Folk Art (Winter 1995/1996)

MAGAZINE OF THE MUSEUM OF AMERICAN FOLK ART

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STEVE HILLER • AMERICAN FOLK ART •

GODDESS OF LIBERTY WEATHERVANE

by A.L. Jewell, Waltham, MA.Third quarter of the 19th century.

17 East 96th Street, New York, New York 10128(212)348-5219 Gallery hours are from 1:00 pm until 6:00 pm,Tuesday through Saturday.

Other hours are available by appointment.

Late 19th-century articulated carving of a black figure, all original.

DAVID WHEATCROFT 220 East Main Street, Westborough, Massachusetts 01581 508. 366. 1723

NEW JERSEY MASTERPIECE

Garden of Eden Applique Quilt Signed: "Abby F. Bell Ross Irvington, New Jersey, 1874" 87" x 87"

JOEL AND KATE KOPP

AMERICA HURRAH 766 MADISON AVENUE NEW YORK

NY 10021 tel 212.535.1930 fax 212.249.9718

AMERICAN ANTIQUES & QUILTS

Introducing fourteen exciting new additions.

Catalogue $6.00

WOODARD WEAVE CLASSIC AMERICAN WOVEN CARPETS, AREA RUGS AND RUNNERS IN AUTHENTIC HISTORIC PATTERNS AND COLORS. 799 Madison Avenue

New York, N.Y. 10021 •(212)988-2906

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

FOLK ART VOLUME 20, NUMBER 4/ WINTER 1995/96 (FORMERLY THE CLARION)

FEATURES

Cover: Detail UNTITLED (family of deer); Martin Ramirez; Auburn, California; c.

1950s; mixed media on paper; 36 x 26".

Private collection. Photo courtesy Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York

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 $6.00. Published and copyright 1995 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 responsibility for misunderstandings that may arise from the purchase or sale of objects or services advertised in its pages. The Museum is dedicated to the exhibition and interpretation offolk art and 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 that illustrate or describe objects that have been exhibited at the Museum within one year of placing an advertisement.

MARTIN RAMIREZ Randall Morris

36

APOTHECARY & ANTECEDENTS: HISTORY IN AMERICAN FOLK ART Arthur and Sybil Kern

46

THE CHRISTMAS BONFIRES OF ST. JAMES PARISH William A. Fagaly

54

DEPARTMENTS

EDITOR'S COLUMN

6

DIRECTOR'S LETTER

11

MINIATURES

16

BOOK REVIEWS

62

HOLIDAY TREES EXHIBITION

64

MUSEUM REPRODUCTIONS PROGRAM

77

MUSEUM NEWS

82

TRUSTEES/DONORS

90

WINTER PROGRAMS

93

TRAVELING EXHIBITIONS

95

INDEX TO ADVERTISERS

96

WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART 5

EDITOR'S

COLUMN

ROSEMARY GABRIEL

he Museum's Fall season opened with an extraordinary exhibition, "Norwegian Folk Art: The Migration of a Tradition," that was surrounded by many special events attended by Museum members— including a royal visit. Our members also toured Nova Scotia, partied at the Fall Antiques Show Opening Night Benefit Preview, attended lectures, watched wood-carving and painting demonstrations, listened to storytellers, heard a capella Shaker singing, and even went to the movies. For more details, see our expanded Museum News section.

We look ahead to an equally exciting Winter season with the opening of the exhibitions "Expressions of Trust: Recent Acquisitions from the Permanent Collection" and "Discovering Ellis Ruley," the Opening Night Benefit Preview of the Outsider Art Fair, and the Museum-sponsored "Uncommon Artists IV," a symposium featuring the film premiere of Reverend Howard Finster: The Sacred Vision and talks by Barbara Cate, Paul D'Ambrosio, Wayne Cox,and Randall Moms.

Randall Morris, who will speak about self-taught artist Keith Goodhart during the upcoming symposium, has written the cover story for this issue on Martin Ramirez. Morris takes us across uncharted ground and forces us to look upon Ramirez's work, not as inscrutable and incoherent expressions of schizophrenia, but as contemporary Mexican art that draws on, and comes out of, a complex cultural context.

Culture and history are recorded, consciously or unconsciously, by artists of every age and nation.

Arthur and Sybil Kern have traced some of the early roots of apothecary traditions in the United States through examples of TRAIN Martin Ramirez 1948-1953; pencil and crayon on paper; American folk art. Their / 1 2"; Museum of American Folk Art, gift of Herbert Waldo story begins with the paint- 21½ x 52k., 1990.1.2 ed wagon doors of an itinerant vendor of patent medicines and, through trade signs and trade figures, follows some very interesting developments in the early years of American pharmaceuticals.

Pageantry is a part of every society's history. In an exciting essay by William A. Fagaly, we quickly learn that in southern Louisiana, at Christmastime, American folk art is not the means of recording an event, but is itself the event."The Christmas Bonfires of St. James Parish" is the story of the construction and burning of more than seventy-five elaborate log structures running in a row along the levee. The structures are lined up for approximately three miles and, when ignited, light the way for Pere Noel, as he makes his way down the Mississippi River on Christmas Eve. Fagaly's wonderfully illustrated text is fascinating and fun to read—and will put off any Scrooge in our midst.

To celebrate the holiday season in New York, the Museum will mount its third annual Christmas tree exhibition. The trees this year are decorated with handpainted ornaments made by members of the Genesee Country Chapter of the Historical Society of Early American Decoration. They will be on view from December 5, along with "Norwegian Folk Art," and will close with that exhibition on January 7. I do hope you will visit the Museum during that time and celebrate the holidays with us. To translate the closing words of William Fagaly's essay, and on behalf of the Museum staff, I would like to say "Let the good times roll and Merry Christmas."

T

II WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART

FOLK ART Rosemary Gabriel Editor and Publisher Jeffrey Kibler, The Magazine Group,Inc. Design Tanya Heinrich Production Editor Benjamin J. Boyington Copy Editor Marilyn Brechner Advertising Manager John Hood Advertising Sales Craftsmen Litho Printers MUSEUM OF AMERICAN FOLK ART Administration Gerard C. Werticin Director Riccardo Salmona Deputy Director Joan M. Walsh Controller Mary Linda Zonana Director ofAdministration Helene J. Ashner Assistant to the Director Jeffrey Grand Senior Accountant Christopher Giuliano Accountant Charles L. Allen Mailroom Suzanna Brauer Reception Collections ik Exhibitions Stacy C. Hollander Curator Ann-Marie Reilly Registrar Judith Gluck Steinberg Assistant Registrar/ Coordinator, Traveling Exhibitions Pamela Brown Gallery Manager Mary-Beth Shine Weekend Gallery Manager Gina Bianco Consulting Conservator Elizabeth V. Warren Consulting Curator Howard Lanser Consulting Exhibition Designer Kenneth R. Bing Security Departments Beth Bergin Membership Director Marie S. DiManno Director ofMuseum Shops Susan Flamm Public Relations Director Alice J. Hoffman Director ofLicensing Valerie K. Longwood Director ofDevelopment Janey Fire Photographic Services Chris Cappiello Membership Associate Maryann Warakomski Assistant Director ofLicensing Jennifer A. Waters Development Associate Claudia Andrade Manager ofInformation Systems, Retail Operations Catherine Barreto Membership Assistant Edith C. Wise Consulting Librarian Eugene P. Sheehy Volunteer Librarian Rita Keckeissen Volunteer Librarian Katya Ullmann Library Assistant Programs Lee Kogan Director, Folk Art Institute/Senior Research Fellow Barbara W.Cate Educational Consultant 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 Arlene Hochman Coordinator, Docent Programs Lynn Steuer Coordinator, Outreach Programs Museum Shop Staff Managers: Dorothy Gargiulo, Caroline Hohenrath, Rita Pollitt, Brian Pozun; Mail Order: Beverly McCarthy; Security: Bienvenido Medina; Volunteers: Marie Anderson, Helen Barer, Olive Bates, Mary Campbell, Sally Frank, Jennifer Gerber, Millie Gladstone, Elli Gordon, Edith Gusoff, Ann Hannon, Bernice Hoffer, Elizabeth Howe,Joan Langston, Annette Levande, Arleen Luden, Katie McAuliffe, Nancy Mayer, Theresa Naglack, Pat Pancer, Marie Peluso, Judy Rich, Frances Rojack, Phyllis Selnick, Myra Shaskan, Lola Silvergleid, Maxine Spiegel, Mary Wamsley 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 10023-6214 212/496-2966

Eugene Von Bruenehenhein PAINTINGS January 26th - February 24th,1996

_ Wand of the Genii (No.808), June 14, 1959, 24"11 x 24"W, oil on masonite

Please come see us at the Outsider Art Fair, New York City, January 25th -28th

RICCO/MARESCA GALLERY 152 WOOSTER STREET, NEW YORK, NY 10012, 212.780.0071, (FAX)212.780.0076

Robert Cargo

FOLK ART GALLERY Contemporary Folk Art • Haitian Spirit Flags Southern, Folk, and African-American Quilts

Rev. Benjamin F. Perkins (1904-1993). King Tut Treasure, 42 x 54 inches, oil on canvas, ca. 1970-1975.

Done at the very beginning of his career, the painting we offer is one of the four or five earliest examples of an image that, along with the American flag and the church, was to become something of a trademark for the artist.

On Rev. Perkins, see 0, Appalachia (1989), the Rosenak Encyclopedia (1990), Maresca and Ricco (1993), Sellen and Johanson (1993), Passionate Visions of the American South (1993), and Kemp and Boyer, Revelations (1994).

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.

n; 1

Thor

Works On Paper 1990 1995 and A Survey of Paintings and Assemblages from the same period

Through January 31, 1996.

"Blue Lady 1994 oil pastel on paper 42 H

Coming in February Rhythms: Drawings by Henry Speller 11) 1 (111\

Archer Locke Gallery

3157 Peachtree Road 111111111)

I Peachtree 8 Grandview I Atlanta. GA 30305 404 812 9600 lax 404 812.9616

We are pleased to be participating In

Archer

The Outsider Art Fair.

Free video catalogs and price lists available upon request.

ALLAN KATZ Americana

Pair of Cowboy Shooting Gallery Targets.

Cast & Sheet Iron.

Circa 1920.

Each target 48" high.

175 Ansonia Road, Woodbridge, Connecticut 06525 •(203) 397-8144

DIRECTOR'S

LETTER

GERARD C. WERTKIN

ing Harald V and Queen Sonja of Norway visited the Museum of American Folk Art on October 11, 1995. The royal visit capped an especially exciting early fall season at the Museum,as reflected in this issue's "Museum News."

"Norwegian Folk Art: The Migration of a Tradition" brought many first-time visitors to the Museum,including Bjorn Tore Godal, Norway's Minister of Foreign Affairs, and other distinguished members of the Scandinavian academic, cultural, and diplomatic communities. This ground-breaking exhibition continues at the Museum until Thursday, January 7, 1996.

If you have not yet seen this evocative presentation of Norwegian folk traditions, please plan to do so. I promise that you will not be disappointed.

Whether or not you have had an opportunity to visit the exhibition, I recommend the purchase of the excellent catalog that accompanies it: Norwegian Folk Art: The Migration ofa Tradition. Ably edited by Dr. Marion Nelson, the exhibition's guest curator, this richly illustrated volume, which is distributed by Abbeville Press, contains articles by leading scholars from Norway and the United States. The book is available in a hardcover edition at $65 or in soft-cover at $37.50. It contains 280 pages and 283 illustrations, most of which are in full color.

There is another book that I wish to bring to your attention. Prior to his death in 1991, my predecessor as Director of the Museum,Dr. Robert Bishop, began preparing a new book for publication that he hoped would be a summation of his work in the field of American folk art. Although the manuscript remained unfinished, Bob Bishop's longtime editor, Museum Trustee Cyril I. Nelson, persevered in completing the project. Nelson enlisted the assistance of Jacqueline M. Atkins, former editor of this magazine, not only to complete the text, but, where necessary, to add additional material. The result, Folk Art in American Life, belongs in the library of everyone interested in the subject. The volume presents over 260 full-color illustrations, many of which are drawn from the Museum's collection. At $29.95, Folk Art in American Life is a great bargain, as well. I might add that this colorful volume from Viking/Penguin is perfect for Christmas giving.

Both books are available through the Museum Book Shop, with an additional charge of $4.00 for postage and handling; to order, write to the Museum of American Folk Art,61 West 62nd Street, New York, NY 10023, or call Beverly McCarthy at 212/977-7170.

Previously I have reported in this column that the Museum is organizing a major retrospective devoted to American self-taught artists of the twentieth century, under the guest curatorship of Elsa Longhauser.

Planning for this major exhibition was begun under a generous grant from the Lila Wallace—Reader's Digest Fund. I am delighted to announce that the Museum has received a commitment for a major grant from The Henry Luce Foundation, Inc., to assist with the implementation of the project. This is the second grant that the Museum has received from The Henry Luce Foundation in the last three years, which is a major affirmation by one of America's leading foundations of the Museum's mission and the quality of its programming. I should like to express my gratitude to Henry Luce III, Chairman and CEO; John W.Cook, President, and Ellen Holtzman, Program Director for the Arts, for this encouraging vote of confidence.

K

King Harald V and Queen Sonja of Norway

New Trustee Vira L.M.H. Goldman and Trustee Emeritus George F. Shaskan, Jr.

New Trustee Julie K. Palley and Gerard C. Wertkin

Photography by Matt Flynn

Speaking of grants, I should mention major underwriting from The Coca-Cola Company for Reverend Howard Finster: The Sacred Vision, one of several film projects being undertaken by the Museum.Produced by Mark Kalbfeld and directed by Jay Brown,the film will have its premiere in Atlanta in December at the celebration of Howard Finster's eightieth birthday. Its New York debut will be on January 27 at the Museum's symposium "Uncommon Artists IV," presented in con-

WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART 11.

DIRECTOR'S

LETTER

junction with the fourth annual Outsider Art Fair. R. Adrian King, Manager, Arts and Cultural Programs,for Coca-Cola, deserves the gratitude of the entire Museum family for his thoughtful interest in the project. Additional support, for which I am warmly appreciative, has been provided by Arista Nashville and Planet, Inc. Coca-Cola is a generous supporter of the Museum in other ways as well. In connection with the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, the Museum and Coca-Cola have collaborated on "The Coca-Cola Contour Bottle: An Olympic Salute to Folk Art." Folk artists and traditional craftspersons from around the world have been invited to interpret Coca-Cola's classic contour bottle using local materials and expressing their own folk traditions. I should like to extend my thanks to Bob Bertini, Kerry Traubert, and Susan McDermott of Coca-Cola Public & Media Relations for their friendship and support.

At the Annual Meeting of the Museum's Board of Trustees, which was held in September, President Ralph 0. Esmerian announced the retirement of George F. Shaskan, Jr., who has served the Museum with great distinction in a number of leadership roles. First elected to the Board in 1983, George has served as Treasurer and Secretary to the

Board, Chairman of the Nominating and Finance Committees, and member on the Executive Committee. He and his wife, Myra, are known to many members and friends of the institution for their dedication to its mission. In honor of his contributions to the Museum,the Board elected George Shaskan a Trustee Emeritus and established an annual award for scholarship to be presented in his and Myra's honor to the student adjudged most outstanding in the Museum's Folk Art Institute.

At the Annual Meeting two new Trustees, Vira L.M.H. Goldman and Julie K. Palley, were welcomed to the Board. Mrs. Goldman and her husband, Robert, are collectors of traditional American folk art and fine American furniture. Mrs. Goldman also has a longstanding interest in Ukrainian folk costumes and textiles. She is organizing an exhibition of materials drawn from collections in Ukraine for eventual presentation in the United States. Mrs. Palley and her husband, Samuel (Sandy), also collect traditional folk art. They have also assembled a well-known and important collection of ceramics by Clarice Cliff. It is my pleasure to thank both new Trustees for assuming this responsibility at such an importantjuncture in the Museum's history. *

•zr

Keith Goodhart Gargoyle of the Plains 1995, 29" x 32" x 20"

CAVIN-MORRIS GALLERY 560 Broadway, New York, NY 10012 (212) 226-3768 FAX (212) 226-0155

12 WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART

II

XIIII MINIX

Richly illustrated with over 260 color plates, this magnificent volume is a comprehensive summation of the wealth and variety of American folk art of the past 300 years, including paintings, household furnishings, textiles, sculpture, and environments.

240 pages $29.95 cloth

IN BOOKSTORES NOW

AMERICAN FOLK ART AT CHRISTIE'S FOLLOW THE HERD Sold from the collection of Mr.& Mrs. Eddy Nicholson, January 27 and 28, 1995. For further information, contact Susan Kleckner at 212 546 1181.To purchase the January 1996 catalogue,please call 800 395 6300.

A silk-on-silk Needlework Picture, By Mary Flower, Philadelphia, 1764.

Sold :it Christie\ for S123,51/0.

Princip.11 Aut tioncer :Int.toplier Burge $4761.i4.1

CHRIST!E'S

"Be it known that all men shall befree" An impassioned African-American masterpiece, memorializing the passage from enslavement in Africa to Emancipation in the United States; about 1865.

Cane length 35 inches.

A ceramic four figure masterpiece: The Signing of the Treaty, William Penn and Indians; inkwell attributed to George S. Harker & Co., East Liverpool, Ohio, about 1880; length 12 inches, width 8 inches, height 101/2 inches.

PETER HILL,INC. Box 187, East Lempster, N.H. 03605 1-800-927-1001

MINIATURES

COMPILED BY TANYA HEINRICH VIEW OF THE ARCTIC OCEAN AT SYDNIA, AUSTRALIA, Joseph Yoakum, Chicago, c. 1970, colored pencil and ballpoint pen on paper, 12 18.. Collection of Ellen and Leslie Kreisler, courtesy Janet Fleisher Gallery.

Sacred Waters Elements of the vast and mythic marine world serve as inspiration for "Sacred Waters: TwentiethCentury Outsiders and the Sea," which will be on view at The South Street Seaport Museum in Manhattan from January 26 to May 28, 1996. Organized by guest curator Gael Mendelsohn, the exhibition will feature paintings, drawings, and sculptures by self-taught artists from the United

States and Europe—Henry Darger, Thornton Dial, Howard Finster, William Hawkins, Justin McCarthy, Nikifor, Elijah Pierce, Bill Traylor, Alfred Wallis, and Joseph Yoakum,among others— all with the unifying theme of the sea. For more information, please call 212/669-9400. A breakfast and exhibition tour, led by Gael Mendelsohn, will take place on Sunday, January 28 as part of

"Uncommon Artists IV," a symposium held in conjunction with the Outsider Art Fair. For more information, please see Museum Programming on page 93.

Mater Exhibition in Atlanta An installation of sculptural pieces from Paradise Garden, Howard Finster's outdoor environment in Summerville, Ga., will be on view at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta from January 23 through April 14, 1996."Howard Finster: Visions from Paradise Garden," which will mark the occasion of the artist's 80th year, will also include paintings,found-object

assemblages, documentary photographs, and a series of recent photographic images of Finster's renowned garden setting by three contemporary artists: David Graham, Karelcin Goekjian, and Mary Ellen Mark. For more information, please call 404/733-4437.

FAMILY RECORD; Sophia Dyer; Portland, Maine; 1819; silk on linen, 25 • 211 / 2 . Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, gift of Barbara Schiff Sinayer.

IS WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART

American Schoolgirl Needlework Trends in female education and the traditional roles of young women in American society are revealed in "American Schoolgirl Needlework:'When this you see, remember me,— on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York through February 18, 1996. The exhibition of 18th- and 19th-century needlework pictures and samplers from its permanent collection illustrates the span of a woman's schooling in five areas—marking samplers, pictorial samplers, coats of arms, silk mourning pictures and family records, and needlework pictures—the completion of which marked the crowning achievement and worthiness of a young girl's education. For more information, please call 212/879-5500.

John Sideli Art & Antiques Stylish Objects of the 18th, 19th & 20th Centuries 214 ROUTE 71 • PO BOX 149 • NORTH EGREMONT, MA 01252 • 413.528.2789

MINIATURES

Blowing in the Wind "You Don't Need a Weatherman to Know Which Way the Wind Blows: Folk Art Weathervanes from the Mercer Collection" will be on view at the Mercer Museum in Doylestown, Pa., through May 1996. This display of 25 pieces of rare weather-related folk art highlights the role of 18th- and 19th-century weathervanes both as necessary forecasting tools and as decorative and symbolic architectural elements.

The eclectic forms on view include a running rooster, a quill pen, a seahorse, a fireman's trumpet, a trotting horse, and a farmer at work with his plow. The exhibition also includes weather lore, almanacs, farmers'journals, and popular folk sayings of early America. For more information, please call 215/345-0210.

TROTTING HORSE WEATHERVANE; maker unknown; possibly Quakertown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania; 19th century; painted sheet iron and wrought iron. Collection of the Mercer Museum, gift of Henry C. Mercer.

MAGIQUE NOIRE, Hector Hyppolite, Haiti, 1946-1948, oil on board, 25/ 1 2 x 37/ 1 2.

Collection of Milwaukee Art Museum, gift of Richard and Erna Flagg.

Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou "Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou," a comprehensive exploration of the ritual arts produced in Haiti within the vibrant AfroCaribbean religion, will be at the UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History in Los Angeles through June 16, 1996. The exhibition of more than 500 objects includes sequined flags, contemporary paintings, sacred bottles, painted calabashes, beaded rattles, bound medicine packets, dolls, musical instruments, protective amulets, and altars.

The Gitter/Yelen Collection "Pictured in My Mind: Contemporary Self-Taught Art from the Gitter/Yelen Collection" will be on view at the Birmingham Museum of Art in Birmingham, Ala.,from February 4 through April 7, 1996. Organized by curator Gail Trechsel, the exhibition features 205 paintings, drawings, sculptures, and assemblages by 53 self-taught artists from many regions of the United States. These pieces represent the collection of Dr. Kurt Gitter and Alice Rae Yelen of New Orleans.

Artists include Thornton Dial,

The exhibition is accompanied by a 450-page catalog and a compilation recording, Rhythms ofRapture: Sacred Musics of Haitian Vodou, published by Smithsonian/Folkways Recordings."Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou" will travel to Miami, Chicago, and New Orleans, and to the American Museum of Natural History in New York in May 1997. For more information, please call 310/825-4361.

Sam Doyle, William Hawkins, Charlie Lucas, Sister Gertrude Morgan,Jack Savitsky, Jon Serl, Jimmy Lee Sudduth, and Mose Tolliver. Contributors to the fullcolor catalog accompanying the exhibition include Roger Cardinal, William R. Ferris, Lee Kogan, Dr. Susan C. Larsen, Tom Patterson, Dr. Regenia A. Perry, Dr. Gary Schwindler, and Gail Trechsel. For more information, please call 205/254-2565.

ATHLETE; John Sort; Lake Elsinore, California; 1988; oil on board; 47/ 1 2 .< 311 / 2 ; Gitter/Yelen Collection

18 WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART

CLARENCE STRINGFIELD (1903-1976)

Mary("Mary T.") Tillman Smith 1905-1995 Mary T. Smith, a self-taught artist who was known for her bold, bright paintings on corrugated tin, died on July 18, 1995, in Hazelhurst, Miss., after a long illness.

Born in Brookhaven, Miss., on November 4, 1904, to a family of sharecroppers, she received some primary school education and at an early age joined her family as a field worker. After a failed first marriage and a second marriage to John Smith in the 1930s, she continued to sharecrop at the Dixie Garden Farm in Martinsville, Miss. She moved to Hazelhurst some time in or after 1938 and worked there as a domestic until her retirement in 1975.

After she retired, Smith began to embellish her yard with paintings on corrugated tin roofing panels. Because her house was located on one of Hazelhurst's main streets, her yard environment attracted much attention.

Her brightly painted portraits of men and women in unmixed colors were often accompanied by text, which frequently expressed

her strong religious beliefs and other wisdoms. Her flattened subjects are highly abstracted with little if any detail. In the late 1980s, she created artworks on plywood. A stroke in 1985 impaired Smith's speech and writing ability, but even as her health deteriorated, she continued her artmaking until the last few years of her life.

Smith's paintings are in the collections of the Birmingham Museum of Art in Alabama and the New Orleans Museum of Art. She is represented in several publications, including the Museum ofAmerican Folk Art Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century American Folk Art and Artists, by Chuck and Jan Rosenak,(New York: Abbeville Press, 1990), and the upcoming Souls Grown Deep: African American Vernacular Art ofthe South, Robert Hobbs(New York: Harry N. Abrams,Inc., 1996).

Smith is survived by a son, Sherdie L. Major, and several nieces and nephews. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Lee Kogan

"Beauty"(circa 1970) Wood,32"x8"x6", provenance, Sterling Strauser "Stringfield's bathing beauties all seem to have been modeled after the same woman. They are amply proportioned, with large pointed noses, angularfaces and thin lips that turn down at the corners; they...wear brown loafers." -Encylopedia of 20th Century Folk Art and Artists, by Chuck and Jan Rosenak

EPSTEM POWEI414 22 Wooster St., New York, N.Y. 10013

By Appointment(212)226-7316 Jesse Aaron Rex Clawson Mr. Eddy Roy Ferdinand Victor Joseph Gatto (estate) Lonnie Holley S.L. Jones Lawrence Lebduska Charlie Lucas Justin McCarthy Old Ironsides Pry Popeye Reed Max Romain Jack Savitsky Mose Tolliver Chief Willey George Williams Luster Willis ...among others

WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART 19

P

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ARTWORKS+ DESIGN FOR HOME, OFFICE OR OBSESSION

hours: tuesday —saturday 11:00 — 6:00 pm

660 N. Larchmont Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90004 213 . 467 . 3584 [fax] 213 .467 . 5782

AMERICAN PRIMITIVE GALLERY 596 Broadway #205 New York, NY 10012 212-966-1530 Mon—Sat 11am - 6pm

20 WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART

John Woods, Things Used to go Better With Coke, 1973

ROBERT SHOLTIES Visionary paintings by a self-taught Surrealist REVOLUTIONARY WAR GAME PRESERVE 32" x 60"

MINIATURES

Ted Gordon Sterling Strauser 1907-1995 Sterling Strauser died of cancer at his home in East Stroudsburg, Pa., on September 16, 1995. He had turned 88 years old on August 16.

Strauser's recognition as an artist was at least equaled by his reputation as a discoverer and champion of many now-celebrated twentieth-century American folk artists. He has been hailed by the Museum of American Folk Art and others for his efforts in fostering interest in this aspect of American culture. Such widely collected painters as Justin McCarthy, Victor Joseph Gallo, Jack Savitsky, and "Ironsides" Pry are among those whose work he championed. Beneath these artists' "primitive" unfamiliarity with painterly techniques, Strauser and his wife, Dorothy, found enduring art.

Strauser began painting in 1926 in a near-impressionist style that later evolved into a powerful Klee-like modernism that still later softened into what one collector of his work termed "romantic American expressionism." His subjects in this latter phase were often flowers and local scenes, especially the East Stroudsburg train station and some of the more imposing residences on Analomink Street.

This was the street on which he and his wife, who was also a painter, lived in a modest house almost overwhelmed by a lifetime's accumulation of American self-taught art. Collectors journeyed to Analomink Street to buy this art and, if they were lucky, to absorb some of Strauser's knowledge, enthusiasm, and humor.

In 1962, after 32 years with the International Boiler Works of East Stoudsburg, where he had risen from shipping clerk to

company secretary, he quit to become a full-time artist.

Although his work was exhibited to good reviews by the Zimbalist Gallery in New York in 1939, and by other galleries over the years, widespread recognition for his art came late in life and he more than once remarked on the irony of having so few years to enjoy it. His work is in the permanent collections of the American Museum in Bath, England; the Everhart Museum in Scranton, Pa.; the Cheekwood Museum in Nashville, Tenn.; and the Lehigh University Museum in Bethlehem, Pa.; as well as in many private collections. He was represented by the Lyzon Gallery of Nashville for more than 30 years, and his work is much sought after by collectors in that region and in eastern Pennsylvania. He knew and traded works with many well-known painters, and thus was able to acquire paintings by Milton Avery, David Burliuk, Red Grooms,and others. Strauser worked at his art up until the end.

He is survived by his wife, Dorothy; his daughter, Jill Alves of Levittown, Pa.; his brother, Fred, of East Stroudsburg; four grandchildren; four great-grandchildren; and two nieces. He is also survived by those who, like me,think themselves lucky to have known a man like this.

—Gene Epstein Gene Epstein, writer and co-owner of the Epstein/Powell Gallery in New York City, has been a collector since 1976. He has written articles on artists Victor Joseph Gatto and Justin McCarthyfor this publication.

\\.\•••••

"Higher Calling" mixed media on paper, 10x8", 1991

Leroy Almon, Sr. Archuleta Family Eddie Arning Johnnie Banks "Uncle Pete" Drgac estate "Glassman" S.L. Jones Navajo folk art Justin McCarthy Ike Morgan Greg Pelner Sulton Rogers Mary T. Smith

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

WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART 21

Willard "The Texas Kid" Watson 1921-1995 Willard Watson, known as "The Texas Kid," died in a Dallas hospital on June 12, 1995,five days before his seventy-fourth birthday. He suffered from emphysema and had been hospitalized since late March.

Willard, the seventh of eleven children, was born on a plantation in Caddo Parish, La., where his father was a sharecropper. The family relocated to Dallas in 1928. Watson attended school until age fourteen, when he quit to help support his family, and he worked at a variety ofjobs throughout his life. He was married seven times. His final marriage, to Elnora Love,lasted nearly thirty years, until her recent death. Given the nickname "the kid from Texas" by Oklahoma relatives, Watson eventually changed it to "The Texas Kid," the name by which he was best known.

Willard Watson believed that his artistic ability was a gift he was born with and that his

"photostatic mind" enabled him to remember everything he saw.

His vivid memories became the subjects of colorful mixed-media drawings that together tell the story of his life. A suite of twelve of these works is in the permanent collection of the Dallas Museum of Art. Watson also collected found objects, a practice he began as a child while fishing with his mother, creating sculptures inspired by the natural forms. He would "bring out" figures contained within the roots and limbs, and they would become snakes, alligators, or creatures with such names as the "two-headed thing" and "boogiewoogie bull." Some of these objects became part of the display in Watson's yard show. Begun in 1975, this environment, an important example of AfricanAmerican yard decoration, was given national exposure in David Byrne's film True Stories. Watson transformed his entire life into an aesthetic experience,from

Queries In preparation for the first major traveling retrospective of works

by Sister Gertrude Morgan, organized by the Museum of American Folk Art, we are seeking major paintings, gouaches, drawings, and objects (painted plastic foam trays, lampshades, toilet paper rolls, fans, megaphones) for inclusion in the exhibition and accompanying catalog. Please contact:

The Diggs Gallery at WinstonSalem State University in North Carolina is researching and seeking information on memory jugs, also known as spirit jars and forget-me-notjugs,for an upcoming exhibition. If you have any information about these memorial objects or if you know of any in private or public collections, please contact:

William A. Fagaly New Orleans Museum of Art P.O. Box 19123 New Orleans, LA 70179 Telephone 504/483-2630 Fax 504/484-6662

22 WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART

Brooke Anderson Linga, Director Diggs Gallery Winston-Salem State University 601 Martin Luther King, Jr., Drive Winston-Salem, NC 27110 Telephone 910/750-2458 Fax 910/750-2459

the elaborate, head-turning costumes he designed and created for himself, to his unconventional, adorned vehicles.

Watson's work has been shown in a number of exhibitions, including "The Eyes of Texas" at the University of Houston (1980),"Black History/Black Vision: The Visionary Image in Texas" at the Archer M. Huntington Art Gallery, The University of Texas at Austin (1989),"Black Art/Ancestral Legacy: The African Impulse in African American Art" at the Dallas Museum of Art

(1989), and "Outside/In: Outsider and Contemporary Art in Texas" at the Laguna Gloria Art Museum in Austin (1994). He will be greatly missed by everyone in the American folk art community. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Lynne Adele

Lynne Adele is associate museum educator at the Archer M. Huntington Art Gallery(The University of Texas at Austin), where she organized the exhibition "Black History/Black Vision: The Visionary Image in Texas" in 1989. She lectures and writes on self-taught Texas artists.

CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS Add another dimension to your personality and enrich your life by becoming a Museum of American Folk Art Volunteer!

The Museum's Volunteer Program offers rewarding opportunities for people interested in serving the public and, at the same time, enhancing their knowledge and appreciation of American folk art.

Enjoy the unique experience of working in one of the most vital art institutions in New York City today and interacting with an energetic and dedicated staff.

All docents and volunteers receive free tuition for one course per semester at the Museum's Folk Art Institute and 15% discount on all purchases at the Museum's book and gift shops.

IF YOU: â&#x20AC;˘ * * * *

are enthusiastic and committed have good communication skills have a strong interest in art and cultural history are interested in joining our program Please call Arlene Hochman or Pamela Brown at 212/595-9533 for information.

IN ATLANTA

Ultotit (1-attn.-to% Of Atlanta

ESTABLISTIED 1973 SpECIAlitiNTI iNAlity 1914-1 ANd 2011-1 CENTURy AMERICAN

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IMPORTANT woRks by SOUlliERN CONEEMpORARy Folk ARTISTS ANd TRAditiONAI SOUTITERN

Folk

Pori ERS

"The Hunt" by Elijah Pierce (1892-1984), Painted Wood Relief 20"x25'

5325 ROSWELL ITOAD, N.E. ATLANTA,GEORGIA 30342 (4(14) 252-0485 • FAX (404) 252-0359

William Hawkins untitled housepaint on wood 34.5x34.5" also representing the largest private collection of oils on canvas

by Andrea Badami

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225 East de Vargas St. Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 (505) 989-4620

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MARY T. SMITH

LAVERN HAMBERLIN

MOSE TOLLIVER

CLEMENTINE HUNTER

WILLIE WHITE

CHARLES HUTSON

CHIEF WILLEY

or

"Judgement Day," acrylic and pen on board, 9 1/2" x 12 3/4"

WILLIAM T. PELTIER • FINE AND FOLK ART 376 Millaudon St. • New Orleans, LA 70118 • (504) 861-3196 By appointment only Bill Peltier • Ken Paris

SAM DOYLE

Buzzard Row Boat House Paint on Tin 26" x 45" 1982 (Louanne LaRoche, Former Owner of The Red Piano Art Galleries)

51 Pineview Road • May River Plantation Bluffton, South Carolina 29910 •(803) 757-5826

24 WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART

Barry Simons * Dorothy Binger. Donald Walker

Barry Simons, BS26, Two Nudes, 1990, mixed media, 103/4"x 15"

Dorothy Binger,Dream ofMobility; 1993. mixed media,II" x 131/2"

Outsider Art Fair [self-taught, visionary, outsider, intuitive, art brut, folk] January 26, 27, & 28, Preview January 25th The Puck Building, New York, New York

• USArt

Donald Walker, CP49, Woman with Purple Lips and Glares 1994, oil pastel on paper,12" x 18"

San Francisco's Annual Art Exhibition February 2,3 & 4, Preview February 1st Fort Mason, San Francisco, California

THE

AMES GALLERY

Dealers in exceptional self-taught, visionary, naive, and outsider art.

• Bonnie Grossman, Director•2661 Cedar Street, Berkeley, California, USA 94708•510/845-4949 Fax 510/845-6219

Lanier Meaders Jim Sudduth BurIon Craig Michael Crocker R. A. Miller Woodie Long Richard Burnside James H. Jennings Mose T. Jake Mc Cord and others

Barbara Brogdon â&#x20AC;˘

1611 Hwy. 129 S., Cleveland, CA. 30528

(706)865-6345

1rvItt Gallery

Clementine Hunter (1887-1988) Collection includes: J.B. Murray, Howard Finster, David Butler, Sam Doyle, Nellie Mae Rowe, Mary T. Smith, Jimmy Sudduth, James "Son" Thomas, Royal Robertson, James Harold Jennings, Mose Tolliver, Lonnie Holley, B.F. Perkins, Luster Willis, Raymond Coins, Charlie Lucas, Junior Lewis, William Dawson, LeRoy Almon, Sr., M.C. 50 Jones, "Artist Chuckie" Williams, Ike Morgan, Herbert Singleton, Burgess Dulaney, Dwight Mackintosh, Sarah Rakes, S.L. Jones, Rhinestone Cowboy and others.

GILLEY8 "Washday" 18" x 23" Oil on Canvas Board Circa 1965

26 WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART

GALLMY

8750 Florida Blvd.

Baton Rouge, LA 70815 (504) 922-9225

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Outsider / Contemporary Folk Art Exhibition January 26 - February 4,1996 Art 54 Gallery 54 Greene Street, Soho corner of Broome Street & Greene Street Every day 11 a.m. -6 p.m. and by appointment 212. 226.1605 during exhibition Reception for Artists - Saturday, January 27, 7 - 10 p.m.

Meet the Artists: Woodie Long, Charlie Lucas, Benny Carter. AB the Flagman and others

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Marcia Weber/Art Objects 3218 Lexington Road Montgomery, Alabama 36106 334.262.5349 Fax 334.288.4042

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>41,0a6aocegt: 314-993-98'51 .74*:314-993-4790 1-800-763-6105 Ralph Auf der Heide Gabriel Bien Aimee, Haiti Jeannette Carballo, Costa Rica Rita Hicks Davis Mamie Deschillie Esperanza Espinoza, Nicaragua Amos Ferguson, Bahamas Victor J. Gatto Katarzyna Gawlowa, Poland Dora Gonzalez, Costa Rica Haitian Art & Masters Serge Jolimeau, Haiti Georges Liautaud, Haiti Mexican Artifacts

Justin McCarthy Rafael Morla, Dominican Rep. NIKIFOR, Poland Antoine Oleyant, Haiti Frank Pickle Jack Savitsky Lorenzo Scott Jose Antonio da Silva, Brazil Horacio Valdez Voodoo Flags & Bottles, Haiti Fred Webster L. Wiecek, Poland Malcah Zeldis (and many others)

"P I ETA" Katarzyna Gawlowa, Poland 20.5 x 28

American Pie Contemporary Folk Artfrom the Southeast Minnie Adkins James Harold Jennings Tubby Brown Jim Lewis Richard Burnside Chris Lewallen Chris Clark Woodie Long Calvin Cooper R.A. Miller Vollis Ronald & Jessie Cooper Simpson Patrick Davis Hugo Sperger Minnie Evans Jimmie Lee Sudduth Howard Finster Mose Tolliver

or,

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Elaine Johansen 0 Heaven and Hell Desk by Ronald & Jessie Cooper

28 WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART

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AND OTHER ARTISTS

MEET THE ARTISTS IN NEW YORK SEE OUR AD IN THIS MAGAZINE

AB THE FLAGMAN: DOOR FLAG #705 Le0 .

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Marcia Weber/Art Objects, Inc. 3218 Lexington Road • Montgomery, Alabama 36106 • 334. 262.5349 • Fax 334. 288.4042 Ongoing Exhibitions by Appointment

Ginger Young Gallery Southern Self-Taught Art By appointment 919.932.6003 Works by more than four dozen artists, including Rudolph Valentino Bostic • Richard Burnside • Henry Ray Clark • Yahrah Dahvah Patrick Davis • Brian Dowdall • Jon Eiseman • Howard Finster • Sybil Gibson Lonnie Holley • Anderson Johnson • Calvin Livingston • Woodie Long Jake McCord • R.A. Miller • Sarah Rakes • Royal Robertson Sultan Rogers Lorenzo Scott • Earl Simmons • Hugo Sperger • Jewell Starday - Jimmie Lee Sudduth • Mose Tolliver • Daniel Troppy • Fred Webster • Myrtice West

For a free video catalogue or a complete price list please call or write: Ginger Young Gallery • 5802 Brisbane Drive, Chapel Hill, NC 27514 Phone/Fax 919.932.6003

Right Baby Doll by Raymond Coins River stone, 13" x 7" x 2", 1992.

WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART

29

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Photo credit: Ron Gordon (Mr. Imagination); David Berglund (Henry Darger), Whitney Halstead, Joseph E. Yoakum Archive.

The Art Institute of Chicago (Joseph Yoakum); Marc Hauser (David Philpot); and Gary Steinke, Arlington Heights (Chicago Skyline).

The 1996 Outsider Art Fair 1 the Puck Building Thursday, January 25, 1996 Preview and Reception 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.

Dinner Immediately Following in the Ballroom at the Puck Building Lafayette and Houston streets New York City

The Board of Trustees of the Museum of American Folk Art is pleased to announce

The First Annual Opening Night Benefit Preview of the Outsider Art Fair with a Cocktail Reception and Dinner CANDLELIGHT IN ACAPULCO ICE FOLLIES Justin McCarthy Weatherly, Pennsylvania c. 1964 Oil on Masonite 35 â&#x20AC;˘ 32" Museum of American Folk Art, gift of Elias Getz, 1981.7.4

The Museum of American Folk Art will hold its ii,

Opening Night Benefit Pre-

view of the Outsider Art Fair at the Puck Building. Anne Hill Blanchard and Gael Mendelsohn, cliaimoinen tor the event, have planned a brilliant evening. We join them in asking you to come and celebrate a new tradition with us. I Produced by Sanford L. Smith & Associates, the Outsider Art Fair has become one of the most important showcases for the work of self-taught and contemporary folk artists in the nation. The Museum has participated in this event since its inception in 1993, presenting diverse public programs, including the symposia Uncommon Artists I, UNTITLED John (LB.) Murry Glascock County, Georgia c. 1984 Tempera and marking pen on oak tag 28 22" Museum of American Folk Art, gift of Elizabeth Ross Johnson, 1985.35.20

II, and /H. P For more information and for reservations for the Opening Night Benefit Preview, please call Jennifer Waters at the Museum's administrative offices, 212/977-7170. Preview tickets for the Cocktail Reception and Dinner are $1,000 for Benefactors, $500 for Patrons, $250 for Donors, and $125 for Supporters. Tickets for the Cocktail Reception Preview only are $45.00. Your participation in this fund-raising event will help support the Museum's exhibition and educational programs. 0 This year's symposium, Uncommon Artists IV, will be held on Saturday and Sunday. January 27 and 28. See page 93 for program information.

WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART 31

Leroy Almon

Gene Beecher

Exhibiting

Harry Bertschmann

Outsider Art Fair Puck Building N.Y C. Jan 26th - 28th 1996

Claude Bolduc Twentieth-Century North American Self-Taught Art

Barbara Clark-Fleming

Sybil Gibson

Jamie Nathenson

Damian Rojo

Kurt Zimmerman Ewald Rentz Polychromed Wood 1988

Canadian Folk Sculpture

JOY MOOS GALLERY 355 NE 59th Terrace

Miami, Florida 33137 (305) 754-9373 / Fax (305) 757-2124

Musee Adzak, Paris Musee L'Art Brut, Lausanne Arkansas Museum of Art Milwaukee Art Museum

Morton Bartlett

Jerry Coker

Malmo Museum, Sweden Johannesburg Museum, South Africa

â&#x20AC;˘ John McQuirk

Albert Louden

NOT JUST A PRETTY FACE! Far from it. These artists, collectively, have been exhibited or acquisitioned by the above museums. Global names, global faces, with increasing international appeal, recognition and worth.

MAR!ON HARR!S 10111111111111111111.11111".....lt-,..,_,_ WOODHAVEN, SIMSBURY, CT 06070 Phone: 203-658-9333 Fax: 203-658-9333 PHOTO CREDIT JERRY ROSENFELD

CATALOGUES AVAILABLE

ARCADIA FOLK ART Sharon & Ivan Koota Folk Art and Country Furniture RR1 Box 736 Delhi, NY 13753 (607) 746-8122

By Appointment

Introducing

"Brooklyn Memories" by

Dubrow's Cafeteria, 1993, Acrylic on Canvas, 24" x 30"

THE DAY AFTER MARDI GRAS

by James Allen Bloomfield Linnwood Carving, 34" x 24" x 11", painted in oils, 1993

"I saw the woman and her cat walking out of a small hotel on Canal Street."

loch lea antiques

34 WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART

Kentucky Folk Art Lyn Layton 410 Main Street Paris, KY 40361 (606) 987-7070

IVAN KOOTA

theMODERN PRIMITIVEgavei, 1402-4 north highland avenue atlanta, georgia 30306 404-892-0556

UNTITLED c. 1950s Mixed media on paper 40 x 105" Private collection Photo courtesy Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York

Martin Ramirez

By RANDALL MORRIS Photo courtesy Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York

36 WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART

Martin Ramirez came to the United States, like so many others of his generation, looking for opportunities. He met instead with illness, Skid Row, and hospitalization.

He was a symbol of the Other to some, an inchoate, mute alien consciousness on the furthest outreach of human racism and xenophobia. I once thought of his work as the outpouring of an adulthood cloaked in failure and frustration. Gradually, I came to see him as a tragic hero. Tragic heroes do not live and die in vain, and the struggle of Martin Ramirez to make art, the successful outcome of that struggle, and then the formal monumentality and quality of that struggle leave him as someone whose soul can look back and know that he succeeded in at least part of his heroic quest.

WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART 37

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ome of the mystique developed around the work of Martin Ramirez needs to be questioned.

There were not enough questions asked during his lifetime, and the opportunities are gone.

Are we afraid that if we understand the man's images too well we will

demystify his power? It is like holding a wonderful book we found on the ground and making up our minds not to have the book translated because what it says cannot be more important than its power as a cryptic object.

Nothing has to be cryptic about Ramirez's artwork.

If we remove him from the glib word "outsider" and return him to the

vast universe of cultural contemporary art, we will see that he was born a Mexican, lived as a Mexican, and, according to his drawings, died with full self-realization as a Mexican.

Seen as "exotic," as "formally compelling" and "inscrutably obsessive," his work has been known by the art therapyâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;oriented part of the field as the fantasy world of a man who was in a California institution for over thirty years. Martin Ramirez was stamped a "paranoid schizophrenic deteriorated," mute, exhibiting "autistic" behavior, and these curt generalized descriptions were all the public really knew about himâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;until now.

In a review of Ramirez's work published in Art Forum, critic Donald Kuspit said, "The point is, great art is hypocritical; it elaborates a language both in and for itself, on the one hand, and also in order to communicate in however cunning a way. It demonstrates a complex, conscious control, even over the unconscious conflicts that fuel it. Ramiree[s] work doesn't show such control.... There is nothing more to mine than what is on the surface, no last ounce of artistic or emotional meaning to be exacted." In other words, Ramirez's schizophrenia caused him to become encased in a sealed-off system beyond his integral control.

It should be said that this view of Martin Ramirez's insanity is widely held by many. Instead of Mexico, Ramirez's art-critical context became a state mental hospital. Indeed, before "discovery" by artist Jim Nutt and appreciation by dealer Phyllis Kind, his drawings were not even being treated as art, but as demonstration examples for creativity and schizophrenia lectures by Dr. Tarmo Pasto.

We have caught the past at an embarrassing moment.

Excerpts from Pasto's writings about Ramirez after the artist had been discovered in the audience at one of the doctor's lectures (holding drawings in his pajamas to give the doctor!) reveal little. They were written in 1954. The factual gaps are tremendous and in no way do the notes constitute a biography. Some statements, however, are noteworthy: "He does not speak to anyone but hums in a singsong way when pleased with his

visitors. Conversation as an exchange of ideas is impossible." And: "He has recently shown considerable pleasure with groups of student visitors, to whom he displays his work with obvious pride."

The same doctor stated to the world that conversation as an exchange of ideas was impossible for this mental patient. In the same text he said that Ramirez could hum and display his work with obvious pride. One begins to question whether any other ways in which human beings from different cultures can communicate were used or noticed. How far did they go to exchange information with a poor troubled Mexican picked up on Skid Row? Until Jim Nutt's discovery, the work was certainly not seen as art, so how seriously was the artist taken not only for his drawings but as a human being? Might he not just as well have had another role; that of being the best laboratory rat for the symptomatic drawings of schizophrenia? That Ramirez understood the need to communicate was amply enough demonstrated by his handing Dr. Pasto the drawings or by his guiding people to the vantage points from which the drawings could best be viewed.

Maybe there was no direct speech taking place, but there was obviously a form of communication being used.

At the very least, we must know that this man's artwork and his emotional response to attention indicated a desire and a need to reach others.

Did anyone speak to him in Spanish? How much time was spent trying to understand his cosmogony? How did they know about his past if he was mute? Did he know an Indian dialect?

Was he pathologically mute or did he decide not to speak? Why was he not sent back to Mexico when he was discovered on Skid Row? How much was his tuberculosis responsible for his physical condition? Were there other forms of drawings made in the twenty years before his art began to be somewhat documented?

It must first be a given that there is an enormous cultural context to Martin Ramirez's work. We know that Ramirez was a product of a Hispanic-Indian culture. Unlike our western society, where it is seen as desirable and necessary for the indi-

WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART 39

vidual to climb higher in the competitive ranks, the society Ramirez came from holds that the individual carries the knowledge and the moral responsibility of the culture and his local community within himself. Part of the side effects of Ramirez not being an artist who made art to hang in galleries was that the audience to whom he spoke, was (if not only himself) probably made up of members of his own culture. That is certainly another reason our culture would find the drawings seemingly inscrutable.

Very few cultures stand still.

Syncretism is what is formed by two

The Native American and indeed, most of the Third World, does not function only on purely linear planes of thought. cultures, one usually a colonizer, and the other usually colonized, coming into forceful contact with each other and creating a third entity without entirely losing the characteristics of the original cultures. In the case of Mexico, syncretism is the merging of Catholicism and Indian religions to form a Native American Catholicism that still maintains hidden and overt references to its parent religions.

There are still numerous churches with pre-Hispanic religious carvings secreted behind or under the altar and worshiped simultaneously with the Cristo. The Mexican lives his life around constant reminders of his past, twenty-four hours a day.

The next step in the historical process is that of creolization, where the culture stops referring back to the parent cultures for context and begins to make new inroads and grow on the basis of its own information. In Mexico, this was the Mestizo phenomenon.

Culture clash manifests as the ancient traditions fight to merge or fight not to merge with the modern ones. It is synonymous with change and how people do or do not adapt to it.

The religion that Martin Ramirez was brought up in is a creole religion, one that has never forgotten its more than three-thousand-year-old Indian roots but has adapted to the demands of survival in the present

40 WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART

world. Still maintaining overtones of syncretism, it deliberately camouflages its Indian heart behind the guise of Catholicism. The Native American and indeed, most of the Third World, does not function only on purely linear planes of thought. Every move, every gesture, every story told has a multiplicity of meanings that are not separate but mix at the conceptual apex. This clashing of linear and nonlinear thought is the major cause of the clash between Eastern and Western cultures.

Evidence shows that Ramirez was a man born into a Mexican craft culture, who, filled with ambition and a sense of pilgrimage, came to North America, like so many of his generation, to make money, possibly to support a family back in Mexico. He was either already weak with tuberculosis or had a relapse and could not keep up with the rigors of railroad work in the desert. Subsequent lack of money and emotional and physical failure led to his being found on Skid Row in Los Angeles. He was sent to a mental hospital in an alien culture perhaps because he would not speak or perhaps because he could not speak. Perhaps it was because he was mute and could not speak English. There are no English words appearing in any of the drawings, though there are frequently words in Spanish.

The images called up in his lifeless room in the hospital must have been overwhelmingly vivid for Ramirez. Senses were deadened and time itself had become flattened by hospital routine. The world he came from had always been about color and flourish, the grandiose and the flamboyant, as well as tiny touches of embellishment and detail. Now he was on the other side of the mirror. The drawings became a way of not letting the past slide away, of holding on to a personal living past, of thinking out loud, of a deliberate retention of some kind of reality more real than this institutional blandness. Think of all the questions he had to have asked himselfâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;it would only be natural to question over and over paths and events that placed one in this present uncomfortable state of affairs.

Authorities seem to recognize that there is an attempt on the part of

an artist to reach a certain peace of mind and soul through creation. Martin Ramirez's drawings are works of world-healing and self-healing. They served as a narrative means by which Ramirez continued his travels and travails. Maybe he didn't ride back to Jalisco triumphantly, waving the American flag with his saddlebags stuffed with money, he didn't find the Virginal woman, he didn't find the trains, the boats, and the automobiles of the good life, but if the drawings are accurate to his inner vision we can see that he did continue his pilgrimage.

Like other self-taught artists, Ramirez in his hospital room may have continued on in search of a creative mode of travel calculated to transcend the spiritual poverty of his dehumanized daily regime. That is why it hurts all the more to hear Ramirez branded merely as a paranoid schizophrenic. Those words immediately shed a negative light on all his drawings. This is not to deny that anything was wrong with Martin Ramirez, but it is naive to think that a person cannot make art or think of it as art because he is mentally ill. It is a most intriguing what-if. What if instead of seeing these things as hermetically sealed evidences of extreme

LA INMACULADA Mexican folk retablo Artist unknown Oil on tin 14 10" Private collection

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WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART 41

mental disorder (itself a kind of autobiography anyway) we see them as communications from the artist about the way he perceived his own life.

Part of the frustrating joy of studying any kind of artmaking is how few universals there really are. Most self-taught artists make art for a (sometimes limited) audience or purely for teaching or haranguing. Art can provide a voice for what is otherwise intangible. The intentionality of the artist, then, is as important to the maker as the work itself. Unlike much work by trained artists, very little work by self-taught artists is about art itself. Work by self-taught artists seems usually to contain some of the following elements: 1. Autobiography on any level— physical, mental, or spiritual 2. A didactic device either to illustrate and exemplify moral behavior or memories or to demonstrate spiritual values 3. A form of healing device or amulet of protection 4. A form of prayer visualized Martin Ramirez's work reflects aspects of all of the above. Autobiography on some level is a very strong factor in work made by self-taught artists. Often, this is because there is so little separation between art and life. Those blustery powerful macho animals we see in William Hawkins drawings are also self-portraits, for example. Even the buildings that Hawkins paints are, in his own words, his improvements on the way things are. There is no reason to believe that this would be different for Martin Ramirez. That memory is a factor is shown by any reference to Mexico we can assume he did not see in the hospital, exemplified by, among other images, the seemingly specific colonial architecture, the churches, the costumes, the Chinese railroad workers, and women in traditional huipiles.

The second point can be illustrated by the clear and hierarchical way the drawings are laid out. Activity takes place along verticals moving from bottom to top or labyrinthine horizontals. The axis point might be taken to be the surface of the earth, as in much Meso-Indian artwork. What

42 WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART

UNTITLED El Norte c. 1950s Mixed media on paper 31¼ 17¼ National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, the Hemphill Folk Art Collection Photo courtesy Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York

UNTITLED Family of deer C. 1950s Mixed media on paper 36 26" Private collection Photo courtesy Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York

is above ground moves upward; what is entering the underground moves downward; and what moves from place to place in the underworld moves horizontally. Many Ramirez drawings are vision maps along whose paths move possible self-portraits as well as pilgrims, images of Santiago—the spiritual warrior and patron saint of pilgrimages—and vehicles.

Some contain mazelike systems of hills and valleys in whose cul-de-sacs and byways stand animals with totemic and symbolic significance.

Tunnels—universal Indian symbols of the entry into the Underworld—are pre-Hispanic symbols of change and the unknown, explored by souls, totemic animals and the Underworldlike snake-trains symbolizing modern times and progress as well as the mythological earth serpent. Using

that many of these drawings were meant to be viewed from directly above or by walking around their perimeters.

I believe

Native-American perspective, another way of looking at the aboveground drawings is to see them as horizontals spreading out and away from the viewer.

Animals have important roles in Mexican traditional life. In northern Mexico, deer are often symbols of Christ and the concept of holy sacrifice. Deer are also Lords of the Forest as well as guides to the underworld.

The Jaguar is a shamanistic warrior, another Lord of the Animals who is a guide in the underworld. Jaguars can move on earth and water, and can climb into the trees to rule the air. They are allowed into the underworld because of the sheer force of their shamanistic powers. Representing shamanistic degrees of growth, knowledge, and initiation, animals have always had an important place in world folkways.

The tunnels are entrances to a chthonic underworld, not necessarily hell or vulvas in simplistic Freudian terms, but physical aspects of change, rebirth, death of the present temporal plane,the unknown,and Mother Earth.

I believe that many of these drawings were meant to be viewed from directly above or by walking around their perimeters. The drawings explore and delineate rites of passage, from childhood through religion and the vicissitudes of survival to ultimate death and potential godhood. The paths wind through pyramids, around and through churches, past animals of positive and negative symbolism, and often end up before a Santiago-type figure or a Christ on horseback or Virgin Inmaculada. These are all typical of Meso-American imagery, not a mad reaching for paranoid phantasms.

The worlds through which the pilgrims travel are not alternate worlds— they are Mexican and they are mythic.

It is not too farfetched to assume that the town Martin Ramirez came from was a pottery town. There is enough purely coincidental reference in his drawing style. At the time he came to America, there were other male craftsmen from old craft families in Jalisco emigrating to the United States to supplement meager family incomes with the promise of American dollars. When certain intricate motifs show up in the drawings, they are called obsessive and horror vaccui

by Outsider experts. In Mexico, the motifs relate to a pre-Hispanic style of pottery design surviving into the present called petatillo, or cross-hatching; it is a culturally desirable trait to fill space completely. The floral motifs used as fill are sometimes called brunido. Ramirez was said to be illiterate, but surely the confidence of his line and the elaborately drawn, almost playfully drawn, words in some of the drawings indicate otherwise and also display no small familiarity with drawing and writing utensils.

There is good reason to believe that Ramirez came from somewhere in the region of the pottery town called Tonala. Wherever he was from, a good deal of attention was paid to Santiago, the patron saint of Tonala and a frequent figure on horseback in the pottery. The so-called Caballeros in the drawings may represent the followers of Zapata and Villa, who rode in the teen days of Ramirez's life, or they may have been Cristeros, armed peasants who believed that the Church had gotten too wealthy for its own

spiritual health and so rode from town to town pillaging the churches. Santiago is still the warrior saint on horseback in Mexico. There can be seen several drawings in which the figure on horseback is wearing belts fat with bullets and in several actually wearing a crown of thorns.

Other regional clues include the drums, the deer, and the specific plants and animals. The coat of arms of Tonala, for example, is a sun with rays and a deer. To the Tonalteco, the deer represents the "esteemed" children, namely the Indians whose homeland was usurped by the Spanish. This symbol was invented after the Conquest in memory of the indigenous inhabitants who actually fought against the Spanish for freedom and independence.

Of interest also in regard to Tonala is that the Tonaltecos were ruled by a woman named Tzuapilli, who later became Christianized.

Indicative of an ancient goddess religion, she is the major image of Tonal& and there is a hill (note the images of deities on hills in Ramirez's drawings) called Queen's Hill with her statue on top, raised in 1530, with the following inscription: To the happy heroism of the Tonalteca monarchy which despised idolatry and embraced Christianity.

Sons of Tzuapilli, the queen, if you wish for a happy destiny, follow the road that the cross marks for you.

Also often depicted in the drawings is the Virgin Inmaculada, never Guadelupe, another indication of a specific locale. In Mexico, the Virgin stands as a prime example of syncretism. For the Christian, her lunar aspect has the connotation of the tides, shifting time, and conception. For the Native American, the same image stands on the moon, showing her identity as a moon goddess. Hers is the realm of conception, of nighttime, maize, and mysticism.

The Virgin Inmaculada, or Immaculate Conception, refers to the purest essence of Mary. She stands on

WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART 43

a globe, which to some might be the new moon, an important symbol of rebirth. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Mary was always shown suspended from this world. But the Apocalyptic Virgin also included the Serpent. Later, an apple was added and Mary became a second Eve. This is all in addition to the Native Americans applying their own meanings. In Pre-Colombian iconographic hierarchies, the most important beings are those who straddle the most worlds.

The snake represents the underworld and the world of water (interesting in regard to the trains with snakelike features); Mary stands on the earth or the moon, with the moon representing water and fertility, while the stars are about her shoulders.

When a spiritual image is painted, or a word chanted, or a figure carved enough times, it becomes a prayer. The act of its physical execution becomes synonymous with bringing it to life. It is obvious from his work that Ramirez was a spiritual man, even a fervently devout man, who always returned to the Saints. In the empty world of the institution, his drawings probably gave him some sort of comfort, and if they were confiscated and destroyed the power

There is strong evidence of something else in the work of Ramirez, something that can only be arrived at culturally. always rested with him to create another. The number of Santiago drawings is evidence of the importance this Santo held for him. It is quite likely that he saw these drawings as retablosâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;sanctified and reproducible. Nichos are the small, often arched cabinets in which painted Saints are kept all through the Southwest and South and Central America.

I believe he constructed many of these images to be seen as retablos. The nicho-like shapes that surround many of the Santiagos or Cristeros and Virgin Inmaculada drawings indicate their Santo-like status.

It is known now that altars are not restricted to being elaborate struc-

44 WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART

tures. Anything charged with spiritual importance can be used as an altar.

These drawings might have been part of an altar he had to draw instead of build because of the policy of destruction and confiscation in the hospital.

He had to re-create his religious symbols. Everything was different from what it was before, from the role of women to the role of the Virgin as a syncretic guardian of two cultures to the many Santiago roles to his status as an unwanted alien in a country that was no longer mainly Catholic.

There is strong evidence of something else in the work of Ramirez, something that can only be arrived at culturally. The concept of the Native-American underworld is a structure that does not exist in a Western mindset. The underworld is the weaving that holds together many of the threads in Ramirez's images: from the openings in the earth to the figure lying in his death huipile to the paths that lead up to the violin-playing figure of El Muerte himself. There are almost no figures in a Ramirez drawing, outside of the Santiagos, that do not have a Meso-American connotation of death or the Underworld.

Remember that this is the Indian Death, not a concept of decay but one of myth and renewal.

This departs from the linear world, but not in the way expected from an artist labeled "neurotic" or "schizophrenic"â&#x20AC;&#x201D;rather, the scenarios themselves develop quite logically from a magico-spiritualist way of perceiving the world that is distinctly and traditionally Meso-American. The story involves a journey into the afterworld; a shamanic one; a journey that has no predetermined ending; a traditional journey that breaks out of Western traditions into purely uncharted territory. These are people with a firm belief in a form of Mother Goddess, one known as the divine Mother of Children. I suggest that Ramirez conceptually died; that Ramirez saw himself as mortally wounded and that his journey through Skid Row and into the hospitals of northern California was interpreted by himself as a journey through the afterworld.

It is clear to me that what we have called his pathological drawings are actually charts keyed to his spiri-

tual condition on this path. It is a saga, an autobiographical picaresque journey through the Meso-American underworld. Cultural attitude toward death is very important and complex here. It is an ancient way of understanding cycles of time. It is also important to remember that to the Meso-American Indian culture death comes before life. And that is why the figure in the burial huipile smiles.

There is very little about a Martin Ramirez drawing that is "hermetically sealed" or "unreadable." To really understand them we must be more accepting of the partially nonWestern culture they are drawn from.

The relationships between figures and shapes in the drawings both formally and psychologically are carefully thought out and born from a specific life context. This is true even though that context might be visionary.

Ramirez had a language that was rich and developed in using imagery from his culture. He was in complete control of his technique and iconography. If he was mad, then he was mad in a way his culture regarded madness. He was a true visionary. I feel that Ramirez's drawings must not be consigned to the realm of the colonial "exotic." There is a huge soul that sings and an enormous heart that beats beneath these drawings and they pull on the cosmology, ethnology, and mythology of new and old Mexico for their rhythms and melodies. To know the language of his images can only enhance and enrich our appreciation and respect for the man and his work and the culture that produced him. If we accept the context of his drawings, then we accept that he was in control of the art he was making and therefore we can feel free in allowing him to be Martin Ramirez, Artist, rather than trapping him eternally in the web of Outsider.*

Randall Morris is a collector and writer, and the co-owner of Gavin-Morris Inc. He has written many essays and lectured widely on contemporary self-taught art.

Randall Morris, with Didi Barrett, introduced courses on contemporary selftaught art at the Museum ofAmerican Folk Art's Folk Art Institute. Morris's work has been represented in many exhibition catalogs and in this publication.

UNTITLED c. 1953 Mixed media on paper 61 41" Collection of Mickey Cartin Photo courtesy Janet Fleisher Gallery, Philadelphia

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WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART 45

:

Apothecary& Antecedents

By ARTHUR AND SYBIL KERN

46 WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART

History in American Folk Art

PAINTED WAGON DOORS (exterior) From wagon of Dr. R.R. Whipple of Natick, Rhode Island, an itinerant vendor of patent medicines Artist unknown Rhode Island c. 1830 Oil on wood 25 22/ 1 2 "(each door) Private collection

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or some, the study of American history may be a dry and uninteresting task. However, approaching the subject in a tangential fashion, by looking at it through the work of the folk artist, can transform this task into a pleasurable diversion.

This became quite evident to us during our recent investigation of how matters of health are presented in early American naive or nonacademic art. Of the many areas reviewed, one of the most fascinating was that dealing with those individuals involved in the dispensation of medication. The physician is the first to come to mind, but there are others, and they are often much more colorful.

A 1989 auction catalog that pictured his strikingly painted wagon doors, first called our attention to "Dr." R.R. Whipple, a Natick, Rhode Island, itinerant vendor of patent medicines. The doors brought to mind a vision of the peddler traveling through New England in his horse-drawn cart, the graphic illustrations advertising the beneficial effects of using his pills and where and from what they were made.

Who was Whipple, we wondered? A search of Rhode Island censuses, vital records, and published family genealogies disclosed many Whipple families living in Rhode Island in the nineteenth century, but only one man, Resolved Rhodes Whipple, had the correct initials. On March 6, 1805, Resolved Rhodes was born to fanner Job

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NAT!CK. PAINTED WAGON DOORS (interior) From wagon of Dr. R.R. Whipple

Whipple and his second wife, Ruth Stone Rhodes, residents of Warwick.' According to an inscription on one of the wagon doors, Dr. Whipple was from Natick, Rhode Island; since Natick was a section of Warwick,it was reasonable to assume that he was the peddler in question. However, continuing research led to our learning of his grandson, Raymon Resolved Richard Rhodes Whipple, also of Warwick, born May 28, 1851, and often referred to as R.R. Whipple.

Which of the two, then, was the itinerant? Further investigation revealed that the grandson was a very successful

contractor, builder, real estate developer, insurance agent, justice of the peace, and notary public.2 Since it is most unlikely that such a busy and successful man would also be an itinerant vendor of patent medicines, we concluded that the grandfather, Resolved Rhodes Whipple, was the man we sought.

Drug use in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century America was based on the commonly accepted humoral theory of disease, and was intended to restore and maintain proper balance and physical tone. Frequently, a physician was not even consulted in the event of illness; local herb, plant, and tree bark medications were obtained from lay people or as patent medicines, which were readily available from many sources, including postmasters, grocers, tailors, hairdressers, booksellers, physicians, apothecaries, and general merchants.3 The message on a circa 1760 painted wooden sign we found displayed in the collection of Connecticut's New Haven Colony Historical Society reads as follows: "B. ARNOLD DRUGGIST/Book-Seller &c/FROM LONDON,Sibi Totique." It was reported that the sign had hung over a shop that had belonged to Benedict Arnold, and that the words "Sibi Totique" mean "everything for everyone."

We were familiar with Benedict Arnold's role in the history of his country, but had no knowledge of his activity as a dispenser of medicines. The Connecticut censuses of the late nineteenth century list many Benedict Arnolds; was the owner of the shop the well-known traitor? An 1865 biography of the famous Benedict Arnold supplied an affirmative answer. It reported that as a boy he had been apprenticed to the Lathrops of Norwich, Connecticut, who were "engaged in the drug and medicine business." By the age of twentyone he had completed his apprenticeship and opened his own shop in New Haven.' The biography also told of the discovery, in the garret of the house he had occupied in New Haven, of a painted sign with wording that corresponded exactly to that on the one displayed in the museum.

It must be pointed out that the so-called patent medicines, were, as a rule, neither patented nor medicines. What was often patented was the shape of the container; a copyright might cover the label and trademark, but the formula for the contents was kept a secret.5 Most patent medicines sold in America prior to the Revolutionary War were of English origin; the cutting off of this supply led to imitation of these products by American manufacturers. Some of the formulas were based on Indian herbal remedies or traditional folk remedies, and many were recommended for conditions for which physicians had no successful treatment. Among the most common were tonics for tuberculosis, "female complaints," and "diseases due to youthful indiscretions."

Until Samuel Hopkins's expose of the fraudulent claims of many of the purveyors of patent medicines, and the subsequent passage of the first Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906, this practice continued with only little change. A common sight during this period was the itinerant peddler, who traveled the countryside with his horse and wagon selling patent medicines alone or with various housewares.

As pointed out in Hawkers & Walkers in Early America, "Just as the tin peddler became a tinker and the clock peddler a repairer of clocks, so these early hawkers of remedies

WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART 47

SCHUYLER'S STORE Henry Walton Ithaca, New York 1838 lithograph 10 9" Inscribed: "Drawn by H. Walton, Ithaca, 1838" Collection of DeWitt Historical Society of Tomkins County, Ithaca, New York

APOTHECARY SHOP OF JAMES EMERTON William Henry Emerton Salem, Massachusetts c. 1850 Pen and ink with sepia wash on paper 13½ 93 / 4" Signed at lower left "W.H. Emmerton del."

Courtesy Essex Institute, Salem, Massachusetts

"Most of it was bluff, a lot of crude superstition; but a young Yankee with a trunkful of patent medicines added a side line of simple doctoring in order to gain a standing in those backwoods communities where every housewife had her own set of notions of materia medica.

Most of it was bluff, a lot of crude superstition; but a young Yankee with a trunkful of patent medicines and a smart head on his shoulders could be depended on to gain a medical reputation in no time. Down South druggists and vendors of medicine were called `Doctor'...."6 The title assumed by "Dr." R.R. Whipple makes it clear that this was true in the North as well. Despite his title, Whipple's fireweed pills were undoubtedly no more effective than the "Tuscarora Rice" sold in 1711 by Mrs. Sibylla Masters as a cure for tuberculosis, or Dr. John Tennent's Seneca rattlesnake root, touted as his cure for pleurisy in 1739.

Although itinerant peddlers continued to traverse the countryside and lay persons and physicians continued to dispense patent medicines or preparations they themselves compounded, the apothecary shop gradually became more important as a dispenser of medicaments. One of the earliest was established in 1748 in the Moravian Community House at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Another was founded in 1752 at Newport, Rhode Island, by Dr. William Hunter.

Those who operated these shops often learned their trade by working as apprentices with an apothecary or, more often, by working alongside a medical practitioner who

48 WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART

prepared his own medications. As remembered by the master pharmacist Edward Parrish of Philadelphia, "The apprentice enjoyed a wholesome development of muscle through wielding the ponderous pestle, handling the sieves and working the screwpress. He learned how to make pills by the wholesale, to prepare great jars of extracts and cerates, to bottle castor oil, Turlington's Balsam and opedeldoc by the gross...."7 In the early 1830s, P.C. and G.W. Schuyler of Stillwater, Saratoga County, New York, moved to Ithaca, New York, to open an apothecary shop on Owego Street. They advertised their store as being under the "Sign of the Globe," so-called because early drugstores frequently displayed globes of colored water in their front windowâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;red for arterial blood and blue for venous blood. Newspaper advertisements in 1836 issues of The Jeffersonian and Tomkins Times disclose the full-service nature of their business: "Where is constantly kept a general and fresh supply of drugs and medicines, re-plenished frequently from the city with those that are fresh and pure. We intend to deal to our customers articles as good and as cheap as can be bought in the Western Country. Physicians and others living at a distance can have their orders supplied on as good terms as though they were on the spot. The most approved PATENT MEDICINES may here be found"; and "Soaps

Completion of the Erie Canal in New York facilitated travel westward, and around 1830 Walton moved to Cass County, Michigan, where he taught school. During this period, he made some return trips to the East to view the work of other artists and perhaps to spend some time in study. By 1836 he was back in the Finger Lakes region of New York, where he was active both as a lithographer and as a watercolor portraitist. Only two works by him from 1837 are known, and both are watercolor portraits. The following year he did an oil portrait of three sisters, two watercolor portraits, and two lithographs, including the one of the Schuylers' store and the View of Ithaca, Tompkins County, New York. In 1839 he completed his third and last lithograph of Ithaca. Later that year, he was married in Michigan, after which he divided his time between Michigan and New York. He remained active as a lithographer and painter of watercolor and oil portraits, even during the years in which his occupation was listed as farmer and surveyor and during the two years he spent in California. He died in 1865 at the age of sixty.9 On January 23, 1839, James Emerton commenced business as an apothecary in a building at the corner of Essex and Elm streets in Salem, Massachusetts.m The storefront and large windows, as shown in the wonderful drawing by William Henry Emerton, were put in by James in 1847 and were the second of their kind in Salem. James Emerton was born to James and Hannah Mansfield Emerton on October 14, 1817, in Salem and served an apprenticeship of about five years before opening his own shop. In addition to his work as an apothecary, he served on the

and a smart head on his shoulders could be depended on to gain a medical reputation in no time."

PARACELSUS Bust Artist unknown 1839-1850 Carved and painted wood Life-size: height, including base, 24"; width, 20" Courtesy Essex Institute, Salem, Massachusetts

and Candles, manufactured and for sale by the box or single pound. Also soft soap of a superior quality, for family use. Delivered at the house when ordered." In the 1837 issue of The Ithaca Herald is a notice of the installation of a "Night Bell" so that "any articles or medicines can be had any hour of the night."8 A lithograph inscribed "Drawn by H. Walton, Ithaca, 1838," shows two facades of the brick building that housed the Schuylers' store. Prominent signs indicate that drugs and medicines, along with groceries and provisions, were sold within.

A wonderful example of the variety of occupations often pursued by a single individual and the extreme mobility of residents of nineteenth-century America is Henry Walton. The son of Judge Henry Walton, he was born on August 25, 1804, in Ballston, New York. Four years later, the family moved to New York City and, in 1815, to Albany, where the boy was enrolled in the Albany Academy. In 1816 the family moved again, this time to Saratoga Springs, New York, where Judge Walton was responsible for the excavation and tubing of many of the springs.

In the mid-1820s, lithography came from Europe to America, and young Henry Walton was one of the first to become active in this new field. His earliest lithographs, made for publication in books, were mostly town scenes.

WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART 49

School Committee and in 1853 was a member of the Common Council."

The artist William Henry Emerton, of Salem, was an architect, as might be suspected from the carefully and neatly delineated details of the building's facade and signs. He was born on June 17, 1828, in Salem, to Ephraim and Mary Ann Sage Emerton. His father was a brother of James Emerton's father, making the artist and the apothecary first cousins. On June 7, 1865, in Salem, William Henry Emerton married Mary Ellen Richardson Stevens of Nashville, Tennessee.

They had two children, Kate, born June 9, 1866,in Salem, and Sallie Upham, born May 16, 1870, in Providence, Rhode Island. He worked in Portland, Maine, later in Salem, and finally in Providence. On August 26, 1871, while visiting in Revere, Massachusetts, he was killed when the last car of the train in which he was riding was "telescoped" by the express train that overtook it.12 Painted about 1850, William Henry's pen-and-ink drawing with sepia wash presents many wonderful features: a child in the window, a horse and wagon out front, a tradesman carrying a

Among the least common crate from the store, a little boy with his hoop in hand, a dog, a box, and details of objects in the store windows. Also to be noted are the small signs just below the windows indicating that family medicines, soda water, and perfumes were for sale.

One particularly exciting feature of the drawing is the depiction of a trade sign, a carved bust that rests on a shelf at the outside corner of the building, just above the store.

Appropriately, the subject is the noted sixteenth-century Swiss physician and alchemist Paracelsus (Phillipus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombast von Hohenheim).

An advertisement in the 1851 Salem Directory includes a reproduction of the drawing of the Emerton apothecary shop with a few modifications: absent are the dog, the box near the boy on the sidewalk, and the figure in the second-story window. The text of the advertisement is as

50 WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART

follows: "JAMES EMERTON, /DEALER IN/DRUGS, CHEMICALS AND PERFUMERY) (SIGN OF PARACELSUS), 123 Essex, Corner of Elm Street,/Particular attention given to the dispensing of Family Medicines, and/ putting up and replenishing/ MEDICINE CHESTS." It goes on to list the great many patent medicines. essences, and syrups which could be "put up and securely packed for Shipping at short notice."

As a rule, trade signsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; which were usually of painted wood but sometimes of metalâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;hung or stood outside eighteenth- and nineteenthcentury shops; smaller ones occasionally would be seen on countertops. They served the purpose of enabling the large part of the population that was illiterate to identify the nature of the merchandise for sale within. Of interest is the fact that an 1889 photograph of the Emerton building still shows the bust of Paracelsus, but also apparent is the addition of a large mortar

COLONEL SELLERS TRADE SIGN Artist unknown c. 1875 Carved and polychromed wood 52" high Inscribed on base: "Col. Sellers" and "Millions in it."

Collection of New York State Historical Association, Cooperstown, New York

APOTHECARY HEAD TRADE SIGN Artist unknown c. 1890 Carved and painted wood 16'/ 9" Missing pill that was originally attached to the tongue Private collection

apothecary trade signs is the so-called and pestle trade sign. The name of the proprietor, George A.D. Stickney, who purchased the building in 1875, is seen on a sign hanging below the carving. In recognition of the increasing literacy of the public, the new sign carries the word "DRUGGIST." A truly unique apothecary trade sign, found in Sellersville, Pennsylvania, was first illustrated in 1948 by Jean Lipman in her book American Folk Art in Wood, Metal and Stone.I3 It is a large painted wood sculpture which bears the name "Colonel Sellers" on its base. Why was the carving of Colonel Sellers used as an apothecary trade sign? On the base of the sculpture are two inscriptions, the subject's name and "Millions in it," the latter undoubtedly referring to the many get-rich-quick schemes

Stanley Summer

painted inscriptions "Hollis" and "23." Other unusual signs of this type to be seen at the Shelburne are the one made of copper and decorated with gold leaf and rows of colored glass, a painted carved-in-the-round standing boy who holds a pestle that goes down into a large pottery mortar, and a metal piece in which an eagle holding a small mortar and pestle in its beak stands atop a larger mortar and pestle.

Among the least common apothecary trade signs is the so-called apothecary head, a carved wooden head of a man with a pill resting on the protruding tongue. The pill was generally glued to the tongue and, unfortunately, with the passage of time and exposure to the elements, would tend to become separated from the tongue and be lost. At the present time, we know of only three American apothecary heads, all made in the late nineteenth or possibly early twentieth century. The assumption that such trade signs were created only in America was proven incorrect by our discovery, in the Apothecary Museum of Heidelberg, Germany, of a beautiful well-preserved head that had been made in the Netherlandsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;complete with pill still resting on the tongue.

A probably unique apothecary trade sign is the painted wood and metal scale topped by a spread-winged eagle that had been displayed in the window of an apothecary shop in Camden, Maine. Adding to the unusual nature of this piece is a wind-up mechanism through which the crossbar is activated so that it and the attached trays move up and down.

Whereas portraits of physicians are very common, those of pharmacists are rare. For some time, the subject of

apothecary head, a carved wooden head of a man with a pill resting on the protruding tongue.

MORTAR AND PESTLE Apothecary trade sign with eagle finial Artist unknown Date unknown Painted zinc Overall height, approximately 21" Collection of Shelburne Museum, Shelburne, Vermont

concocted by Colonel Beriah Sellers, a character in the book The Golden Age jointly written in 1874 by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner. At one point, Colonel Sellers says to a potential investor,"...before many weeks I wager the country will ring with the fame of Beriah Sellers' Infallible Imperial Oriental Optic Liniment and Salvation for Sore Eyesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the Medical Wonder of the Age! Small bottles fifty cents, large ones a dollar. The first year sell, say, ten thousand bottles in Missouri, seven thousand in Iowa, three thousand in Arkansas, four thousand in Kentucky, six thousand in Illinois, and say twenty-thousand in the rest of the country. Total, fifty-five thousand bottles; profit clear of all expenses, twenty thousand dollars at the very lowest calculation."14 This pharmaceutical scheme undoubtedly led to the association of Colonel Sellers with apothecary sales, and from this to the use of his figure as an apothecary trade sign.

The trade sign used most frequently for the apothecary shop was the simple mortar and pestle. Often more exciting are the unusual variations on this theme, many of which are on exhibition at the Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, Vermont. These include the one of wood with a metal top displayed at Thomas Hollis's shop at 23 Union Street, in Boston, the first of its kind in that city. It bears the

WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART 51

a portrait by the nineteenth-century Pennsylvania folk painter Jacob Maentel was believed to be an apothecary because he is depicted working with a mortar and pestle and because medicine bottles can be seen standing on shelves in the background. It was later established, however, that the subject was not a pharmacist but a physician, Dr. Christian Bucher, who, like most physicians prior to the twentieth century, compounded his own medications for his patients.

In another nineteenth-century portrait, this one attributed to John S. Blunt of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the subject, believed to have been a member of the WarnerSherburne family of Portsmouth,' sits in front of shelves on which pharmaceutical supplies, medicine bottles, and mortar and pestle are resting. Since folk artists frequently depicted their subjects with objects that indicated their interests or occupations, the assumption that the individual portrayed was an apothecary is not surprising. Could he have been a physician? Possibly, but the painting had passed down through the family, and tradition held that the subject was an apothecary.

In 1979, Robert Bishop, the late director of the Museum of American Folk Art, was able to establish John S. Blunt as the artist whose work had previously been ascribed to the so-called Borden Limner.'6 The son of Mary Drown and Mark Sherburne Blunt, John S. Blunt was born on December 11, 1796. In the December 31, 1822, issue of the New Hampshire Gazette, he advertised "profiles, profile miniature pictures, landscapes and ornamental painting." In 1825 he announced the opening of a drawing and painting school in Portsmouth. His virtuosity is demonstrated by an 1827 advertisement in the Portsmouth directory that he would execute "THE FOLLOWING BRANCHES, VIZ. Portraits and Miniature Painting, Military Standard do.

Sign Painting, Plain and Ornamented, Landscapes and Marine Painting, Masonic and Fancy do. Ships Ornaments Gilded and painted, Oil and Burnish Gilding, Bronzing, &c &c." In 1831 he and his wife moved to Boston, where he worked as a painter until his death in 1835. On September 12 of that year, the Portsmouth Journal reported his death: "At Sea, on Board Ship Otto, on his passage from NewOrleans for Boston, Mr. John S. Blunt, aged 37, painter, of Boston,formerly of this town."

Of all visual chroniclers of American life of the nineteenth century, perhaps the most remarkable is Lewis Miller(1796-1882) of York, Pennsylvania. A carpenter by trade, he "made an unbelievably graphic record everywhere he went...and provided accompanying text in English, German,or Latin, with appropriate comments about everything he saw, heard, and recorded, whether trivial or historic in importance. His was the inquiring spirit, and his forte, the insight of the true reporter." 17 Two of his watercolor-andink drawings—Capt. William Rees, and Company ready to March and The York Light infantry Company, Martshing [sic] to Baltimore—depict the apothecary Samuel Leitner performing as a drummer; in a third, Richmond Proof Lewis Shive and Peter Mundroff, Esqr. Apothecary, the last named is shown as the subject of a practical joke in which Lewis Shive, the barber, gives Mundroff a piece of dung disguised as Richmond Proof chewing tobacco." Samuel

52 WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART

Leitner is also the subject in a drawing that illustrates an explosion in his apothecary shop as he and William Melsheimer are preparing the powder for fireworks.° Two of Miller's drawings—now in the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center—depict plants that have medicinal value.20 A final noteworthy drawing is of a potential customer who stands, coin in hand, outside a closed apothecary shop; this is particularly exciting because it includes representations of two apothecary trade signs: a mortar and pestle and an apothecary head.2' For the same reason that Lewis Miller has aptly been called "The Chronicler of York, Pennsylvania," all folk artists may appropriately be referred to as chroniclers of early America. By studying the lives and work of these primitive painters and sculptors, our knowledge of the art and history of America can be pleasantly enriched.* Arthur and Sybil Kern are researchers, writers, and lecturers on early Americanfolk art. This is their sixteenth published magazine article; their work has appeared in Folk Art, The Clarion, The Magazine Antiques, and Antiques World. They also served as guest curatorsfor the exhibition "Painters ofRecord: William Murray and his School" at the Museum ofAmerican Folk Art and the Albany Institute ofHistory and Art.

NOTES 1 Henry E. Whipple,A BriefGenealogy ofthe Whipple Families, Who Settled in Rhode Island(Providence, R.I.: A Crawford Greene, Steam Book and Job Printer, 1873), pp. 59-60.

2 The History ofthe State ofRhode Island and Providence Plantations: Biographical(New York: The American Historical Society,Inc., 1920), p. 89.

3 Robert I. Goler, The Healing Arts in Early America(New York: Fraunces Tavern Museum, 1985), p. 25.

THE PHARMACIST John S. Blunt New Hampshire c. 1830 Oil on canvas 30 25" Collection of Mr. and Mrs. H. Kelly Rollings, Tucson, Arizona

APOTHECARY SCALE TRADE SIGN Artist unknown c. 1890 Painted wood with metal and cord 31/ 1 2 33" Private collection

4 George Canning Hill, Benedict Arnold: A Biography (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co., 1865), pp. 12-20.

5 Draft for Museum of Our National Heritage exhibition "In Sickness and Health."

6 Richardson Wright, Hawkers and Walkers in Early America (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1927), p. 58.

7 Glenn Sonnedecker,"Teaching Pharmacy in 19th Century Americaâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Some Aims and Issues," American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, Volume 35(August 1971), p. 382.

8 Seymour Vaughan,Ithaca Drug Stores (Ithaca, New York: De Witt Historical Society of TomIcins County, 1981), pp. 14-17.

9 Leigh Rehner, Henry Walton, 19th Century American Artist (Ithaca, New York: Cayuga Press, 1968), p. 10. Leigh Rehner Jones, Henry Walton and His Odyssey (Ithaca: Henry F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, 1988), pp. 5-80.

10 On a piece of paper attached to the back of the artwork is a handwritten account that reports that the drawing represents the western half of the building on the corner of Essex and Elm streets built by Benjamin West in 1810 for business purposes.

This note also reports that around 1830 the building was purchased by John M. Anchor, who occupied the store for the sale of books, charts, and stationery until 1836, when it was sold to Mrs. Hannah M.Emerton.

11 James A. Emmerton, Materials Toward a Genealogy ofthe Emmerton Family (Salem: Privately printed, 1881), p. 134.

12 Ibid., pp. 137,138.

13 Jean Lipman,American Folk Art in Wood, Metal and Stone (New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1948), p. 79.

14 Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner, The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (Hartford: American Publishing Co., 1874), p. 87.

15 Robert C.H. Bishop, The Borden Limner and His Contemporaries(Ann Arbor, Mich.: The University of Michigan Museum of Art, 1975), pp. 30,31.

16 Ibid., pp. 3-58.

17 Donald A. Shelley, Introduction, Lewis Miller: Sketches and Chronicles, The Reflections ofa Nineteenth Century Pennsylvania German Folk Artist(The Historical Society of York,Pennsylvania, 1966), p. xiii.

18 Ibid., pp. 49,71.

19 Ibid., p. 38.

20 See American Folk Paintings: Paintings and Drawings Other than Portraitsfrom the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center, Beatrix T. Rumford, General Editor(Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1988), p. 148; and Curator Work Sheet, Notice of many wild Fruit grows..., The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center.

21 Catalog for Christie's sale of June 11,1994,1ot #431.

WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART 53

The Christmas Bonfires

By WILLIAM A. FAGAL\

.

54 WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART

**Traditional" bonfire structures along the top of the levee at sunset before they are lit.

Photography by SYNDEY BYRD

People in southern Louisiana, particularly the Acadian French known as Cajuns, take great pride in their individuality and unique traditions. They work hard and they play "Traddional" bonfire structures on the batture of the Mississippi River.

hard

and sometimes they

work hard at playing.

WINTER 1995/9ti FOLK ART 55

ach year on December 24, the Cajun communities of the River Parishes, mainly Lutcher, Gramercy, and Paulina (total population 9,000) in St. James Parish along the east bank of the Mississippi River, midway between Baton Rouge

E

to church and the many fancy holiday parties given in the magnificent plantation homes along River Road. Still others claim that the fires lighted the way for the Christ Child. The most popular belief, however, is that the fires guided Papa Noel, the Cajun Santa Claus, through the fog on his annual journey down the river.

For years the bonfire ritual has followed a prescribed pattern. Begin-

Men of St. James Parish gathering the willow logs for their bonfire structures.

The 70-foot-long U.S.S. Nuk'Em battleship built in 1990 in Garyville, Louisiana, by AJ. and Darren St. Pierre.

and New Orleans, practice a tradition on the levee believed to date back to the late nineteenth century. The origins of this annual bonfire ritual are vague and uncertain. Some say the idea was brought over from rural France and Germany, where bonfires were lit as gestures of friendship. Others believe that these fires were originally meant to light the way for the horse-drawn carriages taking families

56 WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART

ning the day after Thanksgiving, hipbooted men and young boys start to gather stripped willow logs, the material of choice, and float these "junk trees" out in pirogues (canoe-like boats) from nearby swamp areas and along the bauure (the water's edge on the levee). The wood is then piled into the backs of pickup trucks and hauled to the levee. At the levee, a twenty- or thirty-foot center post is driven into

the ground, and four, six, or eight larger poles of equal length are positioned around the center post, leaning against it, creating a pyramid or conical tepeelike form. Starting at the bottom and building upward, carefully measured lengths of wood are cut and placed horizontally, log cabin style, around the perimeter, with close attention given to a gradual reduction in circumference of logs: the widest logs

are placed at the bottom,the narrowest at the apex. Each log is chosen, cut, and handed up. For the peak, one man positioned at the top "orders" the precise length he needs from a coworker below manning a gas-powered chain saw. Finally, green bamboo stalks (called "cane reeds") are used to sheathe the outside and are inserted inside the structures to augment the burning and to create showers of

after their regular jobs, the builders devote long hours, regardless of the weather, feverishly racing against the countdown to Christmas Eve, when the signal is given over a loudspeaker, ironically by the chief of the volunteer fire department,"It is seven o'clockâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; you may light your bonfires."

Spaced 150 feet apart and running in a long row, one after the other for approximately three miles, the sev-

The whistles and calliopes on the passing paddle wheelers laden with sightseers from New Orleans serenade the revelers. After the fires eventually die down, families and friends return to their homes for sumptuous parties of food and drink lasting late into the night. To accommodate the bonfire parties, many of the area churches hold their Christmas Eve services earlier in the day.

sparks and sounds of popping and crackling. In recent years, there has developed a keen sense of competition and rivalry, along with great pride, among the families and civic organizations sponsoring and building these constructions. Teenage boys take turns around the clock guarding their wooden pyres against vandalism and sabotage from neighboring fabricators.

Able to work only on weekends and

enty-five to a hundred bonfires, which have been drenched in diesel fuel minutes before ignition, quickly light up the area, sending sparks into the night sky and setting off the fireworks buried deep within. The pyrotechnic display evokes cheers from the fifty thousand or so people standing in awe along River Road, riding past in cars and trucks, horns honking, or seated in bleachers set up across the highway.

This tradition has continued for generations, but in 1984 another aspect was addedâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and the bonfires have not been the same since. That year, the Gramercy Volunteer Fire Department, which consists of twentyfive to thirty members and is one of the organizations that regularly builds a bonfire on the levee across the road from their fire station, abandoned the standard tepee form and built the

The Gramercy Volunteer Fire Department's two-story saloon built in 1994.

WINTER 1995196 FOLK ART 57

department's bonfire structure to represent an object—a Cajun log cabin.

Each year afterward, the firemen have designed a structure in a recognizable sculptural form. Other groups soon followed the firemen's lead and began building "nontraditional" bonfires, as they are called to distinguish them from the still-popular "traditional" pyramidal type.

For the firemen, modes of transportation have proven to be a popular theme in recent years. A shrimp boat (1988), a vintage fire engine (1989), and a full-scale replica of New Orleans' famous St. Charles streetcar (1990) were constructed. In

The fire department's 1990 bonfire structure, a replica of New Orleans'famous St. Charles streetcar.

The fire department's 1993 bonfire structure in the shape of an F-14 fighter plane.

1986 the first sculpture with moving parts, the Gramercy Queen, a Mississippi riverboat with a revolving paddle wheel, dominated the levee—and it was constructed entirely of cut logs!

In 1987, following a dispute with his fellow firefighters, volunteer fireman Ronald St. Pierre, a forty-sixyear-old welder, plumber, and electrician at the nearby aluminum plant and a major participant in the design and construction of the fire department's annual contribution, began building bonfires on his own. His first indepen-

58 WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART

dent effort was ambitious—Gramercy Rig, an offshore oil platform complete with derrick, crewboat, and helicopter with rotating blades. The same year he collaborated with Jim Zeringue on a souped-up pickup truck called Wooden Foot, a play on Big Foot, a standard name for trucks of this kind. St. Pierre's bonfires for the next two years each had a transportation focus.

Gramercy Express(1988)consisted of a full ninety-foot train—locomotive, coal car, Pullman car, and caboose with wooden lantern, stove, coffeepot,

bell, and control panel—while the Gramercy Goose (1989) was an airplane complete with revolving propellers, carpeted seats, captain chairs, control panel, and microphone, based on Howard Hughes's Spruce Goose.

Military and patriotic subjects are common, particularly with the fire department, which continued on without St. Pierre, under the leadership of the late Chief Nolan J. Oubre and his assistants, now chief Andy Detiller and Todd Duhe. In 1991 their subject was an army tank and in 1993 an F-14

Bonfire structure in the shape of a portable "boom box" built in 1990.

fighter plane. To pay tribute to the Columbian Quincentenary in 1992, they built a replica of Christopher Columbus's flagship, the Santa Maria.

Perhaps the bonfire structure with the most amusing title was the U.S.S. Nuk'Em, a seventy-foot battleship built by Ronald St. Pierre's first cousins, A.J. and Darren St. Pierre, ages twenty-seven and twenty-one respectively, from nearby Garyville.

Their bonfire was dedicated to the U.S. servicemen serving in Operation Desert Storm in the Middle East.

Architecture has also been the basis for many bonfire constructions.

In 1985 the fire department, with St. Pierre, built Everwillow plantation home, a humorous adaptation of the well-known neighboring Evergreen Plantation with its identifying featuresâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a pair of crescent-shaped staircasesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;interpreted in bent willow The fire department's 1991 bonfire structure in the shape of an army tank.

branches curving down the center of the front facade. The main structure was complete with a cistern, porch swing, outhouse, and smoke rising from the chimney. The fire department's 1994 contribution was a twostory saloon, while earlier creations by other groups included Andy Detiller's For You Eddy (1986), a gambling casino and four slot machines built as an allusion to Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards's well-known penchant for gambling and his strong push to have gambling legalized in the state. In 1989 the Lutcher High School students presented an architectural version of Disney World's Magic Kingdom castle, and in 1993 Garyville's Wayne Weidert built a lighthouse replica.

One of the most spectacular structures was St. Pierre's contribution to the 1993 ritual, made after a threeyear hiatus. St. Pierre fashioned this building after the thirty-four-story art deco Louisiana State Capitol, which was constructed in 1931 by the infamous Governor Huey P. Long. For this sculpture, the levee board gave him a controversial exemption from the existing height limitations.

Thought equally unfair by some in the communities was the underwriting of St. Pierre's bonfire by a commercial firm, in this case a local bank. Even so, St. Pierre "so said" he had spent $600 out of his own pocket.

Measuring forty-five feet tall, St. Pierre's building towered over all its neighboring bonfire structures. The

rooms and interior three-story staircase were lined with didactic text panels describing the specifications and history of the original building in Baton Rouge. Like the state capitol building, St. Pierre's interpretation was fronted by a long exterior staircase. This staircase went up the levee, and each step identified a state of the Union. A crew of eighteen, including his brother, nephew, friends, and his chief assistant, Clifford LeBlanc, all volunteered their time. They worked assiduously for two weeks, using 780 willow logs, fifteen hundred wooden shipping pallets, and two hundred 2-foot-by-8-foot scaffold boards to complete the structure in time for its burning.(Many joked during the construction that the governor and state legislators should be invited to be inside the building when it was lit.)

While the structure was being built, the demolition by implosion was carefully planned and engineered for the safety of the spectators. Ignited by small fires along the base of the structure, the tower was filled with cane reed to cause a shower of burning embers and sparks to shoot upward before the tall spire was completely consumed in flames. As he watched his sculpture go up in flames, St. Pierre thought, "All my troubles are finished for this year."

St. Pierre is most often acknowledged as being the one who first conceived the revolutionary notion of nontraditional bonfires, while he was still with the volunteer fire department eleven years ago. Since he has had no formal art training, one could easily associate him with other folk or selftaught artists. He and those in the river communities who have been inspired by him, or have followed his lead, have created a new folk art form.

Remarkably, most of these men build their ephemeral sculptures simply by looking at a photograph of an object for inspiration, then making a few small sketches and adding some measurements.

In a state long known for its many dedicated festivals throughout the year, including Shrimp and Petroleum, Jambalaya, Sauce Piquant, Gumbo, and Jazz and Heritage to name a few, the tradition of the bonfires of St. James Parish is

WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART 59

The crowds gathered in front of Ronald St. Pierre's floodlit Louisiana State Capitol bonfire structure just before it is lit.

SO WINTER 1995 FOLK ART

The Louisiana State Capitol bonfire structure in flames.

Ronald St. Pierre standing on the exterior staircase in front of his forty-five-foot-high replica of the Louisiana State Capitol building.

unique. Each year while the carefully built pyres go up in flames and smoke, many are heard to exclaim.

"Laisser les bon temps rouler et Joyeux Noel!"*

William A. Fagaly is the assistant director for art and the curator ofethnographic art. contemporary art. and American selftaught art at the New Orleans Museum of Art(NOMA). During his nearly thirtyyear tenure at NOMA. Fugalv has organized more than sixty art exhibitions. He has also served as guest curator at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington.

D.C., the Contemporary Arts Center(y.

New Orleans. the Museum ofAmerican Folk Art in New York. and the Portland Museum ofArt in Oregon. An accomplished writer. Fagaly has published more thanfifty articles and essays in numerous publications. including Ricochet. Art in America, African Arts, Contemporary Arts/Southeast, Museum News, Louisiana Cultural Vista, Arts d'Afrique Noire, and NOMA 's Arts Quarterly.

• ;; • •' • ..

• t• •' 44 I . ' 1

Syndey Byrd, a native ofHattiesburg.

Mississippi, is widely accepted as one of the premier ethnographic photographers working out ofLouisiana. She is known for extensively documenting both the urban and rural celebrations ofCarttiml.

While supporting herselfas a photojournalist, Byrd has assembled extensive bodies of work on New Orleansjazz musicians, African-American Mardi Gras "Indians," Haitian Mk painting and painters, and a comparative study of folklife in New Orleans and Haiti, including voodoo ritual,funeral rites, and elaborate street celebrations.

Her work has appeared in scores ofhooksand magazines.

WINTER 1995 FOLK ART 61

B OOK

REVIEWS

Forgotten Marriage

Forgotten Marriage: The Painted Tintype & Decorative Frame,

1860-1910 Stanley B. Burns, M.D. The Burns Press New York 1995 220 pages, 213 illustrations, 87 in color $59.95 hardcover $34.95 paperback

Once the eye is caught by this book, the reader is forced to confront the question: Can photographs be folk art? The author believes that they can and is confident that he knows which ones are "American art treasures," to use his words. Dr. Stanley Burns strongly asserts that decoratively framed, tintype photographic portrait enlargements, manipulated and adorned by various painting methods, are part of the American folk art tradition. In this book, Stanley Burns and Sarah ClearyBurns present their collecting experience and studies. It is their intention to bring back to wide consciousness an artistic wedding that has slipped from our cultural memory.

For more than twenty years, Dr. Burns has been passionate in gathering what he recognizes as photographic things of value that have fallen from their original context. His first significant collecting achievement was the accumulation of photographic imagery relating to the history of medicine. In the process he revealed much about the history of photography. This aspect of the Burns Archive has established Dr. Burns's reputation as one of the great American collectors.

Not one to hide his light under a bushel, he has, through lectures and publications, vigorously held out his candle for all to see.

(12 WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART

Having a taste for, as he puts it, "opening up the uncharted regions of photographic history," he broadened his collecting interests to include other photographic imagery and artifacts unconsidered or shunned by those in the mainstream of art history. Fourteen years ago, he focused his attention on painted tintype portraits, which to his eye resembled the earlier nineteenth-century American folk portrait paintings.

Commonly,these tintypes are removed by dealers to improve the salability of the frame. With time, Dr. Burns recognized that the decorative frames were an integral part of the folk art manifestation he perceived.

Thus began "an almost obsessive" desire to have and to know all of this unrecognized part of America's folk art tradition. After years of effort, Stanley Burns and Sarah Cleary-Burns curated a series of exhibitions of their collection, solidifying their thinking.

This book is intended to correct the oversight of this "art treasure," of which Burns claims to hold the largest collection in the world.

In part a catalog of what was shown in these exhibitions, in part a photographic and art history, in part a collecting guide, and in part a call for recognition, this book is intended for several different audiences.

General museum audiences can use this book as an introduction to nineteenth century photography and decorative arts. Curators, collectors and antique dealers can use it as a guide to nineteenth and early twentieth century photographic frames. Scholars will find that this book opens new fields of inquiry, and offers unorthodox views on a number of existing topics.

Whether or not scholars will be provoked by the "unorthodox views"found here, Burns raises several important questions that deserve attention. The Bumses have devoted a great amount of labor and have gone to great expense to produce this handsomely illustrated offering. The great number of large, high-quality reproductions of the framed tintypes under discussion makes clear what they are talking about.

Visually, this book is richly interesting and informative. As a guide to nineteenth-century photography and decorative arts for "general museum audiences," it is necessarily partial, but not erroneous. As a guide for curators, collectors, and antique dealers of nineteenth- and early twentiethcentury frames, it has virtually no competition against which to be judged. It also provides a good deal of knowledge of the popular framing tastes and industry of the period.

Although forcefully voiced, Dr. Burns's arguments concerning American folk portraiture, the folk art manifestation in photography, the definition of folk art, and the ultimate value of painted tintypes and their decorative frames are not as strong as they might be. The general self-congratulatory and proprietary tone to be found throughout these discussions are unflattering and unfortunate, since they adversely influence the reader's appreciation of the fundamental ideas expressed.

Dr. Burns is absolutely correct in saying that there is something here to see, consider, appreciate, and learn from. He may not, however, be totally correct as to what that something is. These showy objects of interior decoration, these imitation paintings, these memorial portraits, are complex

artifacts to analyze fully. For sound human reasonsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;that is, that they provoked feelings of sadnessâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;these works have been let go by those who inherited them. Others, however, have abused and shunned them because it is not easy to see their beauty.

The growing interest in handcolored photography of the nineteenth century has begun to reveal an extremely varied picture. The impulse to color photographs was immediately acted upon out of complex desires.

Destroying the illusion of reality as much as enhancing the illusion of the photograph was the intent or result of those who put their hands to them. An understanding of the surviving examples being brought to wider view has only just begun.

Those who are interested in filling in the picture of nineteenth-century popular imaging habits and achievements are well served by the Burnses' work.

Those who are interested in the changing definitions of folk art would do well to buy three copies of this book and give two away.

The discussion will be loud and long, as the authors intended.* â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Grant Romer

Grant Romer is Director of Conservation and Museum Studies at the George Eastman House International Museum ofPhotography and Film.

He is a specialist in early nineteenthcentury photography and has lectured widely on the question ofphotographicfolk art.

SAY4iyit;Fyr

6vemi2:4Z/As

EXHIBITION CATALOG

FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN PORTRAITFRF

Revisiting Ammi Phillips FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN PORTRAITURE

By Stacy C. Hollander and Howard P. Fertig

Foreword by Gerard C. Wertkin Published by the Museum of American Folk Art 9 x 11",80 pages,50 full-color plates

PAPERBACK E 1% 1U_ 1010

4.95

S‘ j LIMITED SPONSOR'S EDITION—STILL AVAILABLE A beautiful limited edition of two hundred hand-numbered cloth-bound copies of this work has been printed and will be awarded to those who make a special $125 contribution ($75 of which is tax deductible.)

INCLUDES: Introduction and detailed captions and descriptions of each of the fifty full-color illustrations by curator mmi Phillips(1788-1865) was one of the foremost American folk artists of the nineteenth century. Revisiting Ammi Phillips: Fifty Years ofAmerican Portraiture, the first major publication of Phillips's work in more than twenty-five years, refocuses attention on the artistic achievements of this remarkable American master. Fifty major paintings from important museum and private collections are presented in full color and highlight the various periods of Phillips's career. This selection includes acknowledged masterpieces of the artist's oeuvre, as well as works that were unknown or had not yet been located when the Museum of American Folk Art presented its first comprehensive examination of this artist's work in the 1968 exhibition "Ammi Phillips: Portrait Painter 1788-1865."

A

Stacy C. Hollander.

Reprint of Mary Black's renowned essay "Ammi Phillips: Portrait Painter," written in association with Barbara and Larry Holdridge,from the long out-of-print 1968 exhibition catalog Ammi Phillips: Portrait Painter 1788-1865.

Chronology and expanded checklist of more than 600 identified paintings,compiled by research curator Howard P. Fertig. The checklist includes twice the number of paintings published in the 1968 catalog.

TO ORDER YOUR COPY,COMPLETE AND MAIL COUPON TO: MUSEUM OF AMERICAN FOLK ART,61 WEST 62ND STREET,NEW YORK,NY 10023 copies of the numbered cloth-bound Sponsor's Edition of Revisiting Ammi Phillips: Fifty Years ofAmerican Portraiture for my contribution of $125 each ($75 of which is tax deductible).

Charge my: Ci Visa Master Card Ul American Express Ul Enclosed is my check (U.S. bank only)for $

Please send

Name

No.

Institution

Expiration

Address City / State / Zip

Phone Number Signature

Third Annual

Museum Holiday T ee Exhibition Holiday trees, decorated with hand-painted ornaments made by members ofthe Historical Society ofEarly American Decoration, will be on viewfrom December 5 Fan marble

through January 7.

his year, the Museum's holiday trees will once again be festooned with 250 ornaments hand painted by members of the Historical Society of Early American Decoration(HSEAD). Each year, one of the Society's seventeen chapters volunteers to decorate the trees. This year, members of western New York State's Genesee Country Chapter took on the challenge.

Starting with a membership of nine, the Genesee Country Chapter has grown to 42 active participants. Not only are the members avid painters, but they also hold demonstrations and exhibitions of both antique originals and members' award-winning works throughout their area. Their most recent project was a weekend demonstration and exhibition held at the Genesee Country Museum, an historic village in Mumford, New York.

The 250 ornaments donated this year to the Museum of American Folk Art have been executed in a variety of patterns showing the different techniques of early American decoration. Most of the examples demonstrate gold leafing, freehand bronzing. Pontypool, and country tin painting. Marbleizing and painted scenes typical of early wall painting are also represented.

The ornaments shown here were painted by Genesee Country Chapter member Linda Lefko and photographed by Shirley S. Baer, Old Colony Chapter member and former president of HSEAD. The holiday tree exhibition has been coordinated by the Museum's gallery manager, Pamela Brown, and HSEAD's Genesee Country Chapter chair Carol Oswald. The holiday trees will be on view from December 5 through January 7 at the Museum's Eva and Morris Feld Gallery on Columbus Avenue between 65th and 66th streets. Museum hours are Tuesday through Sunday, 11:30 A.M. to 7:30 P.M.

64 WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART

Gold leaf roseâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;from an original bellows pattern

Freehand bronze (with red peachlâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;from an original bellows pattern

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Thisjuried, invitationalshow features the highest quality in traditional crafts, contemporaryfolk art, museum quality replicas, original artworks andfinefurniture reproductions.

Show Times: A One-Of-A-Kind Preview and Gala Party Friday:5pm - 9pm Admission:$20.00 per person Saturday & Sunday: 10:00am - 5:00pm General Admission:$10.00 per person Produced by Goodrich &

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Antique and contemporary folk art

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DON CADORET 66 WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART

"The Night ofthe Snow-Child" 7.5"x12" 1994

Studio open Commissions accepted P.O. 193 Charlton City, MA 01508 508-248-6856

GALLERIES TOAD HALL AT ABC CARPET & HOME

TOAD HALL COOPERSTOWN

888 Broadway 4th Floor New York City, NY 10003 212-473-3000 Ext. 281 / Fax 212-505-8078

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Reproduction of a circa 1840 Lancaster County Pennsylvania Thirty Star Blanket Chest

BRYCE M. RITTER HAND CRAFTED 18TH & 19TH CENTURY COUNTRY REPRODUCTIONS AND AMERICAN FOLK ART 100 MILFORD ROAD, DOWNINGTOWN, PA 19335 (215) 458-0460

also Vanity Ju9s

Nancy Weaver 76 Weaver Road Cedartown, Georgia 30125 (770) 748-7035

68 WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART

Pres. Bill Clinton

Barbara Olsen IN THE KITCHEN WITH JULIA (24 1/4" x 30 1/2" oil)

Exhibiting at Northwestern University Folk Art Show May 4-5, 1996

BARBARA OLSEN STUDIO 18781 Chillicothe Chagrin Falls, Ohio 44023 (216) 543-2452 FAX (216) 543-2453

Callfor gallery referral or studio appointment

RECENT WORK

CARYATID CONSOLE TABLE, CARVED WOOD,OIL PAINT, ANTIQUE WHITE MARBLE TOP,66" x 38" x 12" JEF STEINGREBE BRADFORD, NH 03221 603 938 2748

WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART 69

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,rinririnnn

Hajj Paintings Folk Art ofthe Great Pilgrimage Ann Parker and Avon Neal

Painted by self-taught artists on the exterior walls of homes across the Nile Deka,glowing panoramas celebrate each owner's traditional journey to Mecca Camels and airplanes, scenes of worship,and images from the Koran are juxtaposed in vibrant depictions of Islam's sacred annual ritual. Hall Paintings, with over 150 color photographs, is the first visual record ofthe richness and variety ofthis naive art form, Egypt's most significant contribution to the contemporary international folk art scene.

150 color photographs 176 pp.

Cloth $50.00

The Artist Outsider Creativity and the Boundaries ofCulture Edited by Michael D.Hall and Eugene W. Metcalf, Jr.

"This lively and provocative anthology frames a central issue in today's art world,that ofthe relationship between so-called mainstream and "outsider" art..

—Marcia Tucker; The New Museum of Contemporary Art "Illuminating, vastly informative, and on the contemporary edge,this book has the rare merit of being a treatise both for the trained and the layman:' —The Print Collector's Newsletter "... The Artist Outsider is required reading. An ambitious project produced by deeply dedicated individuals, it makes important scholarly contributions to a field that continues to be dominated by stylish coffee table books:' —Folk Art 12 color,71 black & white illustrations 360 PP. Cloth $62.00 Paper $29.95

Smithsonian Institution Press P.O. Box 960• Herndon,VA 22070-0960•800/782-4612

AARON BIRNBAUM (b. 1895)

K.S. Art will be participating at The Outsider Art Fair

Cafe Scene 1995 (18 x 24")

K.S. Art outsider & folk art

70 WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART

by appointment 91 Franklin Street #3 New York, NY 10013 212-219-1489

OUTSIDER ART FAIR January 26 - 28, 1996 FRIDAY IS SATURDAY 11-7pm • SUNDAY 11- 6pm

fil01111 tom .

Naitshilig,w- A! .....

Ted Gordon "JAIL BIRD" courtesy Luise Ross Gallery

Pr

self taught • visionary • intuitive • outsider • art brut PREVIEW JANUARY 25 Thursday, 5:30 - 8 30PM $45 includes preview, daily re-admission & catalog

The Puck Building LAFAYETTE & HOUSTON STREETS • SOHO, NEW YORK CITY DAILY ADMISSION • TEN DOLLARS Fair inFormation SANFORD L. SMITH & ASSOCIATES 68 EAST 7TH STREET NEW YORK, NY

10003

212-777-5218

Please visit our gallery in historic Yorktown, Virginia.

Our hours are 10am-5pm, Monday-Friday, and lpm-5pm Sunday.

145 BALLARD STREET NANCY THOMAS GALLERY YORKTOVVN, VA 23690

Carved Ark

by Daniel Strawser

Gallerg Americana 3941 San Felipe Houston,Texas77027 (713)622-6225

72 WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART

24" X 48"

(813) 855-1521

P.O. Box 1764â&#x20AC;˘ Oldsmar, Florida 34677

"The Beaver" WANDA'S QUILTS

Visit yourfavorite Folk Art Gallery for works by

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CONTEMPORARY Minnie Adkins Jesse Aaron Linvel Barker Pricilla Cassidy Ronald Cooper G.C. DuPree Mr. Eddy Roy Ferdenand Denzil Goodpasture Homer Green Alvin Jarrett Sammy Landers Tim Lewis Carl McKenzie

FOLK

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Hog Mattingly J. Mitchell Frank Pickel Braxton Ponder Dow Pugh Royal Robertson Sultan Rogers Jimmy Lee Sudduth Olivia Thomason Mose Tolliver Wesley Willis Troy Webb And Others

SHELTON

SHELTON GALLERY & FRAME STANFORD SQUARE • 4239 HARDING ROAD, NASHVILLE, TN 37205 •(615) 298-9935 Also Serving the Following Areas:

Chicago/Milwaukee • Brimfield, MA/New England New Orleans/Houston • Atlanta/Palm Beach • DC/Virginia/North Carolina

Weathervane Folk Art Gallery Featuring works by Jake McCord

Earnest Lee

Z.B. Armstrong

Jimmy Lee Sudduth

Wesley Stewart Ralph Griffin Donna Owen Wilson

Leonard Jones Willie Tarver and others

Main Street, Thomson, Ga. Phone (706) 595-1998 Tom and Krista Wells 74 WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART

Folk Fest '96 Self-taught • Outsider • Folk Art Visionary • Naive • Primitive • Southern Folk Pottery Come see the

THIS

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For a FREE copy of the 20th Century Folk Art Newspaper & more information on Folk Fest '96, call or write: 00 0'. Steve & Amy Slotin • 5967 Blackberry Lane • Buford, GA 30518 •(770)932-0506

Thank You to the 8,000 visitors who attended Folk Fest '95, and a Special Thanks to all the following exhibitors.

ALABAMA Artisans Clary Sage Gallery Cotton Belt FOLKWEAR Marcia Weber-Art Objects ARKANSAS Pangaea COLORADO Art Adventure Nan & David Pirnack FLORIDA Julie Began Cavanaugh E. Blue Leslie Neumann Fine Art Tyson Trading Company Wanda's Quilts Zak Gallery GEORGIA Berman Gallery Archer Locke Connell Gallery E. Register Finster Folk Art The Hambidge Center The High Museum Jerry Campbell

GEORGIA cont'd.

Jim Allen John Denton Knoke Galleries of Atlanta Larry Schlachter Ann Jacob Gallery Le Primitif Galleries Local Color Main Street Gallery Pat Mason Fine Art Millie Leathers Modern Primitive Gallery Robert Koontz Robert Reeves Rosehips Gallery Timpson Creek Gallery Tom Wells W. Newton Crouch, Jr. ILLINOIS Art From the Inside David Leonardis IOWA The Pardee Collection KENTUCKY Hackley Gallery Heike Pickett Gallery Kentucky Folk Art Center Loch Lea Antiques

LOUISIANA Gilley's Gallery Trade Folk Art MISSOURI Galerie Bonheur Margaret Doan R. Ege Antiques NEW JERSEY Art Naif NEW YORK Mary Anne Bross American Primitive Gallery Jim Linderman Museum of American Folk Art NORTH CAROLINA The Art Cellar Gallery At Home Gallery Aly Goodwin Blue Spiral 1 Catawba Valley Pottery Creative Heart Gallery Ginger Young Galleries Hayes Antiques Keeping Room Antiques The Southern Folk Pottery Collectors Society

OHIO Charles Auerbach Bingham & Vance FOLK ARTE Gallery PENNSYLVANIA Hotstuff Hustontown Patrick J. McArdle SOUTH CAROLINA America* Oh Yes! Lyn Archer The LaRoche Collection Red Piano, Too Phil & Debbie Wingard TENNESSEE Bruce Shelton Rising Fawn Folk Art VERMONT Boone Gallery Folk Art VIRGINIA Hurrah! Dorsey Taylor WISCONSIN Dean Jensen Gallery EUROPE Raw Vision MEXICO Juaquin Venado

FINSTER FOLK ART #1 Hankins Drive, Summerville, GA 30747 :

artists represented:

Howard Finster Roy Finster Michael Finster Beverly Finster Allen Wilson

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â&#x20AC;˘ Patncia Palermino Contemporary Folk Artist

"Moon Jumping" 16" x 20" acrylic on canvas

Patricia Palermino 9029 Greylock Street Alexandria, Virginia Phone/FAX 703 360-4757 Call for studio appointment, artist catalog and gallery referral.

76 WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART

ALICE J. HOFFMAN AND MARYANN WARAKOMSKI

MUSEUM OF AMERICAN FOLK ART COLLECTION' Home Furnishings and Decorative Accessories Representing over 300 years ofAmerican design,from the late 1600s to the present, the Museum ofAmerican Folk Art Collection'' brings within reach ofthe public the very best ofthe past to be enjoyedfor generations to come.

New Directions We're going live—don't miss the next issue of Folk Art to find out which channel to tune into for a special look at the Museum's licensing program.

Imperial Wallcoverings, Inc.

,e6t. c§N., v;;;kz• ..C:s:,.:;-, (- Cl'-7\*° 1 7‘•? ' Danforth Pewterers, Ltd.

News from Museum Licensees Look for the many new products from our family of licensees, featuring old favorites and new designs inspired by the Museum's collection. * Dakotah,Inc. Keep warm and cozy with decorative woven throws featuring images from paintings, weathervanes, and samplers. Six new designs to choose from, with coordinating pillows. * Danforth Pewterers,Ltd. Hang your keys on a chain of friendship, one of more than twenty-five new products including pewter and gold-plated jewelry and fashion accessories.* * Enesco Corporation Don't worry where to place a hot plate or steaming pot of tea—trivets and mugs in eight different quilt designs are now available. *Imperial Wallcoverings,Inc. Whether your setting is traditional, period, or contemporary, Imperial's stunning new borders and wallcoverings will inspire you to redecorate. Now available: Classic Celebration, Shaker Village Landscape, Art of Embellishment, Forever Floral, Splendid Stitches, Toy Soldier Parade, Nature's Navigators, and American Beauty.

* The Lane Company,Inc. We've found the perfect place for your cherished keepsakes,jewelry, cuff links, and tie tacks—a mini-chest with lock and key.

Store pencils, pens, playing cards, recipes, or a box of tea—perfect for home or office and an ideal gift for all ages. Mini-chests measure 9 x 334 x 5" deep.* * Wild Apple Graphics,Ltd. Take a Museum masterpiece home with you. Choose a fine poster,framed or unframed: Girl in Red Dress with Cat and Dog; Theorem Painting; Fruit, Bird, and Butterfly; Lady with a Fan; Worktable Top (detail); Situation of America, 1848; and Miniature Friendship Pin (Clasped Hands).

Dear Customer Your purchase of Museumlicensed products directly benefits the cultural and educational activities of the Museum. Thank you for participating in the Museum's continuing effort to celebrate the style, craft, and tradition of American folk art. If you have any questions or comments regarding the Museum of American Folk Art Collection," please contact us at 212/977-7170.

Family of Licensees Abbeville Press(212/8881969) gift wrap, book/gift tags and quilt note cube.* Andrews & McMeel (816/932-6700) traditional folk art songbook. Artwear, Inc.(800/551-9945) Wild Apple Graphics, Ltd. activewear, T-shirts.* Carvin Folk Art Designs,Inc.(212/755(case goods, wicker and upholstered furniture) 6474)gold-plated and enamel jewelry.* Conand mini-chests. Lenox Collections(800/233cord Miniatures(800/888-0936) 1"-scale fur1885) Museum Treasury of Collectibles. Perniture and accessories.* Dakotah,Inc. fect Fit Industries(704/289-1531) machine(800/325-6824) decorative pillows, table made in America printed bedcovers and linens, woven throws,chair pads. Danforth coordinated bedroom products. Remington Pewterers,Ltd.(800/222-3142) pewter jewelApparel Co.,Inc.(203/821-3004) men's and ry and accessories, buttons, ornaments, women's ties.* Rose Art Industries keyrings.* Dynasty Dolls(800/888-0936) col(800/CRAYONS)jigsaw puzzles.* Rowe Potlectible porcelain dolls.* Enesco Corporation tery Works(608/764-5435)Pennsylvania red(800/436-3726) decorative home giftware colware and salt-glazed stoneware (microwave, lection. Galison Books(212/354-8840) note oven, and dishwasher safe).* Takashimaya cards, address book, puzzle, holiday cards.* Company,Ltd.(212/350-0550)home furGallery Partners,Ltd.(718/797-2547)silk, nishings accessories and furniture (available cotton, and chiffon scarves and wool shawls.* only in Japan). Tyndale,Inc.(312/384-0800) General Foods International Corporation lighting and lampshades. Wild Apple Graph(800/432-6333)coffee in decorative tins. ics, Ltd.(800/756-8359)fine art reproduction Imperial Wallcoverings,Inc.(216/464-3700) prints and posters.* wallcoverings, borders. James River Corporation, Creative Expressions Groups *Available in Museum of American Folk Art Book and Gift Shops.

(800/843-6818) party goods.* The Lane For mail-order information,contact Beverly Company,Inc.,including Lane/Venture and McCarthy at 212/977-7170.

Lane Upholstery (800/447-4700)furniture

WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART 77

AARON BIRNBAUM is represented by

K.S. Art outsider & folk art by appointment 91 Franklin Street #3 New York, NY 10013

212-219-1489 Kerry Schuss

K.S. Art congratulates Aaron Birnbaum on the occasion of his 100th birthday!

11

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Come see why we're hell on wheels.

and SCULPTURES of blind, deaf and mute artist GEORGE

Contemporary folk art

PAPPADAKIS

17y Kentucky's most exciting artists.

Exhibition booth #1 8 at Outsider Art Fair

Ronald Cooper, 1995

ft.

Male figure, 20"x 8"x 4"

11111

The Museum Store of Kentucky Folk Art Center, Inc. 119 West University Boulevard Morehead, Kentucky 40351 606 783-2204 OPEN MON-FRI 8:30-4:30 SAT 9:00-5:00

1996

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WE BUY FOLK & OUTSIDER ART CALL 800-523-0450 PRIVATE COLLECTOR SEEKS OUTSTANDING WORKS BY

Jesse Aaron J.R. Adkins Eddie Arning Andrea Badami Emile Branchard David Butler Vincent Canady Raymond Coins James Crane Uncle Jack Dey Sam Doyle

William Edmondson Minnie Evans Josephus Farmer J.O.J. Frost Morris Hirshfield J.C. Huntington Gustav Klumpp George Lothrop Annie Lucas Sister Gertrude Morgan Elijah Pierce

Martin Ramirez Nellie Mae Rowe Ellis Ruley Lorenzo Scott Drossos Skyllas Patrick Sullivan Bill Traylor Chief Willey Luster Willis Joseph Yoakum ...and others

JOSH FELDSTEIN • AMERICAN FOLK ART 4001 NEVV13ERRY ROAD, SUITE E-3 • GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA • 32607 • TEL 904-375-6161

WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART 79

A FASCINATING LOOK AT

OUTSIDER ART PASSING IN THE OUTSIDER LANE Art from the Heart of Twenty-One SelfTaught Artists

by Dan Prince 192 full-color plates,9 x 11 inches, 288 pages, 1-885203-17-9,$60.00 cloth

This insightful new book takes a look at the true life experiences of twenty-one artists, who, driven by passion or the need to communicate, have persevered against all odds to create their art. Featured artists include Karolina Danek, Howard Finster, Spot Daniel, and John Jordan.

To order, send $60.00 plus $3.00 shipping and handling to: Journey Editions, RR1 Box 231-5, North Clarendon, VT 05759-9700 Or call toll-free 1-800-526-2778, Fax 1-800-FAX-TUTL. code 865 CA residents please add 8.25% sales tax. MA & VT residents please add 5% sales tax.

Graphite Drawing 29"x36" Circa 1968

•• •• •• • •• •••• • • •• •• •

The Texas Connection Presently featuring the paintings and drawings of:

BENI E. KOSH (African-American 1917-1993)

priscilla magers, mba fine folk art featuring

Sarah Rakes by appointment Sherrie Bingham Chicatelli Mark Vance 12801 Larchmere Boulevard Shaker Heights, Ohio 44120 216-721-1711 Folk An Self-Taught Art

80 W

15)5/S

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3000 weslayan, suite 300 houston, texas 77027 (713) 961-1996

**AO** •••••

ADOLF CATTALINICH "Tower of Babel"

...discovered his artistic skills while in prison.

"I never knew I had any skills in art thank you Phylis Cornfeld (God bles you ALL)"[SIC]

OUTSIDER ART FAIR January 25-28, 1996 Also...Gayleen Aiken, Larry Bissonnette, Dug Nap, Inez Nathaniel Walker, Aaron Birnbaum, Floretta Warfel, and others

31233 3 AIhnrirA • NORTH 545 South Prospect • Burlington, VT 05401 • 802-658-5123

ANTON HAARDT GALLERY David Butler Thornton Dial Sam Doyle Minnie Evans Howard Finster Sybil Gibson Bessie Harvey Lonnie Holley Clementine Hunter James H.Jennings Calvin Livingston Charlie Lucas R.A. Miller

B.F. Perkins Rhinestone Cowboy Royal Robertson Juanita Rogers Mary T.Smith Henry Speller Jimmy Lee Sudduth "Son" Thomas Annie Tolliver Mose Tolliver Felix Virgous Ben Williams Chuckie Williams

1220 SOUTH HULL STREET MONTGOMERY,ALABAMA 36104 (334) 263-5494 GALLERY ANNEX: 2714 COLISEUM NEW ORLEANS,LA 70130 (504)897-1172

"THE BOASTER," GEORGIA BLIZZARD, 11" FEATURING: THE INCOMPARABLE SOUTHERN FOLK POTTERY OF GEORGIA BLIZZARD DAVID BUTLER, THORNTON DIAL MINNIE EVANS, HOWARD FINSTER BESSIE HARVEY, FRANK HOLDER JAMES HAROLD JENNINGS, S.L. JONES WOODIE LONG, CHARLIE LUCAS SARAH RAKES, Q.J. STEPHENSON JIMMY LEE SUDDUTH, MOSE TOLLIVER GEORGE WILLIAMS, EARLY HAITIAN ART

CREATIVE HEART GALLERY Southern Folk Art Since 1986 207 West Sixth Street Winston-Salem, NC 27101 910-722-2345

WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART 81

' \ 1

Lobby "Barn," designed by Naomi Leff and Associates

Fall Antiques Show Opens anford L. Smith's Fall Antiques Show returned to the Seventh Regiment Armory on Park Avenue and 67th Street on September 27, 1995, after fifteen years at Pier 92. More than 1,000 supporters turned out for the Opening Night Preview, which benefited the Museum of American Folk Art. The Museum's Board of Trustees and staff wish to thank Benefit Chairmen Nina and Tim Zagat; Vice Chairmen Susan and John Gutfreund, Allison and Peter Rockefeller, and Donna and Elliott Slade; Advisory Chairmen Lucy C. Danziger and Wendy Lehman Lash; and Corporate Chairman Vincent A. Mai for making this one of the most successful previews in the Museum's history.

Special thanks go to Anne Mai,the Fall Antiques Show Educational Chairman, who coordinated "Modernism, American Folk Art, and the Early Collectors," a symposium held on Saturday, September 30,in the armory's Tiffany Room. The symposium panel consisted of Avis Berman, Elizabeth Stillinger, and Charlotte Emans Moore and was moderated by Gerard C. Wertkin.

The Benefit Committee acknowledges with gratitude the support of Joseph E. Seagram & Sons,Inc., for contributing the wine and liquor for the evening; Christie's, for contributing the printing of the Preview invitation; Park Avenue Cafe,for contributing the refreshments for the special reception held in the Tiffany Room; Naomi Leff and Associates,for the lobby design; Rosedale Nurseries, Inc., for trees and shrubs; Ellen Blissman, for the invitation design; Corporate Benefactors AEA Investors,

S

U WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART

Inc., Country Living magazine, Merrill Lynch, and Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson; and Corporate Patrons The Blackstone Group, Chemical Bank, Ernst & Young LLP, Goldman, Sachs & Co., Morgan Stanley, and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom,as well as everyone who participated in this important event.

Designer Naomi Leff and Advisory Chairman Lucy C. Danziger

lim and Nina Zagat being interviewed

by George C. Whipple III for NY I

Jack Weeden and Cathy Booth

Peggy Danziger and Patricia Tang

Educational Chairman Anne Mai and her husband, Corporate Chairman Vincent A. Mai

Photography by Matt Flynn

Director of Development Valerie K. Longwood with Bo Collins and Kathryn Richer

Thank You, Fall Antiques Show Dealers he Fall Antiques Show enjoys a reputation for innovation and quality that has been painstakingly earned by its dealers. It is because of the quality of the objects exhibited by these dealers that Museum supporters flock to the Opening Night Benefit Preview year after year.

In a small way of thanks, Museum Trustee Joyce Cowin, who generously underwrote the event, together with Director Gerard C. Wertkin, members of the Museum's Board of Trustees, and the Folk Art magazine staff, hosted an informal party for Fall Antiques Show dealers on set-up day, Tuesday, September 26.

T

The party, which was held from 6:00 to 9:00 P.M. in the armory's Tiffany Room,offered refreshments and a respite from the daunting task of getting a booth ready for opening night.

Trustee Joyce Cowin with Stephen S. Lash and his wife, Advisory Chairman Wendy Lehman Lash

Mary Rutherfurd, Hall F. Willkie, Leighton Candler, and Olive Watson 7 Tina and Aame Anton of American Primitive Gallery

Trustee Anne Hill Blanchard with dealers Tim and Pam Hill Curator Stacy C. Hollander, dealers Frank Maresca and Roger Ricco, and Folk Art Production Editor Tanya Heinrich

Manhattan Borough President Ruth Messinger and Director Gerard C. Wertkin

WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART 83

Norway's Foreign Minister Welcomed n Tuesday evening, Sepof Norwegian culture and how tember 26, a reception that culture was preserved in the was held at the Museum New World through folk art. to honor Norway's Minister of Quoting from Stacy C. HollanForeign Affairs, BjOrn Tore der's essay "Norwegian Folk Art: Godal. Among other special The Migration of a Tradition," guests were Gro Balas, the Forwhich appeared in the Fall 1995 eign Minister's wife; Jakken issue of this publication, he BiOrn Lian, Ambassador of Norwholeheartedly asserted that way to the United Nations; and "rather than being subsumed by Jan Flatla, Consul General of Nor- American culture, as was once way in New York. The lilting feared, it appears that the Norwetones of Norwegian conversation gian heritage in America has flowed throughout the gallery as instead attracted others to aspire guests from Norway and Norweto its ranks." gian Americans came together to Guests of the Norwegian Condiscuss ancestors and art. sulate, as well as Museum Gerard C. Wertkin, the MuseTrustees and patrons, attended um's director, gave a spirited the reception. A light buffet of welcoming address in which he authentic Norwegian savories applauded Norway's key role in was served by Nordic Delicacies, pointing the way to peace in the a retail store and restaurant speMiddle Fast with the Oslo cializing in Norwegian proviAccords. He then introduced sions. Nordic Delicacies is locatBjorn Tore Godal, who spoke of ed in the Bay Ridge section of the strong ties between Norway Brooklyn. and the United States and the history of Norwegian immigration.

Norway's Minister of Godal also spoke of the antiquity

()

Jan Hada, Consul General of Norway, Marion Nelson, and Janis Bjorn Kanavin, Director of Norwegian Information Services

Bjorn Tore Godal and his wife, Gro Balas

Lena Biorck Kaplan, President of The AmericanScandinavian Foundation

Foreign Affairs, Bjorn Tore Godal Janis Bjorn Kanavin with his children Andrea and Johannes

Norwegian Folk Art Exhibition Opens members' reception was held at the Museum on Monday, September 18, to celebrate the opening of"Norwegian Folk Art: The Migration of a Tradition." This exhibition of more than 175 works by Norwegian and Norwegian-American folk artists traces four centuries of artistic development and the transmission of cultural and visual traditions from Norway to the United States from the Middle Ages to the present.

The exhibition was jointly organized by the Museum of American Folk Art and the Norwegian Folk Museum in Oslo,

A

Deputy Director Riccardo Salmona, Nils Ellinsgard, noted Norwegian painter and rosemaling scholar, and Peter A.nker, Director Emeritus, Western Norwegian Museum of Applied Arts in Bergen, Norway ,a, I 84 V, IN 11-12 199.-2

1 K \I 1

Vibeke Steineger, Chairperson of Programs and Events of the American Scandinavian Society, Marion Nelson, and Haakon Smith

and curated by Dr. Marion John Nelson, director emeritus of Vesterheim, the NorwegianAmerican Museum in Decorah, Iowa. It is part of"Norwegian Visions," a Norwegian American Cultural Partnership Program responsible for bringing Norwegian exhibitions, theater, dance, film, and literature to the United States.

In attendance at the reception were Jan Flatla, consul general of Norway; Janis Bjorn Kanavin, director of Norwegian Information Service; John Petter Opdahl, vice consul; Lena BiOrck Kaplan, president of The American-Scan-

Photography by Matt Flynn

Trustee loan M. Johnson being presented to King Harald V

Director Gerard C. Wertkin and guest curator Dr. Marion J. Nelson

dinavian Foundation; and many members of the NorwegianAmerican communityâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;some arriving in beautiful traditional costume. Museum trustees, members, staff, and friends joined the Museum's director, Gerard C. Wertkin, in thanking our Norwegian friends for the opportunity to share in their heritage.

The exhibition will be on view through January 7, 1996.

The public is urged to visit the exhibition and pick up a free copy of Visions ofNorway,a program guide to more than 80 events sponsored by museums, concert halls, churches, and gal-

Guest curator Dr. Marion Nelson guiding the king and queen through the exhibition

Queen Sonja, King Harald V, and Gerard C. Wertkin

leries throughout the city through April 1996.

A richly illustrated book, Norwegian Folk Art: the Migration ofa Tradition, published by Abbeville Press and edited by Marion Nelson,features essays by leading Norwegian and American scholars and 283 illustrations, 239 of which are in full color. The book is available at the Museum's Book and Gift Shops or by mail. For mail-order information, call Beverly McCarthy at 212/977-7170.

Royal Visit ednesday, October 11â&#x20AC;&#x201D;King Harald V and Queen Sonja of Norway arrived at the Museum's Eva and Morris Feld Gallery at 11:00 A.M. They were met at curbside by the Museum's director, Gerard C. Wertkin, who escorted them into the gallery.

Accompanied by their personal staff and members of the Norwegian diplomatic corps, Their Majesties toured the exhibition "Norwegian Folk Art: The Migration of a Tradition" with guest curator Dr. Marion Nelson and also visited the Daniel Cowin Permanent Collection Gallery.

Before the tours, members of the Museum's Board of Trustees were presented to the royal couple by Gerard Wertkin, as were Deputy Director Riccardo Salmona, Curator Stacy Hollander, and special guests Allison

W

Ledes, editor of The Magazine Antiques and Jean LemMon, editor of Better Homes and Gardens.

During a brief farewell address, Gerard Wertkin presented the king and queen with gifts of several Museum publications as a token of their visit and expressed the hope that many of those present might be able to greet the royal visitors once again when "Norwegian Folk Art: The Migration of a Tradition" winds up its tour at the Norwegian Folk Museum in Oslo.

WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART

85

CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN FOR ART & Siff-TAUGHT ART

_IRMO HI1ROLD Krinincs A MflRg T. S1T1M-I A

I rsEnnu CARTER A SIAM I RAKES A S.L_ JOULES 1 a4

Mike Smith•At Home Gallery•2304 Sherwood Street Greensboro, North Carolina 27403

By Appointment Only

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Carvers, Painters, Musicians, and Scholars n conjunction with its current grams held at the Museum's Eva exhibition,"Norwegian Folk and Morris Feld gallery included Art: The Migration of a demonstrations of Norwegian Tradition," the Museum prewood carving and regional paintsented a series of public proing, lectures, concerts of Norwegrams,including a symposium gian folk music, and children's on Norwegian culture and art workshops and storytelling. held at the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs' Mark Goodson Theater. Free proBlade Aweigh, Norwegian woodcarver

a

910/294-2297

= 5 =

\ TIMMS STEVE E.- HAW FOR FOLK FEST 95 A

SAVITT GALLERY 2015 Route 100 • Macungie, PA 18062 (1-78 Trexlertown Exit 14-A, 3.7 miles south on Route 100)

Museum Controller Joan M. Walsh having a caning lesson

Jack Savitt Represents His Father

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

(610)398-0075

$S WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART

Nils Ellinsgard, noted Norwegian regional painter, author, and expert on the history of rosemaling

Simple Gilts recording session in the Meeting House at Sabbathday Lake, Maine. Joel Cohen and the Boston Camerata with the Shakers

JUDY A SASLOW 212

208 60610 943 0530

WEST SUPERIOR

CI—IICAGO

ILLINOIS

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Recording of Shaker Music Released erard C. Wertkin, the Museum's director and an expert on the Shaker contributions to American culture, was a guest speaker at a September 13 press conference and reception held at The American Craft Museum to celebrate the release of Simple Gifts: Shaker Chants and Spirituals, a CD of Shaker songs.

Released on the Erato label, the recording by Joel Cohen and the Boston Camerata features performances by six of the seven remaining members of the Shaker village at Sabbathday Lake, Maine, the last functioning Shaker community. The album was

G

recorded in Sabbathday Lake's original 1794 meeting house, where the songs have been sung for more than 200 years.

Wertkin recalled how he was moved by the beauty of Shaker music when he first heard it 30 years ago. Attendees were treated to a live a capella performance

by Joel Cohen and the Boston Camerata joined by Sister Frances Carr and Brother Arnold Hadd of Sabbathday Lake. The CD is available at the Museum's Book and Gift Shops;for information call Beverly McCarthy at 212/977-7170.

American Quilt Movie Screening ing room at 666 Fifth Avenue in private screening of the Manhattan. The 74 Museum new feature film How to Make an American Quilt, guests included Nancy Lindemeyer and Claire Whitcomb, starring Winona Ryder and based editor in chief and contributing on the book of the same name by editor, respectively, of Victoria Whitney Otto, was held on Octomagazine."From Paper to ber 6 as a special thank you for Cloth," an article by Whitney Museum of American Folk Art Otto about her book and the makBenefactors and Director's Circle ing of the movie, ran in Victoria's members.

October 1995 issue.

The event was sponsored by Universal Pictures and took place at the Universal Pictures screen-

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WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY

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AND BY APPOINTMENT

COMING SUMMER'96

ANTELOPES, Blue Spiral l's BOBCATS first folk art exhibition to COUGARS explore the animal kingdom ...YA KS St from A to Z will ZEBRAS include the following artists: •

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For additional information call or write: Blue Spiral 1 38 Biltmore Ave. Asheville, NC 28801 Tel: 704-251-0202 Fax: 704-251-0884

JIM HAVNER JIMMIE LEE SUDDUTH JUDITH CHENEY PARKS TOWNSEND BESSIE HARVEY JEFFREY MCDOWELL CRYSTAL KING PATRICK CARDIFF KIM ELLINGTON IVY BILLIOT...

AND MANY OTHERS.

WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART 87

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvy

MUSEUM

NEWS

150+ Antique Quilts 1780 - 1940 Specializing in that 'one of a kind' quilt Upcoming Exhibitions

Antique quilt tops,blocks and vintage fabrics 1780 - 1950

J

Rocky Mountain Quilts Betsey Telford 3847 Alt. 6 & 24 Palisade, CO 81526 1-800-762-5940

LEONCAVALLO SOLDIERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION AND THE CIVIL WAR 27 inches high

LAAAAAAAA

Total QUILT RESTORATION using VINTAGE fabrics. Restoration of hooked and braided rugs and woven coverlets. All work fully guaranteed and completely insured Let us dress your old dolls in clothing made from vintage fabric Expert custom hand quilting

anuary 16 through February 25, 1996—"Expressions of Trust: Recent Acquisitions From the Permanent Collection."

Over the past few years, the Museum has received many important additions to the collection—so many, in fact, that it is clearly time to showcase these significant artworks, which enhance every area of the Museum's collecting interests.

Among the major paintings that have recently come to the Museum are a pair of 18th-century portraits that were previously in the collection of Bertram K. and Nina Fletcher Little. Traditionally attributed to Reuben

PENGUIN GATEPOST ORNAMENT; artist unknown; Nantucket Island, Massachusetts; 1890-1920; wood, paint; 37 • 18 21. Museum of American Folk Art, gift of Mrs. Winifred F. Echler, 1992.7.1

Moulthrop, the highly decorative portraits of Mary Kimberly Thomas Reynolds and James Blakeslee Reynolds, painted about 1789, are now the earliest in the Museum's collection. At the other end of the timeline are new acquisitions by such wellknown late 20th-century artists as Eddie Aming,Thornton Dial, and Purvis Young. In addition to paintings, the exhibition includes sculpture, environmental art, textiles, and furniture and features a seven-foot-long snake carved and painted by Miles Carpenter and exuberantly paint-decorated chests from New England. The Museum's growing collection is a continuing celebration of the creative and inventive nature of the American people. arch 2 through April 28, 1996— "Discovering Ellis Ruley." This exhibition is an in-depth exploration of paintings by Ellis Ruley, an African-American artist from Norwich, Conn. His art reflects its particular moment in time1939 to 1959—through the use of popular sources such as National

M

ACCIDENT; Ellis Ruley; Norwich, Connecticut; 1939-1959; oil-based house paint on poster. board; 22 28". Collection of Chuck and Ian Rosenak

STUDIO:6 Hilltop Road, Mendham, NJ 07945 201-543-2164 908-852-8128

88 WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART

JOHN C.

Dealer and Birnbaum supporter Kerry Schuss congratulating his friend

Geographic and Life magazines.

Beneath the surface of the paintings, troubled currents hint at survival mechanisms that bely the bright smiles of the figures and the variegated colors of the scenes. Organized by theme and by perspective, the paintings elicit an uneasy response—as if the visual cues are misleading, leaving the viewer slightly off balance. Today, Ruley's work has assumed a poignance through the juxtaposition of its brittle cheeriness with our retrospective awareness of the climate of the pre—Civil Rights era in which he lived and worked.

Ellis Ruley's paintings were "discovered" in the 1950s by Joseph Gualtieri of the Slater Museum and later exhibited at the Janet Fleisher Gallery in Philadelphia. Since that time there has not been a major presentation of Ruley's work, which speaks so eloquently of place, time, and dreams."Discovering Ellis Ruley" is organized and circulated by the San Diego Museum of Art. The exhibition is made possible by Ford Motor Company.

HILL ANTIQUE INDIAN

6962E. 1ST AVE. SCOTTSDALE ARIZONA 85251 (602)946-2910

Happy 100th Birthday, Aaron riends and family joined in to sing "Happy Birthday" as contemporary folk artist Aaron Birnbaum blew out the candles on his cake—a replica of one of his paintings in a series called You Listen To Me. The party was given by the Museum at its Eva and Morris Feld Gallery on July 17, one day before Birnbaum's actual 100th birthday.

Aaron Birnbaum was born on July 18, 1895,in Eastern Europe and immigrated to the United States in 1913 at the age of 17.

He began to paint after he retired around 1960, working from his home in Brooklyn, where he still lives and paints today. An essay on his life and work,"A Little Pepper, a Little Salt," by Anne Mai, appeared in the last issue of Folk Art(Fall 1995).

(News continued on page 92)

F

Left: Navajo concho belt by Billy Goodluck.

Circa 1940.

Right: Navajo concho belt late 19th century.

Bold color and whimsical delight make a great gift'

r ▪ ▪ Aaron Birnbaum preparing to blow out his candles

North Carolina selftaught artist Benny Carter took one trip to New York City and never got over it. His paintings are sought 19 9 6 cikLE oN by collectors all over the United States and 13 of his best are shown together here for the rust time in this brilliantly colorful calendar. There are typical Manhattan skylines but also Adam and Eve in Central Park, Noah's Ark in the harbor, Yankee Stadium with the Statue of Liberty in the background, baseball glove on her upraised hand in place of the torch. Reproduced in full color and size (13.5" x 18" open), it's ready to hang on wall. All major U.S. and Canadian holidays are included.

Only $11.95 (plus $2.00 each calendar for shipping). Supplies are limited.

Make check and mail to A.D. Productions, Inc., 3407-H W. Wendover Ave., Greensboro, NC 27407 or call toll-free with VISA or MasterCard: 1-800-528-34939:00 am — 6:00 pm (Eastern time) Monday — Saturday Name

Total Quantity

Address

Total Amt Enclosed

City/State/ZIP

0 Check

Telephone()

L Card *

VISA

0 Money Order 7 MasterCard

Exp. Date_

WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART 119

TRUSTEES/DONORS

BOARD OF TRUSTEES Executive Committee Ralph 0.Esmerian President Frances Sirota Martinson, Esq. Executive Vice President and Chairman, Executive Committee Lucy C. Danziger Executive Vice President Bonnie Strauss Vice President Joan M.Johnson Vice President Peter M.Ciccone Treasurer Jacqueline Fowler Secretary Raymond C. Egan

MAJOR

DONORS

TO

American Folk Art Society Amicus Foundation William Arnett Asahi Shimbun Mr.& Mrs. Arthur L. Barrett Ben & Jerry's Homemade,Inc. Estate of Abraham P. Bersohn Dr. Robert Bishop Anne Hill & Edward Vermont Blanchard Mr.& Mrs. Edwin C. Braman Marilyn & Milton Brechner Mr.& Mrs. Edward J. Brown Iris Cannel Morris B. and Edith S. Cartin Family Foundation Tracy & Barbara Cate Edward Lee Cave Chinon, Ltd. Estate of Thomas M. Conway David L. Davies Mr.& Mrs. Donald DeWitt Gerald & Marie DiManno The Marion & Ben Duffy Foundation Mr.& Mrs. Alvin Einbender Ellin F. Ente Ross & Glady A. Faires Daniel & Jessie Lie Farber Eva Feld Estate of Morris Feld Janey Fire & John Kalymnios Susan & Eugene Flamm

RECENT

MAJOR

SO WI TER 1995196 FOLK ART

OF

AMERICAN

Members Anne Hill Blanchard Edward Lee Cave Joyce Cowin David L. Davies Vira L.M.H. Goldman Susan Gutfreund Kristina Barbara Johnson, Esq. Susan Klein George H. Meyer, Esq. Cyril I. Nelson Julie K.Palley David C. Walentas L. John Wilkerson, Ph.D Robert N. Wilson

THE

LINCOLN

SQUARE

Walter and Josephine Ford Fund Jacqueline Fowler Selma & Sam Goldwitz Irene & Bob Goodkind Mr.& Mrs. Baron J. Gordon Doris Stack Green Cordelia Hamilton Taiji Harada William Randolph Hearst Foundation Terry & Simca Heled Alice & Ronald Hoffman Mr.& Mrs. David S. Howe Mr.& Mrs. Albert L. Hunecke, Jr. Mr. & Mrs. Yee Roy Jear Kristina Barbara Johnson, Esq. Joan & Victor L. Johnson Isobel & Harvey Kahn Louise & George Kaminow Shirley & Theodore L. Kesselman Mr.& Mrs. Robert Klein Kodansha, Ltd. Lee & Ed Kogan Wendy & Mel Lavin James & Frances Lieu Howard & Jean Lipman Foundation Robert & Betty Marcus Foundation, Inc. C.F. Martin IV Frances Sirota Martinson, Esq. Masco Corporation Mr. & Mrs. Christopher Mayer

FOLK

ART

Honorary Trustee Eva Feld Trustees Emeriti Cordelia Hamilton Herbert W. Hemphill, Jr. Margery G. Kahn Jean Lipman George F. Shaskan, Jr.

ENDOWMENT

FUND

Marjorie W. McConnell Michael & Marilyn Mennello Benson Motechin Johleen Nester, John Nester II & Jeffrey Nester Kathleen S. Nester NYNEX Corporation Paul Oppenheimer Dorothy & Leo Rabkin Cathy Rasmussen Ann-Marie Reilly Willa & Joseph Rosenberg Betsey Schaeffer The William P. and Gertrude Schweitzer Foundation, Inc. Mr. & Mrs. Richard Sears Mr. & Mrs. George F. Shaskan, Jr. Louise A.Simone Patricia Lynch Smith & Sanford L. Smith Mr.& Mrs. Richard L. Solar Mr. & Mrs. Austin Super Mr. & Mrs. Stanley Tananbaum Phyllis & Irving Tepper Two Lincoln Square Associates Anne D. Utescher Elizabeth & Irwin Warren Mrs. Dixon Wecter Gerard C. Wertkin Robert N.& Anne Wright Wilson Mr. & Mrs. John H. Winkler

DONORS

The Museum of American Folk Art greatly appreciates the generous support of the following friends: $100,000 and above Estate of Daniel Cowin Ralph 0.Esmerian Ford Motor Company Estate of Laura Harding The J.M. Kaplan Fund, Inc. The Henry Luce Foundation,Inc.

MUSEUM

Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in conjunction with Norwegian Visions Jane & David Walentas Anonymous 850,000—$99,999 Lucy C.& Frederick M. Danziger Johnson & Johnson Joseph Martinson Memorial Fund Anne Wright & Robert N. Wilson Anonymous

S20,000449,999 Arista Nashville Mr.& Mrs. Leon Black The Coca-Cola Company National Endowment for the Arts Restaurant Associates Industries, Inc. Barbara & Thomas W.Strauss Fund 810,000—$19,999 AEA Investors Inc.

RECENT

MAJOR

DONORS

The Beacon Group Bear, Stearns & Co., Inc. Anne Hill & Edward Vermont Blanchard Bristol-Myers Squibb Company Edward Lee Cave Peter M.Ciccone Country Living Joyce Cowin David L. Davies & Jack Weeden Dietrich American Foundation & H. Richard Dietrich William B. Dietrich & William B. Dietrich Foundation Susan & Raymond C. Egan Jacqueline Fowler Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson Susan & John H. Gutfreund Joan M.& Victor L. Johnson Susan & Robert E. Klein Howard & Jean Lipman Foundation Anne & Vincent Mai Merrill Lynch George H. Meyer, Esq. NYNEX Corporation Schlumberger Foundation Inc. Mr.& Mrs. George F. Shaskan, Jr. Barbara & L. John Wilkerson

$4,00049,999 The American-Scandinavian Foundation Big Apple Wrecking & Construction Company The Blackstone Group Joan Bull Clarissa & H. Steve Burnett John R.& Dorothy D. Caples Fund Christie's Mr.& Mrs. Edgar M.Cullman Mr.& Mrs. Joseph Cullman III Mr.& Mrs. Richard Danziger Debevoise & Plimpton Department of Cultural Affairs, City of New York Ernst & Young LLP The FINOVA Group Inc. Goldman, Sachs & Co. Hill and Knowlton,Inc. Ellen E. Howe Naomi Leff and Associates, Inc. MBNA America, N.A. Linda & Christopher Mayer Mr.& Mrs. Kenneth J. McAlley Constance Milstein Morgan Stanley Foundation New York State Council on the Arts Olympia 8t York Companies (U.S.A.) Park Avenue Cafe Philip Morris Companies Inc. Dorothy & Leo Rabkin Mr.& Mrs. Frank Richardson Joseph E. Seagrams & Sons,Inc. Herbert and Nell Singer Philanthropic Fund Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom Donna & Elliot Slade Sotheby's Time Warner Inc. $2,00043,999 Bergen Line, Inc. Ellen Blissman Mr.& Mrs. James A. Block

Burson-Marsteller Capital Cities/ABC Mr.& Mrs. John K. Castle Lily Cates Barbara & Joseph Cohen Davida & Alvin Deutsch Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Vira L.M.H.& Robert Goldman Pamela J. Hoiles Susan & Jerry Lauren Ellen & Arthur Liman Macy's East Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc. Gael & Michael Mendelsohn Norwegian Tourist Board Paige Rense The Rockefeller Group William D. Rondina Cynthia V.A.& Robert T. Schaffner Peter J. Solomon Patricia A.& Robert C. Stempel Mr.& Mrs. Stanley Tananbaum Vesterheim Norwegian American Museum Anonymous S1,000—$1,999 Alconda-Owsley Foundation Mr.& Mrs. Michael G. Allen Mr. R. Randolph Apgar & Mr. Allen Black Tamiko Arata Mr. and Mrs. David Barrett Mr.& Mrs. Thomas Block Tina & Jeffrey Bolton Dr. & Mrs. Robert E. Booth, Jr. Lois P. Broder William F. Brooks, Jr. Mr.& Mrs. Edward J. Brown Meredith & Michael J. Bzdak Chemical Bank Liz Claiborne Foundation The Coach Dairy Goat Farm Mr.& Mrs. Norman U. Cohn Drs. Stephen & Helen Colen Conde Nast Publications Inc. Consolidated Edison Company of New York The Cowles Charitable Trust Susan R. Cullman Mr. & Mrs. David Dangoor Mr.& Mrs. Charles Diker The Echo Design Group Inc. Margot & John L. Ernst Helaine & Burton M Fendelman Mr.& Mrs. Charles Fabrikant Fortgang Mr.& Mrs. Jay Furman Mr.& Mrs. Bruce Geismar Howard Gilman Foundation Dr. Kurt Gitter Anne & Eric J. Gleacher Mr.& Mrs. Robert Goodkind Mr.& Mrs. Baron J. Gordon Ann Harithas Mr.& Mrs. Walter W. Hess, Jr. Arlene & Leonard Hochman Dr. & Mrs. Josef Jelinek Mr. Richard Jenrette ICristina Barbara Johnson, Esq. Allan Katz Barbara & David Krashes Ricky & Ralph Lauren Taryn & Mark Leavitt

Fred Leighton Mr. 8e Mrs. John Levin Barbara S. Levinson Nadine & Peter Levy Frances & James Lieu Sylvia Kramer & Dan W.Lufkin McGraw-Hill Foundation, Inc. Mr.& Mrs. Robert Meltzer Virginia C. Murphy Mr.& Mrs. Jeffrey Peek Susan & Daniel Pollack Random House Inc. Allison W.& Peter C. Rockefeller Amy & Howard J. Rubenstein Penelope & Paul Schindler Mr.& Mrs. David Schneider Schroder Wertheim & Co., Inc. Mr.& Mrs. Michael P. Schulhof H. Marshall Schwarz Jean S. & Frederic A. Shari Patricia Lynch Smith & Sanford L. Smith Ellen & David Stein ' Lynn Steuer Julie & David Teiger Tiffany & Company Peter & Lynn Tishman Mr.& Mrs. Raymond S. Troubh Sue & Edgar Wachenheim,III Jeanette & Paul Wagner Margot Grant Walsh Elizabeth & Irwin Warren Sue Ann & John L. Weinberg Judy & Bennett Weinstock Herbert Wells Susan Yecies Marsha & Howard Zipser Anonymous $500—$999 Dorothy Harris Bandier June & Frank Barsalona Mr.& Mrs. Peter Bienstock Mr.& Mrs. Peter Bing Mr.& Mrs. Leonard Block Boardroom,Inc. Charles Borrok Nancy Boyd Mr.& Mrs. Joseph Boyle Mr.& Mrs. Edwin C. Braman Robert Brill Brown Gale Meltzer Brudner G.K.S. Bush,Inc. Marcy Carsey Maureen 8z Marshall Cogan Prudence Colo Mr.& Mrs. Stephen H. Cooper Mr.& Mrs. Lewis Cullman Cullman & Kravis Judy & Aaron Daniels Gary Davenport Charlotte Dinger Mrs. Marjorie Downey Howard Drubner Mr.& Mrs. Arnold Dunn Mr.& Mrs. Frederick Elghanayan Mr.& Mrs. Anthony B. Evnin Mr.& Mrs. Robert H. Falk Mr.& Mrs. Howard P. Fertig Mr.& Mrs. Daniel M.Gantt Barbara & Peter Georgescu (Continued on page 94)

WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART II

MUSEUM

NEWS

(continuedfrom page 89) From left to right: Museum members Joseph Schwartz, Diana Zanganas, Marilyn Schwartz, and Mary Zanganas admiring a carving by Bradford Naugler in front of the artist's workplace.

Folk Fest'95 n August 18, 19, and 20, the second annual Folk Fest, a self-taught art show and sale, was held at the North Atlanta Trade Center in Atlanta. With this second show,Folk Fest has strengthened its reputation among collectors as one of the best places to find 20th-century Southern folk art.

Although most of the dealers85 in allâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;were from Georgia and North Carolina, at least 16 other states, including New York, Colorado, Ohio, and Vermont, were represented.

The Museum of American Folk Art's Book Shop booth, staffed by Claudia Andrade and Catherine Baretto, carried more than 100 titles relating to 20thcentury self-taught art and artists. Andrade reported that sales were very good, but more important was the recognition, especially by many new folk art devotees, that the Museum's Book Shops and its mail-order service are the prime source for this material.

Folk Fest will be held in Atlanta again next year, around the same time, but exact dates are not currently available. For free information on Folk Fest, write Steve Slotin at 5967 Blackberry Lane, Buford, GA 30518, or call 770/932-0506.

0

Folk Art Explorers' Club in Nova Scotia hirty-two intrepid Museum members participated in the Folk Art Explorers' Club September 6-11 tour to Nova Scotia, Canada. Members of the group lodged in Halifax and ventured out on day trips to the fertile shores of the Bay of Fundy and the quaint villages of the province's south shore, where they visited artists, collectors, galleries, and museums.

Participants had the opportunity to meet some of the many active folk artists working in Nova Scotia, including Garnet McPhail and the three Naugler brothersâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Bradford, Ransford,

T

U WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART

and Leo. A special visit was also made to the home and print workshop of John and Joyce Martin Neville in Halls Harbour, overlooking the Bay of Fundy.

The group was treated to a reception at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, including a private tour of that organization's impressive folk art collection led by curator Susan Foshay. Other museums on the itinerary included the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax and Haliburton House in Windsor.

The tour group was generously welcomed into the homes of several collectors, including Museum members Anton and Sunny McMillan Kuskin, Iris Newman,and Judy and Dana Burch. Visits were also made to

the Wholly Mackerel Gallery in Mahone Bay and the Houston North Gallery in Lunenberg. Beth Bergin and Christopher Cappiello of the Museum of American Folk Art's membership department wish to thank all those mentioned above and to extend a special thanks to Judy and Dana Burch for their generous assistance and to Bernard Riordon, Director of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, and his entire staff for their invaluable cooperation in planning the tour program.

ROY FINSTER MARK CASEY MILLESTONE HOWARD FINSTER JEFF WILLIAMS RA MILLER Winter Programs Uncommon Artists IV A symposium presented by the Museum of American Folk Art and The South Street Seaport Museum Uncommon Artists IV A Series of Cameo Talks Saturday, January 27, 1996 1:15-4:00 P.M. Cavin-Morris Gallery, 560 Broadway, New York City Museum members $30.00 Non-members $35.00

Ralph Fasanella Paul D'Ambrosio,Director of Exhibitions and Folk Art, New York Historical Association

Introductory Remarks Gerard C. Wertkin, Director, Museum ofAmerican Folk Art

Breakfast, Exhibition Tour, and Informal Chat Sunday, January 28, 1996 10:30 A.m.-12:00 P.M. A.A. Low Gallery at The South Street Seaport Museum, 171 John Street, New York City Museum members $8.00 Non-members $10.00

Film Premiere Reverend Howard Reston The Sacred Vision This film is made possible with the generous support of The Coca-Cola Company, Arista Nashville, and Planet, Inc. Joseph Ferdinand Cheval, "Le Palais Ideal" Barbara Cate, Professor, Seton Hall University Keith Goodhart Randall Morris, Cavin-Morris Inc.

Jamaican Intuitives: Everald Brown, Leonard Daley, and Ras Dizzy Wayne Cox, Collector

BERNICE SIMMS KENNETH WALSH JAMES HAROLD JENNINGS ANDERSON JOHNSON JOE McFALL ARLEE MAINS â&#x20AC;˘ SOUTHERN FOLK POTTERY

f0A-ear-) 918 SHAWNEEHAW AVE. BANNER ELK NC 28604 704-898-5175

Sacred Waters: TwentiethCentury Outsiders and the Sea Breakfast and exhibition tour led by Gael Mendelsohn, Guest Curator

20TH CENTURY LOUISIANA FOLK ARTIST Folk Arts and the Maritime Museum Peter Neill, President, The South Street Seaport Museum

Sculptures, Pain

gs & Poetry.

Represented by her soni For information,call Lee Kogan,symposium coordinator, at 212/977-7170.

Inside Outsider Art In New York

Museum members $70.00 Non-members $85.00 Lunch included

tour of the exhibition "Sacred Waters: Twentieth-Century Outsiders and the Sea" and lunch at a restaurant overlooking the harbor. By special invitation, the group will then visit two private collections of contemporary selftaught art in the downtown area.

The trip begins at the Museum of American Folk Art, where coffee and pastries will be served. It continues on to The South Street Seaport Museum for a guided

Breakfast, lunch, and motor coach transportation is included.

Enrollment is limited. For reservations, call the membership office at 212/977-7170.

A Museum of American Folk Art Explorers' Club Day Trip Thursday, January 25, 1996 10:00 A.M.-4:00 P.M.

SOUTHERN TANGENT GALLERY 800.460.6815

Currently exhibited at:

WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART 93

RECENT

MAJOR

DONORS

(continuedfrom page 91) Mr.& Mrs. William Gladstone Marilyn A. Green Dr. & Mrs. Stanley Greenberg Grey Advertising Nancy & Michael Grogan Bonnie Grossman Anton Haardt Cordelia Hamilton John Hays Audrey B. Heckler Herbert W. Hemphill, Jr. Mr.& Mrs. Richard Herbst Stephen Hill Gerry & Robert D. Hodes Fern K.& Robert J. Hurst IBM Imperial Wallcoverings, Inc. Laura N.& Theodore J. Israel Guy Johnson Mr.& Mrs. Alistair Johnston Jaclyn & Gerald P. Kaminsky Cathy M. Kaplan Leigh Keno Dr. & Mrs. Arthur B. Kern

RECENT

DONORS

Gifts: Ben Apfelbaum William Arnett Ruth E. Avard Roberto Emerson Camara Benjamin Thomas R. Borek Bristol-Meyers Squibb Company Theresa Buchanan Helen and Robert Cargo W.Marvin Clary, William H. Clary, Jane E. Hunecke, and Albert L. Hunecke, Jr. David L. Davies Mrs. Winifred Eichler Lita M. Elvers Nancy Erlick Ralph Esmerian Jeanne and Dan Fauci/Outside-in Gallery Patricia Feiwel Kinuko Fujii Marcy & Elias Getz Janet Gilbert Marilyn Grais Elizabeth Kapnek Grenald Lillian & Jerry Grossman

114 WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART

Mr. & Mrs. Jerome H. Kern Mary Kettaneh Barbara Klinger Robert Landau Wendy Lehman & Stephen Lash Mr.& Mrs. Leonard A. Lauder Wendy & Mel Lavitt Mr.& Mrs. John A. Levin Mr.& Mrs. Roger Levin Margot & Robert E. Linton Gloria M.& Patrick M. Lonergan Helen E. Luchars Mr.& Mrs. John A. Mayer A. Forsythe Merrick Thomas Monaghan Cyril I. Nelson Mr.& Mrs. Bruce Newman David Nichols Paul L. Oppenheimer Julie K.& Samuel Palley Dr. Burton W.Pearl Anthony J. Petullo Dale Precoda Ricco/Maresca Gallery

TO

THE

John Rosselli Merilyn Sandin-Zarlengo Mr.& Mrs. Richard J. Schwartz Randy Siegel Francisco F. Sierra Slater Hanft Martin Inc. Stephanie & Richard L. Solar Rachel L.S. Strauber Mr.& Mrs. Myles Tanenbaum Mr.& Mrs. Jeff Tarr Mrs. Richard T. Taylor Barbara & Donald Tober Anne D. Utescher Sue & George Viener Mr.& Mrs. R.A. Wagner Eve Weinstein Daniel Weiss Anne G. Wesson Honey Wolosoff Thomas K. Woodard Mr.& Mrs. William Ziff Rebecca & Jon Zoler Mr.& Mrs. Donald Zuckert

COLLECTIONS

Cordelia Hamilton Carol Henry Jeanne & Kirk Hollingsworth Judith A. Jedlicka Joan & Victor Johnson Kristina Barbara Johnson J.M. Kaplan Fund William C. Ketchum Martha Leversuch Jean Lipman Marion County, Georgia, Historical Society Frances & Paul Martinson Mary B.& Robert G. Matthews Boris McGiver Carlton McLendon Gael Mendelsohn George Meyer The Museum of Modern Art from the collection of Gordon & Nina Bunshaft K. Nathan Gallery Cyril Irwin Nelson Mary C. Newlin Robert Phelps Dorothy & Leo Rabkin

Irene Reichert Martha Lamarque Sarno Eugenia & Charles Shannon June & Ron Shelp Lorraine Slighter Mary Sposeto Ionel Talpazan Patricia & Maurice Thompson Lucille Turecki Elizabeth Wachs Nancy E. Wahlin Maude Wahlman Eve Wine Lori Zabar Shelly Zegart Bequests: Robert Bishop Gary W.Hager Jay Johnson

MUSEUM

NEWS

WILTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY Traveling Exhibition Mark your calendars for the following Museum of American Folk Art exhibition.

ANNUAL 29 ANTIQUES SHOW

January 19—April 7, 1996 Signs and Symbols: African Images in African-American Quilts from the Rural South Bayly Art Musem of the University of Virginia Charlottesville, Virginia 804/924-6321

th

March 9 & 10, 1996 Saturday 8c Sunday 10 to 5 Admission $8, $7 with Ad or Flyer PIG PEN; Log Cabin variation; Pecolia Warner; Yazoo City, Mississippi; c. 1982; 81x 81"; Museum of American Folk Art, gift of Maude Wahlman. 1991.32.3

Wilton High School Field House Route 7, Wilton, Connecticut

For further information about this and other exhibitions, please contact Judith Gluck Steinberg, Coordinator of Traveling Exhibitions, Museum of American Folk Art, Administrative Offices,61 West 62nd Street, New York, New York 10023. Phone: 212/977-7170 Fax: 212/977-8134

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This distinguished and comprehensive event features American country and period formal furniture of the 18th and 19th centuries shown by some of America's finest dealers.

It offers appropriate period decorative arts, with an emphasis on American, English and Continental ceramics, textiles, fine art, a strong representation of folk art; clocks, native American artifacts, rare maps, early glass, antique jewelry as well as silver and furniture of the American Arts & Crafts Movement.

A most highly regarded show, it offers quality and variety at a range of prices and is planned to appeal to both advanced and novice collectors.

Wilton High School is 5.5 miles north of Exit 39B, Merritt Parkway; 8 miles north of Exit 15, 1-95 and 12 miles south of 1-84.

Fifty miles from New York City, it is within walking distance of Cannondale station on the Metro North rail line.

For additional information, call the Wilton Historical Society at 203 762-7257.

_

Produced by Marilyn Gould

Celebrate the Tradition Experience the best of authentic Pennsylvania Dutch quilts, food, folk art, history, and childrens' programs.

For your free festival travel guide, call toll free: 1-800-963-8824

'Kutztown

" E 174

Early Buying and Continental Breakfast Saturday 8:30 - 10am,$25.00

Pennsylvania

June 29 to July 7 1996

,4GERMAIV Ccild.,,0

estival $144-Vttc4

Kutztown Pennsylvania

A Celebration of Pennsylvania Dutch Culture

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"ifIstzensumniumfleumniumn•uatrigh WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART 95

American Folk Art Sidney Gecker SOME RARE EXAMPLES OF MEDINGER POTTERY

Two HANDLE JAR WITH BIRD & FLOWER DECORATION HEIGHT 61/4 INCHES 226 West 21st Street, New York, N.Y. 10011

INDEX

TO

FLOWER POT WITH INCISED EAGLE MOTIF HEIGHT 12 INCHES

(212)929-8769

Appointment Suggested

ADVERTISERS

A.D. Productions, Inc. 89 America Hurrah 3 American Pie 28 American Primitive Gallery 20 The Ames Gallery 25 Arcadia Folk Art 34 Archer Locke Gallery 9 The Art Cellar 93 At Home Gallery 86 Bingham and Vance Galleries 80 Blue Spiral 1 87 Sam Bridges/Southern Tangent Gallery 93 Don Cadoret 66 Robert Cargo Folk Art Gallery 8 Cavinâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Morris Gallery 12 Christie's 14 Creative Heart Gallery 81 Epstein/Powell 19 Josh Feldstein 79 Fine Folk Art 80 Finster Folk Art 76 Galerie Bonheur 28 Gallery Americana 72 Sidney Gecker 96 Giampietro Back Cover

96 WINTER 1995/96 FOLK ART

Gilley's Gallery 26 Goodrich & Company Promotions,Inc. 65 Anton Haardt Gallery 81 Carl Hammer Gallery 30 Marion Harris 33 John C. Hill 89 Peter Hill, Inc. 15 Hill Gallery Inside Front Cover Journey Editions 80 K.S. Art 70,78 Alan Katz Americana 10 Kentucky Folk Art Center, Inc. 79 Knoke Galleries 23 Kralj Space 20 Kutztown Pennsylvania German Festival 95 The LaRoche Collection 24 Leoncavallo 88 Loch Lea Antiques 34 Main Street Antiques and Art 66 Steve Miller 1 The Modern Primitive Gallery 35 Joy Moos Gallery 32 Leslie Muth Gallery 21,23 Barbara Olsen 69 Aron Packer Gallery 79 Patricia Palermino 76

William T. Peltier 24 Ricco/Maresca Gallery 7 Bryce M. Ritter 68 Rocky Mountain Quilts 88 Rosehips Gallery 26 Judy A. Saslow Gallery 87 Jack Savitt Gallery 86 Bruce Shelton 74 John Sideli 17 Steve & Amy Slotin/Folk Fest 75 Sanford L. Smith & Associates 7!

Smithsonian Institution Press 70 Sotheby's Inside Back Cover Jef Steingrebe 69 Nancy Thomas Gallery 72 Toad Hall 67 Viking Studio Books/Penguin USA 13 Wanda's Quilts 73 Weathervane Folk Art Gallery 74 Nancy Weaver 68 Webb & Parsons North 81 Marcia Weber/Art Objects, Inc. 27,29 David Wheatcroft 2 Wilton Historical Society 95 Thos. K. Woodard 4 Ginger Young Gallery 29

0Sotheby's, Inc. 1995 William F. Ruprecht, principal auctioneer, *0794917

Edgar Tolson, Temptation in the Garden of Eden, circa 1968, carved and painted white poplar and pencil, height: 12 in.; width: 7 in.; depth:6 in. (30.5 cm. by 19.1 cm. by 15.2 cm.), To be sold in New York on Sunday,January 21, 1996.

Auction estimate: $6,000-8,000

TEMPTING WORKS OF ART

SOTHEBY'S IMPORTANT AMERICANA AUCTIONS: THURSDAY, JANUARY 18, 1996â&#x20AC;&#x201D;SUNDAY, JANUARY 21, 1996 Exhibition opens: Saturday, January 13th. Inquiries: Nancy Druckman at(212)606-7225.To order an illustrated catalogue, please call (800)444-3709.

Sotheby's, 1334 York Avenue, New York, NY 10021

50 East 78th Street New York City 10021

January 20 through March 2, 1996 Alfred Willeto 1900-1965 Carved and painted humanfigure H.39/ 1 2"

Tuesday through Saturday 11-5:30(212)861-8571