thousand works from around the world.

One very significant group of artists whose work is collected by L'Aracine consists of patients at the mental hospital of Gugging, outside Vienna. This group includes August Walla, Johann Fischer, Josef Bachler, and Philipp Schopke. Perhaps the most outstanding works by this group are the colorful and erotic drawings by Johann Hauser (1926â&#x20AC;&#x201D; ). Displayed near the Gugging collection are less well-known works by artists from La Tinaia, a hospital in Florence, Italy.

The German-born artist Joseph Wittlich (1903-1982) began producing his art when his frail health precluded his joining the Foreign Legion. Drawing on his interest in warfare and the exotic, Wittlich began creating portraits of decorated military men, members of the royalty bedecked with sashes and jewels, and fashion plates.

Begun with heavy black outlines and surrounded by multipaneled frames, these drawings are then filled in with a variety of brilliant colors.

One outstanding work among those by Swiss artists is a large, colored-crayon drawing, filled to overflowing with imagery, by Adolf Milli (1864-1930). A schizophrenic, WOlfli spent most of his life in a mental institution on the outskirts of his native city of Bern, and produced thousands of drawings, poems, and musical corn-

JOHANN HAUSER (1926- ) Colored crayon on paper 1 4 x 113/4 ) 40 x 30 cm (approx.15/

JOSEPH WITTLICH (1903-1982) Gouache on paper 100.5x 72.5 cm (approx. 39% x 28/ 1 4") Gouache on paper 102.5x 74 cm (approx. 40/ 1 4 x29/ 1 4) 4

THEO WIESEN (1903- ) Painted slate 63 cm (approx. 24/ 1 4)high 4

L'Aracine in Context: Collection de l'Art Brut and the Outsider Archive LAracinefollows in the tradition oftwo significant, earlier collections ofoutsider art: the seminal Collection de lArt Brut in Lausanne, Switzerland, and the Outsider Archive in London, England. The Collection and the Archive, established in 1976 and 1981, respectively, have played an integral role in defining thefield ofoutsider art and making it increasingly accessible to the public.

The history ofthe Collection de lArt Brut began with the early efforts ofitsfounder, the French artist Jean Dubuffet, to collect the artwork ofclairvoyants, mediums, isolates, and institutionalized psychotics.

Inspired by the pioneering work ofthe German psychiatrist Hans Prinzhorn, whose book Artistry of the Mentally Ill was published in 1922, Dubuffet began visiting psychiatric hospitals in 1945, and by 1947 his collection was big enough to command an exhibition space in the basement ofthe Galerie Rene Drouin in Paris. Here the presence of work by artists such as Adolf Wolfli sparked the interest ofthe Paris art world, leading to theformation, in 1948, ofthe Compagnie de lArt Brut, a group that soon boasted over 50 members. Dedicated to collecting, studying, and exhibiting what Dubuffet called Art Brut, or "raw art" the Compagnie mounted a significant exhibition ofover 200 works by Milli, Alorse, Heinrich Anton Muller, and others in October 1949, at the Galerie Rene Drouin. The accompanying catalog contained Dubuffet's impassioned essay "Art Brut in Preference to the Cultural Arts" in which he proposed the following definition ofArt Brut: "We understand by this term works produced by persons unscathed by artistic culture, where mimicry plays little or no part....We are witness here to a completely pure artistic operation, raw, brute, and entirely reinvented in all ofits phases solely by

positions. He is considered by many to be the most important psychiatric artist-patient of this century.

Included among a handful of British artists is Madge Gill (18821961), an orphan who experienced a harsh childhood and suffered the loss of two children, and whose creativity was eventually awakened by spiritualism. Gill's work consists of extremely haunting labyrinthine black ink drawings of pulsating designs interwoven with female faces.

The collection of works by U.S. artists also is currently rather small, and includes pieces by another mystic, J.B. Murry (1908-1988). Murry, a black folk painter from Georgia, was said to write "in tongues," mixing

images and text to produce semiabstract works populated with floating amoeba-like forms. Other Americans represented here include Henry Darger and Joseph Yoakum. L'Aracine is hoping that American collectors will donate additional American pieces, as they wish to include many more Americans in the collection.

The majority of the works at L'Aracine, including several impressive wood and mixed-media pieces by Auguste Forestier (1887-1958), are French in origin. Pursuing his art in the psychiatric hospital of St. Albans, France, Forestier created wood-based assemblages as well as works that consisted solely of wood, often houses fronted with animals.

means ofthe artists' own impulses."

Following the dissolution ofthe Compagnie in 1951, Dubuffet moved his collection ofover 1,000 works to New York, securing it in the East Hampton home ofthe artist Alphonso Ossorio, where it would remainfor over a decade. Dubuffet's renewed efforts in 1959 to enrich the collection led to a major exhibition in February 1962 at New York's Cordier-Eckstrom Gallery; during the same year he returned with the exhibition to Paris, inspiring the regrouping ofthe Compagnie. Over the nextfew years Dubuffet concentrated on acquiring a great number of new works, and in 1964 he began to publish a series of small volumes entitled L'art brut, ofwhich there are now seventeen. By 1971, the year ofthefinal disbandment of the Compagnie de lArt Brut, the collection numbered over 4,000 works, representing 123 artists.

When the French government refused tofund the transfer ofhis collection to much-needed permanent

WINTER 1992/93 FOLK ART 59

housing, Dubuffet looked to the comparatively sympathetic Swiss governmentfor assistance. In 1972 an agreement was reached to renovate the picturesque Chateau de Beaulieu in Lausanne, Switzerland; the Chateau would be a permanent homefor the collection, one that would serve as both a museum and a research center These plans were realized with the inauguration ofthe Collection de lArt Brut on February 26, 1976, and today the Collection houses over 15,000 works, only afraction ofwhich are shown at any given time, by a diverse array ofoutsiders including Carlo, Madge Gill, Scottie Wilson, and Johann Hauser. The exhibition space features two major areas, one devoted to showing works from the permanent collection and another to hosting traveling exhibitions. True to Dubuffet's original vision, the Collection continues to seek out the work ofnew artists and to nurture, through sustained scholarship, the burgeoningfield ofoutsider art.

Victor Musgrave, a member ofthe 1962 Compagnie de lArt Brut, was the drivingforce behind the Outsider Archive, the British incarnation ofDubuffet's mission. In thefifties and sixties, Musgrave represented avant-garde artists such as Yves Klein at his London-based Gallery One, but had long been an advocate ofoutsiders. Together with Roger Cardinal, Musgrave organized a sizable exhibition ofoutsider art(Cardinal's anglicized termfor Art Brut)at London's Hayward Gallery in 1979. This show was the kernel ofwhat would later become the Outsider Archive.

In 1981, Musgrave and his colleague Monaca Kinley proposed theformation ofan archive, modeled after the Collection de lArt Brut, to promote outsider art in Britain. Their stated goals were to collect both wellestablished and unknown artists and to gather information and promote research. Since Musgrave's death in 1984, Kinley has carried on the team's work, seeing the collection to its present holdings ofover 500 works by a range ofartists including Michel Nedjar, Pascal Verbena, and Henry Darger. In addition to participating in collaborative projects with other institutions, the Archive published a 1989 volume in the series Art Random and serves as an international center ofinformation on outsider art. Kinley, who currently houses the Archive in her London home, is working hard to obtain the government and privatefunding that will enable its installation in a permanent location. Once properly housed, the Archive will be able to assume its dual role ofexhibiting institution and researchfacility.

When LAracine was recognized in 1984 as a state museum, it became the third member ofthis distinguished company. Together, these three institutions continue the important work ofpromoting, exhibiting, and interpreting outsider art. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Jenifer P Borum

60 WINTER 1992/93 FOLK ART

The same improvisational spirit can be seen in the more aggressive objects created by Andre Robillard (1936â&#x20AC;&#x201D; ). In a hospital since he was nineteen, Robillard began obsessively making a series of assemblage rifles around 1964. Featured in a one-man show when the author visited L'Aracine, these rifles are made of diverse materials. In one instance, an empty pilchard can, masking tape, cheap plastic, and metal bits were metamorphosed through the use of colored pencils, glue, and pure ingenuity.

Equally obsessive are the works of Georgine Hu (1939â&#x20AC;&#x201D; ). A native of northern France who has been institutionalized several times, she illustrates tales that blend local mythology and her own life; she also produces wads of bank notes decorated with the faces of women, each very similar to her own, drawn on toilet paper in ballpoint pen or colored pencil. She has offered to pay her doctors with them, and while there is no word as to whether they have accepted, this would be adequate payment for any art lover.

JOHANN FISCHER (1919— ) Colored crayon on paper 40 030 cm (approx.

15/ 1 4x 11/ 1 4")

Detail of untitled work MADGE GILL(1882-1961) India ink on unbleached muslin 560 x 135 cm (approx. 220% x 53W) 4

ANDRE ROBILLARD (1936— ) Pen and colored crayon on paper 56 x 76 cm (approx. 22x 30)

Another French artist, Theo Wiesen (1903— ), makes totemic animals and strange, magical creatures from pieces of timber left over from his sawmill and pieces of slate that he finds nearby and cuts, paints, and incorporates into his work. His affinity with trees and slate dates from his childhood, when his parents thought his health fragile and encouraged him to roam about in the out-of-doors.

The French collection also includes a remarkable example of textile art by Jules Leclercq (1894-1966).

More than three feet long, this doublesided masterpiece was found in the cellar of the hospital where Leclercq resided. Leclerq used unraveled socks and bandages to create a castle with a French flag, full-length figures, four riders on horseback, and stars on one side, and a central figure flanked by two riders, half-figures of males in uniforms around the edges, and text on the opposite side.

While all three founders of the museum have produced works of art, only Michel Nedjar (1947— )has created sculpture, drawings, and reliefs in papier 'niche. His grotesque dolls, or "poupees," are definitely for adults only. With hollows for eyes and bodies more like shrouds than flesh, his dollfetishes are made of friends' clothes, cement, leaves, pigment, and anything else that strikes his fancy. Untrained as an artist, Mr. Nedjar began his professional life as a tailor's apprentice; wanting more from life, he struck out for the West Indies and Mexico, returning to Paris in 1975 at age thirty to start making his dolls.

L'Aracine holds many more treasures, often by as yet unidentified makers, and organizes three or four temporary exhibitions per year. The museum, which is only three blocks from the Neuilly-sur-Marne station of the R.E.R. railline from Paris, can be reached by car, bus, or train.*

N. E Karlins(Nancy Karlins Thoman), the art criticfor The Westsider and Chelsea Clinton News newspapers in New York City, has on several occasions been a guest curatorfor the Museum ofAmerican Folk Art. She received her doctoratefrom N.Y.U. in American Studies, specializing in folk art, and has lectured and written on American folk artfor many publications.

WINTER 1992/93 FOLK ART 61

Wi LLiA,MIAAW k I N

) LY 27189

Selected Works by African-American Folk Artists A Recent Installation at The Philadelphia Museum of Art JACK L. LINDSEY

62

WINTER 1992/93

FOLK ART

PHOTOGRAPHY BY GRAYDON WOOD

ALLIGATORS AND LOVERS William Hawkins(1895-1990) Columbus,Ohio c. 1983 Enamel on Masonite Private collection Hawkins' use of vibrant colors and active compositions is characteristic of his art. This rare narrative painting differs markedly from Hawkins' architecturally inspired works. As is found on many of his paintings, he inscribed the work with his birth date.

useum collections of American folk material in many cases tend to be quite regional in emphasis. This focus on localized collecting in many American museums' folk collections has developed somewhat logically over time. Institutional collecting patterns of regional material have often resulted in the formation of strong, in-depth bodies of objects, illustrating the study and preservation of indigenous folk crafts, traditional artistic motifs, and the cultural belief systems created and maintained within the geographic or demographic sphere in which a museum is located. Governed and sometimes clearly defined by the particular interests and collecting perimeters set out by museum curators and trustees, public folk collections continue to evolve and define themselves through the range of their acquisition programs and exhibition activities.

The development of a significant regional collection of American folk art is clearly presented in the history of folk collections at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In 1876, during the great Centennial celebrations, the Pennsylvania Museum (as it was then titled) was chartered to establish a collecting and teaching institution to promote various branches of artistic industry, design, and the historical documentation of world eultures. The founders envisaged a museum along the lines of the then recently completed South Kensington Museum in London(known today as the Victoria and Albert Museum). Following this vision, in its first decades, the Museum strongly emphasized the collecting, documentation, and study of the traditional arts, and sought through its education efforts to foster the highest standards in applied industrial design. Students enrolled in the Museum's School of Industrial Art received specialized instructions in textiles, furniture design, carving in stone and wood, metalwork, ceramics, and printing. Many of the Museum's initial collecting efforts were directed toward examples of both historical and contemporary decorative arts, and as a result, the Museum became one of the first in

the country to collect such material for exhibition to the public. The study of these early decorative art collections was an integral part of the Museum's applied design curriculum.'

It was the leadership and scholarly interests of Edwin Atlee Barber, an early curator and director of the institution, that served to define and secure the earliest acquisitions of American folk material for the Museum.

Barber's research and investigations into the surrounding region brought him face to face with the rich cultural systems of the German immigrant communities of southeastern and central Pennsylvania. In April of 1891, Barber found a plate of typical sgrafitto-decorated glazed redware, dated and signed by a local nineteenth-century potter, Samuel Troxel. The acquisition of this plate was to lead the Museum to the collecting of Pennsylvania German art.

Barber's collecting efforts continued, and,supported by the Museum's board, expanded into other aspects of Pennsylvania German folk material. In 1897, Barber wrote: I have a very interesting old paper "sampler" made by a Pennsylvania Dutchman, illuminated in several colors and decorated with the conventional tulip, bird, etc. This is dated 1804 and measures 13 by 8 inches. The designs are exactly similar to those on the old pottery and I have secured this for the Museum, as I thought it would be of considerable interest to frame it and place it in the case with the old pottery.2 By 1910 the Museum had acquired a wide range of Pennsylvania German ceramics, fractur, furniture, textiles, and metalwork. Important private collections were offered to further augment and expand the Museum's acquisitions.

The collections of Pennsylvania folk utilitarian objects formed by Mrs. William D. Frishmuth, the early Pennsylvania German furniture from the collections of J. Stogdell Stokes, and Titus E. Geesey's extraordinary and

FACE VESSELS Attributed to Thomas Davies Potteries Edgefield, South Carolina c.1860-1870 Alkaline-glazed stoneware Collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art Gift of Edward Russell Jones These alkaline-glazed stoneware jugs were collected for the Philadelphia Museum by Edwin Atlee Barber in the 1890s and are recorded as having been made at the Davies site. Barber acquired them during one of his collecting visits into the South as comparative examples to be exhibited along with the eighteenth- and early nineteenthcentury grey stoneware forms produced in Pennsylvania.

WINTER 1992/93 FOLK ART 63

OFFERINGS BOX Elijah Pierce (1892-19841 Columbus, Ohio c. 1930-1935 Walnut,carved Private collection This box is among the earliest works documented to Pierce; it is unusual in that it is carved from the solid wood rather than having surface applied decoration.

important documentary collections of ceramics, painted furniture, metalwork, textiles, and carving were generous gifts added to the Museum's core objects acquired during the earlier acquisition progress. Together, these collections of Pennsylvania German material form the major body of American folk objects within the Museum's collections, and define the regional artistic productions of the Pennsylvania folk community within the context of the Museum's wider collections of American decorative art.3 The early scholarly activities of the Museum's first directors and curators, as well as the subsequent acquisition of several important private collections of Pennsylvania regional folk material, helped to establish the institution's present extensive collections of Pennsylvania German folk art, considered to be the most comprehensive and important holding of its type in the country. As a result of this strong regional focus in its American folk material, the Museum has continued to acquire a wide range of related Pennsylvania German examples, and has only recently embarked on a program to expand its American folk collections by developing representative collections produced by other folk artists and communities.

The American Department of the Museum initiated a program of small exhibitions and gallery installations in an attempt to investigate other directions and categories in the study and collecting of American folk art. These collection and exhibition efforts have opened up wide-ranging possibilities for the regional comparison of different folk crafts traditions, as well as the documentation of similar or parallel artistic traditions in different folk communities.

Also, new acquisitions have inspired the revision of research and scholarship surrounding the Pennsylvania German collections. The first of these exhibitions, American AppliquĂŠ Quilts, was held in the fall of 1989. Through its concentration on the Museum's growing collections of

114 WINTER 1992/93 FOLK ART

nineteenth-century album and signature quilts, this exhibition sought to identify different regional styles and to further document the contexts and functions these quilts held within the folk community.4 Another recent exhibition, Selected Works by African-American Folk Artists, brought together a select group of well-documented examples of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century black folk art.5 In the initial planning stages of this installation, the different methodologies surrounding the definition and documentation of African-American folk material presented an interesting debate. Because the study of AfricanAmerican objects has inspired a great body of speculation and theory concerning motif derivation and the cultural inspirations and functions surrounding the material, we sought to focus this initial installation on a selection of welldocumented works from both known and anonymous black artists and craftsmen, illustrating a wide range of materials, styles, and inspirations. For the purposes of maintaining strict standards of documentation, many examples gathered for the exhibition were chosen because they had been purchased directly from the artists or had been passed on within the families of the craftsmen involved. Works selected included historical and contemporary examples and pieces by individuals from different regions of the country. Works from various private collections and the Museum's holdings, and several other examples currently being considered for acquisition by the Museum, were also included. As a result, many of the objects from the assembled group were on public exhibition for the first time.

As a group, the works presented clearly illustrated the often highly charged, individual expressions characteristic in the African-American folk creative process.

Influenced by the rich, deeply rooted cultural belief systems of their community, and motivated by individual vision, religious inspiration, or simply the need to create

CRUCIFIXION The Reverend William Gayle Virginia C. 1870 Mixed hardwood, painted Collection of Mert Simpson, Courtesy Cavin-Morris Inc. Several of the works included in the Philadelphia Museum's installation were inspired by biblical tales and illustrate the strong influence traditional religious beliefs had on the motifs utilized by many folk artists.

WINTER 1992/93 FOLK ART 65

SPOTTED CAT William Traylor(1854-1947) Montgomery,Alabama c. 1939-1942 Graphite and gouache on cardboard Private collection, West Grove, Pennsylvania

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beauty, African-American folk expressions presented by these artists suggest many striking possible contexts.

Highly skilled African artisans were among the earliest slave populations to be brought to America, and many historical examples of African-American creativity stem from their long-established traditions of wood carving, blacksmithing, and pottery making. Peter Simmons, born into slavery, became one of Charleston, South Carolina's preeminent metalworkers and produced a wide range of decorative architectural ironwork during the twentieth century. Many examples of his work still adorn several public and private buildings in that city. An iron figure of a fish, similar to those incorporated into architectural gates produced by Simmons, was included in the exhibition.

In the early nineteenth century, various influences converged to promote the development of a rich potterymaking tradition in the Edgefield district of South Carolina.

Many of these early potteries, established by white landowners, utilized trained slave craftsmen in the production of alkaline-glazed stonewares. The traditional forms and decorations utilized in these early African-American-produced ceramics were derived from earlier European, Asian, and African influences.6 Included in the exhibition were three examples of face vessels, produced by slave potters working in Edgefield, that were acquired for the Museum's collections by Barber in 1893. In that these vessels have been in the Museum's collections since that date, they are the earliest firmly documented examples of this important African-American pottery tradition.

Supplying protection from animals and aiding in the navigation of uneven terrain, walking sticks were common in rural Southern communities. Often embellished with

American populations in the South. The image occurs fre-

whimsical images from everyday life, walking sticks provided a popular creative format for folk carvers in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Documented examples of nineteenth-century walking sticks by AfricanAmerican carvers show strong parallels in design and motif to the earlier traditions of carved and decorated ceremonial staffs found in numerous African traditions. Three documented walking sticks, produced in North Carolina during the later part ofthe nineteenth century, were included in the exhibition, and were shown alongside a group of carved canes by a contemporary African-American carver, Furman Humphrey. Humphrey, originally from the Piedmont area of North Carolina, moved to Philadelphia in the late 1950s. Having had a long association with woodworking —his father was a carpenter—Humphrey began to carve highly decorated canes and portrait busts after seeing an exhibition of traditional Nigerian carving held at the Museum in 1982.7 As an employee of the Museum, Mr. Humphrey naturally had ample opportunity to observe and study the various carved figures, masks, and other objects included in the gallery installation. These held a certain fascination for him, and newly inspired, he began a repertoire of carving that shows a striking stylistic continuum in comparison to earlier African-American examples.

William Traylor, born into slavery in 1854, lived most of his life in Alabama as an agricultural laborer. In 1939, after having moved to Montgomery, Traylor, then 84 years old, began producing a large and varied body of narrative drawings. Lacking any formal artistic training, but led by what he felt were divine inspirations, Traylor continued to draw until 1942, producing simply rendered, powerful forms,often on discarded cardboard. In a strongly

silhouetted style, Traylor portrayed scenes from his earlier rural experiences, drawing on his familiarity and fascination with animals and nature, and produced lively compositions using his observations of street life in Montgomery.

Traylor sold many of his drawings on the street, offering the passersby a choice of his work by hanging the drawings behind his makeshift worktable. Two of the works included in the Museum's exhibition, purchased directly from Traylor by a relative of the present owner, show the variety and energy embodied in his earliest efforts.

William Edmondson,a stone carver from Tennessee, also felt that divine inspiration had caused his initial artistic expressions; he stated that "Jesus planted the seed of carving in me."8 He began to carve from blocks of locally quarried limestone around 1931, and gained an appreciation within his community for the figural tombstones, garden ornaments, and animal figures produced in his workshop.

Included in the exhibition was one of his most enigmatic works, Speaking Owl, carved around 1937, which shows Edmondson's ability to powerfully abstract the essence of natural forms with simple directness.

Two new discoveries were included among the objects exhibited. A carved offerings box, considered to be among the earliest works attributed to Elijah Pierce, suggests in its composition some of the seminal designs and motifs that were to occur repeatedly in Pierce's later religious compositions. Pierce, a minister and barber who worked in Columbus, Ohio, often used his carved assemblages of biblical events as narrative tools in his ministry.

This early example of his work, carved from the solid, depicts biblical stories of the Last Supper, Daniel in the Lion's Den,and the Wedding at Cana, among others.

The work of William Myers, a heretofore unidentified carpenter and ship's chandler, listed as a "person of color" in the Philadelphia city directories during the 1860s, was presented for the first time in this exhibition. Myers' figure of an alligator, carved from a laminated mahogany block, suggests his familiarity with shipbuilding trades, because the material used is similar to that used during the nineteenth century for ships' masts. His combination of neoclassical motifs, such as the athemion leaf and acanthus

scrolls on the base of the figure, with the traditional folk carved alligator figure presents an interesting juxtaposition of high style and vernacular decorative forms.

The rich traditions stemming from the various individual and communal inspirations discussed above presented a cross-section of forms and types produced by African-American folk craftsmen for the Museum's audiences within the main gallery areas of the American Wing.

Visitors were encouraged to compare these examples to other folk decorative styles on display in other areas of our galleries. As the American Department's first venture along these lines, the exhibition was enthusiastically received, and promises to lead to further in-depth research, definition, and acquisition as a part of the Museum's scholarly research and exhibition agenda.* Jack L. Lindsey is Curator ofAmerican Decorative Art at the Philadelphia Museum ofArt. He has written about and lectured widely on the subjects ofAmericanfurniture, silver,folk art, and Southern material culture.

NOTES 1 For further documentation concerning the Museum's early years, see Archival Records and Correspondence, Philadelphia Museum of Art Research Library, Records 1873-1895.

2 Barber Correspondence file. Letter to John T. Morris, July 8, 1897. Research Archives, Philadelphia Museum of Art. 3 Beatrice B. Garvan. The Pennsylvania German Collections (Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1982).

4 Dilys Blum and Jack Lindsey. "Nineteenth-Century AppliquĂŠ Quilts:' Philadelpia Museum ofArt Bulletin, Vol. 85, Numbers 363-364, 1989.

5 This exhibition, organized by the American Department of the Museum, ran from July 15, 1992 through September 20, 1992.

6 Catherine W. Home,ed. Crossroads of Clay: The Southern Alkaline-Glazed Stoneware Tradition. McKissick Museum. The University of South Carolina. Columbia, 1990.

7 This exhibition, "The Treasures of Ancient Nigeria," ran from April 21 through June 30, 1982. Mr. Humphrey is a member of the custodial staff of the Museum.

8 John Beardsley and Jane Livingstone. Black Folk Art in America, 1930-1980. Corcoran Gallery of Art. University Press, Jackson, Mississippi, 1982, p. 87-92.

ALLIGATOR William Myers(1827-1879) Philadelphia,Pennsylvania c. 1850-1860 Mahogany,carved Private collection Myers is listed as a carpenter and ship chandler and is designated as a "person of color" in several Philadelphia city directories of the 1860s. Intricately carved, Myers' designs of combinations of traditional cross-hatching and ridged intersecting patterns are stylistically reminiscent of several documented carvings attributed to black craftsmen from the South.

WINTER 1992/93 FOLK ART 67

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q--11

V

I

COUNTRY FOLK ART SHOW & SALE

Now in our 10th year as The Leading Folk Art Show in the Nation! Featuring the award-winning, top quality handcrafted folk art of hundreds of outstanding Artisans from across the country., Bringing for sale quality Reproductions & Country "Heirlooms of the Future"!V All Juried shows V Many product catagories, French Country, Victorian, Southwest & Country-Western items, All Country decorating needs and Collectibles for sale V IP BALANCE 1992 & WINTER-SPRING 1993 SHOW DATES IF West Springfield, MA November 20-22 Eastern States Exposition Fairgrounds Indianapolis, IN** November 27-29 (Thanksgiving Weekend) State Fairgrounds - West Pavilion Timonium, MD** November 27-29 (Thanksgiving Weekend) State Fairgrounds Saratoga Springs, NY December 4-6 Harness Raceway, Grandstand Bldg.

0_44-tx044 Novi, MI December 11-13 Novi Expo Center —1993 — Fort Lauderdale, FL** January 1-3 Broward Cty. Cony. Center North Fort Myers, FL January 8-10 Lee Civic Center Daytona Beach, FL January 15-17 Ocean Center

Atlanta, GA January 22-24 Atlanta Expo Center

Indianapolis, IN March 5-7 Indiana State Fairgounds

San Mateo, CA April 2-4 San Mateo County Expo Center

Edison, NJ January 29-31 Raritan Center Expo Hall

Pomona, CA March 12-14 Fairplex - L.A. Cty. Fairgrounds

Edison, NJ April 2-4 Raritan Center Expo Hall

Timonium, MD February 5-7 State Fairgrounds Waukesha, WI February 12-14 Expo Center Syracuse, NY February 12-14 State Fairgrounds Cedar Rapids, IA February 19-21 Five Seasons Center Fresno, CA February 19-21 Fresno Fairgrounds

Tampa, FL March 12-14 Florida State Fairgrounds

Saratoga Springs, NY April 16-18 Harness Raceway, Grandstand Bldg.

Pontiac, MI April 23-25 Silverdome

Davisburg, MI March 12-14 Springfield-Oaks Center

Ridgefield, CT April 23-25 Skating Center

Pleasanton, CA March 19-21 Alameda Cty.Fairgrounds

Morristown, NJ April 30-May 2 Mennen Arena

Ft. Lauderdate, FL March 19-21 Broward County Convention Center

Valley Forge, PA May 7-9 Convention Center Waukesha, WI May 7-9 Expo Center

Ventura, CA February 26-28 Ventura Cty. Fairgrounds

Sacramento, CA March 26-28 CAL-EXPO (State Fairgrounds)

Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN May 14-16 State Fairgrounds

Del Mar, CA March 5-7 Del Mar Fairgrounds

Niagara Falls, NY March 26-28 Convention & Civic Center

West Springfield, MA May 14-16 Eastern States Exposition Fairgrounds

SHOW TIMES

"Country!

FRIDAY EVENING 5 P.M. to 9 P.M. - ADM. $6.00 (Early Buying Privileges) SATURDAY & SUNDAY 10 A.M. to 5 P.M. - ADM. $5.00 CHILDREN UNDER 10- ADM. $2.00 • NO STROLLERS PLEASE! **(Special Show Hours- Friday, November 27, 1992 ; & January 1, 1993: 12 noon to 9 P.M.) IV Catering to both Retail & Wholesale buyers V Currently accepting new applicants V Please call or write for Exhibitor or Advertising information and/or for local driving directions and lodging accommodations Publishers of Country Folk Art . TOYBOXT" & Yippy-Yi-YeaTM Magazines FOLK ART SHOWS,INC. P.O. Box 111 se Ortonville, MI 48462 , (313)634-4151

88

WINTER 1992/93

FOLK ART

-10

CONTEMPORARY FOLK ART Minnie Adkins Jesse Aaron Linvel Barker The Beaver Pricilla Cassidy Ronald Cooper Mr. Eddy Denzil Goodpasture Homer Green Alvin Jarrett Carl McKenzie

-

-

p 3-9__

PRISCILLA CASSIDY House Paint on Board

Death in a Needle 12" X 14"

Hog Mattingly Frank Pickel Braxton Ponder Dow Pugh Royal Robertson Sultan Rogers Jimmy Lee Sudduth "Son" Thomas Mose Tolliver Fred Webster Wesley Willis And Others

BRUCE SHELTON

By APPOINTMENT (615)-352-1970) 212 LEAKE AVE., NASHVILLE, TN 37205 Also Servicing the Following Areas: Chicago/Milwaukee • Brimfield, MA/New England • New Orleans/Houston Atlanta/Palm Beach • Washington DC • Virginia/North Carolina

The

Richard M. Edson Collection

Contemporary

MAKERS OF COLONIAL AND EARLY AMERICAN LIGHTING FIXTURES

FOLK ART Calendar

1993 Please send checks to:

Cognoscenti, Inc. $19.95 includes postage

P.O. Box 4759 Baltimore, MD 21211 1-800-735-0311

AUTHENTIC DESIGNS 17 The Mill Road, West Rupert, Vermont 05776 (802) 394-7713 Catalogue $3.00

WINTER 1992/93

FOLK ART 69

T

DEVELOPMENTS

JIM LINDERMAN 20TH CENTURY SELF-TAUGHT ARTISTS FEATURING WORKS BY

JUSTIN MCCARTHY DILMUS HALL VICTOR JOSEPH GATTO S.L. JONES ANDERSON JOHNSON MAX ROMAIN CHUCKIE WILLIAMS LAVERN KELLEY WESLEY MERRITT SIMON SPARROW CHARLIE DIETER DWIGHT JOE BELL GEORGE WILLIAMS J.L. SUDDUTH PROPHET ROYAL ROBERTSON MOSE TOLLIVER ANDY KANE JAMES HAROLD JENNINGS MANY OTHERS 530 WEST 46 STREET NEW YORK, NEW YORK (212) 307-0914

BY APPOINTMENT

AMERICA OH9YES! FOLK ART FROM AMERICA'S LEADING ARTISTS. We are private dealers for serious collectors and galleries; exclusive representative for a number of emerging artists. Our collection includes masterworks of well-known outsiders at "insiders" prices.

Call for a brochure.

1-800-FOLK-ART

* 1* 800 *FOLK * ART * 70 WINTER 1992/93 FOLK ART

CONSTANCE J. COLLINS

he end of the year always seems like an ideal time for reflection and expressions of gratitude. The Museum is particularly blessed to have a committed, growing base offriends, donors, and volunteers whose thoughtfulness and generosity have done much to help the Museum further its mission of expanding public knowledge and appreciation of American folk art.

Funding for many of our exhibitions and educational programs, as well as for our daily operations, comes from a wide variety of corporations, foundations, government agencies and, especially, individual donors and friends. Such broad-based support is particularly crucial in tough economic times, and is fitting for a museum that celebrates the inclusive nature offolk art.

In the year since Bob Bishop's death, many of you have shown your special regard for the Museum and his legacy by making contributions to the Bob Bishop Memorial Fund. This fund, which is used to support the Museum's education, exhibition, and library programs, has now reached a total of $155,602. Our goal is to top $200,000 before closing this appeal in March. We extend our warmest thanks to all those who responded so generously during the year, and invite those wishing to make additional contributions to the Fund to do so now by contacting the Development Office at 212/977-7170.

I hope most of you have visited the Eva and Morris Feld Gallery to see the fascinating Visiones del Pueblo: The Folk Art ofLatin America exhibition. We again commend Ford Motor Company for recognizing the importance of this project and providing the financial support to make it possible.

Special thanks also go out to all of the generous donors, benefactors, patrons, and supporters who attended the Benefit Preview of the Fall Antiques Show at the Pier. This hugely popular and enjoyable evening, the Museum's major annual fund-raising event, was made a great success through the stellar leadership of Benefit Chairmen and Museum Trustees Lucy Danziger and Cynthia Schaffner. We also thank Rachel Newman and Country Living magazine for underwriting the music, which provided a wonderful atmosphere for the evening's festivities.

Looking forward to the events of the coming year, I am happy to report that The Great American Quilt Festival 4, scheduled for May 12-16, will be significantly enhanced through the generous sponsorship of two corporate friends. Fairfield Processing Corporation is underwriting the Quilt Connection All-Stars contest and exhibition, and Country Home magazine is sponsoring the Morning Star Quilts exhibition. Additional sponsorship opportunities are available for other exciting Festival programs. Those who would like more information should contact me at the abovementioned telephone number.

We are also seeking support for the Bob Bishop:A Life in Folk Art exhibition, which opens March 1. This show, curated by Museum Trustee Cyril I. Nelson, pays tribute to the late Dr. Robert Bishop as director, friend, and inspiration. Sotheby's has graciously agreed to assist the Museum in its plans for a major symposium as part of the exhibition's special programming. This interesting and informative show will be a wonderful testament to the career of Bob Bishop.

Before closing, I would also like to say how much we all look forward to welcoming the many members of the Museum's International Advisory Council to their annual meeting in January. This group of special friends supports the activities of the Museum in so many ways, and their continued commitment is both gratifying and appreciated.

Happy holidays to all of you and many thanks for your interest, involvement, and support. Best wishes for a wonderful 1993!

BARBARA OLSEN I am a self-taught artist, My work has been significantly influenced by stitchery, samplers, and quilts.

This patchwork painting tells about the many diverse women in 1992 - it is my hope for my granddaughters and yours to have many choices in their future, BARBARA OLSEN STUDIO 1700 East 13th Street, Suite 23 SE Cleveland, OH 44114 (216)861-3549 FAX (216)861-0667 gallery referral or studio appointment

CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN OUTSIDER/FOLK ART

MIKE FROLICH (1922-

Representing David Butler Clementine Hunter Rev Howard Finster Glassman 0 W Pappy Kitchens Sr Gertrude Morgan Jimmie Lee Sudduth Willie White and many other important Outsider artists

GASPERI GALLERY 320 JULIA STREET â&#x20AC;˘ NEW ORLEANS, LA 70130 (504)524-9373

"Steamer New York Steaming Up River" 1989, oil on masonite 37" x 37"

WINTER 1992/93 FOLK ART 71

TRUSTEES/ADVISORS/DONORS

MUSEUM

OF

AMERICAN

FOLK

ART

BOARD OF TRUSTEES Executive Committee Ralph Esmerian President Frances Sirota Martinson, Esq. Executive Vice President and Chairman, Executive Committee Lucy C. Danziger Executive Vice President Bonnie Strauss Vice President Peter M. Ciccone Treasurer Mrs. Dixon Wecter Secretary Judith A. Jedlicka Joan M. Johnson Theodore L. Kesselman Susan Klein Cynthia V. A. Schaffner George E Shaskan, Jr.

Members Florence Brody Joyce Cowin David L. Davies Raymond C. Egan Barbara Johnson, Esq. George H. Meyer, Esq. Cyril I. Nelson Maureen Taylor Robert N. Wilson

Honorary Trustee Eva Feld

Frank Brenner Hartmarx Corporation John Mack Carter Good Housekeeping Jerry Kaplan Better Homes and Gardens

Allan Kaufman Francine Lynch Rachel Newman Country Living Thomas Troland Country Home Barbara Wright NYNEX Worldwide Services

$10,000-$19,999 Amicus Foundation Bear, Stearns & Co., Inc. Mr.& Mrs. Martin Brody Lily Cates David L. Davies Mr. & Mrs. Alvin Deutsch Fairfield Processing Corporation/Poly-fir Daniel & Jessie Lie Farber Walter and Josephine Ford Fund Taiji Harada Joan & Victor L. Johnson Shirley & Theodore L. Kesselman Masco Corporation Kathleen S. Nester Dorothy & Leo Rabkin Schlumberger Foundation Samuel Schwartz The William P. and Gertrude Schweitzer Foundation,Inc. Mr. & Mrs. George E Shaskan, Jr. Barbara and Thomas W. Strauss Fund Robert N. & Anne Wright Wilson

Jacqueline Fowler Mr.& Mrs. Robert Klein George H. Meyer National Endowment for the Arts The New York Times Company Foundation,Inc. Philip Morris Companies Inc. Ramac Corporation The Reader's Digest Association,Inc. Herbert and Nell Singer Foundation,Inc. Sotheby's Mr. & Mrs. Stanley Tananbaum Time Warner Inc. Mrs. Dixon Wecter John Weeden

Trustees Emeriti Adele Earnest Cordelia Hamilton Herbert W. Hemphill, Jr. Margery G. Kahn Alice M. Kaplan Jean Lipman

DEVELOPMENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE Judith A. Jedlicka Theodore L. Kesselman Cochairmen Lewis Alpaugh Hoechst Celanese Corporation Gordon Bowman Corporate Creative Programs CURRENT MAJOR DONORS The Museum of American Folk Art greatly appreciates the generous support of the following friends: $20,000 and above Anheuser-Busch Companies,Inc. Asahi Shimbun Ben & Jerry's Homemade,Inc. Marilyn & Milton Brechner Chinon, Ltd. Estate of Thomas M. Conway Estate of Daniel Cowin Mr. & Mrs. Frederick M. Danziger Mrs. Eva Feld Estate of Morris Feld Ford Motor Company Foundation Krikor William Randolph Hearst Foundation Kodansha, Ltd. Lila Wallaceâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Reader's Digest Fund Jean & Howard Lipman Joseph Martinson Memorial Fund New York State Council on the Arts New York Telephone Restaurant Associates Industries, Inc. Two Lincoln Square Associates United States Information Agency

72 WINTER 1992/93 FOLK ART

$4,00049,999 Bristol-Myers Squibb Company Joan Bull The David and Dorothy Carpenter Foundation Tracy & Barbara Cate Country Home Country Living Mr.& Mrs. Edgar M.Cullman Department ofCultural Affairs, City of New York

$2,00043,999 American Folk Art Society Estate of Abraham P. Bersohn The Mary Duke Biddle Foundation Mr. & Mrs. Edwin M. Braman Mr. & Mrs. Edward J. Brown Capital Cities/ABC The Coach Dairy Goat Farm Mr. & Mrs. Peter Cohen Mr. & Mrs. Joseph E Cullman HI Mr. & Mrs. Donald DeWitt Mr. & Mrs. Alvin Einbender Margot & John Ernst Richard C. and Susan B. Ernst Foundation Colonel Alexander W. Gentleman Cordelia Hamilton Justus Heijmans Foundation

Galerie Laurie Carmody ea6Y\i6Sipco 1980 Nteritatiolial folk Art 9243 Clayton Road St. Louis, MO 63124

By Appointment(314)993-0851 F.B. Archeleta Lisca Ayde, Brazil Milton Bond Canute Caliste, Grenada Chuckie Joe Little Creek Mamie Deschillie Amos Ferguson, Bahamas Milton Fletcher Haitian Art & Masters Boscoe Holder, Trinidad Georges Liautaud, Haiti Justin McCarthy Mexican Artifacts Rafael Morla, Dominican Rep.

vi

Manuel Garcia Moia, Nicaragua Antoine Oleyant, Haiti B.F. Perkins Frank Pickle Juanita Rogers Jack Savitsky Fernando da Silva, Brazil Jose Antonio da Silva, Brazil Jimmy Lee Sudduth Horacio Valdez Voodoo Flags & Bottles Fred Webster Malcah Zeldis (and many others)

S. Louisjuste "Billygoat" Steel, 1980's

Signed, limited edition seriographs now available for three of the artist's most widely recognized paintings

CONTACT:

312-509-8503

ANVY KA

Andy Kane 3023 N. Clark St. Suite 365 Chicago, IL 60657

WINTER 1992/93

FOLK ART

73

CURRENT

MAJOR

DONORS

IBM Corporation Wendy & Mel Lavitt Marsh & McLennan Companies Christopher & Linda Mayer Morgan Stanley & Co.,Incorporated PaineWebber Group Inc. Betsey Schaeffer Robert T. & Cynthia V. A. Schaffner Mr.& Mrs. Derek V. Schuster Mr.& Mrs. Ronald K. Shelp Randy Siegel Joel & Susan Simon L. J. Skaggs and Mary C. Skaggs Foundation Mr.& Mrs. Austin Super William S. Taubman Mr.& Mrs. Richard T. Taylor Tiffany & Co. Alice Yelen & Kurt A. Gitter $1,00041,999 American Savings Bank William Arnett The Bachmann Foundation Didi & David Barrett Michael Belknap Adele Bishop Edward Vermont Blanchard & M. Anne Hill Bloomingdale's David S. Boyd Mabel H. Brandon Sandra Breakstone Ian G. M.& Marian M. Brownlie Morris B. and Edith S. Cartin Family Foundation Edward Lee Cave Chase Manhattan Bank, N. A. Christie's Liz Claiborne Foundation Conde Nast Publications Inc. Consolidated Edison Company of New York Consulate General of Mexico Judy Angelo Cowen The Cowles Charitable Trust Crane Co. Susan Cullman Mr. & Mrs. Richard Danziger Gerald & Marie DiManno The Marion and Ben Duffy Foundation Mr. & Mrs. Arnold Dunn Echo Foundation Bruce Engel Ellin E Ente Virginia S. Esmerian Mr.& Mrs. Thomas Ferguson Janey Fire & John Kalymnios First Financial Carribean Corporation Louis R. and Nettie Fisher Foundation M. Anthony Fisher Susan & Eugene Flamm Evelyn W. Frank

74 WINTER 1992/93 FOLK ART

Emanuel Gerard The Howard Gilman Foundation Selma & Sam Goldwitz Mr.& Mrs. Baron Gordon Renee Graubart Doris Stack Greene Carol Griffis Terry & Simca Heled Stephen Hill Alice & Ronald Hoffman Mr.& Mrs. David S. Howe Mr.& Mrs. Yee Roy Jear Judith A. Jedlicka Dr. & Mrs. J. E. Jelinek Barbara Johnson, Esq. Isobel & Harvey Kahn Kallir, Philips, Ross,Inc. Lore Kann Foundation Mr.& Mrs. Leslie Kaplan Lee & Ed Kogan Mr. & Mrs. Ronald Lauder Estate of Mary B. Ledwith William & Susan Leffler Dorothy & John Levy James & Frances Lieu Robert and Betty Marcus Foundation,Inc. Marstrand Foundation C. E Martin IV Helen R. Mayer and Harold C. Mayer Foundation Marjorie W. McConnell Meryl & Robert Meltzer Brian & Pam McIver .

Michael & Marilyn Mennello The Mitsui USA Foundation Benson Motechin,C.P.A., P.C. Mattie Lou O'Kelley Paul Oppenheimer Dr. & Mrs. R. L. Polak Helen Popkin Random House,Inc. Cathy Rasmussen Ann-Marie Reilly Paige Rense Marguerite Riordan Dorothy H. Roberts Mrs. John D. Rockefeller III Daniel & Joanna S. Rose Willa & Joseph Rosenberg Mr. & Mrs. Jon Rotenstreich Louise Sagalyn The Salomon Foundation Inc. Mr. & Mrs. William Schneck Mr. & Mrs. Richard Sears Rev. & Mrs. Alfred R.Shands III Mrs. Vera W.Simmons Philip & Mildred Simon Mrs. A. Simone Mr.& Mrs. Sanford L. Smith Mr.& Mrs. Richard L. Solar Peter and Linda Soloman Foundation Mr.& Mrs. Elie Soussa Kathryn Steinberg Robert C.& Patricia A. Stempel Sterling Winthrop Inc. Swiss National Tourist Office SwissAir

Phyllis & Irving Tepper Mrs. Anne Utescher H. van Ameringen Foundation Tony & Anne Vanderwarker Elizabeth & Irwin Warren Weil, Gotshal & Manges Foundation Wertheim Schroder & Co. Mr. & Mrs. John H. Winkler $500-$999 A&P Helen & Paul Anbinder Anthony Annese Louis Bachman Arthur & Mary Barrett Mr.& Mrs. Frank Barsalona David C. Batten Robert Baum Roger S. Berlind Mrs. Anthony Berns Peter & Helen Bing Robert & Katherine Booth Michael 0. Braun Iris Carmel Classic Coffee Systems Limited Edward & Nancy CopIon Edgar M. Cullman,Jr. D'Agostino's Allan L. Daniel The Dammann Fund,Inc. Gary Davenport Days Inn窶年ew York City Andre & Sarah de Coizart Mr.& Mrs. James DeSilva, Jr. Ross N.& Glady A. Faires Helaine & Burton Fendelman Howard & Florence Fertig John Fletcher Timothy C. Forbes Estelle E. Friedman Daniel M. Gantt Ronald J. Gard Mr.& Mrs. Bruce Geismar General Foods Barbara & Edmond Genest Mr.& Mrs. William L. Gladstone Irene & Bob Goodkind Great Performances Caterers Dr. & Mrs. Stanley Greenberg Grey Advertising,Inc. Connie Guglielmo The Charles U. Harris Living Trust Denison H. Hatch Arlene Hochman Mr.& Mrs. Albert L. Hunecke,Jr. Mr.& Mrs. Thomas C. Israel Guy Johnson Cathy M. Kaplan Louise & George Kaminow Mary Kettaneh Barbara Klinger Janet Langlois

Objects Gallery 230 WEST HURON STREET CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 60610 T. 312 664 6622 F. 312 664 9392

Purvis Young untitled H 65" W 49" wood panel

Yv“Ai EXHIBITING AT OUTSIDER ART FAIR

NEW YORK

JANUARY 30-31, 1993

CURRENT

MAJOR

Peter M. Lehrer Mr.& Mrs. Richard M. Livingston Adrian B.& Marcie Lopez Lynn M. Lorwin R. H. Macy & Co., Inc. Mrs. Erwin Maddrey Hermine Mariaux Alastair B. Martin Michael T. Martin Robin & William Mayer Mr.& Mrs. D. Eric McKechnie Gertrude Meister Gael Mendelsohn A.Forsythe Merrick Mrs. Ralph Merrill Pierson K. Miller The New York Hilton Mrs. & Mrs. Arthur O'Day Geraldine M. Parker Dr. Burton W.Pearl Mr.& Mrs. Stanley M. Riker Betty Ring Mr. & Mrs. David Ritter Trevor C. Roberts Richard & Carmen Rogers Toni Ross Richard Sabino Mary Frances Saunders Schlaifer Nance Foundation Skidmore Owings & Merrill

DONORS

Smith Gallery Smithwick Dillon Karen Sobotka Amy Sommer Jerry I. Speyer David E Stein Edward I. Tishelman Mr.& Mrs. Thomas Tuft David & Jane Walentas Clune J. Walsh Jr. Marco P. Walker Maryann & Ray Warakomski Washburn Galley Frank & Barbara Wendt Anne G. Wesson G. Marc Whitehead Mr.& Mrs. John R. Young Marcia & John Zweig

The Museum is grateful to the Cochairmen of its Special Events Committee for the significant support received through the Museum's major fund-raising events.

Lucy C. Danziger Cynthia V. A. Schaffner

The Museum thanks the following donors for their recent gifts to the Museum of American Folk Art Library Fund in Honor of Edith Wise: George & Shirley Baer Edward & Margaret Brown Katie Cochran Constance J. Collins Lucy C. Danziger Sharon & Theodore Eisenstat Janice Ekdahl Jacqueline Fowler Alice J. Hoffman John & Laima Hood Rita G. Keckeissen Jill Keefe Edgar & Lee Kogan Kearney & Carolyn Kuhlthau William & Paula Laverty Anne L. Minich Dorothy & Leo Rabkin Karen & Derek Schuster George & Myra Shaskan Eugene P. Sheehy Sarah B. Snook Gerard C. Wertkin Simeon & Ann Wrenn Mary Ziegler Mary Linda & Victor Z,onana

CASKEY-LEES GALLERY Specializing in Folk Art and Furniture of the American Southwest

BY APPOINTMENT ONLY PLEASE WRITE OR CALL US REGARDING OUR CURRENT INVENTORY AT P.O. BOX 1637, TOPANGA, CALIFORNIA 90290, 310.455.2886.

78 WINTER 1992/93 FOLK ART

Luster Willis (1913-1990) Collection includes: J.B. Murray, Howard Finster, David Butler, Sam Doyle, Mary T. Smith, Jimmy Sudduth, James "Son" Thomas, Royal Robertson, James Harold Jennings, Mose Tolliver, Lonnie Holley, B.F. Perkins, Clementine Hunter, Raymond Coins, Charlie Lucas, Junior Lewis, William Dawson, LeRoy Almond, Sr., M.C. 50 Jones, "Artist Chuckie" Williams, Ike Morgan, Herbert Singleton, Burgess Dulaney, and others.

GILLEY8CALLE1Y 41111â&#x20AC;˘P' "Untitled" 22"x27"

5

7520 Perkins Road Baton Rouge, La. 70808 504-767-0526

"The Boy with a Red Sall"

by J.L Munro

Eldred Wheeler Gallery 3941SanFelipe Houston,Texas77027 (713)622-6225

WINTER 1992/93 FOLK ART 77

MUSEUM

NEWS

COMPILED BY MELL COHEN

Antiques and Meat Loaf he spirit of America's roadside and eateries infused the festivities of the Museum of American Folk Art's 1992 Fall Antiques Show Benefit Preview, Back Roads and By-Ways: Explore the U.S.A. While party-goers admired and purchased the wonderful American antiques for sale by the 112 dealers, they tapped their toes to bluegrass music, sipped cherry cokes and egg creams and downed diner fareâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;meat loaf sandwiches, fried chicken, egg salad, pickles, chips, and brownie pie â&#x20AC;&#x201D;served up by waiters in short-order cook attire. The Museum of American Folk Art wishes to thank the many people who contributed their time and efforts to make this sparkling evening both fun and profitable.

Cochairmen Lucy Danziger and Cynthia V.A. Schaffner deserve a standing ovation for organizing an enthusiastic Steering Committee to raise money for the Museum's Operating Fund. Lucy and Cynthia's special vision and appreciation of the American vernacular inspired the party theme, contributing to the evening's success.

We would also like to extend a toe-tapping, highstepping thanks to Country Living magazine, who lifted the spirits of all present by underwriting the cost of the lively New Blue Velvet Band. Country Living's support of this Fall Antiques Show Benefit is, as always, very much appreciated.

Our Raffle Chairmen, Vicki Tananbaum and Sandra Tananbaum, organized the Show's Junior Committee, chaired by Rebecca Danziger, to solicit gifts and sell raffle tickets. We are

T

78 WINTER 1992/93 FOLK ART

Cochairmen Lucy C. Danziger and Cynthia VA.Schaffner

especially grateful to artist Mary Michael Shelley, who donated the grand prize for the "Gas, Food and Lodging" Raffle: Fill 'Er Up, a polychromed carved wood relief of a gas station, which was on exhibit in the Museum Bookstore the month prior to the Benefit and at the pier during the run of the Fall Antiques Show.

Our prizewinners look forward to delicious meals, though hardly in the diner style, contributed by La Cote Basque, The Four Seasons, and the Sea Grill, and arranged by Museum Trustees Ray Egan, Susan Klein, and Museum Director Florence Brody, respectively.

Gerard C. Wertkin with "Lodging" for the raffle David Owsley. was generously provided by the Homestead Inn, Greenwich, CT, and roadside attractions across and The Norwich Inn, Norwich, America, published by Penguin VT, thanks to Museum Trustee and provided by Trustee Cyril I. Joan Johnson. A weekend at The Nelson and Dutton Studio Books.

Knight House, an historic home in Additional friends of the Cape May, NJ originally built in Museum who generously donated 1881 for Congressman Edward items to entice buyers and make Knight, was donated by Trustee the raffle successful include Bob Wilson. We are also delighted American Primitive Gallery; to have had Sony U.S.A. donate a Ballet Academy East; Gordon Handycam to the prizewinner to Converse; Nikki and Tom record her weekend.

Deupree (Suffield, CT); Fendi The "Explore the U.S.A." Stores, Inc.; Just Books,Inc. theme was emphasized in (Greenwich, CT); Random House, beautifully illustrated gift books on historic homes and localities

RICHARD CUMMINGS

with Jim Klein.

Inc.; Razooks, Inc.(Greenwich, CT); Richards Men's Store (Greenwich, CT); Trotta/Bono; Edith Weber & Co.; and Brian Windsor.

Proceeds from Museumsponsored Walking Tours held throughout the entire four days of the Pier Show support the Museum's education and docent programs. Pat Ross, author of Formal Country, and Tom Armstrong, Director Emeritus of the Whitney Museum, shared their knowledge of Americana with folk art enthusiasts on Thursday and Friday mornings following the

BRIAN DOWDALL CARDBOARD PAINTINGS Benefit. Many of the dealers at the Fall Antiques Show also agreed to contribute their time and expertise in leading the Walking Tours for visiting groups; these dealers included Kaye Betts, Will Channing, Rufus Foshee, Connie Hayes, Carol and Stephen Huber, Jim Hirsheimer, Stephen Weiss and Shelley Zegart,and Folk Art Institute Lecturer Ben Apfelbaum.

Thanks go to all our tour leaders and especially to our Walking Tour Chairman, Meg Smeal, who organized both the Morning Tours and Speciality Group Tours.

A terrific team of artists contributed their talents to provide a party atmosphere in the spirit of America's roadsides.

Under John Baeder's artistic direction, Jack Chandler, Jim Klein of Arkansas Design, and David Lackey of Whirlwind & Co. created a 28-by 10-foot billboard to display wonderful blowups of images from Baeder's collection of roadside postcards from the 1920s and 1930s. In addition, two of John's diner paintings on loan from O.K. Harris Gallery were hung

between rows of colorful pennants at the pier entrance. Mr. Baeder's photo-realist painting Bell Pond Diner graced the cover of this year's invitation, designed courtesy of Ellen Blissman/Ken Funk.

Ticket sales were up this year thanks to our Ticket Chairmen, Arlene Hochman and Marilyn Schwartz, who were efficient in getting the tickets out and selling them on opening night.

Howard Fertig, Chairman of the Friends Committee, his wife, Flo Fertig, and many volunteers assisted in the event's overall operation.

The Museum of American Folk Art wishes to express its gratitude and heartfelt thanks to all of the above, as well as to our supporters who bought tickets for the Opening Night Benefit Preview, the "Gas,Food and Lodging" Raffle, and the Morning and Speciality Walking Tours. Our many friends and contributors made this major annual fundraising event a huge success. We hope to see you again next year.

Folk Art Explorers'Club Covers Switzerland rom the cosmopolitan city

F

of Geneva to the charming alpine heights of Appenzell, thirty-two Museum members covered more than 1,000 miles in eleven days. The Folk Art Explorers' Club tour in Switzerland began on October 3 in Geneva and ended on the fourteenth in Zurich; we stayed in Bern and Lucerne along the way.

The busy itinerary included visits to many wonderful museums throughout the country, featuring a dizzying array of objects and

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alatnid,

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material. On one day the group visited the Collection de l'Art Brut in Lausanne, featuring Jean Dubuffet's unique collection of "raw art," while the next day included a guided tour of the Musee du Vieux Pays d'Enhaut in Chateau d'Oex, which exhibits furniture and decorative and utilitarian objects from the surrounding farmlands. Other museums on the itinerary included the Gruyere Museum in Bulle, the Appenzeller Museum of Folklife in Stein, the Swiss OpenAir Museum in Ballenberg, and the Swiss National Museum in Zurich, where the group was

WINTER 1992/93 FOLK ART 71

MUSEUM

NEWS

PURVIS YOUNG (Left to right) Members, Helen Blodgett, Nancy and Roy Fischer, Mercedes and Arnold Bierman at the Swiss Open Air Museum in Ballenberg.

Museum member, Billy Wolf contemplating the Reuss River in Lucerne.

This procession of cows in the Vaud Alps was the first of several throughout the country to stop the bus, temporarily

"Jail Was Heat" Acrylic on Hardboard 45"H X 37"W

cat,k10%

Personal viewing by appointment Represented By:

JOY MOOS GALLERY 355 North East 59th Terrace, Miami, FL 33137 (305) 754-9373 / Telefax (305) 757-2124

80 WINTER 1992/93 FOLK ART

interrupting the Swiss precision of the tour schedule.

treated to a guided tour and special reception hosted by Director Andres Furger and Curator Bernard Schille.

The tour also included visits to several wonderful private collections, among them those of two Swiss artists, painter and quiltmaker Claudine Joho and papercut artist Anne Rosat.

The group took part in some wonderful Swiss sightseeing activities, including an exciting trip on the cogwheel train up the Jungfrau mountain, and went on some walking tours in the Old Towns of both Geneva and Lucerne. A multilingual Swiss guide escorted the group for the duration of the tour, greatly facilitating many of these activities.

Special thanks to the following people for helping to make this tour such a great success: Claudine and Jean-Pierre Joho, Jacques and Catherine Legeret, Anne Rosat, Monika

Muller, Hansueli Frohlich, Jeanette Gubler, Nelly Curti, Jenny Leuthold, and Andres Purger and Bernard Schtile of the Swiss National Museum.

The group of thirty-two members represented twelve different states, from New York to Oregon and from Vermont to Georgia, reflecting the national scope of our membership. More than half of the group had never participated in a Folk Art Explorers' Club tour before. Tours are open to all members on a firstcome-first-serve basis. Upcoming tours include Santa Fe in April 1993 and Chicago in June 1993.

For more information contact the Membership department at 212/977-7170.

American Folk Art Sidney Gecker 226 West 21st Street New York, N. Y 10011

(212) 929-8769 Appointment suggested

RARE PENNSYLVANIA POTTERY PEACOCK With Green, Yellow and Brown Slip Glaze.

Early 19th Century.

5 inches high.

(subject to prior sale)

Waxed wire basket full of hollow wax fruit. c 1880

AMERICAN ANTIQUES FOLK AND DECORATIVE ARTS

P.O. Box 1653 • Alexandria, Virginia 22313 • (703) 329-8612

WINTER 1992/93 FOLK ART 81

MUSEUM

LUISE

ROSS

WILL

EXHIBIT

NEWS

GALLERY THE Guest Curator Marion

EXTRAORDINARY

WORK

OF THORNTON

DIAL IN

NOVEMBER,

MINNIE

EVANS

IN

LONNIE APRIL

FEBRUARY, HOLLEY

AND

BILL

TRAYLOR

ALWAYS

50

57

WEST

IN

AT

STREET

NEW YORK (212) 307-0400

1=7 1-101A140.1(19 ALTERNATIVE ART SOURCE . .

. NOT ONLY THE SAME OLD THING

Errerging & Rarely Seen Outsider and Latin American Folk Art also;Finster Mose T SL-Jones Royal Robertson & others 3 Charles Street, NYC 10014

82 WINTER 1992/93 FOLK ART

°stringer, Jr. and his wife, Jill

Visiones del Pueblo— Two Gala Openings n enthusiastic, overflow crowd attended the Ford Motor Company reception at the Museum's Eva and Morris Feld Gallery on September 17, 1992. Featuring more than 250 colorful objects from 17 countries, Visiones del Pueblo: The Folk Art ofLatin America chronicles the folk heritage of Latin American artistic expression and illustrates through historic and contemporary works the European, African, Asian, and indigenous roots of these folk art traditions from the sixteenth century to the present day.

Gerard C. Wertkin, the Museum's director greeted the distinguished guests and thanked Ford Motor Company for their generous sponsorship of the exhibition and the six-city national tour. Pete Pestillo, Vice President, Corporate Relations and Diversified Businesses at Ford Motor Company, welcomed everyone and introduced the exhibition curator, Dr. Marion Oettinger, Jr., a cultural anthropologist and curator offolk art and Latin American art at the San Antonio Museum of Art. The Honorable Luis Cancel, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, acknowledged the importance of the exhibition and of the educational and outreach programs for the Hispanic community. Also among the guests on hand were The Honorable Ruth Messinger, Manhattan Borough President, and Jose Luis Torres(Chequi, the Ghetto Kid), 1965 world lightheavyweight boxing champion.

The festive evening began with the sounds of a South

A

Members of the South American Highland sextet INKHAY

American Highland sextet.

Outside the Museum, the street scene resembled a cafe, with benches festooned with colorful helium balloons and multicolored lights. In keeping with the Latin American theme, guests enjoyed a wide array of hors d'oeuvres, and wines and beers from Latin American countries, all served by Restaurant Associates.

The following Monday evening the Museum hosted its membership opening of Visiones del Pueblo. While previewing the exhibition, members and guests had the pleasure of listening to the lively music of Cumbre, a group of Bolivian musicians; once again,

212-989-3801 PHOTOGRAPHY BY: MATT HOEBERMANN

Ford Motor Company guests:

Pete Pestillo, Vice Presi-

Frank V.J. Darin, Director,

dent, Corporate Relations

Corporate Affairs Office;

and Diversified Businesses;

Mabel H. Brandon, Director,

and Leo J. Padilla, Manager,

Corporate Programming;

Urban and Ethnic Affairs

KRISTIN HELBERG Antique Chests • Grained Boxes, Mirrors and Accessories • Vinegar-Painted Furniture

,•

the response to the show was one of great enthusiasm.

Visiones del Pueblo has been extended at the Museum's Eva and Morris Feld Gallery through February 21, 1993.

A major catalog published

by Dutton Studio Books in

association with the Museum of American Folk Art will accompany the exhibition. A variety of children's educational programs, including storytelling and tours, will be organized at each of the six host institutions.

Interns Help Develop Educational Materials isiones del Pueblo: The Folk Art ofLatin America afforded the Museum an important opportunity to reach new audiences, especially among children, families and school groups, through the publication of a series of bilingual educational materials. With generous contributions from Ford Motor Company,the Museum's education department developed interpretive materials in English and Spanish that included a Family Guide for free distribution to visitors with children and a Teacher's Packet and video program for use in schools in New York and in the cities on the exhibition's national tour.

Three dedicated recent college graduates, Cathy Billings, Rebecca Danziger, and Jennifer Rittner, who served as education

V

department interns, undertook major efforts in the preparation of these materials. Rebecca Danziger developed the Family Guide, a full-color workbook that highlights and provides cultural background on eight objects in the exhibition. She also did extensive research and planning for the Teacher's Packet, for which Jennifer Rittner prepared and wrote detailed background information on the history and culture of Latin America and Cathy Billings developed the classroom projects. Each of the interns has since moved on to professional positions where they will be able to utilize many of the skills they developed while with the Museum. We wish them well!

Showroom in Washington,D.C. area. Painted furniture commissions gladly considered. By appointment only.

(301)681-5210 P.O. Box 1941 • Silver Spring, MD 20915

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HOWARD FINSTER'' R.A. MILLER J.B. MURRY MOSE T. NELLIE MAE ROWE And Other Outsider Artists

John Denton 102 Main St., P.O. Box 429 • Hiawassee, GA 30546 (706) 896-4863 • Fax (706) 896-1212

WINTER 1992/93 FOLK ART 83

'The Beaver" 48" x 24" Plywood

MERRY XMAS HAPPY NEW YEAR

The Beaver"

WANDA'S QUILTS P.O. Box 1764 Oldsmar, Florida 34677 (813)855-1521 THE BEAVER'S FOLK ART CAN BE SEEN AT THE DON SCOTT'S EXPO ANTIQUE SHOW THE 2ND WEEKEND OF EVERY MONTH IN ATLANTA, GEORGIA.

iolKviear AtTARfaimar,...ok MOSE T WOODIE LONG TIM REED REVEREND BENJAMIN PERKINS HOWARD FINSTER JAMES HAROLD JENNINGS JIMMY LEE SUDDUTH

Nine outstanding Folk Artists have licensed Campus Collection to meticulously screen print their work onto high-quality full color, 100% cotton t-shirts. Excellent stock items for galleries, museums, or specialty shops.

SARAH RAKES ANNIE T

Campus Collection P.O. Box 2904 Tuscaloosa, AL 35403

•11.,

at

For more information and a brochure call 1-800-289-8744 or 205-758-0678 or write to

-

•••

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•44

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Not sold individually.

Sold only to retail outlets at wholesale prices.

MARKETPLACE Classified Ad rates and deadlines RATES $95.00 per insertion. Box and phone numbers count as two words. Abbreviations and zip codes count as one word.

Area codes must accompany phone numbers. Maximum is 40 words (including headline, address, etc.).

DEADLINES January 10 April 10 July 10 October 10

for for for for

March 1 issue June 1 issue September 1 issue December 1 issue

PAYMENT Check or money order must accompany copy and be received prior to closing date. Make check payable to MUSEUM OF AMERICAN FOLK ART Classified Ad Department 61 West 62nd Street New York, NY 10023.

NO PROOFS WILL BE FURNISHED FOR CLASSIFIED ADS NO PHONE ORDERS WILL BE ACCEPTED

WINTER 1992/93

FOLK ART 85

MUSEUM

JACK SAVITT GALLERY At CAMELOT (Route 100 between Macungie and Trexlertown)

Macungie, Pennsylvania 18062

NEWS

TRAVELING EXHIBITIONS Mark your calendars for the following Museum of American Folk Art exhibitions when they travel to your area during the coming months: November 9, 1992—January 4, 1993 Patterns of Prestige: The Development and Influence of the Saltillo Sarape Eiteljorg Museum of American Indian and Western Art Indianapolis, Indiana 317/636-9378 November 13, 1992— December 20, 1992 Santos de Palo: The Household Saints of Puerto Rico Krannert Art Museum Champaign, Illinois 217/333-1860

Jack Savitt, Representing

JACK SAVITSKY 20th Century American Folk Artist • Oils • Acrylics • Drawings For Appointment Call

(215)398-0075 The Great American Quilt Festival

4

Museum of American Folk Art The Great American Quilt Festival 4 61 West 62nd Street New York, NY 10023

May 12-16, 1993 Pier 92 New York City A Museum of American Folk Art Event •Quilt Connection All-Stars Invitational Quilts •The Creative Balance Teachers' Showcase •Star Coverage Celebrities and their Quilts •Morning Star Quilts Northern Plains Indians •Marie Webster Quilts A Retrospective •Always There The African-American Presence in American Quilts •Signs and Symbols African Images in Quilts from the Rural South •Lectures, Workshops,Dealers and much, much more!

For information on travel & hotel arrangements & registration for all events send a LSASE with 520

80 WINTER 1992/93 FOLK ART

November 29, 1992—January 17, 1993 Access to Art': All Creatures Great and Small Museum of Fine Arts Saint Petersburg, Florida 813/896-2667 January 9, 1993—February 28, 1993 The Great American Quilt Festival 3: Discover America and Friends Sharing America James A. Michener Art Museum Doylestown, Pennsylvania 215/340-9800

January 25, 1993—August 23, 1993 Patterns of Prestige: The Development and Influence November 14. 1992—January 24, 1993 of the Saltillo Sarape The Cutting Edge: Textile Museum Contemporary American Folk Washington, District of Columbia Art from the Rosenak 202/667-0441 Collection February 1, 1993—March 29, 1993 Whatcom Museum of Access to Are: All Creatures History and Art Great and Small Bellingham, Washington Flint Institute of Arts 206/676-6981 Flint, Michigan 313/234-1695 For further information contact Alice J. Hoffman, Director of Exhibitions, Museum of American Folk Art, Administrative Offices, 61 West 62nd Street, New York, New York 10023, Telephone 212/977-7170

MARKETPLACE

Ben Apfelbaum offers access to the finest work of Thornton Dial, Ronald Lockett, Lonnie Holley, and other known and unknown 20th-century artists, in oil, watercolor, and sculptural forms. Cand. member, A.S.A.; Folk Art and Americana appraisals. By appointment.

212/791-3215 Brazilian Folk Art & Amazonian Indian Art.Several hundred items on display. Carved wooden votive sculptures, (ex-votos), Macumba Candomble altar icons(ferramentos), Carrancas, and various Indian art of fifteen tribes. Tribe Gallery, 196 7th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11215.

718/499-8200 Clarion Back Issues—All issues available for 1988, 1989, 1990 at $10.00 per issue. 1991 to present $5.00 per copy. Select back issues are available from 1979 to 1987 at $10.00 per issue. Send your inquiry to

Hildegard Vetter c/o Museum of American Folk Art. Postage & handling additional.

Just for Nice—Most comprehensive book on Pennsylvania woodcarving.

Illustrating 275 carvings in full color.

Biographies of thirty previously unidentified carvers. Hardcover, indexed, bibliography. $35.00 postpaid for Christmas. Historical Society of Berks County, MAF,940 Centre Avenue, Reading, PA 19601.

Johnson Antonio Carvings—Good selection of cottonwood "dolls" handcarved and painted by the famed Navajo folk artist Sizes from 10" to 307 A perfect gift for the collector.

Write Big Sky Indian Arts, 4136 Library Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15234 or call 412/561-3223 or 412/833-3282.

outsider [naive • self-taught • visionary • intuitive • outsider • art brut]

JANUARY 30 & 31 THE PUCK BUILDING LAFAYETTE & HOUSTON STREET SOHO,NYC PREVIEW:January 29th SYMPOSIA Sponsored by The Museum of American Folk Art INFORMATION: Colin Lynch Smith or Caroline Kerrigan Sanford L Smith & Associates, Ltd. 68 East 7th Street New York, NY 10003 (212)777-5218 FAX:(212)477-6490

EXHIBITORS Judith Alexander, Atlanta, GA American Primitive Gallery, New York, NY The Ames Gallery, Berkeley, CA Henry Boxer, London Brooks Folk Art, Chattanooga,TN Cavin-Morris, New York, NY Epstein/Powell, New York, NY Janet Fleisher Gallery, Philadelphia, PA Galerie Bonheur, St. Louis, MO Gasperi Gallery, New Orleans, LA Gilley's Gallery, Baton Rouge, LA Julie Green, Sydney Carl Hammer Gallery, Chicago, IL Lynne Ingram Southern Folk Art, Milford, NJ Yvette Jacobs, NY Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York, NY Objects Gallery, Chicago, IL The Red Piano Art Gallery, Hilton Head,SC Ricco / Maresca Gallery, New York, NY Luise Ross Gallery, New York, NY Sailor's Valentine Gallery, Nantucket, MA Sale of Hats, New York, NY William Shearburn Gallery, St. Louis, MO Ute Stebich Gallery, Lenox, MA Edward Thorp Gallery, New York, NY list incomplete PHOTO COURTESY OF LUISE ROSS GALLERY

AMERICAN FOLK AND OUTSIDER ART HOURS. TUES - SAT . 11 - 6

6909 MELROSE AVENUE LOS ANGELES CA 90038 213 . 933. 4096

DEBORAH BARRETT "FALLEN ANGEL" 36 x 16" POLYCHROME/ WOOD, COPPER, CANVAS, BOTTLE CAPS, ELECTRICAL CORD.

INDEX

TO

ADVERTISERS

America Hurrah 3,4,5,6 America Oh, Yes 70 American Primitive Gallery 2 Ames Gallery of American Folk Art 17 art inside 79 Authentic Designs 69 Barrister's Gallery 39 Campus Collection 85 Robert Cargo Folk Art Gallery 19 Caskey-Lees Gallery 76 Christie's 35 Cognoscenti, Inc. 69 Cotton Belt 39 Country Folk Art Show & Sale 68 Country Living Magazine Inside Back Cover 83 John Denton Double K Gallery 34 Epstein/Powell 31 Laura Fisher Antiques 28 Janet Fleisher Gallery 15 Galerie Bonheur 73 Gallery 1775 38 Gasperi Gallery 71 Sidney Gecker American Folk Art 81

88 WINTER 1992/93 FOLK ART

Giampietro 8,9 Gilley's Gallery 77 Grove Decoys 22 Anton Haardt Gallery 21 Heart of Country Antiques Show 18 Kristin Helberg 83 Herrup & Wolfner 34 John C. Hill American Indian Art 79 Leslie Howard/Alternative Art Source 82 Lynne Ingram Southern Folk Art 7 Martha Jackson 20 Andy Kane 73 Phyllis Kind Gallery 26 Knoke Galleries 31 June Lambert 81 Jim Linderman 70 Main Street Antiques 26 Marketplace 86 Marston Luce Antiques 37 Frank J. Miele Gallery Inside Front Cover Steve Miller 1 Joy Moos Gallery 80 Leslie Muth Gallery 29 Objects Gallery 75

Barbara Olsen 71 Outside-in 88 Carol and Gene Rappaport 12 R M Gallery 85 Red Piano Art Gallery 36 Roger Ricco/Frank Maresca 13 Luise Ross 82 John Keith Russell Antiques, Inc. Back Cover Jack Savitt Gallery 86 David A. Schorsch 24 Bruce Shelton 69 Sanford L. Smith & Associates, Ltd. 87 Sotheby's 32 the Splendid Peasant, ltd. Antiques 16 Ute Stebich Gallery 36 The Tartt Gallery 33 Toad Hall 27 Wanda's Quilts 84 Marcia Weber/Art Objects, Inc. 14 Eldred Wheeler of Houston 77 David Wheatcroft 39 Wilton Historical Society 23 Thos. K. Woodard 10 Shelly Zegart Quilts 37

C Igi Untr

(119

o

Lft

(1417

AMERICS LARGEST AND FAVORITE SHOWCASE FOR ANTIQUES AND FOLK ART A publication of Hearst Magazines, a division of The Hearst Corporation. ©1992 The Hearst Corporation.

JOHNItUSSELL AVIQVES,

Painted And Decorated Sheraton Settee, In Original Condition, Probably New York State, Circa 1820.

72 Inches In Length Overall, 32 1/2 Inches High With A 17 3/4 Inch Seat Height.

/or SPRING STREET,(SOUTH SALEM, WESTCHESTER COUNTY, N,Y. 10590 TUESDAY-SUNDAY 10:00-5:30 (914)763-8144• FAX:(914)763-3553