Folk Art (Summer 1997)

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WILLIAM EDMONDSON AN AMERICAN MASTERPIECE (1865 - 1951)

Adam and Eve and the snake, limestone, 22-1/2" (h) x 30"(w) x 12" (d)

152 WOOSTER STREET NYC 10012 TEL 212/ 780-0071 FAX 212/ 780-0076 E-MAIL rmgal©aol.com

WEBSITE http://artnetweb.com/rmgallery

STEVE • AMERICAN FOLK ART •

TULPEHOCKEN INDIAN Exceptional early sheet iron Indian in superb condition by Peter Derr,Berks County,PA,ca. 1820,32" high.

Peter Derr (1793-1868) was a noted ironsmith in Berks County. Numerous examples of his work from kitchen utensils to rifles are in noted collections,including the Keane collection, and recently sold at Sotheby's, New York.

Provenance:Edmund Fuller, Woodstock, NY;Kennedy Galleries, New York, NY;Private collection, St. Louis, MO Literature: Kennedy Quarterly,Jan. 1978, pages 47 and 63(illus.)

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.

BILL TRAYLOR HIGH SINGING BLUE

MAY 30-JULY 31, 1997

CARL HAMMER GALLERY 200 WEST SUPERIOR STREET CHICAGO II_

P.M. Wentworth

Jupiter, C. 1953, mixed media on paper, 30" x 25 1/2-

FLEISHER 0 L L M AN GALLERY 211 S. 17th Street Philadelphia 1 9 1 0 3 (215)545.7562 (Fax)545. 6140

AntiqueAssociates at West Townsend

America's Finest Milk*Dealer Shops

Portrait of Gardiner Anderson Carpenter Born in Foxboro, Massachusetts

By Joseph Whiting Stock Oil on Canvas Original stretcher, no restoration

•

473 Main Street • PO Box 129W • West Townsend, Massachusetts 01474 • Phone: 508-597-8084 • • Fax: 508-597-6704 • E-mail: dlrh@aaawt.com • Web page: http://www.aaawt.com •

FOLK ART VOLUME 22, NUMBER 2/SUMMER 1997

FEATURES

NINA FLETCHER LITTLE: BRIDGING THE WORLDS OF ANTIQUES AND FOLK ART Ruth Wolfe

29

HAWAIIAN QUILTS: A NINETEENTH-CENTURY MYTH DISPELLED Elizabeth A. Akana

38

INEZ NATHANIEL WALKER:"THE MORE I DRAW THE BETTER I GET" Lee Kogan

44

Cover: Detail ofDIANTHA ATWOOD GORDON:Attributed to A. Ellis, Fairfield, Maine, c. 1832, oil on panel with gilding, 1 4". Courtesy the Society 254 x21/ for the Preservation ofNew England Antiquities, 1991.433

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 1997 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 endeavors to accept 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 of folk 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.

DEPARTMENTS

EDITOR'S COLUMN

6

DIRECTOR'S LETTER

11

MINIATURES

18

BOOK REVIEWS

24

MUSEUM NEWS

58

MUSEUM REPRODUCTIONS PROGRAM

64

SUMMER PROGRAMS

66

TRAVELING EXHIBITIONS

67

TRUSTEES/DONORS

68

INDEX TO ADVERTISERS

72

SUMMER 1997 FOLK ART 5

EDITOR'S

FOLK ART

COLUMN

Rosemary Gabriel Editor and Publisher Jeffrey Kibler, The Magazine Group,Inc. Design Tanya Heinrich Production Editor Benjamin J. Boyington Copy Consultant Gregory Baird Advertising Sales John Hood Advertising Sales

ROSEMARY GABRIEL

Craftsmen Litho Printers MUSEUM OF AMERICAN FOLK ART

he exhibition "A Passion for the Past: The Collection of Bertram K. and Nina Fletcher Little at Cogswell's Grant" is on view at the Museum of American Folk Art through July 6. Ruth Wolfe, curator, writer, and lecturer—and one of the organizers of the exhibition— has written a brilliant essay for us on the work of Nina Fletcher Little as an antiquarian and folk art champion. In "Nina Fletcher Little: Bridging the Worlds of Antiques and Folk Art," starting on page 29, Wolfe outlines a life of investigation, scholarship, and passion for eighteenthand early nineteenth-century New England paintings and furnishings. Wolfe's understanding of her subject and respect for Nina Little's accomplishments is evident in every paragraph.

A passion for the past and a determination to record the history of an artform are traits shared by Elizabeth A. Akana. In her essay "Hawaiian Quilts: A Nineteenth-Century Myth Dispelled," starting on page 38, Akana unravels a tangle of misconceptions about the origins of Hawaiian quiltmaking. An accomplished quilt designer and teacher, Akana, who lives in Kaneohe, Hawaii, has been researching Hawaiian quilts for more than twenty years and is the cofounder of the Hawaiian Quilt Project. Her efforts are the primary sources of Hawaiian quilt scholarship in this decade.

This issue of Folk Art takes us from a comfortable New England country home and a Pacific island paradise to the cold reality of a New York State prison. Inez Nathaniel Walker, a woman in her sixties, was incarcerated for "criminal negligent homicide." She found solace from prison life and perhaps from the "demons in her head" by creating a large body of vivid and surprisingly sympathetic portraits. In "Inez Nathaniel Walker: 'The More I Draw the Better I Get," Lee Kogan, the director of the Museum's Folk Art Institute and its senior research fellow, reports on the scant known facts of Walker's life and focuses on her art. Kogan highlights the artist's juxtaposition of UNTITLED subject and background, counterpoint of patterns, and conceptual ease and sureness of line. (Woman with Purse and timbreIlal Inez Nathaniel Walker She suggests that there is much to glean from 1970-1972 these drawings, and asserts that "aspects of Inez Graphite, crayon, and colored pencil on paper Walker's art illuminate the study of American 14 10/ 1 2" life and culture." Because of the generosity of Museum of American Folk Art, gift Pat Parsons and Mr. and Mrs. William F. Webb. of Pat Parsons, 1996 an archive at the Museum of American Folk Art devoted to the work of Inez Nathaniel Walker will soon be available for indepth research."Inez Nathaniel Walker:'The More I Draw the Better I Get,'" begins on page 44.

I hope you enjoy this issue and will refer to our Miniatures section—both in this issue and last—so that you can include some of the fabulous exhibitions on view across the country in your summer vacation plans. If you will be in New York City, remember that"A Passion for the Past" will be on view at the Museum of American Folk Art through July 6 and that "Old-Time Favorites, NewTime Fashions: Quilt Revival 1910-1950" opens on July 12. I wish you a happy and healthy summer and will be with you again in September.

T

czA7 6 SUMMER 1997 FOLK ART

Administration

Gerard C. Wertkin Director Riccardo Salmona Deputy Director Jeffrey S. Grand Manager ofFinance and Operations Helene J. Ashner Assistant to the Director Luis D. Garcia Accountant Natasha Ghany Accountant Charles L. Allen Mailroom/Reception Daniel Rodriguez Mailroom/Reception Collections al Exhibitions

Stacy C. Hollander Curator Ann-Marie Reilly Registrar Judith Gluck Steinberg Assistant Registrar/ Coordinator, Traveling Exhibitions Sandra Wong Assistant Registrar Dale Gregory Gallery Manager Brian Pozun 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 Joan D. Sandler Director ofEducation and Collaborative Programs Janey Fire Photographic Services Chris Cappiello Membership Associate Jennifer A. Waters Development Associate Sarah R. Case Development Associate Claudia Andrade Manager ofInformation Systems, Retail Operations Catherine Barreto Membership Assistant Wendy Barreto Membership Clerk 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 Madelaine Gill Administrative Assistant/Education 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 Volunteer Docent Coordinator Lynn Steuer Volunteer Outreach Coordinator Museum Shop Staff Managers: Dorothy Gargiulo, Caroline Hohenrath, Kelly L,aun, Ursula Morillo, Rita Pollitt, Brian Pozun; Mail Order: Beverly McCarthy; Security: Bienvenido Medina; Volunteers: Marie Anderson, Olive Bates, Mary Campbell, Sally Frank, Millie Gladstone, Edith Gusoff, Ann Hannon, Bernice Hoffer, Elizabeth Howe,Joan Langston, Annette Levande, Arleen Luden, Katie McAuliffe, Nancy Mayer, Marie Peluso, Frances Rojack, Phyllis Selnick, Lola Silvergleid, Maxine Spiegel, Myma Tedles, 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 Administrative Offices Museum of American Folk Art 61 West 62nd Street, New York, NY 10023-7015 212/977-7170, Fax 212/977-8134, http://www.folkartmuse.org

NANCY CROW NEW QUILT CONSTRUCTIONS July 16 - September 6, 1997 The Gallery at Studio B, 140 West Main St 614-653-8424 Lancaster, Ohio 43130

CONSTRUCTIONS #4 Nancy Crow 1997, 38 1/2" X 91" Cottons hand-dyed and machine-pieced by Nancy Crow Hand-quilted by Marla Hattabaugh

AMERICAN PRIMITIVE GALLERY

594 Broadway #205 New York, NY 10012 MON. - SAT. 11-6 212 - 966 - 1530

MAX ROMAIN

COMPLEX UNIVERSE, 1990, mixed media on paper, 19" x 25" ART AVAILABLE BY: CLYDE ANGEL, JIM BAUER, HAWKINS BOLDEN, RICHARD BURNSIDE, CHARLES BUTLER, DAVID BUTLER, HENRY RAY CLARK, RAYMOND COINS, ANTHONY DOMINGUEZ, PAUL EDLIN, SAM GANT, MICHAEL HARMS, LONNIE HOLLEY, THEODORE LUDWICZAK, JOHN R. MASON, WILLIE MASSEY, RAYMOND MATERSON, ALFRED MCMOORE, MAX ROMAIN, WELMON SHARLHORNE, ROBERT SHOLTIES, MARY T. SMITH, JIMMY LEE SUDDUTH, IONEL TALPAZAN, TERRY TURRELL, AND OTHERS. ANTIQUE FOLK ART: Carvings, weathervanes, whirligigs, early iron, canes, trade signs, duck & fish decoys, gameboards, sculptural utilitarian objects, figures, and eccentric Americana.

Untitled, c. 1960, oil pastel on paper, 24.5" x 17.5"

CAVIN-MORRIS GALLERY 560 Broadway, Suite 405B New York, NY 10012 tele: (212) 226-3768 fax: (212) 226-0155 See: Exotic Species: The Drawings ofAnna Zemcinkova at the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA, May 10 — August 2, 1997

CHRISTIE'S

RT

THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMAN FOLK ART AND DECORATIVE ARTS COLLECTION OF MR.AND MRS.PAUL FLACK

Auction: On the Premises Holicong, Pennsylvania, September 6,1997

A watercolor and ink decorated drawing, attributed to the Durham Township Artist, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, dated 1823.

Inquiries: American Decorative Arts Department at 212 546 1181 Catalogues: 800 395 6300 502 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10022 tel: 212 546 1000 fax 212 980 8163 on-line: www.christies.com

DIRECTOR'S

LETTER

GERARD C. WERTKIN

t is with profound sadness that I report the death of Eva Feld, an honorary trustee of the Museum of American Folk Art since 1988 and a longtime generous supporter of the Museum's programs. Although failing health limited her ability to visit the Museum during the last year or two, she remained a caring and committed friend until the end of a long life that was marked by great kindness, generosity of spirit, and quiet dignity.

Trustee Emeritus George F. Shaskan, Jr., introduced Eva Feld to nouen oasnop d1113 CVO MO,MOO my predecessor as director, Robert Bishop, in 1980. Deeply interested in the arts, Mrs. Feld became fascinated by the remarkably varied plans that the Museum had adopted for its future development and soon entered fully into the life of the institution. I had the privilege of working closely with Eva Feld and Bob Bishop in 1981 on a series of purchases from the widely respected folk MOURNING PICTURE for MRS. EBENEZER COLLINS art collection of Howard and Jean Lip- Probably Lovice Collins South Hadley, Massachusetts man; these acquisitions were made 1807 possible through the Eva and Morris Watercolor, silk, and metallic chenille Feld Folk Art Acquisition Fund,estab- thread on silk lished by Mrs. Feld at the Museum. As 17" diameter Museum of American Folk Art, Eva and a result, the Museum was able to Morris Feld Folk Art Acquisition Fund, acquire an exceptionally fine needle1981.12.8

Helga Photo Studios

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work and watercolor mourning picture(1807)from South Hadley, Massachusetts; a striking New England trinket box with eagle decoration (1820-1840); an important painted and decorated flat-top secretary (1760-1780), also from New England; a "paw-printed" tall case clock (1810-1835), signed L.W. Lewis; an elegant Federal sideboard table; and other equally significant objects. In considering these purchases for the Museum, Mrs. Feld demonstrated a concern for quality and expressed an affection for exuberant color and design that reflected her own refined aesthetic sensibilities.

During more than a decade and a half of thoughtful interest in the Museum,Eva Feld not only supported acquisitions to the Museum's collection but also kindly committed resources for educational programming and other institutional needs. She will be best remembered, however,for the leadership gift that enabled the Museum to establish the Eva and Morris Feld Gallery at Lincoln Square, the Museum's principal exhibition facility since 1989. Mrs. Feld was unassuming in manner, but I remember distinctly how openly joyful she was at the inaugural reception for the gallery that bore her name and that of her late husband. Before an audience consisting of distinguished guests— including Mayor Edward I. Koch; Kitty Carlisle Hart, chairman of the New York State Council on the Arts; and Mary Schmidt Campbell, commissioner of cultural affairs of the City of New York—Mrs. Feld cut the ceremonial ribbon that signaled the opening of an exhibition space that would benefit hundreds of thousands of visitors in the years that followed.

It would be wrong to assume that Eva Feld was an "angel" to the Museum only with respect to the extent of her magnificent contributions. Thoughtfully interested in the Museum and its programs,she was a wise counselor and a dependable friend and ally. Her interests ranged broadly from the performing arts to health care,from a firm commitment to family and faith to a concern for the needs of older Americans. I TALL CASE CLOCK would like to think, however, that she Artist unknown always had a special place in her heart for Dial signed "LW. Lewis" Probably Connecticut the Museum of American Folk Art. Eva 1810-1835 Feld died at her home in Clifton, New Painted and decorated pine case, Jersey, on March 15,1997. She will be iron works / 2 123 / 4" missed by all of us at the Museum, and will 87 211 Museum of American Folk Art, always be remembered with warm affection Eva and Morris Feld Folk Art Acquisition Fund, 1981.12.22 and abiding gratitude. *

SUMMER 1997 FOLK ART U

American Folk Art Sidney Gecker

RARE SGRAFFTTO PIE PLATE SOLOMON GRIMM PENNSYLVANIA ROCKLAND TOWNSHIP, BERKS COUNTY 1 INCHES CIRCA 1820•94 BRILLIANT ORIGINAL GLAZE WITH TULIP DECORATION (SMALL RIM CHIP RESTORED)

226 West 21st Street, New York, N.Y. 10011 (212) 929-8769, Appointment Suggested Subject to prior sale.

Banner Weathervane of Imposing Size

New England, circa 1840

Length 61"

John Sideli Art& Antiques 2.0th Centuries Stylish Objects ofthe 18th, 19th &

214 ROUTE 71 • PO BOX 149 • NORTH EGREMONT, MA 01252 • 413.528.2789

12 SUMMER 1997 FOLK ART

Robert Cargo

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

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Dennis Jones(1898-1988). Broken Dishes Quilt. Alabama. Ca. 1975. Cottons and cotton blends, 72 x 56 inches. Published: Mary E.Johnson,"Quilter's Notebook. Tabletop Motifs," Country Living (October, 1996), p. 52.

The above quilt and others by Mr. Jones were exhibited in "Voices in the Wilderness," Birmingham Museum of Art and the Montgomery Museum of Fine Art, 1987. Also in 1987 this and other Dennis Jones quilts were shown at the Terrada Gallery in Tokyo as part of an exhibition entitled "The Art of Black America"; in 1996, his quilts, including the above piece, were shown at the University of Maryland Art Gallery, "Made by Men. African American Traditional Quilts."

Maude S. Wahlman includes Dennis Jones in her Signs and Symbols. African Images in African-American Quilts and publishes the quilt by Mr. Jones that is now in the collection of the Museum of American Folk Art, p. 24.

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.

Ato )114111.62,

Rnotie (i,atte/rtoS a Atlanta ESTABLISHED 1973

Specializing in Quality 19th and 20th Century American Art

"Lets Make a Record" by Sister Gertrude Morgan, 1900-1980, Painted record sleeve, 12 1/4" x 12 1/4"

5325 ROSWELL ROAD, N.E. ATLANTA, GEORGIA 30342 (404) 252-0485 FAX (404)252-0359

"PAPPY" KITCHENS 1901-1986 DAVID BUTLER

SULTAN ROGERS

WILLIAM DAWSON

J.P. SCOTT

MILTON FLETCHER

MARY T. SMITH

FRANCE FOLSE

MOSE TOLLIVER

CLEMENTINE HUNTER

WILLIE WHITE

CHARLES HUTSON

"CHIEF' WILLEY

MAY KUGLER

CHUCKLE WILLIAMS

SR. GERTRUDE MORGAN

JOSEPH YOAKUM

"Henry Ford and his T Model," acrylic on poster board, 15" x 25", c. 1975

WILLIAM PELTIER • FINE AND FOLK ART 376 Millaudon St. - New Orleans, LA 70118

By Appointment Fax (504) 862-7403 Phone (504) 861-3196

14 SUMMER 1997 FOLK ART

33IMIEILl%T.M.WIL3:0

4M-CIPC103:01vmdk.1T

THE MODERN PRIMITIVE GALLERY 1393 NORTH HIGHLAND AVE. ATLANTA,GA 30306 (404)892-0556

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 Royal Robertson Juanita Rogers Mary T. Smith Henry Speller Jimmy Lee Sudduth "Son- Thomas Annie Tolliver Mose Tolliver Ben Williams Chuckie Williams

By appointment only: 2714 COLISEUM STREET NEW ORLEANS,LA 70130 (504)897-1172 1220 SOUTH HULL STREET

INEZ WALKER

MONTGOMERY,AL 36104

Two Nolen, 1976, 22" x 30" on paper

(334) 263-5494

Ginger Young Gallery Southern Self-Taught Art

By appointment 919.932.6003 Works by more than four dozen artists, including: Georgia Blizzard Rudolph Bostic • Raymond Coins Yahrah Dahvah Lonnie Holley Royal Robertson • J.P. Scott Lorenzo Scott • Mose Tolliver Fred Webster • Myrtice West For a free video catalogue or a price list please contact: Ginger Young Gallery 5802 Brisbane Drive Chapel Hill, NC 27514 Phone/Fax 919.932.6003 E-mail: gingerart@aolcom Website: http://members. aol.com/gingerart2/

"Bird" by Jimmie Lee Sudduth Mud and housepaint on wood, 26" x 37".

16 SUMMER 1997 FOLK ART

SOUTHERN FOLK POTTERY COLLECTORS SOCIETY it fr

announces

The Ninth Absentee Auction Sale Event

Back row (L to R): Newcomb Pottery, LA; Joseph Meyer/Sadie Irvine "Moon and Moss," 1917; Kenneth Smith, 1932; Bell Family Pottery, Va., double lion head planter, ca. 1850; painted head bust, Chatham County, N.C., ca. 1890-1900. Front row (L to R): Hilton Pottery covered wagon and oxen trinket box, ca. 1938; Brown's Pottery, N.C., unusual caricature jug, 1920s; D.X. Gordy figural owl, 1960s.

Oddities, rare forms, and one-of-a-kinds from the southern states make up the offering of over 250 items.

Exhibition/bidding begins May 21—bidding closes July 5 at 5:00 A fully-illustrated biographical reference catalogue with a four-color cover is available at $25(includes post-sale results).

Southern Folk Pottery Collectors Society 1828 N. Howard Mill Road Robbins, NC 27325 Shop/Museum hours: Wednesday-Saturday 10:00-5:00 and by appointment Phone (910)464-3961 Fax (910)464-2530 N.C. Auction Firm License #5902

MINIATURES

COMPILED BY TANYA HEINRICH

When the Saints Speak SAN FtAFAEL Le Roy Joseph Lopez New Mexico 1994 Aspen, redwood, gesso, natural pigments, and varnish 23/ 1 2 16 x 9" Collection of the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, courtesy the Fowler Museum of Cultural History, University of California, Los Angeles

Traveling Archuleta Exhibition A menagerie of skillfully carved and painted wooden animals from the collection of Sylvia and Warren Lowe can be seen in "Leroy Archuleta: A to Z," a traveling exhibition on view at the Art Museum of Southeast Texas in Beaumont from June 28 to August 31. Archuleta, a woodcarver from Tesuque, N. Mex., carves a vast array of animals— some life-sized—out of cottonwood found along local arroyos.

For more information on the exhibition and an artist's workDALMATIAN DOG shop on June 28 and 29, please Leroy Archuleta call 409/832-3432.

Tesuque, New Mexico 1990 Cottonwood, paint, marbles, and a dog collar 43 x 91/0 39" Collection of Sylvia and Warren Lowe

"Cuando Hablan Los Santos: Contemporary Santero Traditions from Northern New Mexico," an exhibition of contemporary Hispanic carved and painted devotional objects, is on view at the Fowler Museum of Cultural History, University of California, Los Angeles, through September 7. The exhibition, which is

accompanied by a catalog, features retablos, carved figures, and altar screens by artists creating innovative works within the wellestablished New Mexico woodcarving tradition, as well as several santos dating from the mid-18th century. For more information, please call 310/825-4361.

Bottle Village Update Federal officials announced in March that they will rescind $436,000 that had been set aside for the restoration of Bottle Village in Simi Valley, Calif., which was left devastated by the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency determined that the site was not eligible for the relief funds.

Bottle Village, which was erected by Tressa Prisbrey (1896-1988) between 1955 and

about 1970, consists of 15 freestanding buildings and shrines constructed with concrete and thousands of glass bottles, among other found materials. The site is a California State Landmark and one ofjust nine folk environments nationwide listed on the National Register of Historic Places. For more information, call 805/583-1627, or send a selfaddressed stamped envelope to Preserve Bottle Village, P.O. Box 1412, Simi Valley, CA 93062.

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The Prints and the Penmen An exhibition of early Pennsylvania German fraktur, with an emphasis on birth and baptismal certificates c. 1750-1900, both printed and drawn freehand, is on view at The Heritage Center Museum of Lancaster County in Lancaster, Pa., through December 29."The Prints and the Penmen," organized by guest

18 SUMMER 1997 FOLK ART

curators Russell and Corinne Earnest, also includes examples of religious texts, Bible records, personal records,family registers, and bookplates. A symposium held on October 18 will feature keynote speaker Pastor Frederick Weiser. For more information, call 717/299-6440.

-,,, Zirfe belga ebegattm, xlb 05., bobfr.r *Kt,v sur mtroPrat sma,Nx 4 no xi 3,Mr tmkr8 ,tet•rn ;Mitt qv, 9-Sat P6Orot, in,3,4mk lv, , P' : "•- Z04 Otavem6, ust 116r iNfcr tit Ofeverat tmb Orin* m vexioc wboot 'Pamipftanitm , Nves Own,ix .11,NottrIle.r x4n,on. atm* mortm boo • Zoti•3010 aot;,...ttl n6*, ratt.

FRAKTUR BIRTH AND BAPTISM CERTIFICATE Attributed to Johannes S. Hoffman District Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania 1803 Printed fraktur with watercolor decoration on paper 13 in 16" Private collection, courtesy Russell D. Earnest Associates, East Berlin, Pennsylvania

THE

MINES GALLERY

2661 Cedar Street Berkeley, California 94708 Tel: 510/845-4949 Fax: 510/845-6219 • Bonnie Grossman, Director • We specialize in the works of contemporary naive, visionary, and outsider artists, and offer exceptional 19th So early 20th C. handmade objects, including carved canes, tramp art, quilts, and whimseys.

Inez Nathaniel Walker,Double Portrait: Woman with Hat/Little Girl, 1977 mixed media on paperboard, 22" x 28"

HUSTONTOWN FORT LOUDON, PA

David Roth

ebeechergepix.net

717.369.5248

watercolors

in July

Internet Gallery www.hustontown.com monthly shows Daniel Toepfer assemblages and glitter hard-hats

in June

SIIMMFR 1997 I OLK 1I2 J

19

MINIATURES

ART

&

ANTIQUES

Shaker Craftsman Orren Haskins "Making His Mark: The Work of Shaker Craftsman Orren Haskins," an exhibition of sewing desks,counters, cupboards, woodworking tools, looms, and a mortising machine, is on view at the Shaker Museum and Library in Old Chatham, N.Y., through November 2. The works on display by Brother Orren N. Haskins(1815-1892), who was a member of the Mount Lebanon

American Folk is a unique gallery that integrates American antique furniture and folk art of high integrity in an environment that inspires and educates the creative collector. From functional wood-fired pottery to folk art carvings, mud paintings to important examples of American antique furniture, American Folk offers a retail experience unlike any other... a gallery that celebrates the handmade and centuries of creativity. American Folk is a gallery for the millennium.

Shaker community in New York, represent both his skills as an inventive cabinetmaker and his devotion to Shaker principles.

Organized by curator Erin M. Budis, the exhibition serves to contextualize the objects within the larger framework of Shaker studies, 19th-century American history, and American furniture design. For more information, please call 518/794-9100.

SEWING DESK Attributed to Orren N. Haskins Mount Lebanon, New York c. 1870 Cherry, dark mahogany stain, walnut top and some drawer fronts, pine and poplar secondary, black painted pulls 42/ 1 2. 321 / 2 22" Collection of Ed Clerk, courtesy Shaker Museum and Library, Old Chatham, New York

DANIEL TROPPY "Flw IdeII", Mixed Media, 59 .

11 x 4I"W

Showcasing Important Americana Including: *SIGNIFICANT 18TH & 19TH CENTURY AMERICAN FURNITURE *EARLY-MID 20TH CENTURY CRAFTS *ANTIQUE FOLK ART *CONTEMPORARY FOLK POTTERY * CONTEMPORARY FOLK PAINTING Open Mon-Sat, 10arn-5pm 1,4 Biltmore Avenue Asheville, North Carolina 28801 Tel.(704) 251-1904 • Fax(704)281-0884 e-mail: ArneriFolk@aol.com AMERICAN FOUR IS A COLLABORATION OF CHARLTON BRADSHER AMERICAN ANTIQUES AND DIAL 1, A IllvisaimiLOE NEW MwENENE Lew.

20 SUMMER 1997 FOLK ART

BLUE SPIRAL 1

Delaware Folk Artists The Dover Art League of Dover, Del., is planning an exhibition for September through October entitled "A Collage of Cultures: Many Visions, One Community," which will travel throughout the state of Delaware. The exhibition, organized by curator and artist Hiro, will feature artists residing in Delaware whose ethnic origin includes any

countries in Asia or the Pacific Islands. The first two exhibitions in the five-year series of exhibitions featured the works of migrant seasonal agricultural workers and Native Americans residing in Delaware. For more information, please contact the Dover Art League, 21 Loockerman St., Dover, DE 19904, 302/674-0402.

The Image Business More than sixty colorful, carved wooden figures are on view in "The Image Business: Shop and Cigar Store Figures in America," at the Art Museum of Heritage Plantation in Sandwich, Mass., through October 19.

The exhibition, organized for the Museum of American Folk Art by guest curator Ralph Sessions, examines the origins, sources, practice, and development of shop figure carving in the 18th and 19th centuries and sheds light on racial and gender stereotyping, the emergence of a national popular culture, and the birth of modern commercial advertising."The Image Business" will be on view at the Museum of American Folk Art from November 1, 1997, to January 11, 1998.

For more information, please call the Art Museum of Heritage Plantation at 508/888-1222 or the Museum of American Folk Art at 212/977-7170.

INDIAN PRINCESS WITH CROSSED LEGS Incised "S.A. Robb, Carver, 114 Centre St." on base New York City 1888-1903 Polychromed wood 72" high Collection of Allan and Penny Katz

Morgan Gravesite Dedication The previously unmarked burial plaque bearing Morgan's oftsite of self-taught artist Sister repeated phrase "Jesus is my airGertrude Morgan (1900-1980) plane" was unveiled at the dediwas marked at a dedication cerecation, which was sponsored by mony at Providence Memorial the New Orleans Museum of Art Park and Mausoleum in Metairie, and spearheaded by William A. La., on April 7, the anniversary Fagaly, who is organizing a of her birth. Morgan,a preacher, major retrospective of the artist's lived and worked in New Orleans work for the Museum of Amerifor more than 40 years. A bronze can Folk Art. Stitches Through Time "Stitches Through Time: Women and Their Embroidery," an exhibition featuring samplers, silk embroideries, and decorative accessories made by Connecticut women from 1750 to 1900, is on view at the Wilton Historical Society's Betts-Sturges-Black-

mar House in Wilton, Conn., through August 17. Highlights include silk embroideries from the Litchfield Academy. The exhibition will be augmented by a symposium and workshops. For more information, please call 203/762-7257.

The First American by J.C. Starriett, Gallup, New Mexico, early 20th century, H. 14"

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

SUMMER 1997 FOLK ART 21

FRANK J. MIELE CONTEMPORARY

AMERICAN

FOLK

ART

gallery INEZ NATHANIEL WALKER: FIRST DRAWINGS The Frank J. Miele Gallery has acquired an extraordinary collection of the very earliest drawings of Inez Nathaniel Walker.

These first drawings...they are so special, so intuitive, so unselfconscious, so passionate. They were created out of a private, personal passion. They have not only visual beauty, but emotional content as well. Through them, we are provided with a glimpse on the window to the soul of this remarkably talented human being.

1086 Madison Avenue (at 82nd Street) New York NY 10028 (212) 249-7250

Woodie Featuring: Mose T v JimSudduth•Jake McCord v R.A. Miller•Homer Green Artist Chuckie•The Beaver•Willie Jinks v Willie Tarver v Mary Proctor M.C. 5c Jones•Lonnie Holley•Charlie Lucas v Ab the Flagman•Cris Clark James Harold Jennings v Lainer Meaders•Michael Crocker • Barbara Brogdon • 1611 Hwy. 129 S.• Cleveland, GA. 30528•(706) 865-6345 wvvw.rosehipsart.com • email: rosehips@stc.net Gallery

22 SUMMER 1997 FOLK ART

MINIATURES

George Montgomery 1924-1997 George Montgomery, the first Remembered by Museum director of the Museum of Amer- pioneers as creative, dedicated, ican Folk Art, died in New York and "indefatigable," Monton April 7, 1997, at the age of gomery acted with the Poet's seventy-three."A witty and perTheater in New York in the ceptive poet," in the words of 1950s and held curatorial assignThe New York Times, he was also ments at the Museum of Modern an actor, photographer, and curaArt. During the course of a richly tor. When the Museum opened varied career, he published three its doors in 1963 at 49 West 53rd volumes of poetry and collaboStreet, the Board of Trustees rated with the choreographer and appointed Montgomery director. dancer Dan Wagoner, whose He served the fledgling institu1991 work,"Songs to Dance," tion for one year and was succelebrated Montgomery's poems. ceeded by Mary Childs Black.

—G.C.W.

Gregorio Marzan 1906-1997 Gregorio Marzan, creator of lively sculptures from a wide variety of everyday materials, died February 21 of heart failure,following a long illness.

Born in Vega Baja, Puerto Rico, he worked in the sugarcane fields and in his teens used his carpentry skills to make wooden from coat hangers(which he frames for suitcases. He saved broke down and used for armaenough money to emigrate to the tures) to cloth, contact paper, and United States in 1937 and eventu- tape, and from Elmer's glue and ally brought his family to North paint to plastic eyes and synthetic America as well. hair—to fashion his often witty Marzan worked for Novelty and highly stylized works.

Toys, a New York manufacturer, Marzan was included in "Hisstuffing dolls and toy animals panic Art in the United States: during the war years, and after Thirty Contemporary Painters & the company became automated Sculptors"(1987), Museum of he continued stuffing toys, using Fine Arts, Houston, Tex.;"The the newer machine technology.

Cutting Edge: Contemporary He retired in 1971.

American Folk Art"(1990), Though he created mostly Museum of American Folk Art; only small novelties such as a and "Works of Art...Worlds decorative jewelry box and a cos- Apart"(1992), New York State metic powder box before his Historical Association, retirement, in his later years Cooperstown.

Marzan was able to devote more The artist is survived by a time to gathering materials for his daughter, Ramona Cruz, and imaginative animals, birds, pora son, Manuel Marzan, both trait heads, and human figures, as of New York, as well as eight well as several renditions of the grandchildren and 12 greatStatue of Liberty. He also made grandchildren. several small wood replicas of —Lee Kogan casiras (vernacular houses). He used a wide range of materials—

SAM DOYLE ROCKING MARY Paint on Window Shade 73" x 36"

THE LAROCh= t.OLLECTION Louanne LaRoche, Director

51 Pineview Road May River Plantation Bluffton, South Carolina 29910

(803) 757-5826 phone/fax

SUMMER 1997 FOLK ART 23

B OOK

REVIEWS

Graves' Country Gallery & Antiques Specializing in Country Antiques & Contemporary Folk Art 15 N. Cherokee, Lodi, CA 95240 209.368-5740 or 209. 473-7089 Acrylic on wooden cheese box by Sharon Johnson

41

Sharon Johnson Sharon is best known for her paintings of rural life throughout the South. Sharon will be with us in Atlanta for Folk Fest '97.

"Deep Sea Diver" by Frank Scarbou

Frankie Scarbaugh Frankie is throughout the nation. See Frankie in San Francisco at Folk Art & Funk

Representing the best of Western & Southern Artists, Potters and Sculptures Other artists: •Clementine Hunters Mose Tolliver•Annie T •Michael Crocker•Brian Wilson Annie Wellborn IN Chester Hewell Fmin ( 111,s,a john

us in Atlanta at Folk Fest'97 24 SUMMER 1997 FOLK ART

Quilts of Provence: The Art and Craft of French Quiltmaking

Kathryn Berenson Henry Holt and Company, Inc. New York 1996 192 pages, more than 125 color illustrations $45.00 hardcover Quilts ofProvence: The Art and Craft ofFrench Quiltmaking, by Kathryn Berenson, is the first major publication to explore in depth the history of the incredible quilts that left the port of Marseilles for trade centers in Europe and the New World. Through a long process of research and investigation in France and the United States, Berenson was able to uncover much of the story connected with the production and trade of the French quilts.

In 1982 Sally Garoutte presented a paper at the American Quilt Study Group Seminar entitled "Marseilles Quilts and Their Woven Offspring," in which she described the intricate quilted and stuffed whitework quilts exported from southern France in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Garoutte's essay caught the imagination of a number of quilt historians. One of these was Kathryn Berenson.

A collector and dealer of antique American quilts, Berenson held showings of her quilts at a gallery in Paris. She discussed the whitework quilts with some of her French friends and was encouraged by them to pursue further study of their history. Not content to make a rapid assessment of a few museum holdings,

she applied herself to a thorough investigation of dusty commerce and shipping records, household inventories, and textile-related accounts.

The author's passion for her subject is evident throughout the book. Every page sings with praise for the accomplishments of the workers who produced the remarkable work called broderie de Marseille, which was referred to by the French as "embroidery from within" because of the cording that was inserted into the quilted channels.

The author also describes in detail the events of commerce and politics connected with the textile trade of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and the relationship of Marseilles to international shipping.

This book's spectacular illustrations are sure to inspire quiltmakers. Anticipating such a response, the author includes instructions for three projects: a throw, a lap pad, and a large quilt. Directions are also given for care and display of quilts, and a list of museums and shops in France where quilts may be seen and purchased is included.

Quilts ofProvence is a treasure—carefully researched, well written, and beautifully produced. Sally Garoutte would be proud of the methodology and quality of work spawned by her essay.

—Bets Ramsey Bets Ramsey, the director ofthe Southern Quilt Symposium, writes a weekly quilt column in the

Chattanooga Times.

Weathervane Folk Art Gallery Meet Jake McCord at Folk Fest '97 Z.B. Armstrong S.C. Hudson Leonard Jones Earnest Lee Donna Wilson

Tom Wells, Owner 324 Main Street Thomson, GA 30824 (706) 595-1998 Two hours east of Atlanta. Photos on request

e_ -e7rt.tw b At the Rockhouse Marketplace 1127 B Highway 52 East Dahlonega, GA 30533 Phone:(706)864-8362

Plan a trip to Atlanta in August and visit us at Folk Fest.'97

The Meaders

Chris Lewallen

Michael Crocker

Cornbread

Melvin Crocker

Annie Wellborn

Brian Wilson

Mary Greene

Bill Gordy

R.A. Miller

Bobby Ferguson

Mary Peace

The Hewells

W.D. Harden

We specialize in locating the unusual!!

SUMMER 1997 FOLK ART 25

CONNIE ROBERTS Whistle Art

Pop Art Six Pack

American Pie

Bowling For Bigots

Contemporary Folk Art

Elaine Johansen • 113 Dock Street • Wilmington North Carolina 28401 • (910) 251-2131

CONTEMPORARY FOLK ART BRUCE SHELTON KATHY MOSES, GALLERY DIRECTOR

SHELTON GALLERY & FRAME STANFORD SQUARE • 4239 HARDING ROAD, NASHVILLE, TN 37205

(615) 298-9935 Call to see when we are Stone carving by Tim Lewis

26 SUMMER 1997 FOLK ART

in your area.

We make house calls.

MINNIE ADKINS LINVEL BARKER RONALD COOPER G.C. DEPRIE MR. EDDY ROY FERDINAND DENZIL GOODPASTER HOMER GREEN HELEN LAFRANCE JUNIOR LEWIS TIM LEWIS JESSEMITGHELL BRAXTON PONDER DOW PUGH ROYAL ROBERTSON SULTON ROGERS JIMMY LEE SUDDUTH OLIVIA THOMASON MOSE TOLLIVER TROY WEBB BETTYE WILLIAMS BOBBY WILLIFORD WESLEY WILLIS AND OTHERS

Please visit us at the Chicago Outsiders Inside Art Fair, May 30 - June 1 and the Atlanta Folk Fest, August 15 - 17.

Clementine Hunter (1887- 1988) Collection Includes: Leroy Almon, Sr., David Butler, Raymond Coins, Rhinestone Cowboy, Burgess Dulaney, Howard Finster, Reginald Gee, Lonnie Holley, Clementine Hunter, James Harrold Jennings, M.C. 50 Jones, S.L. Jones, Albert Louden, Charlie Lucas, Ike Morgan, J.B. Murray, B.F. Perkins, Sarah Rakes, Royal Robertson, Nellie Mae Rowe, Mary T. Smith, Jimmy Lee Sudduth, Mose Tolliver, Luster Willis, and "Artist Chuckie" Williams.

GILLEY

CALLEQY R

Clementine Hunter: "Porte Bouquet #2" 16" x 20", Oil, 1962.

A

MES

8750 Florida Blvd.

Baton Rouge, LA 70815 (504) 922-9225

Wm:4;e AB THE FLAGMAN • HOPE JOYCE ATKINSON RON BURMAN • BENNY CARTER LONNIE HOLLEY • CLEMENTINE HUNTER WOODIE LONG • ANNIE LUCAS CHARLIE LUCAS • J. B. MURRY MATILDA PENNIC • B.F. PERKINS SARAH RAKES • JUANITA ROGERS BERNICE SIMS • JIMMIE LEE SUDDUTH ANNIE TOLLIVER • MOSE TOLLIVER DANIEL TROPPY • MYRTICE WEST WILLIE WHITE • JANE "IN VAIN" WINKELMAN AND OTHERS WOODIE LONG: CAPTAIN AMERICA, 18" x 24" acrylic on paper

Marcia Weber/Art Objects, Inc. 1050 Woodley Road • Montgomery, Alabama 36106 • 334. 262.5349 • Fax 334. 567.0060 Ongoing Exhibitions by Appointment

SUMMER 1997 FOLK ART 27

Lauls "TGO" V4riek

Continuous Wire Sculpture Jay Potter 220 West 98th Street, New York, NY 10025 (212) 749-4967

Rare lowback windsor settee with nineteenth-century teal-colored paint; Rhode Island or Canadian, circa 1780. 24" Deep x 801/2" Long, $12,500

H. L. Chalfant

1352 Paoli Pike West Chester, PA 19380

Antiques

phone: 610-696-1862 fax: 610-696-1863 Hours: Monday—Saturday 10-5 We provide our customers with a written guarantee of authenticity and offer a trade-in policy.

Fine American Antiques

28 SUMMER 1997 FOLK ART

FL J DIANTHA ATWOOD GORDON Attributed to A. Ellis Fairfield, Maine c. 1832 Oil on panel with gilding 25% 211 / 4" Courtesy the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, 1991.433

When Nina Fletcher Little first saw paintings by this still-unidentified artist, she pronounced them "primitive primitives." The Littles bought this portrait, along with fragments of two others that depicted Diantha's husband and an older woman, who might be either his or her mother. When this portrait was mentioned in Sheila McDonald, "Who was A. Ellis?

And why did he or she paint all those pictures?" Maine Antique Digest(April 1981), Little received a call from a descendant who provided an extensive family history and an amusing story of how Diantha's granddaughter thought her grandparents so mean and stingy that she locked them in an outhouse for an entire day!

BRIDGING THE WORLDS OF ANTIQUES AND FOLK ART

By Ruth Wolfe 3 8

he activities of Bertram K. and Nina Fletcher Little, and of the other antiquarians and folk art enthusiasts with whom they were associated during their sixty years of collecting, may be viewed as part of a much larger movement toward the discovery of an authentic American tradition in literature, music, architecture, and the visual arts. In the period between the world wars, the search for cultural identity had accelerated among American intellectuals, who were keenly aware that many of their fellow citizens still possessed a neo-colonial mentality, admiring everything European (and especially English) and disdaining the creative accomplishments of their own people. For those whose

rir

SUMMER 1997 FOLK ART 29

memories do not reach back to the first half of this century, it is difficult to comprehend the widespread lack of esteem for American art. James Thomas Flexner described the situation in universities and museums in the 1930s, when he began writing about American art and artists: Almost all American museums regarded...all but a very few of tour] painters as so vastly inferior to European art that it was only considered necessary to represent America by a small covey of dilapidated canvases languishing yellowly in a dark hallway.... Disdain for the American tradition in art was the correct sophisticated attitude.... The university art departments were even more scornful of the art of our nation than the museums.'

This was confirmed by Edgar P. Richardson's observation that when the College Art Association published a suggested bibliography for an ideal art library in 1929, it included a mere forty titles relating to American art.'

If universities and museums disdained the works of academically trained American painters and sculptors, they totally ignored the vast array of vernacular productions that have come to be known as American folk art. In the absence of scholarly attention, folk art has been a field dominated by collectors of great variety whose personalities and interests shaped the way the material was thought about, presented, and exhibited.' Jean Lipman, herself a major collector and the author of the first important book on American folk painting, devoted the October 1945 issue of her magazine Art in America to "Research in American Art," calling for increased scholarship in all areas, but especially in folk art: "The serious study of folk art is still in its

30 SUMMER 1997 FOLK ART

initial phase. Within the next decade wider research, exhibition and publication will undoubtedly reconstruct many of our unknown primitive masters and clarify the sources, the characteristics and the basic style of folk art."4 Nina Fletcher Little, working in the best traditions of the scholarly antiquarian, answered the call; of all the early collectors, none would contribute more to the serious study offolk art.

Nina Fletcher and Bertram K. Little (known to their friends as Nina—rhymes with Carolina—and Bert) began collecting antiques soon after they were married in 1925.

What began as a practical approach to home furnishing developed into a pastime they shared for the rest of their lives. For Nina Little, collecting also became an engrossing intellectual pursuit. She admitted that she loved "being the old detective,"' and she systematically researched the objects she and her husband acquired. She did extensive fieldwork, using the tools of the genealogist and local historian to comb family trees, probate records, account books, diaries, period newspapers, and other primary sources for clues to the identities and working practices of early New England artists, craftsmen, and their customers.

In all of these activities, Bert Little was an enthusiastic and supportive participant, editing her manuscripts and often helping her with research. In the early thirties, Nina Little began writing regularly on such antiquarian topics as ceramics and restoring old houses. In 1938 she was recruited by editor Homer Eaton Keyes, who had been cultivating writers and setting high standards of scholarship for The Magazine Antiques since he founded it in 1922. Thus began a long association that resulted in her writing more articles for Antiques than any other single author.

Nina Fletcher Little won national recognition as a serious student of American art in April 1947, when her monograph on the eighteenth-century limner Winthrop Chandler

CODFISH WEATHERVANE Artist unknown Probably Newbury, Massachusetts c. 1825 Carved and painted wood with glass 8 < 37 x 2" Courtesy the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, 1991.557

In 1938 the Littles bought this weathervane and many other treasures from an old New Englander who was disposing of the contents of his ancestral home, Highfields.

Nina Fletcher Little was entranced by his attic, which she recalled as the type "that one reads about but seldom sees, where everything has been saved by seven generations of a single family.... Behind a pile of oddments, one glimpsed a carved and painted codfish that had topped the barn...." The Highfields experience deepened her conviction that the most interesting objects were those that had a documented provenance and provided opportunities for further research.

CAPE ANN HALF-HOUSE Alfred I. Wiggin Cape Ann, Massachusetts 1856 Oil on canvas 12 . 161 / 4" Courtesy the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, 1991.830

was published as a special issue of Art in America. At the same time she curated a Chandler exhibition at the Worcester Art Museum—the first ever devoted to a New England folk painter. In 1951 the scholarly establishment recognized Nina Little's expertise by inviting her to the College Art AssociaNina Little's interest in Wiggin began with two tion's annual meeting to speak on early American decorative portraits of Cogswell wall painting. This was also the subject of her first book, family members. She published in 1952 in conjunction with exhibitions at Old discovered that the artist Sturbridge Village and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in worked in Gloucester New York."I know of no one more tireless, no one who has from about 1848 to 1868 contributed more through her field work and research than and painted local people Nina Fletcher Little," wrote Marshall Davidson in the and their houses. Little foreword to the book. "Here she provides a body of fresh made her research available to art historian information, gathered with uncommon sldll and energy, that will be of lasting service to others in their search for a James F. O'Gorman, who organized a Wiggin broader understanding of American civilization and of exhibition at the Cape American art."6 She continued to publish until the mid-eightAnn Historical Society ies, and her lifetime output of some 150 articles, books, and in 1979. Wiggin depicted exhibition catalogs immeasurably expanded understanding this traditional Cape Ann of the cultural context in which the folk art of New England half-house bathed in the was created. silvery light immortalized by his better-known Gloucester neighbor, the painter Fitz Hugh Lane.

When they first began collecting, the Littles pursued typical antiquarian interests—blue-and-white Staffordshire, lighting devices, clocks—and participated enthusiastically in the collectors' clubs that sprang up in Boston in the 1930s, groups like the Rushlight Club and the China Students' Club. In 1937, needing more space for their growing family and collections, the Littles acquired Cogswell's Grant, an early eighteenth-century house on a tidewater farm in Essex, Massachusetts, for use as a summer retreat.

The Littles' antiques and folk art eventually filled both their year-round home in Brookline, Massachusetts, and Cogswell's Grant, where they concentrated on furnishings and decorative objects of the same period as the house, looking especially for antiques from Essex County, and always for things in a style they considered suitable for informal, country living. The Littles died a few months apart in 1993, and in accordance with their wishes, the collection at the Brookline house was sold at auction and Cogswell's Grant and its contents became the property of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (SPNEA). The picturesque house, which will be

SUMMER 1997 FOLK ART 31

FATER RUFUS LATHROP (left) and HANNAH CHOATE (Mrs. Rufus) LATHROP (right) Attributed to John Durand Norwich, Connecticut C. 1772 Oil on canvas Each 48/ 1 4 x 36/ 1 4" Courtesy the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, 1991.166.1 & 2

The Littles acquired these portraits in 1945, just as Nina Fletcher Little was commencing her research on Winthrop Chandler.

Hannah Choate Lathrop was born on Hog Island, not far from Cogswell's Grant, and local descendants provided a family history and letters relating to the paintings. Nina Little attributed the portraits to Chandler based on stylistic resemblance and family connections: Rufus Lathrop's sister Martha and her husband, the Reverend Ebenezer Devotion,

opened to the public in 1998, is a tangible link to a now legendary era of American folk art collecting, the only site where a major, pioneering collection of folk art can be seen in the setting for which it was assembled.

In her collecting autobiography, amusingly titled Little by Little (referring both to the collection and the

32 SUMMER 1997 FOLK ART

way in which it grew), Nina Little remembered the thirties "as a stimulating decade when money was often scarce and buying frequently curtailed, but opportunities for discovery were unlimited and made `antiquing' a continuously exciting experience....... She also recalled that "from 1935

on,I made annual pilgrimages to shows in New York and

were painted by Chandler in 1770. A conservator familiar with portraits by Chandler's contemporary John Durand eventually convinced Little that Durand, not Chandler, had painted the Lathrops. For the rest of her career, Nina Fletcher Little was very cautious about making attributions without assembling persuasive documentary and physical evidence. Beginning with a biography of Chandler in 1947, Little went on to reconstruct the careers of numerous other little-known artists, among them John Brewster, Jr., Rufus Hathaway, J.S. Blunt, Asahel Powers, and Michele Felice Come.

a other places, and in addition to catching up on all the current antiques gossip, I was able to make many gratifying additions to our household furnishings." In New York Mrs. Little frequented antiquarians Harry Shaw Newman of the Old Print Shop and Charles W. Lyon, as well as Harry Stone, who had the only uptown gallery specializ-

ing in primitive paintings. The Littles had collected a few maritime paintings, which appealed to them because Bert's Salem, Massachusetts, ancestors had engaged in various branches of overseas trade. Once Cogswell's Grant was restored and furnished, they began to seek out other types of American pictures. Those that interested them were,

SUMMER 1997 FOLK ART 33

according to Mrs. Little, "still offbeat in conventional antiquarian circles and were variously referred to as primitive, naive, unschooled, orfolk." The Littles had seen the gallery of American primitive portraits that was opened in 1940 as part of the Fruitlands Museums on the Harvard, Massachusetts, estate of Clara Endicott Sears: "There, for the first time in New England, a permanent museum collection displayed to the public a large group of controversial pictures that had recently been brought out of hiding in local attics and barns." On Fifth Avenue in New York, the Littles discovered the Folk Arts Center, founded in 1928 in conjunction with the League of Nations' International Commission on Folk Arts. Under the direction of Elizabeth Burchenal, an expert on folk dance, and her sister Ruth, the Center's approach was similar to today's material culture studies and emphasized the interrelationship of folk arts, crafts, music, dancing, and folklore. Board members included art world figures like sculptor and collector Elie Nadelman and dealer Edith Gregor Halpert, as well as anthropologist Franz Boas. In 1941 the Littles began attending the Center's "institutes" (lecture programs) and lent textiles and paintings to several annual exhibitions. When the Burchenal sisters died in the fifties the Center closed, but Mrs. Little remembered it "as an exciting introduction to the folk arts field, an area of Americana in which we were still neophytes."

In 1948, when they attended the first of the New York State Historical Association's Seminars on American Culture in Cooperstown, New York, the Littles began in earnest a fruitful "crossover" to the folk art field. Nina Little wrote that at Cooperstown "the whole background of folk cultureâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;its arts, crafts, music, oral history, and folkloreâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;first came to life for me, awakening my interest in a hitherto unexplored territory of collecting and research."

The year 1954 found Mrs. Little becoming directly involved with American folk art as a consultant to Colonial Williamsburg, where a new museum was being built by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., to house the folk art collection formed by his late wife in the 1930s with the help of dealer Edith Halpert and Holger Cahill, the brilliant art critic who organized the first important exhibitions of American folk art. Mrs. Little's reputation for scholarship made her the obvious choice to prepare a catalog of the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Collection (AARFAC), which had never been thoroughly documented. During two years of travel, research, and correspondence (she wrote 675 letters), Nina Little made good use of her carefully honed research techniques, uncovering much new information and attributing many previously "anonymous" works in the Rockefeller collection. She was also able, through quiet diplomacy, to arrange the return of some of the finest pieces from Mrs. Rockefeller's original collection to the new museum. These included the Hicks Peaceable Kingdom acclaimed by the French artist Leger as the greatest painting he had seen in America:, The Twining Farm, Hicks' great scene of his Quaker boyhood; and Baby in a Red Chair, which has proved the most popular single painting in the collection. When Mrs. Rockefeller had given her collection to Colonial Williamsburg (her husband's pet project), her advisor Edith Halpert had strenuously and log-

34 SUMMER 1997 FOLK ART

ically objected that an essentially New England and Pennsylvania collection did not belong in the South. Halpert successfully lobbied for some of the best examples to remain in New York as gifts to the Museum of Modern Art, of which Mrs. Rockefeller was a founder. Several years later, in a change of collecting policy, the Modern sold the Rockefeller pieces to the Metropolitan Museum. In her correspondence, Nina Little reveals that she networked with all the aplomb of an "old boy," securing an entree with David Rockefeller through her fellow New York State Historical Association trustee Stephen Clark. In a private interview with David, she persuaded Mrs. Rockefeller's son that the Williamsburg collection would not be complete without the works at the Metropolitan and he quickly arranged the purchase.9 Working with AARFAC brought Little face to face with the "problem of folk art," which seems to perplex everyone who approaches the subject. Part of the problem is the name itself. An exhibition in 1924 at the Whitney

WALL SHEATHING FROM THE WILLIAMS INN Artist unknown Sunderland, Massachusetts 1790-1810 Pine with painted decoration 4 x 59 1" 3 11/ Courtesy the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, 1991.332

BOX Artist unknown Probably Massachusetts (possibly Sunderland) c. 1806 Painted wood, probably pine 6 x 12.7" Courtesy the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, 1992.643

Before Nina Fletcher Little published American Decorative Wall Painting in 1952, the astonishing variety of decorative work in early American homes was almost completely unknown. She suspected that, unlike specialized urban craftsmen, rural painter-decorators would as willingly paint a portrait as a house, walls, floors, or anything else the customer desired. Her theory was confirmed when she discovered this dome-top box, obviously decorated by the same unknown itinerant who stenciled the panel of wall sheathing rescued from the demolition of an old Massachusetts inn. The artist, whom Mrs. Little called the "Brush Stroke decorator," painted freehand designs and a variety of birds using the same carefully formed strokes associated with tinware decoration. She documented examples of his work south of Boston and along the Connecticut River in Connecticut and Massachusetts, and in Vermont.

Studio Club simply called it "early American art." Holger Cahill had used "primitives" to describe the paintings he selected for his 1930 Newark Museum exhibition, switching to "folk" for a 1931 sculpture show at Newark and for "American Folk Art: The Art of the Common Man in America, 1750-1900," the 1932 Museum of Modern Art exhibition that canonized the term. Artist Alexander Brook claimed that he persuaded Edith Halpert and Holger Cahill to switch from "primitive" to "folk art" after he told them about a lecture by the collector Dr. Albert Barnes, who insisted that "primitive" art could be created only by primitive peoples.1° In 1950 Alice Winchester of The Magazine Antiques, who was keenly interested in folk art, published a "symposium in print" entitled "What Is American Folk Art?" Thirteen experts proposed a variety of definitions and terms, among them non-academic, popular, pioneer, artisan, amateur, genre, naive, and the all-encompassing Americana. Nina Fletcher Little wrote that "the study and classification of non-academic American painting has now progressed beyond the point where one heading can satisfactorily be used to cover the whole subject. And I like the generic term 'folk art' rather less than some of the others because to me the word 'folk' connotes a European class which had no counterpart in rural America." In her own writing she seldom used the term "folk art," preferring "provincial" for early painters like Ammi Phillips and Winthrop Chandler, and "country arts" for the many objects in her diverse collection.

Little was forced to grapple with a definition of folk art in the introduction to the AARFAC catalog; according to her son Jack, this occasioned a double crisis. The first came when her text was sent to the Rockefeller office in New York for final approval; to her dismay the public relations department "spiced it up." Little then rewrote the Rockefeller rewrite until she arrived at something both could live with.12 Her original manuscript is still in her files; in it she attempted to draw distinctions between academic art and folk art as they developed in Europe, and to show how folk art was transformed by the American experience. This text lacks some of the clarity of her other writing, reflecting her difficulty with the subject. What is important is that the published version, which is not signed, does not reflect either her characteristically understated style or her thinking about folk art. At the end, a brief paragraph mentions Edith Gregor Halpert and Holgar [sic] Cahill, "both of whom assisted [Mrs. Rockefeller] in assembling this Collection." This provoked the second crisis: Another Rockefeller son, Nelson, who was a trustee of the Museum of Modern Art, felt that the Modern, Cahill, and Halpert had not been given sufficient credit in the catalog.

At his insistence, each catalog had inserted a four-page addendum that included a bibliography of Cahill's and Halpert's publications on folk art. For the meticulous Nina Fletcher Little, the implication that her book had

"A Passion for the Past: The Collection of Bertram K. and Nina Fletcher Little at Cogswell's Grant" On view at the Museum of American Folk Art, May 3â&#x20AC;&#x201D;July 6, 1997 his exhibition offers a unique opportunity to see treasured works from one of the preeminent collections of folk art in the United States.

Nina Fletcher Little ardently investigated eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century New England paintings and furnishings, and helped make folk art a subject of serious academic study. The exhibition includes portraits by Winthrop Chandler, Royall Brewster Smith, and Ammi Phillips, a selection offamily registers and memorials in watercolor on paper, landscape and seascape paintings, painted wood furniture, rugs, and outstanding examples of decorative redware, weathervanes, and decoys.

Following the Littles' death in 1993, Cogswell's Grant, their eighteenth-century country home in Essex, Massachusetts, and the remarkable collection housed there, were _ bequeathed to the Society I for the Preservation of New g England Antiquities Green Sitting Room, Cogswell's (SPNEA)."A Passion for the Grant, Essex, Massachusetts Past" will allow a widespread audience to view a prime selection of this outstanding collection before the works return to Cogswell's Grant, which will open to the public as a house museum in 1998.

After its engagement at the Museum of American Folk Art,"A Passion for the Past: The Collection of Bertram K. and Nina Fletcher Little at Cogswell's Grant" will be on view at the Allentown Art Museum in Pennsylvania from July 25 through October 19, 1997; at The Minneapolis Institute of Arts in Minnesota from November 16, 1997,through January 25, 1998; and at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art in Norman, Oklahoma,from February 13 through May 3, 1998.

T

The exhibition is organized by the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities and The American Federation of Arts. It is funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support has been provided by Sotheby's. Sponsors for the presentation at the Museum of American Folk Art are Virginia G. Cave, Mrs. Daniel B. Cowin, Jacqueline L. Fowler, Vira Hladun Goldman, Mr. and Mrs. John H. Gutfreund, The Joe and Emily Lowe Foundation,Inc., and Marguerite Riordan. Additional support has been provided by Cirker's Moving & Storage Co.,Inc.

SUMMER 1997 FOLK ART 35

been carelessly prepared was galling. Her distress over the folk art at the Whitney Studio Club). The Littles loaned entire affair was only partially offset by the near-universal nineteen paintings, carvings, and textiles to "The Floweracclaim that greeted the catalog, especially from John D. ing," which traveled to Richmond and San Francisco and Rockefeller, Jr., who declared it "beyond praise...exquisite inspired a spate of bicentennial surveys of folk art all over the country, many in areas where indigenous folk art had in every detail."4 The Rockefeller project brought Nina Fletcher Little not previously been investigated.

In 1980 Jean Lipman updated her 1950 book Primiinto contact with virtually everyone of the postwar period in America, 1750-1950, with another exhibiPainters tive had Little Bert art. folk American in who was interested assumed a more public role in 1947 when he became the tion at the Whitney, "American Folk Painters of Three director of SPNEA, a post he held until his retirement in Centuries." Reflecting the advances in scholarship from 1970. Together the Littles became sought-after lecturers at the early days when virtually all folk artists were anonysuch gatherings as the Williamsburg Forums, the Antiques mous, the accompanying book consisted of biographical Collectors' Weekends at Old Sturbridge Village, and the essays on thirty-five artists whose life stories had been Cooperstown Seminars on American Culture. As the Littles reconstructed. There were five essays by Nina Fletcher became better known, so did their collection. Photographs Little and five by Jean Lipman, a reminder that the work of individual objects were often included in Nina's publica- of discovering American folk artists' identities and tions, and the Littles were always generous with loans to biographies was largely the achievement of these two exhibitions. In 1969 AARFAC asked to exhibit their collec- women.'5 In the years following the Bicentennial, a new tion. Perhaps as a reaction to the self-promotion of other generation of researchers found in Mrs. Little an unfailing prominent collectors, the Littles insisted that the exhibition source of information and encouragement. Increasingly they should not be a projection of their personalities, but that it consulted her, and there was no greater affirmation of have a theme of its own: "Land and Seascape as Observed their work than to gain her approval of their attributions and other research. by the Folk Artist."

Just three years after "The Flowering" exhibition By 1976 the Littles were besieged with requests for loans to the many exhibitions held to celebrate the Bicen- had popularized American folk art as never before, a great tennial, none more influential than "The Flowering of debate erupted among the longtime devotees of folk art American Folk Art," organized by Jean Lipman and Alice and a new generation of folklorists and students of material Winchester for the Whitney Museum of American Art and culture. The scene was the 1977 Winterthur conference, presented in 1974, two years before the Bicentennial (and where folklorists attacked the aesthetic approach of the exactly fifty years after the first exhibition of American early collectors. The very notion of art was called into

isgps, iii oo f

'40110,f ,fI $404,

36 SUMMER 1997 FOLK ART

HOUSE WITH TWO TREES RUG Maker unknown Probably New England 1825-1850 Shirred wool on tow ground 4 60" / 351 Courtesy the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, 1991.1525

This is the first rug listed in the Littles' collection catalog, begun in 1938 and maintained by Mrs. Little with professional thoroughness. The handcrafted quality of such rugs made them popular in Colonial-style interiors from the 1920s on, and they were commonly lumped together as "hooked rugs." However, in Floor Coverings in New England Before 1850, Nina Fletcher Little revealed that there were three basic types of early rug constructions: yarnsewn,common in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries; shirred, popular from around 1825 to 1860; and hooked, done on burlap backing, which came into use after 1850.

question, as well as the validity of making evaluations of she researched and wrote the biography ofthe Shaker painter "good" and "bad" art based on arbitrary aesthetic Hannah Cohoon. She served as consulting curatorfor the travelstandards—especially standards set by one group or cul- ing SPNEA/AFA (The American Federation ofArts) exhibition ture sitting in judgment on another.16 (The same objections "A Passionfor the Past: The Collection ofBertram K and Nina had already been raised in connection with exhibition and Fletcher Little at Cogswell's Grant," on view at the Museum of American Folk Art through July 6, 1997. study of the primitive arts of non-Western peoples, whose discovery and appreciation has paralleled that of American NOTES folk art.)

Since the 1970s academic circles have experienced 1 James Thomas Flexner,"Foreword to the New Edition," much of the kind of revisionism expressed at the Win- America's Old Masters(Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1980), terthur conference—yet another symptom of the disillusion unpaginated. and anti-establishment tenor of the post-Watergate, post- 2 Edgar P. Richardson,"Research in American Painting," Art in America (October 1945): 177.

Vietnam era. Some of the folklorists' criticism was justi3 In her forthcoming book on folk art collecting in America(to fied. The fact that American folk art had been consistently be published by Henry Holt in 1998), Elizabeth Stillinger will ignored by academic art historians deprived it of rigorous document the collectors and trends that have contributed to this critical analysis. For fifty years it remained the province of complex chapter in American art history. I wish to thank Ms. collectors and dealers, who had little time or inclination for Stillinger, who in the best tradition of Little collegiality has serious research and study. The folldorists quite correctly generously shared information and ideas. challenged everyone working in the field to be more careful 4 Jean Lipman,"The Study of Folk Art," Art in America about preserving what they called the "context" of folk (October 1945): 254. objects. What they chose to overlook was the fact that had 5 Nina Fletcher and Bertram K. Little, interview with Richard C. it not been for the early collectors very little eighteenth- Nylander, September 17, 1976, Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities(SPNEA). and nineteenth-century American folk material would have 6 Nina Fletcher Little, American Decorative Wall Painting, survived for enjoyment or study.

1700-1850(Sturbridge, Mass.: Old Sturbridge Village/Studio The scholarly antiquarian Nina Fletcher Little was Publications, 1952), xi—xii. This book and an updated edition pubunique among the pioneering folk art collectors—for her lished in 1972 represent only a portion of Little's voluminous onthe folklorists' concept of context had always been para- site documentation of wall paintings, many of which have now mount."Although artistic appeal is always a prominent fac- been destroyed or removed to museums and private collections. tor," she wrote, "documentary background is an important Her research notebooks and photographs are among her papers element to me, as my personal interest in folk painting (hereinafter referred to as the NFL Papers), now at SPNEA. combines both the historical and the aesthetic approach." 7 The quotations in this and the following two paragraphs are The urge to preserve, so clearly expressed in the Littles' from Nina Fletcher Little, Little by Little(New York: E.P. Dutton, 1984), pp.67, 13, 112, 117,85. involvement with SPNEA, was at the heart of their collect8 Diane Tepfer, Edith Halpert and the Downtown Gallery Downing philosophy: "I've always tried to preserve every little town: 1926-1940; a study in American art patronage(Ann bit of family history or tradition that could be counted on as Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms, 1989), pp. 164-165, accurate," she said, "because I feel it isn't just owning the 182-183. pieces to put in one's rooms, but one has a responsibility to 9 Among the NFL Papers are three letterboxes with materials On preserve properly the early history and the historical and the AARFAC project, including correspondence with Mitchell family connections of the pieces one has......'s Of all the Wilder and Stephen Clark about the Metropolitan Museum early folk art collectors, Nina Fletcher Little was by far the purchase and notes on her meeting with David Rockefeller. most meticulous in documenting her collection, both with a 10 Tepfer, op. cit., p. 186. personal cataloging system and her regularly published arti- 11 "What Is American Folk Art? A Symposium," The Magazine Antiques(May 1950): 360. cles, written in a spare, elegant style that is the epitome of 12 John 13. Little, M.D.,interview with the author, May 25, 1995.

New England understatement.

13 Nina Fletcher Little, The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Nina Fletcher Little's special contribution was to Collection (Williamsburg, Va.: Colonial Williamsburg, 1957), bridge the worlds of American antiques and folic art, bring- p. xvi. It is not clear who added the mention of Halpert and ing the antiquarian's passion for the past to the study of Cahill and was responsible for misspelling his name. folk art. She combined a keen appreciation of the aesthetic 14 John D. Rockefeller, Jr., to Kenneth Chorley, copy of an qualities of an object with a determination to discover undated letter, NFL Papers, SPNEA. everything possible about the historical and social context 15 Jean Lipman and Tom Armstrong, eds., American Folk in which it was created—who made it, when and where, Painters of Three Centuries(New York: Hudson Hills, 1980). how it was used and by whom. For her there was no contest The biographies by Nina Fletcher Little are of John Brewster, Jr., Winthrop Chandler, Rufus Hathaway, Asahel Powers, and between object and context: she honored both.* J.O.J. Frost.

Ruth Wolfe is an independent curator, writer, and lecturer. She began her involvement withfolk art when she worked with Jean Lipman on the exhibitions "The Flowering ofAmerican Folk Art" and "American Folk Painters of Three Centuries." For the latter

16 Some of the papers presented at the 1977 Winterthur Conference were included in Ian M.G. Quimby and Scott T. Swank, eds., Perspectives on American Folk Art(New York: W.W. Norton, 1980).

17 Little by Little, p. 117.

18 Nina Fletcher and Bertram K. Little, interview with Richard C. Nylander, September 17, 1976,SPNEA.

SUMMER 1997 FOLK ART 37

Hawaiian Quilts NineteenthCentury Myth Dispelled

By Elizabeth A. Akana

hen I arrived in the Hawaiian Islands in September 1963 as a new bride, I can assure you that I had no preconceived ideas of what a Hawaiian quilt was. But my husband, part Hawaiian and raised in the islands, had been given two Hawaiian quilts at his birth in 1928.

He brought those quilts to our marriage as his "dowry." To me they represented love,for surely they had been given in love to my husband by his grandmother and his great-aunt.

Immediately drawn to the quilts, I hung them as art on the walls of our new home. Despite my initial

W

33 SUMMER 1997 FOLK ART

interest, though, it was not until 1969, when a neighbor helped me make a quilted pillow with a Hawaiian appliquĂŠ design, that I became truly fascinated with Hawaiian quilts.

I took Hawaiian quilting classes from Mealii Kalama, a grand lady (now deceased), who was a master of Hawaiian design, a beautiful quilter, and a wonderful spirit. She believed that each quilt was "God in expression," and told our class that "Love is the keynote of quilting." As I learned the how-to's of Hawaiian quiltmaking, I found that Hawaiian quilts were usually made from only two colors of fabric, and that the bold designs were customarily cut from a single fabric that was pieced together.

I also learned that most Hawaiian quilts were quilted in a style called "contour" or "echo" quilting. I came to understand that there was much more to Hawaiian quilts than just beautiful design and that somehow these unique treasures reflected a way of life. And so my research beganâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; and continues to this day. I soon realized that the Hawaiian designs were a

form of poetry set in fabric, and that each quilt was encoded with the rich history and culture of this island people. I found that Hawaiian quilts were "letters" from the quiltmaker: Some were literal, and there was no question as to the quilt's meaning. Some were expressions of the heart and embodied the Hawaiian spirit, or mana. Still others were full of kaona, or hidden meaning. It is the mana and kaona of the designs that actually separate the Hawaiian quilts from all the other types of quilts.

Before I undertook my research, it was widely believed that New England missionaries, who began arriving on the islands in 1820, taught the Hawaiian people how to sew and to make quilts. For some years I have enthusiastically spoken out against this misconception and have happily shared my research with the quilt community and anyone who would listen. Finally, the missionary myth is beginning to dissolve.

The Polynesians who settled Hawaii migrated from the Marquesas Islands and Tahiti, in the South

HA UA KANI LEHUA THE RAIN THAT RUSTLES LEHUA BLOSSOMS) Quiltmaker unknown Probably the island of Hawaii 1940-1950 Blue and yellow cottons, hand-appliqued and -quilted 84 78" Private collection

According to Hawaiian legend, if one picks a lehua blossom the rains will come. Legend also says that the lehua flower was sacred to Pele, the goddess of fire and volcanoes.

Many of the quilts made with the lehua motif come from the island of Hawaii.

LILIUOKALANI'S FANS AND KAHILIS Quiltmaker unknown Hawaiian islands c. 1890s White and red cottons, black wool batting 96 . 98" Collection of Washington Place, Hawaii's Governor's House

Made for Queen Liliuokalani, the last reigning Hawaiian monarch, this quilt is unusual in that the center and border designs are connected, and the white fabric is appliquéd onto the red, instead of the other way around.

Pacific, between A.D. 500 and 800.

This was a remarkable navigational feat, considering the two thousand miles that they had to travel and the fact that Hawaii is one of the most isolated landmasses in the world. The Polynesians had many navigational skills, and although they were using the stars of the Northern Hemisphere probably for the first time—they had previously used only the Southern Hemisphere star patterns for their travels—they also relied on sea currents and wind and bird-flight patterns. The

Polynesians brought with them plants, animals, and an established culture that included tapa (bark cloth) making.

Tapa, made from the inner bark of trees, took skill and much time to make. The finished bark cloth was used for clothing and bedding. Hawaiian bark-cloth bedding sometimes has as many as five sheets or layers. Many times these sheets were sewn together at one end using a cord made from a strip of twisted tapa and a bone needle. The top sheet, or kilohana, was often decorated with elaborate painted

or stamped designs. In some cases, these designs were similar to the Hawaiians' body tattoos' and were thought to have special meaning.

In addition to clothing and bedcoverings, tapa was also used in ceremonies. Captain James A. Cook, the British explorer who "discovered" the islands in 1778, was ceremoniously draped in sacred red tapa on his second visit, in November 1785.3 Cook's expedition was responsible for mapping the Sandwich Islands, as the Hawaiian islands were then known, so

SUMMER 1997 FOLK ART 39

that others could follow. Visitors to the Sandwich Islands did not start arriving in earnest until 1785,4 and from that time the traffic increased steadily. New people flooded the islands with their cultures, concepts, and techniques.

Kamehameha the Great, ruler of the Hawaiian people, used the knowledge the visitors brought with them to unite the islands in 1796.5 He encouraged interaction with all visitors. The Hawaiian people learned new ways very quickly, and came to be known as shrewd but fair traders.

Many of the visitors, traders, and early explorers documented their time in the islands with written accounts. Archibald Campbell, a Scottish seaman who was a weaver by trade, convalesced in the Hawaiian Islands from 1809 to 1810.6 During

this time, he was employed by King Kamehameha to repair and restore the sails of the king's vessels. Campbell later observed: "[T]hese islanders have acquired many of the useful arts, and are making rapid progress towards civilization. Much must be ascribed, no doubt, to their natural ingenuity and unwearied industry; but [a] great part of the merit must also be ascribed to the increasing exertions of Tamaahmaah [Kamehameha], whose enlarged mind has enabled him to appreciate the advantages resulting from an intercourse with Europeans....... Campbell also observed: "It is astonishing how soon they acquire the useful arts from their visitors. Many of the natives are employed as carpenters, coopers, blacksmiths, and tailors, and do their work as perfectly as Europeans."'

HALA'Al (PINEAPPLE) Quiltmaker unknown Hawaiian Islands c. 1935 Yellow and green cottons, hand-appliquéd and -quilted 41 67" Private collection

Unlike in most Hawaiian quilt patterns, the fabric for the top (yellow) layer of this unique quilt was folded only once—in half lengthwise—and then cut. This work is a good example of the innovation and freedom of expression found in the Hawaiian quilt form.

KU'S HAE ALOHA (MY BELOVED FLAG) Quiltmaker unknown Probably Kauai c. 1900 Cotton, hand-pieced, -appliquéd, and -quilted 79>< 74" Private collection

Master quiltmaker and teacher Mealii Kalama in the Queen's Bedroom at Washington Place, Hawaii's Governor's House, 1991. Kalama is holding a pillow sham that matches the Crown Flower Quilt she made especially for Washington Place. Queen Liliuokalani, whose portrait hangs in the background, reigned until 1893. Photo by Shuzo Uemoto.

40 SUMMER 1997 FOLK ART

Campbell noted too that Hawaiians would trade for "a pair of scissors" and "a yard and a half of blue cloth,"9 among other things.

It has been long assumed that the New England missionaries who arrived in 1820 were the first to teach needlework to the Hawaiians, but the Hawaiians clearly possessed needlework skills prior to any outside contact, as evidenced by the sewing together of the sheets of tapa. For at least a generation before the missionaries arrived,

Courtesy the Bishop Museum

Probably made on the island of Kauai, this quilt, which incorporates a good example of the 1845 royal crest, has been in the Rice family for almost one hundred years. The back is pieced in a randomcolored nine-patch pattern, and many of the patches were applied using the catch stitch over the cut edge of the fabric.

KAHILI BARK CLOTH Maker unknown Hawaiian Islands c. 1900 Stenciled and stitched Hawaiian tapa Small bedsize Collection of the Bishop Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii, sx15761â&#x20AC;&#x201D;D4429

The five layers of this Hawaiian bark-cloth quilt are stitched together with a cord made of twisted tapa.

The top sheet is stenciled with a typical Hawaiian quilt motif.

the Hawaiians had been exposed to the sewing skills and techniques known by sailors, who would have had to repair or patch the sails of their ships, as well as their own clothing.

And it is clear from Campbell's account that fabrics, mostly from Europe, China, and India, were available and being used in the islands, and that Hawaiians were employed as tailors, before the arrival of the New England missionaries.

Another visitor to the islands, the Russian explorer V.M. Golovnin, made these observations in September and October 1818: "His wife, wearing

a chemise and a robe-like calico woman to go with her as a lady's dress..."° (the forerunner to the maid,"12 (the first Hawaiian of record muumuu perhaps?) and "Several to leave the islands). In another chiefs visited us, two of whom account, Rose de Freycinet, the wife brought their wives, dressed in calico of a French captain who visited dresses made according to the Euro- Hawaii, Maui, and Oahu in 1819, pean style." It was a common prac- noted while on the island of Owhyhi tice, in those times, for families to (Hawaii) that "[The dowager queen,] accompany the captains of ships, and regal in her iridescent silks from Canthere is evidence that there were non- ton, [was] shaded by her European native women visiting the islands parasol...." Madame de Freycinet before 1820."The British ship 'Imper- also wrote, "I had thought that the ial Eagle' visited the islands in May, English were much occupied in civi1787. The captain, Charles W. lizing the Sandwich Islands, but I have Barkley, was accompanied by his learnt here that an English vessel has wife, who engaged a young Hawaiian hardly been seen here for ten years. It

SUMMER 1997 FOLK ART 41

is the Americans who come most.

There are even people of this nation settled in several of these islands, particularly at Mowi [Maui] and in the island of Wahou [Oahu]......14 These accounts unquestionably establish that non-native and especially American women were seen in the islands and were wearing European fashions long before the missionaries arrived. These women may have shared their sewing skills with the native women. They might even have had quilts with them and also shared the techniques for making those quilts.

Noted quilt historian Patsy Orlofsky tells us, "Wherever American women went, as far as Alaska and Japan, they took their knowledge and love of

Kalakua brought a web of white cambric to have a dress made for herself in the fashion of our ladies, and was very particular in her wish to have it finished while sailing along the western side of the island [Hawaii] before reaching the king.... The four native women of rank were furnished with calico patch-work to sew—a new employment to them."

In her later years, Lucy Thurston wrote The Life and Times of Lucy G. Thurston, one of the most vivid accounts of the early mission days in Hawaii. In one gripping passage, Thurston describes in detail her own mastectomy, performed without anesthesia on September 12, 1855, when she was sixty years old, to VARIATION OF PUA MIULANA (DAHLIA) Quiltmaker unknown Hawaiian Islands 1906 Red and white cottons, hand-appliquéd and -quilted 77 79" Mission House Museum Collection

Contrary to the way this pattern is usually applied, the center medallion here is turned "on point," or rotated 90 degrees.

Some of the border flowers were cleverly cut away so as not to conflict with the flowers in the medallion. making quilts."" Because the Hawaiians already had their tapa bedding, the idea of a bed quilt was not new to them, and it is likely that the fabric quilt was also not a new idea by the time the missionaries arrived.

The first company of missionaries, traveling on the brig Thaddeus, arrived on the morning of Monday, April 3, 1820, off the coast of the big island of Hawaii, just five months after they had departed Boston. Lucy Goodale Thurston, the wife of Asa Thurston, one of the five missionaries in that first company, wrote in her journal that the missionaries organized "the first sewing circle that the sun ever looked down upon in this Hawaiian realm." She also noted, "[Queen]

42 SUMMER 1997 FOLK ART

remove a malignant tumor. Her death just before her eighty-first birthday in 1876 brought to an end fifty-six years in the islands."

It is in part due to the fact that Lucy Thurston lived so long on the islands and wrote extensively with grit and authority about her experiences that her words were taken literally, and that the idea that the missionaries taught the Hawaiians how to sew and make quilts took hold. As has been demonstrated, sewing skills among the native Hawaiians predated the arrival of the missionaries. It is not as clear when the transition from decorated bark-cloth bedding to quilted fabric bedcovers took place. Lucy Thurston wrote of "the first sewing circle," not

a quilting bee, and of "patch-work to sew," not a quilt. However, because the word "patch-work" was used, it has always been assumed that the calico patch-work Thurston spoke of was the making of a pieced quilt, although a quilt or bedcover is not explicitly mentioned. I question whether the missionaries would have demonstrated the cutting of fabric into small pieces only to sew them back together again. This would have seemed without purpose to the Hawaiians, and surely the missionaries were much too frugal to cut up their fabrics into small pieces. Besides, the terms "pieced" and "patch-work" may not have had the same meaning in 1820.

Without a deeper understanding of the period use of the term "calico patchwork," no conclusion can be drawn.

It is reasonable to infer that the "patch-work" Lucy Thurston wrote about referred to the appliqué technique. Quilts of the 1820 period were generally of center medallion format, with appliquéd elements and some piecework. The missionary women probably demonstrated the stitches used in making the queen's dress.

These stitches might have included the catch-stitch, a variation of today's herringbone stitch that appears as a long cross-stitch. This tailoring stitch was often used to finish off the inside seams of garments. Another stitch that might have been demonstrated was the hemming, or overcast, stitch, traditionally used to hem garments. These same stitches appear in older Hawaiian quilts, used to apply the appliqued designs to the ground fabric.

There is precedence for equating the term "patch-work" with the

PILIALOHA (LOVE IN ABUNDANCE) Designed by Elizabeth A. Akana Made by Kathie Dallas Kaneohe, Hawaii 1987 Cotton and cotton blends, hand-appliqued and -quilted 95 95" Collection of the author

As in most Hawaiian quilts, the choice of motif depends on the particular message the quiltmaker wishes to convey. The author designed this quilt as a gift to her husband, Ronald. The motifs include breadfruit, a symbol of the continued growth of their love; naupaka, the flower that represents their separateness and their oneness; pineapple,for the friendship and hospitality that together they offer their friends; and Kakunaokala, the rays of the sun, representing God's light, which is the bond of their lives together.

The Akanas sleep—one would think very peacefully—under this quilt, which recently won the award for the State of Hawaii in the 1996 All American Quilt Contest, sponsored by Land's End Coming Home catalog and Good Housekeeping magazine.

appliqué technique. In 1915 Marie D. Webster, a quiltmaker who was a pioneer in researching the origins and development of the patchwork quilt, wrote: "The French word 'appliqué' is frequently used to describe the patched or laid-on work.... By common usage patchwork is now understood to mean quilt making, and while used indiscriminately for both pieced and patched quilts, it really belongs to that type where the design is cut from one fabric and applied upon another."

So we see that Thurston most likely was not referring to the teaching of quiltmaking with her statement.

However, it is very likely that those first missionaries did bring bed quilts with them, since missionaries who

U'LEI BERRIES Mary Kaulahao Hawaiian Islands C. 1928 Pink and white cottons, wool batting, hand-appliquéd and -quilted 78 x 7/3" Private collection

Typical of the period in which it was made, this quilt is constructed with a wool batting that over time has shrunk a bit, giving the quilt a slightly puckered appearance.

came after did—an 1834 list of things that missionaries were to bring included three bed quilts, yardage of calico, pins, needles, threads, thimbles, and scissors. Stella Jones, who wrote about Hawaiian quilts in 1930, wrote about a quilt sent to Kaahumanu, the lcuhina nui, or coruler: "Later recruits to the mission service brought more patch-work quilts from New England.

A letter sent from the Sandwich Islands Mission to Boston in 1822 recounted, 'We received from the Board by this conveyance [the schooner Rover] a box...and with the rest, a bed-quilt from the young ladies in Miss E. Dewey's school, Blanford, for Kaahumanu, which was very acceptable to this honored female ruler.'" Based on the

imprecision of the terms used today and in the early 1820s, we might assume that the misconception of the missionaries teaching quilting on the decks of the Thaddeus occurred as a result of semantics.

We know from various accounts that the missionaries did teach quilting techniques after they developed schools in the islands. Certainly we can credit the missionaries with teaching many new concepts and techniques. However, I feel that the development of the Hawaiian appliqué and flag quilts, as we know them,lies with the Hawaiians. The designs and many of the methods used to make the Hawaiian quilts are found only in Hawaii. Although we do not know what the earliest Hawaiian quilts looked like, the visual similarity between the traditional designs on bark cloth and the extant quilts is unmistakable.

Hawaiian quilts were treasures most often given as gifts to friends and loved ones. They were perfect vehicles for the Hawaiians to document important happenings, to capture their surroundings, and to communicate their love. Author Dorothy B. Barrere put it most aptly when she said: "The story of quilt making in Hawaii is a story of a way of life that was but a continuation and modernization of old ways. Innovations of materials, of techniques, of inspirational designs, were all assimilated and adapted in harmony with the ageold foundation of Hawaiian poetic thought and skill and regard for spiritual meaning. Now the styles are changing, and the kapus [bark-cloth bed coverings] are waning—but the inspiration for a quilt design remains a personal expression of beauty seen or felt."20 Editor's note: The above text is taken from the author's unpublished manuscript, The Hawaiian Quilt: A History.

Elizabeth A. Akana is a well-known quilt designer and teacher who has been researching Hawaiian quilt historyfor more than twenty years. In 1990 Akana, along with documentaryfilmmaker Elaine Zinn,founded The Hawaiian Quilt Research Project, which has documented

hundreds ofpreviously unknown Hawaiian quilts. Akana, who lives in Kaneohe, Hawaii, lectures widely on the art ofthe Hawaiian quilt in the context ofHawaiian culture. Akana openly shares her research for the unpublished manuscriptfrom which this essay was derived and welcomes all inquiries about this topic, to which she isfervently dedicated.*

NOTES 1 Richard J. Tibbetts, Jr., and Elaine Zinn, producers, The Hawaiian Quilt: A Cherished Tradition videotape (Honolulu: Hawaii Craftsmen, 1986).

2 Joseph Feher, Hawaii: A Pictorial History (Honolulu: Bishop Museum Press, 1969), p. 90.

3 Ralph S. Kuykendall and A. Grove Day, Hawaii: From Polynesian Kingdom to American Statehood(Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1976), p. 14.

4 Ibid., p. 31.

5 Ibid., p. 27.

6 Archibald Campbell,A Voyage Round The World, From 1806-1812(Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1967), pp.68, 151.

7 Ibid., p. 151.

8 Ibid., p. 144.

9 Ibid., p. 145.

10 V.M. Golovnin,Around the World on the Kamchatka, 1817-1819(Honolulu: The Hawaiian Historical Society and The University Press, 1979), p. 178.

11 Ibid., p. 180.

12 Ralph S. Kuykendall, The Hawaiian Kingdom, Volume I(Honolulu: The University Press of Hawaii, 1938), p. 22.

13 Mamie Bassett, Realm and Islands: The World Voyage ofRose de Freycinet, 1817-1820(London: Oxford University Press, 1962), p. 161.

14 Ibid., p. 165.

15 Patsy and Myron Orlofsky, Quilts in America(New York: McGraw-Hill, 1974), p. 56.

16 Lucy G. Thurston, Life and Times of Mrs. Lucy G. Thurston(Ann Arbor, Mich.: S.C. Andrews, 1882), p. 32.

17 Lucille DeLoach,"Lucy Goodale Thurston," Notable Women ofHawaii (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1984), pp. 379-380.

18 Marie D. Webster, Quilts: Their Story and How to Make Them (Santa Barbara, Calif.: Practical Patchwork, 1990), pp. 95-96.

19 Stella M.Jones, Hawaiian Quilts (Honolulu: Honolulu Academy of Arts, 1930), P. 13.

20 Dorothy B. Barrere,"Hawaiian Quilting: A Way of Life," The Conch Shell(Honolulu: Bishop Museum Association, 1965), p. 21.

SUMMER 1997 FOLK ART 43

Inez athaniel Wa ker"The More I Draw the Better

By Lee Kogan

efore her death on May 23, 1990, Inez

13

Nathaniel Walker created a large body of vivid portraits of women and men in a styl-

ized abstract format that adhered to a basic

representational concept. In the fall of 1996, the Museum of American Folk Art received more than four hundred of Walker's drawings, many of which are archival works, and twenty-three of her sketchbooks and pads from Pat Parsons and Bill and Carol Webb.

Parsons and the Webbs, early Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. supporters and patrons of Walker, (1982). Her superior draftsmanship brought the artist's work to the atten- and unique vision are particularly tion of the art world in 1972 with an manifest in the mastery of line eviexhibition of her work at the Webb & denced in the portraits she executed Parsons Gallery that was repeated between 1972 and 1980.

For Walker, making art filled many times in the following years.

Parsons continued as Walker's cham- an emotional need during difficult pion and friend until the artist's death. times. She began to draw while servThe ample collection of drawings and ing a prison sentence in Bedford Hills archival work recently donated is sig- Correctional Facility in Bedford Hills, nificant because it encompasses the New York, where she was incarfull range of Walker's creative effort cerated from the late 1960s until 1972. over a period of years and clearly Convicted of "criminal negligent illustrates the evolution of her formal homicide" of a man who abused her, she remarked, speaking generally, vocabulary and style.

Walker achieved a distin- "Some of these men folks are pitiful."

Although Bedford Hills is a guished place among self-taught artists from the moment her drawings progressive institution, "even at its were first exhibited. Her work was most humane, incarceration is a nightincluded in "Six Naives," Akron Art marish experience," observed artist Institute, Ohio (1973); "Transmitters: and author Phyllis Konifeld. "One of The Isolate Artist in America," the few defenses an inmate has against Philadelphia College of Art, Pennsyl- the dehumanizing effects of incarvania (1981); and "Black Folk Art in ceration is what is known as 'art'. It America, 1930-1980," Corcoran appears to be crucial to spiritual and

44 SUMMER 1997 FOLK ART

practical survival."2 Other critics and artists have also written on the nature and quality of art produced by prison inmates. Michel Thevoz, author of Art Brut, says, "Detention is particularly propitious to imaginative creation."

Artist-inmate Charles Mosby describes art as a therapeutic agent.

"There's times I'm under a lot of aggravation.... I can sit there and draw something, and while I'm drawing, I can let my mind flow."4 Inez Nathaniel Walker's artmaking may have had a similar healing effect for her. Walker originally drew to protect herself from all those "bad girls."5 "Lordy," she said, "a woman got to keep her head around her! There was all those bad girls, so I just sit down at a table and draw."6 It is unclear whether "bad girls" was a reference to fellow inmates or to the demons in her head.'

This gifted and unusual artist was born sometime around 1911 in Sumter, South Carolina. Her mother died when she was only two years old, and her father, Wallace Stedman, died when she was twelve or thirteen.

She reminisced, "I remember he was sitting there in front of the fireplace, reading the Bible. The next day he was killed."9 Walker was raised by her cousin Katie Sharper, and by the time she was sixteen, she was married and had four children: three boys and a girl.

Walker did farm work in South Carolina, but eventually "got tired of working so hard on the farm, weeding and hoeing...the muck would eat you up."9 To escape the drudgery, she joined the great African American migration north in the 1930s and settled with her family

I Get"

UNTITLED (Portrait of a Woman with Yellow Heart Background( 1978 Graphite, crayon, colored pencil and marking pen on paper 14 11" Museum of American Folk Art. gift of Pat Parsons, 1996

SUMMER 1997 FOLK ART 45

UNTITLED (Figure with Portrait in Yellow Heart) 1975 Graphite, crayon, and colored pencil on paper 14 â&#x20AC;˘.â&#x20AC;˘ 17" Museum of American Folk Art, gift of Pat Parsons, 1996

in Philadelphia. She did factory work in a pickle plant until a strike ended her employment there.

In 1949 she moved to Port Byron, New York, where she worked in an apple-processing plant. Somehow, the work did not seem as grueling in the North. Over the years, she lived and worked in several places in New York State, including Clyde, Savannah, and Geneva. She preferred a less urban environment to Philadelphia, where "there's always somebody waiting to take your purse.... If you go to the grocery store, you have to take a taxi home."

The details of Walker's life during the next twenty years are unknown. It is also unknown whether she drew or made art during that time.

After her conviction, she was sent to Bedford Hills. In 1971, seventy-nine of her drawings were discovered in a classroom that was often used for resident meetings, although she did not attend classes there. Elizabeth Bayley, an English teacher, found the unsigned drawings."Looking over them, I was struck by their originality, their

48 SUMMER 1997 FOLK ART

humor, and their amazing attention to detail," she said." When Bayley inquired as to the artist's identity, one resident told her that "Mama did them." Bayley discovered that "Mama" was Inez Nathaniel (Walker).

When they met, Walker offered to give the drawings to her, but Bayley preferred to pay for them and, as was customary at the institution, deposited the money directly into Walker's commissary account.'2 Bayley then took the artworks to Pat Parsons, then co-owner of the Webb & Parsons Gallery in Bedford, New York, for evaluation. Recognizing their unique and powerful qualities, Parsons arranged to meet the artist, whom she encouraged to continue drawing. Over the next eight years Walker created art, spurred on by regular exhibitions of her work.

While the two met only once during that time, the personal contact deeply affected each of them. Walker frequently telephoned and wrote to Parsons, and Parsons was a loyal and trusting confidante. In turn, it was Walker's work that impelled Parsons

to begin her study and pursuit of the work of twentieth-century self-taught artists. In a letter to Pat Parsons, dated February 15, 1975, Geneva, New York, Inez Walker wrote that she had gotten married on February 7 of that year. In a subsequent letter to Pat Parsons, Walker mentions the death of her husband, Reverend Walker (his first name is unknown) and wishes Parsons a "Happy Christmas." The letter is undated.

On Thanksgiving Day, 1980, Walker telephoned Parsons to let the gallery owner know she was moving.

Walker gave Parsons her new address and telephone number and wanted to talk further; Parsons, busy with a family dinner and unable to speak at length, promised to call Walker the next day. She tried, but Walker could not be reached. The telephone number and address were invalid, and all attempts to find Walker over the ensuing years proved fruitless. After almost a decade of persistent searching, a sympathetic psychiatric social worker responded to one of Parsons' many inquiries and informed Parsons

UNTITLED (Portrait of a Woman with Hat) 1978 Graphite, crayon, and marking pen on paper 14 11" Museum of American Folk Art, gift of Pat Parsons, 1996

that Walker was a resident at Willard Psychiatric Center in Willard, New York, where she had been for several years. Because of the protective rules and regulations regarding confidentiality, it took more than a year of petitioning before Parsons and Walker could meet. Walker resided at Willard for a short time in 1986 and returned in 1988; she remained at the center until her death in 1990. During her hospital years, Walker had made more than two hundred drawings. Parsons bought the work that the hospital held at the time of Walker's death. She continued to exhibit Walker's art, now including pieces from her last years.

Inez Nathaniel Walker expressed enjoyment both in seeing her drawings hanging in public places and in the drawing itself. Public recognition gave her much pleasure.

While she was very generous and gave many paintings away, she was proud that she was paid for her drawings. In reminiscing with Parsons during a final interview at Willard, the artist commented that "they [her

drawings] made good money for her." Earlier, she stated, "I set up here [referring to the small room she rented in upstate New York], the TV playing and draw. I've been drawing and drawing and drawing."

"She also was quite aware of how her work progressed."The more I draw the better I get,"5 she once said. She may not have been aware of the extent of her acclaim, but she always identified herself as an artist and she signed and dated most of her drawings. She used various signatures: Inez Nathaniel and I. Nathaniel, and after her marriage in 1975, Inez Nathaniel Walker, I. Walker, Inez Walker, and Mrs. Inez Walker. She continued to draw until she died of pancreatic cancer; her final drawings from the hospital years at Willard, however, were unsigned and undated.

Walker's drawings changed a good deal over the years. Her first drawings were executed on the backs of mimeographed prison newsletters.

From 1972 on, Parsons supplied the artist with sketch pads of varying

UNTITLED (Two Women) 1975 Graphite, colored pencil, and marking pen on paper 13 11" Museum of American Folk Art, gift of Pat Parsons, 1996

sizes, to which the artist seemingly adjusted with ease. Walker used graphite, colored pencils (which afforded her the optimum linear control), crayons, and occasionally felttipped markers. Oils and watercolors were tried and discarded.

Early portraits were rendered on a stark white background. In time, however, patterning became more varied within and surrounding the linear subject forms. The richly patterned clothing of her figures is juxtaposed against a freshly decorated and exuberant background space. The counterpoint of patterns intermixed with other patterns is reminiscent of the decorative riot of shapes perfected by the nineteenth-century French painter Hemi Matisse. In most of her drawings, parallel, converging, crossing, diagonal, and undulating lines alternate with geometric forms such as dots, circles, squares, and triangles. In her final years at Willard, Walker alternated densely patterned works with more minimal and starkly linear ones. Patterning of clothing and other

UNTITLED (Portrait of a Woman) 1970-1972 Graphite, crayon, and colored pencil on paper 14 10= Museum of American Folk Art, gift of Pat Parsons. 1996

SLIMMER 1997 FOLK ART 47

UNTITLED (Profile) 1988-1990 Graphite and marking pen on paper 18,12" Museum of American Folk Art, gift of Pat Parsons, 1996

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decorative details continued with an occasional merging and/or superimposition of the background with figural forms. It is unclear whether the layering of shapes was intentional or whether the artist was losing some of her manual control, compounded by eye problems.

The artist also left some works that were produced within an art therapy setting. Subjects that depart from her usual forms,such as an Easter egg, are stiff and unsuccessful. Experimentation with dots and short strokes, Xs, and minimal line is another late departure, but this technique seems authentic in her development. Among Walker's final drawings are outlined figures with no internal or external patterning. Their formal arrangement may have been planned or may have resulted from the loss of concentration and dexterity necessary for more fully realized compositions.

Although to date no drawings from 1980 to 1986 have been found, the artist probably continued her artmaking during those years. It was noted that Walker had artwork with

48 SUMMER 1997 FOLK ART

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her when she entered Willard Psychiatric Center.'6 In a testament to the importance of visual self-expression in her life, Walker continued drawing at Willard through 1990.

Walker's interest in clothing details and background patterns, especially in 1975 and 1976, is reminiscent of that of Morris Hirshfield, the former textile worker, later slipper manufacturer, and artist from Brooklyn. Her compositions seem to reflect her interest and skill in sewing. Walker stitched clothing, but unlike Hirshfield, who was in the garment business at one time and seemed an experienced pattern maker, she virtually never used an actual tracing or pattern.

She relied instead on an innate ability to reproduce things she saw. "I'd see something I liked, then I'd make one like it. That's the way I am about drawing."

Composition was an inherent strength of Walker's, and her conceptual ease allowed her to draw a prodigious number of works with complete sureness of line. "She began with the face and hair at the top of a page and

continued marling and doodling down through the neck and collar area and finished out with the upper body until she ran out of paper at the bottom of the page. She worked directly and almost never went back to anything or erased any line."

Walker portraits are not photographic likenesses. "I can't look at nobody and draw. Now that's one thing I wished I could do. But I can't.

I just draw by my own mission, you know. I just sit down and start to draw."9 Walker's images are conceived both frontally and in profile, like those of the Alabama artist Mose Tolliver. According to one observer, the frontal views of Walker's self-portraits may constitute a "program of self-affirmation."20 In his study of portraits, the author Roger Cardinal has observed that images often "represent a psychic self-portrait...articulating an individual's specificity, his or her sense of uniqueness, of wonder at the fact of singularity [and] constitute a mirror for self-recognition and, potentially, a foundation for the restitution of psychic wholeness...what Dr. Leo

Navratil has called `Selbstfindung' or 'finding the self.""' Both for Walker and for others like her, the portrait may have functioned as a survival strategy—a counterpoint to isolation and confinement in prison.

The artist generally depicted the head prominently, with a large and staring eye similar to those in ancient Sumerian, Assyrian, and Egyptian paintings. Even in profile, the eye is shown frontally, oval in shape and with a prominent pupil. The approach is conceptual, rather than anatomical, designed to show "not immediate aspect of things but rather the concept of the distinguishing and abiding properties of the human body."" Some scholars have interpreted exaggerated eye size in art as an artist's effort to convey the "awe with which humans confront" their world." Psychologists consider the eye a "super releaser— the single most important feature of the face; it both evokes and discloses the strongest emotions."24 Inez Walker's flat, abstracted images are tied to natural forms and have a special immediacy when they

are centrally placed close to the picture plane. The frontal pose functions "like the I—you relation" and immediately engages the viewer." "[Mike trick mirrors, or even conventional ones, portraits establish the conditions and circumstances of the viewer's gaze; they shape the psychological process that implicates the viewer, as a respondent...." When extremities are portrayed, hands and feet are small.

Women are favored subjects, but there are many drawings of men and an occasional baby or animal. Women and men are drawn individually, sometimes paired or in trios with decorative props—a piece of furniture, some flowers, a glass, a bottle, and a purse shaped like an antique reticule, to name several. In 1977 and 1978 Walker added a "hat" series to her repertoire and presented her women in stylish headgear. The "hat" series was the apex of Walker's developing sensibility in decorative patterning. Walker herself was photographed in a hat during this period.

Portraits include busts and full figures. Walker's subjects stand, sit, recline on easy chairs; they hold glasses, toast each other, drink, pass money, smoke, embrace, and engage in conversation. Skin colors range from brown to light and deep pink to yellow, and do not dictate hairstyle— fair-skinned men and women sport Afros, brown-skinned figures are shown with straightened bob or wave.

One man rides a tiny bicycle and feeds a worm to a bird. Oddly, bearded men seem androgynous. Critics agree that the meaning of her portraits involving interactions are elusive, but artist and author Michael Hall said in 1981 that "I believe that if more time were spent with her, the time of qualified researchers, her iconography would become clear.""

Hair, almost more than skin color, has been a cultural symbol of "blackness." It is therefore not surprising that Walker renders hair carefully.

Walker's attitudes toward hair are not clear, but she did capture both the straightened and wavy hairstyles prevalent in post—World War I black America and the more natural Afro, which evolved in the 1960s following the civil rights movement and the consequent growing awareness and pride

of identity." For the former style, the waves resemble "ripples of water,"" and Walker guides the line stroke by stroke in close parallel lines, alternating direction and lightness and heaviness of the pencil or crayon to create the undulating movement; she also varies both the length and density of the wave. For the latter, she uses dense, tightly coiled curls to form fullheaded styles varying in length and thickness. While hair is immensely important in African American culture and crosses racial boundaries in Walker's drawings, her renderings of mustaches and sparse- and fullbearded men seem more personal and enigmatic.

The large collection of Inez Nathaniel Walker artworks at the Museum of American Folk Art includes examples of her entire known oeuvre and provides scholars and researchers with extensive material to study her art and life in depth and from multiple perspectives— aesthetic, cultural, and personal. The art historian, cultural anthropologist, psychologist, art therapist, sociologist, folklorist, educator, and liberal arts scholar may all find that aspects of Inez Nathaniel Walker's art illuminate their study of American life and culture.* Note: The author wishes to acknowledge the invaluable assistance of Pat Parsons, who, among other things, shared her extensive research, including source material, letters, her two unpublished papers, and personal knowledge of Inez Nathaniel Walker.

Lee Kogan is Senior Research Fellow at the Museum ofAmerican Folk Art and Director ofits Folk Art Institute. She has a master's degree in Folk Art Studiesfrom New York University, where she is an adjunct assistant professor. Kogan lectures widely, is coauthor ofTreasures of Folk Art: Museum of American Folk Art (Abbeville Press, 1994), and writes regularlyfor Folk Art magazine.

NOTES 1 "Self-Taught Artist 'Discovered in Prison,'"Correctional Services News (Albany, N.Y.: August 1978), p. 8.

2 Phyllis Kornfeld, Cellblock Visions: Prison Art in America (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1997), p. 9.

SUMMER 1997 FOLK ART 49

3 Michel Thevoz,Art Brut(New York: Rizzoli International Publications, 1976), p. 125.

4 Kornfeld, op cit., p. 9. From an interview between prison artist Charles Mosby and Charles Koh for radio station WFCRFM,Amherst, Mass., May 25, 1990.

5 Pat Parsons, unpublished paper "Inez Nathaniel Walker: Biographical Narrative of an 'Outsider' Artist"(December 1984), p. 5, written for Dr. Robert Bishop's course "20th Century American Folk Art," New York University.

6 Elinor Lander Horwitz, Contemporary American Folk Artists(Philadelphia, J.B. Lippincott Company, 1975 ), p. 58.

7 Pat Parsons, op. cit., p. 10.

8 "Self-Taught Artist," p. 8.

9 Ibid.

10 Ibid.

11 Ibid., p. 5.

12 Elizabeth Bayley, telephone interview with author, March 25, 1997.

13 Pat Parsons, telephone interview with author, March 16, 1997. See also "SelfTaught Artist," p. 5.

14 "Self-Taught Artist," p. 5.

15 Michael Hall, artist and author, interview with Inez Walker in 1973,quoted in Elinor Lander Horwitz, Contemporary American Folk Artists (Philadelphia, J.B.

Lippincott Company, 1975 ), p. 60.

16 Pat Parsons, telephone interview with author, March 16, 1997.

17 "Self-Taught Artist," p. 8.

18 Michael Hall, interview with Inez Walker in Transmitters: The Isolate Artist in America (Philadelphia: Philadelphia College of Art, 1981), p.32.

19 Hall,in Contemporary American Folk Artists, p. 60.

20 Dr. Leo Navratil in Roger Cardinal, "Figures and Faces in Outsider Art," in the Portraitsfrom the Outside exhibition catalog(New York: Parsons School of Design), p. 22.

21 Ibid.

22 Gardner's Art Through the Ages, tenth edition, eds. Richard G. Tansey and Fred S. Kleiner(Fort Worth, Tex.: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1996), p.47.

See also Cardinal, op. cit., pp. 22-29.

23 Tansey and Kleiner, op. cit., p. 45;and Cardinal, op. cit., p. 27.

24 Pat Parsons, telephone interview with the author, March 26, 1997. In this discussion, Parsons remembered a lecture by Professor Paul C. Vitz in a course "The Psychology of Visual Art," given at New York University in 1983. Parsons quotes Vitz in her unpublished paper,"Toward an Evaluative Theory for 'Other Art': The

Art Made by Untrained Artists," 1984.

25 Richard Brilliant, Portraiture(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1991), p.43. See also Brilliant,"Portraits: A Recurrent Genre of World Art," in Jean M.Borgatti and Richard Brilliant's exhibition catalog Likeness and Beyond:Portraits from Africa and the World(New York: The Center For African Art, 1990), p. 20.

26 Brilliant, Portraiture, p. 141.

27 Hall, Transmitters, p. 32.

28 Willie Morrow,400 Years Without a Comb (San Diego: Morrow's Unlimited Inc., Black Publishers of San Diego, 1973), pp. 75,86. See also bell hooks, "Selling Hot Pussy," in Black Looks (Boston: South End Press, 1992), pp.

70-71.(hooks discusses black female singers' obsession with hair) and Judith Wilson,"Beauty Rites: Towards an Anatomy of Culture in African American Women's Art," in The International Review ofAfrican American Art(Hampton, Va., Hampton University Museum, vol. 11, no. 3, 1994), pp. 11-17,47-55.

(Professor Wilson explores hair style in African American women's art both aesthetically and culturally, and offers a broadened interpretive perspective to previously considered notions).

29 Morrow, op. cit., p. 74.

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ROCKY MOUNTAIN QUILTS IS PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE THE GRAND OPENING OF OUR ONLY EAST COAST SHOP May 15, 1997 AT 130 YORK STREET, YORK VILLAGE, MAINE OVER 300 ANTIQUE QUILTS FROM 1790 TO 1940 FOR SALE Plus Quilt Tops, Blocks, Vintage Fabrics & Accessories See us for quilt restoration, custom quilting & hooked rug repairs Watch for us on the Discovery Channel's "Home Matters"

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11AAAAAAAAJAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAkkAAA/kAII Southern Vision's Pottery and Folk Art PO Box 526 â&#x20AC;˘ Seagrove, NC 27341 (910) 381-3090 C.J. and Billy Meaders

Lainer Meaders Reggie Meaders

Aaist Hugo Sperger

'Wh$ch Way?

Nub Meaders

Louis Brown

E.J. Brown

Terry King

Anna King

Davis Brown

Crystal King

Selected works available by Hugo Sperger

likk

Kentucky Folk Art Center, Inc. 102 West Main St. Morehead, Kentucky 40351 Phone: 606/783-2204

Open Mon-Fri 8:30-4:30, Sat 9:00-5:00

54 SUMMER 1997 FOLK ART

Hewell Family

Specializing in

Southern Folk Art If you want it, we can find it!

B.B. Craig

Kimball M. Sterling Presents

The International Folkee Showee and the 3rd Annual Folk Atlanta Auction Two Great Events Under One Roof On One Unforgettable Day. Saturday, August 16th, 1997 Atlanta, GA (Norcross) At The Gwinnett Market Center & Health & Fitness Mall The Folkee Showee Will Consist of Fine Dealers In Outsider Art and Early Folk Art. Admission To The Show Is One Can of Canned Goods To Feed The Hungry Children Of Appalachia.

Hotel: The New Drury Inn & Suites Ask For The Special Rate!! 770-729-0060 Directions: Impact Conference Center located in the Health and Fitness Mall. Exit 37 Jimmy Carter Blvd. and 1-85. Next To The New Drury Inn. Over 7000 square feet of air conditioned space. Only 1/2 mile from our former location.

Folkee Showee Times 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Auction Sale 8:00 p.m.

Auction Preview 9:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.

Terms 10% Buyers Fee Color Catalogs $40.00

Auction Includes Major Works By: Howard Finster Lanier Meaders Henry Speller Royal Robertson J.B. Murray Juanita Rogers M.C. "5o" Jones Raymond Coins Charley Kinney

James Harold Jennings Rev. Benjamin Perkins Mary T. Smith Joe Light Chuckie Williams Luster Willis Sultan Rogers David Butler Richard Burnside

Mose Tolliver Welmon Sharlhorne Roy Ferdinand Herbert Singleton Jimmie Lee Sudduth James "Son" Thomas Henry Ray Clark Loy "Rhinestone" Bowlin Benny Carter

Justin McCarthy Elijah Pierce George Zyak S.L. Jones William Dawson Dilmus Hall Victor Joseph Gatto 20th Century Anonymous And Many More!

Kimball M. Sterling, Inc. 125 West Market St., Johnson City, TN 37604 1-423-928-1471 or kimsold@tricon.net Kimball M. Sterling, Auctioneer (NR-2498) Member of the National Auctioneers Association http://sterlingsold.com

Elletite

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CRAIG FARROW Cabinetmaker

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FOLK PAINTER 108 SOUTH MARKET STREET PO Box 165 SCHAEFFERSTOWN

PENNSYLVANIA 17088

1■61151111 =NM 6161=167•••=, I

the source for what's new in today's quilts...

QUI.CT Magazine

1 jiikI

the quilts, the artists, the shows, the issues, the reviews...

the Art of the

Quilt.

Special for Folk Art readers: 1 year(4 quarterly issues) for $28. Sample copy $7($1OUS overseas) Subscribe for great quilts in great color reproductions plus informative articles on what's new

History and Artistry in Wood 17th and 18th Century American Furniture Reproductions P.O. Box 828 Woodbury, CT 06798

56 SUMMER 1997 FOLK ART

Please call 203-266-0276

T/QULCY book Service*** *** Nancy Crow at the Renwick color poster(shown above)$8 pp Exhibit catalog: Nancy Crow Improvisational Quilts $21.95 pp *** Send SASE for our list of books and goodies.*** To subscribe, send check for $28($38US for overseas) to:

-T Magazine 1 Folk Art Offer JAT/QUII,: PO Box 630927 / Houston,TX 77263-0927 / fax 713/975-6072

(MC/Visa accepted)

CARVED AND PAINTED F1REBOARD,32" X 50"

r

CARVED WOOD SEATED GENTLEMAN, 22" TALL

OIL ON CANVAS,"PUAALH," 27" X 37" CARVED AND PAINTED OVERSIZED BOW TIE, 22" X 10"

RECENT WORK

JEF STEINGREBE CENTER ROAD BRADFORD,NH 03221 603 938 2748 STUDIO AND GALLERY OPEN BY APPOINTMENT

JOHN C. HILL â&#x20AC;˘ ANTIQUE INDIAN ART

MUSEUM

NEWS

6962 E. FIRST AVENUE,SCOTTSDALE,ARIZONA 85251

(602) 946-2910

Hopi Kachinas: Nihiyo and Wakas the Cow. 11 inches and 8 inches, 19th Century.

AMERICAN PAINTED FURNITURE IN MINIATURE

Upcoming Exhibition n view from July 12 through September 28, "Old-Time Favorites, New-Time Fashions: Quilt Revival 1910-1950" examines the quilts of the first half of the 20th century. The Members' Reception to celebrate the opening will be held on Monday, July 14, 1997.

The beginning of this century heralded a design revolution that was a reaction to the excessive ornamentation of the late Victorian period. It was a time of growing conviction that early American objects were worthy of attention. This sense of pride in America's heritage led to a revival of interest in quiltmaking traditions and a fresh appreciation for the simplicity and beauty of the cotton quilt. While some quiltmakers rediscovered and reinterpreted "authentic" 19thcentury quilt patterns, designers such as Marie Webster promoted

O

New Hampshire Dower Chest, from Cogswell's Grant, Summer Home of Bertram K. & Nina Fletcher Little

JAMES HASTRICH Museum of American Folk Art Licensee & SPNEA Licensee PO Box 757, Kennebunkport, Maine 04046 1-800-962-2932 for Information & Studio hours

OS SUMMER 1997 FOLK ART

PINWHEEL SUNFLOWER QUILT Mary Etta (Mrs. Edward Emmet) Bach Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1930-1950 Cotton 97/ 1 2 77" Museum of American Folk Art, bequest of the estate of Mildred P. Bach, 1992.27.5

naturalistic elements in a pastel palette. In "Quilt Revival," guest curators Elizabeth V. Warren and Sharon L. Eisenstat capture the color and texture of an era, and explain how published patterns and manufactured kits changed quiltmaking for two generations.

The Museum is delighted to present a series of related lectures and workshops, starting in July.

This year's "Quilt Weekend" will be held on Friday and Saturday, September 12 and 13. For information, see Programs on page 66 or call the Museum's education department at 212/977-7170.

The opening reception for "Quilt Revival" is underwritten

by J&H Marsh & McLennan, Inc. Personal Client Services.

EPSTEIN/POWELL Fall Antiques Show Benefit Preview, September 24 e sure to mark your calen- ($240 tax-deductible) for Donors, $175($125 tax-deductible)for dar now for the 1997 Supporters, and $75($25 taxOpening Night Benefit deductible)for Juniorsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a special Preview of the Fall Antiques price for persons 30 years and Show at the Armory. This under. The evening's proceeds sparkling annual event, now in its help support the Museum's edu19th year, will take place On Wednesday, September 24. Bene- cational and exhibition programs.

The Fall Antiques Show will fit Chairmen Wendy and Stephen open to the public on Thursday, Lash and Donna and Elliott Slade September 25, and run through are planning a wonderful party.

Sunday, September 28. Show To reserve your benefit tickhours are: ets, please call Jennifer Waters at the Museum's administrative Thursday and Friday, offices at 212/977-7170. Preview 11 A.M.-9 P.M. tickets are priced at $750($680 Saturday, 11 A.M.-8 P.M. of which is tax-deductible)for Sunday 11 A.M.-6 P.M. Benefactors, $500($430 taxdeductible)for Patrons, $300

B

Fall Antiques Show Breakfast Symposium The Museum of American Folk Art Presents COLLECTORS SPEAK OUT Thursday, September 25, 1997 9-11 A.M. The Tiffany Room Park Avenue Armory Park Avenue and 67th Street New York City Tickets

$35 for Museum members,$45 for non-members

Note

General admission to the Fall Antiques Show is $10.

A special discounted admission ticket is available to symposium participants for $8. This ticket must be purchased in advance, with your symposium reservation.

Presenters Katharine Booth David C. Driskell, Ph.D. J.E. Jelinek, M.D. Joan M.Johnson Convener Gerard C. Wertkin, Director, Museum of American Folk Art This symposium is supported by a generous gift from Fred, Jeff, and Alan Lowenfels in honor of George F. Shaskan, Jr.

Victor Joseph Gatto(1893-1965) Ink on Paper,circa 1960,9 x 12

Jesse Aaron Rex Clawson Mr. Eddy Victor Joseph Gatto(estate) Lonnie Holley S.L. Jones Lawrence Lebduska Charlie Lucas Justin McCarthy Old Ironsides Pry Popeye Reed Max Romain Odie Saban Jack Savitsky Clarence Stringfield Mose Tolliver Chief Willey George Williams Luster Willis ... among others

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

By Appointment(212)226-7316

SUMMER 1997 FOLK ART 59

"The Beaver" "All American Dog"

24" X 24" HOUSE PAINT ON PLYWOOD

"The Beaver" will be at the:

FOLK FEST '97 — Atlanta, GA August 15-17, 1997

If your Folk Art Gallery would like to carry 'The Beavers'Folk Art call...

WANDA'S QUILTS P.O. Box 1764• Oldsmar, Florida 34677

(813) 855-1521 E-Mail: bever@kcii.com

ANNE BOURASSA

"GROCERY GUY & HIS GIRL" 45" x 65"

5 CENTER STREET NOBLEBORO,MAINE 207.563.8598

GALLERY HOUSE

MUSEUM

NEWS

Deep into Mississippi orty-one Museum members from fifteen states and Ontario, Canada, participated in a Folk Art Explorers' Club tour to southern Mississippi.

The tour(April 8-13) was based in the capital city of Jackson, with day trips to Natchez, Vicksburg, Yazoo City, and Belzoni.

Included in the itinerary were visits to the Mississippi Museum of Art, the Mississippi Agricultural Museum, and the Governor's Mansion in Jackson; coinciding with the annual Natchez Spring Pilgrimage, the group also visited several plantation homes there. Quilting played a prominent part in the trip, with special visits to the Crossroads Quilters in Port Gibson and quiltmaker Sarah Mary Taylor in Yazoo City. A visit to Mama's Dream World, a museum featuring the complete body of work by the talented needleworker Ethel Wright Mohamed, was followed

F

THE PARDEE COLLECTION MIDWESTERN FOLK & OUTSIDER AR I' P.O. BOX 2926,IOWA CITY,IA 52244 SHERRY PARDEE â&#x20AC;˘ 319-337-2500

Ii

,

1510 S. Congress Austin, TX 78704 512.912.1613 www.yarddog.com

Artist Chuckie Sainte-James Boudrot Burgess Dulaney Sybil Gibson Rev. J.L. Hunter S.L. Jones Reginald Mitchell Royal Robertson Isaac Smith Mary T. Smith Jimmy Lee Sudduth Mose Tolliver Purvis Young and more

Earl Simmons in front of "Earl's Art Shop," his built environment in Bovina

Award-winning quittmaker Hystercine Rankin fright) with Museum member Ruth Strauss at the Mississippi 82 SUMMER 1997 FOLK ART

Cultural Crossroads

by a catfish dinner in Belzoni, the "Catfish Capital of the World."

Local blues musician Brady Roberts entertained the group during dinner.

A day spent in Vicksburg included a tour of the Civil War battlefield and visits to the Attic Gallery, Margaret's Grocery Store (a folk art environment built by the Rev. H.D. Dennis), and Earl's Art Shop(a unique environment created by artist Earl Simmons in the village of Bovina).

The final day of the tour included visits to the home of memory painter Zelle Manning and the studio of Sharon Johnson.

An evening of cocktails at the home of Jean Turner, and dinner at the home of Bill and Isabel McCarty brought the trip to an elegant end. Very special thanks to them for an unforgettable evening of southern hospitality.

• 19th-century box and samples of grain-painted decoration in the collection of the Museum of American Folk Art

The Decorative Finish ecorative painters Rubens Teles and James Adams, coauthors of Folk Finishes: What They Are and How to Create Them (Viking Studio Books, 1994), have made a delightful contribution to the Museum. After generously spending their time and talent painting a full four-wall mural—in the folk tradition—for the Museum's administrative office reception area, they also redid the Museum's Lincoln Square book and gift shop cabinets and counters in a fabulous grain-painted design.

And,as part of the shop's make-ready for new Summer

merchandise, they have just finished sponge-painting the floor.

Teles and Adams receive many commissions from both private and public organizations. Teles, an instructor at the Museum's Folic Art Institute for more than a decade, regularly teaches two fivesession courses—"The Decorative Finish" and "Furniture Decorating Techniques"—and a full-day workshop,"Scene Painting."

These hands-on craft courses are open to the public each semester and will begin again in the Fall.

For information and registration, call the Museum's Folk Art Institute at 212/977-7170.

Dramatic Readings selection of readings from The Story ofthe Vivian Girls in What Is Known as the Realms ofthe Unreal, Henry Darger's epic novel, was presented by the Museum of American Folk Art on Tuesday, February 4, and Monday, March 31,in connection with the exhibition "Henry Darger: The Unreality of Being."

Actors Leigh Armor and Christopher Cappiello —seated on a platform in front of Darger's worktable and typewriter, and surrounded by his stunning watercolors—read nine selections from

the artist's huge manuscript, which numbers more than 15,000 typewritten pages and for which the artworks were created.

Armor and Cappiello held the audience spellbound and provided a small light by which to explore the dark otherworld of Darger's art. Armor is an Equity actor who trained at the National Theater Conservatory, M.F.A. program. Cappiello, membership associate for the Museum,is a graduate of Brown University and has trained at the Circle in the Square Theatre and HB Studio.

D

A

Museum Charlotte Zander SchloB Bonnigheim

Artists, Circus, Clowns Naive Art — Art Brut July to December 1997

HauptstraBe 15, D-74357 B6nnigheim, Germany Tel.07143-4226 Fax.07143-4220 Opening Hours: Tuesday-Sunday 11 a.m. - 3 p.m.

SUMMER 1997 FOLK ART 13

ALICE J. HOFFMAN

MUSEUM OF AMERICAN FOLK ART COLLECTION

4)t - •

Representing over 300 years ofAmerican design,from the late 1600s to the present, the Museum ofAmerican Folk Art CollectionTM brings within reach ofthe public the very best ofthe past to be enjoyedfor generations to come.

Limited Addition New Directions

The Museum welcomes its newest licensees: * The Echo Design Group,Inc. Recognized for excellence, quality, and diversity of design, this company will introduce a collection of scarves for the Museum this Fall. * XPress Corp.The #1 mug company in the United States created a gift-pack set of four mugs, each with a unique quilt image from the Museum's collection, for the May 20 QVC/Country Living Lifestyle program. The set sold out in minutes.

News from Museum Licensees Look for the many new products from our family of licensees, featuring new designs inspired by the Museum's collection. * American Pacific. Cover yourself with stars! Blazing Star, the new edition to the Museum's collection of bedcovers, is now available. This eight-pointed star pattern, created in jewel-tone colors radiating from the center, appears to shimmer, bringing the wonder of starlight into your home. * Hermitage des Artistes. Stars and Stripes forever! We stand and salute Hermitage des Artistes for creating an extraordinary collection of tramp art for the Museum.

Tramp art frames, nesting boxes, mirrors, and shelves with an "Old Glory" finish depicting the Stars and Stripes in red, gold, and blue—each one an all-American tribute to a time-honored craft— can be ordered today.

64 SUMMER 1997 FOLK ART

* Limited Addition. What a balancing act! Uncle Sam on a bicycle and the Archangel Gabriel, two hand-painted metal balance toys, inspired by a whirligig and a weathervane in the Museum's collection, are now available.

Limited Addition has also created decorative accessories for home and office. Look for the handpainted wood Man in a Top Hat with Cane, and the hand-painted wood and metal Bicycle Man— adaptations of a shop figure and a trade sign in the Museum's collection. * Mary Myers Studio. Blessed, bewitched, and befeathered!

Mary Myers has created four new hand-carved, hand-painted, wood nutcrackers inspired by the Museum's Archangel Gabriel weathervane, Witch on a Broomstick whirligig, Cat bootscraper, and Carved Eagle with Outspread Wings, bringing the Museum's nutcracker collection to a total of twelve. Complete your collection by ordering one or all twelve nutcrackers through the Museum's mail-order department.

Special Events

The 1997 Directory of Traditional Crafts. Early American Homes, a magazine dedicated to traditions, period style, architecture, antiques, and history, publishes a juried collection of American traditional crafts each year in its August issue. The directory, the only one of its kind in a national magazine, salutes American craftsmanship. Alice J. Hoffman, the Museum's director of

licensing, was selected by Early American Homes to be one of three judges for this year's directory. Hoffman happily accepted the honor giu4,Myer.Studio and the challenge. She noted that,"Choosing among more than 275 entries was a difficult task given the excellence of the work and the variety of forms, materials, and creativity."

Dear Customer Your purchase of Museumlicensed products directly benefits the exhibition and educational activities of the Museum. Thank you for participating in the Museum's continuing efforts 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,TM please contact us at 212/977-7170.

Family of licensees Abbeville Press(212/888-1969) gift wrap, book/gift tags, and quilt note cube.* American Pacific Enterprises(212/944-6799) quilts, shams, and pillows. Andrews & McMeel (816/932-6700) traditional folk art songbook.* Carvin Folk Art Designs,Inc.(212/7556474)gold-plated and enameled jewelry.* Concord Miniatures(800/888-0936) 1"-scale furniture and accessories.* Danforth Pewterem,Ltd.(800/222-3142) pewter jewelry and accessories, buttons, ornaments, keyrings.* Dynasty Dolls(800/736-4438)collectible porcelain dolls.* The Echo Design Group, Inc.(212/686-8771)scarves.* Enesco Corporation (800/436-3726) decorative home giftware collection. Hermitage des Artistes (212/243-1007)tramp art objects.* Imperial Wallcoverings,Inc.(216/464-3700) wallpaper and borders. James Has-trich (800/9622932) miniature painted furniture reproduc-

Hermitage des Artistes

dons in limited editions.* The Lane Company,Inc., including Lane/Venture and Lane Upholstery (800/447-4700)furniture (case goods, wicker, and upholstered furniture) and mini-chests. Limited Addition (800/2689724)decorative accessories.* Mary Myers Studio (800/829-9603) nutcrackers.* Saunders & Cecil (212/662-7607) paper and stationery products, photo albums, calendars, and journals. Sullins House(219/495-2252) peghook wall plaques; gift, desk, and vanity boxes; decorative minors and fire and dummy boards.* Syratech Corporation (617/5612200)holiday and decorative home accessories. Takashimaya Company,Ltd. (212/350-0550) home furnishings accessories and furniture (available only in Japan). Tyndale, Inc.(312/384-0800)lighting and lampshades. Wild Apple Graphics, Ltd.(800/7568359)fine art reproduction prints and posters.* XPress,Inc.(800/334-0426) mugs. *Available in Museum of American Folk Art Book and Gift Shops.

For mail-order information, contact Beverly McCarthy at 212/977-7170.

Folkwear is Campus Collection's line of 100% cotton T-shirts that feature the original works of outstanding contemporary folk artists.

With more than 30 colorful, expressive designs, Folkwear offers the largest selection of wearable art.

Just call or write for our brochure.

Mose T Woodie Long Howard Finster James Harold Jennings Jimmy Lee Sudduth Sarah Rakes Annie T Brian Dowdall Jerry Coker

Campus Collection P.O. Box 2904 Tuscaloosa, AL 35403 (800) 289-8744 or (205) 758-0678 www.folkwear.com

XM'AMMOW4ir...MMWAVEOW...

Representing the Work of

James A.(Buddy) Snipes

Amos Ferguson

"ADAM and EVE" 1987 16x20

Amos Ferguson, a Former House Painter, has been called the "Picasso of the Bahamas".

He was discovered in 1983, while in his 60's and since then has enjoyed numerous museum and gallery exhibitions in the U.S.A.. Europe, and Japan, as well as several book publications.

Religious and Biblical themes, scenes of island life, birds `N nature are common in his paintings. His subject matter is always friendly and joyous, conveying a feeling of warmth vitality. Amos is an "orginal creator whose imagery style add a brilliant facet to the kaleidoscope of world art."

74,16_10111 .

1..""11 ornremen

SO

.

-11â&#x20AC;˘

...if a

so

Clockwise from left: Smiling Jack, Big Bad Devil with a Gonzilla Dog, Mr. God & the Devil Talking, The Twins, Going to the Gin House.

A dinky little gallery in the

Mayor's Office

dote Tonheutt Jauitie

ecutmod9 Alteknationd goPle uttt Since 1980

Specializing in quality works of art which express JOY in the beauty of God's world, PEACE, GOOD FEELINGS, and the SPIRITUALITY of unique, self-taught artists from around the world.

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Frank Turner

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Hours: by chance or by appointment Also representing: Butch Anthony, John Henry Toney.

CU .Appointment: 914-9919851 gar 914-999-9260

10046 Conway mood f. qouis, LAito. 62124

SUMMER 1997 FOLK ART 65

SUMMER

Jimmy I-ledges Rising Fawn Folk At Art Appraisals _Southern _Self- Taught Art

PROGRAMS

The Museum presents the following programs in conjunction with the exhibition "Old-Time Favorites, New-Time Fashions: Quilt Revival 1910-1950." Programs are free and will be held at the Museum's Eva and Morris Feld Gallery at 2 Lincoln Square, Columbus Avenue between 65th & 66th Streets, New York City, unless otherwise indicated. For more information, please call 212/595-9533.

Curatorial Lecture Thursday,July 17 6:00 P.M. QUILT REVIVAL: 1910-1950 Elizabeth V Warren, curator

Quilt Weekend September 12-13

Thursday Lunchtime Talks 12:00 P.M. July 17

SUNBONNET SUE & YOU

APPLIQUÉ QUILTS

Susie Andersen, Folk Art Institute instructor July 24 COLLECTING QUILTS

Laura Fisher, Laura Fisher Antique Quilts Purvis Young

P.O. Box 286 Lookout Mountain, TM 27250 706-291?-1728

T

paintings by Chancy Kinney, works on paper by "Creative" G.C. DePrie, T.A. Hay & carvings by Minnie & Garland Adkins, Linvel Barker, Minnie Black, Denzil Goodpaster, Edd Lambdin, Tim Lewis, Abraham Lincoln by Charley Kinney 28" x 22" Mixed media on poster board. 1989.

Carl McKenzie, Lonnie & Twyla Money, Earnest Patton, Donny Tolson, & Edgar Tolson.

HACKLEY GALLERY

P.O. Box 217 28 North Main Street Winchester, KY 40392-0217

jk 606.745.4571 66 SUMMER 1997 FOLK ART

Instructor: Fran Phillips Administrative Offices 61 W.62nd Street, 3rd floor Fee: $85; materials fee: $15 Registration is necessary; space is limited. For reservations, please call 212/977-7170 Sew a Sunbonnet Sue appliqué quilt block or wall hanging using one of the most endearing quilt designs of the twentieth century.

August 7 QUILTS OF CONSCIENCE

Lee Kogan, director, Folk Art Institute August 14

HE SOURCE for

All-Day Quilt Workshop Friday,September 12 10:00 A.m.-4:00 P.M.

AFRICAN AMERICAN QUILT TRADITIONS: THE ART OF NARRATIVE QUILTMAKING

Peggie L. Hartwell, Women of Color Quilter's Network Candy Martinez, producer, The Cloth Sings To Me(videotape)

"Remembrance of the Past" Quilt Symposium Saturday,September 13 10:00 A.m.-12:30 P.M. FROM ARTS AND CRAFTS TO ART DECO: THE GREAT AMERICAN QUILT REVIVAL

Elizabeth V. Warren, curator TWENTIETH-CENTURY PATTERN DESIGNERS AND REVIVAL QUILTS

Sharon L. Eisenstat, curator Summer Workshops THE CRIB QUILT PROJECT FOR TEENAGE EXPECTANT MOTHERS

Instructor: Peggie L. Hartwell, Women of Color Quilter's Network Workshops are free of charge and space is limited. For information, please call 212/595-9533.

This program is funded in part by The Hess and Helyn Kline Foundation.

AMISH QUILTS IN THE '20s AND '30s Rachel T. Pellman, author and quilt designer Demonstrations Saturday,September 13 1:30-5:30 P.M. Members of New York metropolitan area quilt guilds will demonstrate quilting techniques, display their quilts, and answer questions.

The Quilt Symposium is supported by a generous gift from Fred,Jeff, and Alan Lowenfels in honor of George F. Shaskan, Jr. Free public programming is made possible in part with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

TRAVELING

EXHIBITIONS

Mark your calendars for the following Museum of American Folk Art exhibitions when they travel to your area during the coming months: May 2—June 27 Quilts from America's Flower Garden Rock County Historical Society Janesville, Wisconsin 608/756-4509 May 11—October 19 The Image Business: Shop and Cigar Store Figures in America Heritage Plantation of Sandwich Sandwich, Massachusetts 508/888-3300 May 17—August 2 Amish Quilts from the Museum of American Folk Art Heritage-HjemkOmst Interpretive Center Moorhead, Minnesota 218/233-5604

June 2—July 28 Quilts Fantastic Skokie Public Library Skokie, Illinois 847/673-7774 July 4—October 1 Norwegian Folk Art: The Migration of a Tradition Norsk Folkemuseum Oslo, Norway (011)47-22-12-37-00 August 16—November 9 Amish Quilts from the Museum of American Folk Art The James A. Michener Art Museum Doylestown, Pennsylvania 215/340-9800

Outside in Harbert RETURNING AUGUST 29 - AUGUST 31, 1997 SATURDAY 10 AM TO 6 PM, SUNDAY 10 AM TO 5 PM JUDITH RACHT GALLERY

For further information, 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, 212/977-7170.

13707 PRAIRIE ROAD, HARBERT, MICHIGAN

OPENING NIGHT PREVIEW PARTY FRIDAY, AUGUST 29, 6 TO 10 PM

ar gcl eL

He Chris Butler Group

OUTSIDERS INSIDE (CHICAGO) AND OUTSIDERS OUTSIDE ( HARBERT) ARE PRODUCED BY JUDITH RACHT GALLERY 13707 PRAIRIE ROAD, HARBERT, MICHIGAN

at Bittersweet Farm

779 E. Main St.(Rt. 1)

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Branford, CT 06405

(1-95, Exit 56)

PLEASE CALL(616)469.1080

(203) 481-1848

www.chrisbutler.com

171111INTAIMII, Contemporary, Self-Taught & Outsider Art

SUMMER 1997 FOLK ART 67

TRUSTEES/DONORS

MUSEUM

OF

AMERICAN

FOLK

ART

BOARD OF TRUSTEES Executive Cottunittee 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 L. John Wilkerson Treasurer Jacqueline Fowler Secretary Anne Hill Blanchard

Members Edward Lee Cave Joyce B. Cowin David L. Davies Samuel Farber Vira Hladun Goldman Susan Gutfreund Kristina Barbara Johnson, Esq. Susan Klein George H. Meyer, Esq. Cyril I. Nelson

Julie K.Palley David C. Walentas

Virginia W.Cochran Country Living The Dietrich American Foundation & H. Richard Dietrich, Jr. William B. Dietrich & William B. Dietrich Foundation Fortress Corporation Jacqueline Fowler Kristina Barbara Johnson, Esq. Susan & Robert E. Klein The LEF Foundation Kiyoko & Nathan Lerner Fred, Jeff,& Alan Lowenfels in honor of George F. Shaskan, Jr. The Magazine Group George H.& Kay Meyer The New York Community Trust The Peter Norton Family Foundation The Pinkerton Foundation Schlumberger Foundation, Inc. Jean S. & Frederic A. Sharf Anonymous

American Folk Art Society David & Didi Barrett Patrick Bell & Edwin Hild Bergen Line, Inc. Ellen Blissman Mr.& Mrs. James A. Block Robert & Kathy Booth Richard Braemer & Amy Finkel Edward J. & Margaret Brown Cigna Joseph & Barbara Cohen Country Home Mr.& Mrs. Edgar M. Cullman Allan & Kendra Daniel Richard M.& Peggy Danziger Michael & Janice Doniger Nancy Druckman Richard C.& Susan B. Ernst Foundation Burton M & Helaine Fendelman Scott & Lauren Fine Jay & Gail Furman Fred & Kathryn Giampietro Peter & Barbara Goodman Warren & Sue Ellen Haber Stephen M. Hill J & H Marsh & McLennan, Inc. Personal Client Services Pepi & Vera Jelinek Allan & Penny Katz Harry Kahn Steven & Helen Kellogg David & Barbara Krashes Jerry & Susan Lauren Mel & Wendy Lavitt Patrick M.& Gloria M. Lonergan Macy's East Maine Community Foundation Michael & Gael Mendelsohn Keith & Lauren Morgan Norwegian Tourist Board John E. Oilman The Overbrook Foundation J. Randall Plummer Daniel & Susan Pollack Polo Ralph Lauren Drs. Jeffrey Pressman & Nancy Kollisch Joseph & Janet Shein Raymond & Linda Simon Louise M.Simone Nell Singer R. Scudder & Helen Smith Richard & Stephanie Solar Spaulding Donald & Rachel Strauber Stanley & Doris Tananbaum Jim & Judy Taylor Peter & Lynn Tishman (continued on page 70)

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

RECENT MAJOR DONORS The Museum of American Folk Art greatly appreciates the generous support of the following friends:

$100,000 and above Estate of Daniel Cowin Mr. & Mrs. Joseph Cullman 3d Lucy C.& Frederick M.Danziger Ralph 0. Esmerian Sam & Betsey Farber Ford Motor Company Estate of Laura Harding Howard and Jean Lipman Foundation, Inc. The Henry Luce Foundation, Inc. Philip Morris Companies Inc. Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in conjunction with Norwegian Visions David C.& Jane Walentas Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund L. John & Barbara Wilkerson Anonymous $50,000—$99,999 The Coca-Cola Company General Cigar Company David L. Davies & Jack Weeden Johnson & Johnson Joseph Martinson Memorial Fund NYNEX Corporation Julie K.& Samuel Palley Barbara and Thomas W.Strauss Fund Anonymous $20,000—$49,999 Arista Records, Inc. Burnett Group Virginia G. Cave Peter M.& Mary Ciccone Mrs. Daniel Cowin Raymond C. & Susan Egan Virginia S. Esmerian Mr.& Mrs. John H. Gutfreund Joan M.& Victor L. Johnson Vira Hladun Goldman National Endowment for the Arts Restaurant Associates Industries, Inc. The Smart Family Foundation Inc. Time Warner Robert N.& Anne Wright Wilson Anonymous $10,000—$19,999 Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. Anne Hill & Edward Vermont Blanchard Bristol-Myers Squibb Company Edward Lee Cave

68 SUMMER 1997 FOLK ART

$4,00049,999 ARTCORP Beard's Fund Michael R. Bloomberg John R. and Dorothy D. Caples Fund Christie's Cravath, Swaine & Moore Department of Cultural Affairs, City of New York Duane, Morris & Heckscher Gallery 721 Gateway 2000 Mr.& Mrs. Ronald S. Lauder The Joe and Emily Lowe Foundation, Inc. MBNA America, N.A. Vincent & Anne Mai Marstrand Foundation Morgan Stanley Foundation New York State Council on the Arts The New York Times Company Foundation Leo & Dorothy Rabkin Marguerite Riordan William D. Rondina The William P. and Gertrude Schweitzer Foundation, Inc. Joseph E. Seagrams & Sons,Inc. George F. & Myra Shaskan Mr.& Mrs. Elliot K. Slade Sanford L. Smith & Associates, Ltd. Peter J. Solomon Sotheby's Lynn Steuer $2,00043,999 ABC. Inc.

OUT POKING AROUND? The 44th Annual Wolfeboro Antiques Fair Friday & Saturday • July 25 & 26 • 10 to 4 Brewster Academy • Wolfeboro, NH NH's oldest antiques fair showcases 75 select exhibitors in room settings and the courtyard overlooking Lake Winnipesaukee. Exhibitors feature rustic & country furniture, garden & architectural elements, folk art, hooked rugs, paintings, quilts, pottery,jewelry, toys, books & more

Always a source for significant buying . ., ',",,:,: .. a • , -, .(,' ,&.,,,4 ,,

., , WILTON ANTIQUES

New England Antiques & Collectibles Festival a show, sale & celebration of old time living

MARKETPLACE SHOWS

Saturday & Sunday • August 2 & 3• 9 to 4 Fairgrounds • Sandwich, NH

September 21 Sunday, 10-5

NH's largest event with over 200 diverse exhibitors, country entertainment, great picking, hay rides, old time demonstrations, vintage car, truck & motorcycle meet

To benefitDrum Hill DAR

Admission $6 - $5 with card or ad For event information & Lakes Region Accomodations New England Antique Show Management 320 Pork Hill Road • Wolfeboro, NH 03894 •603-569-9301

December 7 Sunday, 10-5 A benefit for the John G. Corr Memorial Award Fund

V ERSI ANTIQUES SHOW

Admission $6 - $5 with card or ad

Wilton High School Field House Route 7, Wilton, Connectcut The best buy... The best pickings...

New Hampshire State Armory Canal Street, Manchester, NH (locatedjust off1-293, Exit6)

Wednesday, August 6, 1997 2:00 pm - 9:00 pm Thursday, August 7, 1997 10:00 am - 5:00 pm 72 Prominent Exhibitors offering an exciting mix of formal to folk Free Parking Riverside Cafe Packing & Shipping Visa/MC

Travel Information & Reservations: 800-359-8638 Admission: $8.00

"Antiques Week in New Hampshire" NEISIONali&

Early Buying 8:30-10:00 am $15.00 per person The finest one-day shows in America, featuring130 distinguished dealers showing a wide range of authentic antiques and decorative arts in room settings.

Choice Americana,including country and formal 18th and 19th century furniture, folk art and fine art, prints and maps,ceramics,textiles, silver,jewelry, American Arts and Crafts period and native American arts, is offered.

Managed By Marilyn Gould •

Merritt Parkway: Exit 396 from the west Exit 41 from the east

•

1-95: Exit 15, north 8 miles

•

1-84: Rt. 7, south 12 miles

•

Metro North railroad to Cannondale Station

!P r "' wxj7 o, " Only 50 miles from New York City

MCG Antiques Promotions,Inc. 10 Chicken St., Wilton, Ct. 06897 (203) 762-3525

SUMMER 1997 FOLK ART 69

TRUSTEES/DONORS

Continuedfrom page 68 United States Trust Company of New York Don Walters & Mary Benisek Irwin H.& Elizabeth V. Warren Peter & Leslie Warwick Anonymous 81,00041,999 Alconda-Owsley Foundation Mania Anderson Mr. & Mrs. Thomas Block Marvin & Lois P. Broder Diana D. Brooks Lawrence & Ann Buttenwieser Carillon Importers Inc. Cirker's Moving & Storage Co., Inc. The Coach Dairy Goat Farm Liz Claiborne Foundation Katie Cochran & Michael G. Allen Conde Nast Publications Lewis B. & Dorothy Cullman Cullman & Kravis, Inc. Marion Dailey Michael Del Castello Derrel B. DePasse Don & Marian DeWitt Mr. & Mrs. Charles Diker The Echo Design Group, Inc. Mr.& Mrs. Alvin H. Einbender Theodore & Sharon Eisenstat Epstein Philanthropies Mr.& Mrs. Anthony Evnin Fairfield Processing Corporation Mr. & Mrs. Bruce Geismar The Howard Gilman Foundation, Inc. Dr. Kurt A. Gitter & Ms. Alice Yelen Eric J. & Anne Gleacher Barbara Goldsmith Barbara L. Gordon Baron J. & Ellin Gordon Robert M.Greenberg Stanley & Marcia Greenberg Bonnie Grossman Anne Groves Mr. and Mrs. James Harithas Marion Harris & Dr. Jerry Rosenfeld Robert F. Hemphill, Jr. Ellen E. Howe Robert J. & Fern K. Hurst Sandra Jaffe Linda E. Johnson Harvey & Isobel Kahn Maurice C.& Charmaine Kaplan Diane D. Kern The Hess and Helyn Kline Foundation Robert A. Landau Mark & Taryn Leavitt Diana Lee in memory of Seymour Margulies Fred Leighton Barbara S. Levinson Peter & Nadine Levy Lynn M. Lorwin Dan W.Lufkin & Silvia Kramer Judith McGrath Christopher & Linda Mayer The Helen R.& Harold C. Mayer Foundation Robert & Meryl Meltzer Cyril I. Nelson Anthony J. Petullo Guy Peyrelongue Mortimer & Eugenia Propp Ricco/Maresca Gallery

70 SUMMER 1997 FOLK ART

MUSEUM

OF

AMERICAN

Betty Ring H. Marshall Schwarz Stephen Score George & Susan Soros Mr.& Mrs. Stanley G. Mortimer, III Oscar de la Renta David & Ellen Stein Patricia A.& Robert C. Stempel Maureen Taylor David Teiger Tiffany & Company G. Marc Whitehead Susan Yecies Anonymous $5004999 Joe C. Adams Richard C.& Ingrid Anderson R. Randolph Apgar & Allen Black James & Deborah Ash The Bachmann Foundation, Inc. Frank & June Barsalona Henry Barth Dr. & Mrs. Alex Berenstein Bergdorf Goodman The Bibelot Shops Peter & Lynn Bienstock Peter & Helen Bing Jeffrey & Tina Bolton Joseph & Joan Boyle Gale Meltzer Brudner Betty W.Johnson & Douglas F. Bushnell Robert T. Cargo Cavin-Morris Gallery Suzanne Cole Mr.& Mrs. Stephen H. Cooper Judy Cowen Susan R. Cullman Aaron & Judy Daniels Keith De Lellis Alvin & Davida Deutsch Lynne W.Doss Howard Drubner Arnold & Debbie Dunn Ross & Gladys Faires Frank & Fran Frawley Ken & Brenda Fritz Galerie Heike Curtze Daniel M. Gantt William L.& Mildred Gladstone Harriet & Jonathan Goldstein Howard M.Graff Marilyn A. Green Peter Greenwald & Nancy Hoffman Grey Advertising T. Marshall Hahn, Jr. Cordelia Hamilton Robert & Elizabeth Harleman Mark & Pria Harmon Brian C.& Ellen Harris Audrey B. Heckler Herbert W. Hemphill, Jr. Robert L.& Marjorie Hirschhorn Leonard & Arlene Hochman Carter Houck Imperial Wallcoverings, Inc. Laura N.& Theodore J. Israel Guy Johnson Robert J. Kahn Cathy M. Kaplan Fran Kaufman & Robert C. Rosenberg

FOLK

ART

Mary Kettaneh Jonathan & Jacqueline King Barbara S. Klinger Mr.& Mrs. Theodore A. Kurz Evelyn & Leonard A. Lauder James & Frances Lieu Monica Longworth & Michael F. Coyne Mimi Livingston Ian W. MacLean Earle & Carol Mack Richard & Gloria Manney Virginia Marx Grete Meilman Robert & Joyce Menschel Evelyn S. Meyer Timothy & Virginia Millhiser Ira M. Millstein Museums New York Ann & Walter Nathan Victor & Susan Niederhoffer Mr. & Mrs. Bruce Newman Paul L.& Nancy Oppenheimer Burton W.Pearl, MD William & Terry Pelster The Perrier Group of America Terry R. Pillow Mr.& Mrs. F.F. Randolph, Jr. Mr.& Mrs. Milton S. Rattner Irene Reichert John & Margaret Robson Mr. & Mrs. Peter C. Rockefeller Roger & Alyce Rose Mr. & Mrs. Winthrop Rutherford, Jr. Selig D. Sacks Merilyn Sandin-Zarlengo Judy A. Saslow Diane H. Schafer Paul & Penelope Schindler Richard J. & Sheila Schwartz Mrs. Stewart Seidman Arthur & Suzanne Shawe Ronald K. & June Shelp Bruce B. Shelton Cecille Barger & Myron Benit Shure Randy Siegel Joel & Susan Simon John & Stephanie Smither Geoffrey A.& Elizabeth A. Stern Victor & Carol Millsom Studer Myles & Roberta Tanenbaum James Adams & Ruben Teles Donald & Barbara Tober Mr.& Mrs. Raymond S. Troubh Anne Vanderwarker Karel F. Wahrsager Clifford & Gayle Wallach Bennett & Judie Weinstock Anne G. Wesson Jane Q. Wirtz Jon & Rebecca Zoler

TRUSTEES

DONORS

MUSEUM

OF

AMERICAN

FOLK

ART

RECENT DONORS TO THE COLLECTIONS Gifts James Benson Roger Cardinal David L. Davies Ralph & Eva Fasanella Jacqueline Fowler Louise E. Francke Edwin F. Gamble Ruth 0. Gildesgame Ellin & Baron J. Gordon T. Marshall Hahn, Jr.

JEAN LIPMAN FELLOWS Co-Chairmen Keith & Lauren Morgan Don Walters & Mary Benisek Founding Members Mama Anderson David & Didi Barrett Patrick Bell & Edwin Hild Robert & Kathy Booth Richard Braemer & Amy Finkel Lois P. Broder Edward J. & Margaret Brown Virginia G. Cave Allan & Kendra Daniel Michael Del Castello Michael & Janice Doniger

Cordelia Hamilton Marion Harris & Dr. Jerry Rosenfeld Herbert W. Hemphill, Jr. Evelyn & Magdalena Houlroyd Kiyoko & Nathan Lerner Jean Lipman Frances Sirota & Paul Martinson Gael Mendelsohn Holly Metz Steven J. Michaan Joy Moos

Shari Cavin & Randall Morris Museum of Modern Art from the collection of Gordon & Nina Bunshaft Margery Nathanson Cyril I. Nelson Leo & Dorothy Rabkin Mr.& Mrs. F.F. Randolph, Jr. Martin E. Segal Betty Sterling Leslie Sweedler Agnes Lester Wade

Nancy Druckman Scott & Lauren Fine Jay & Gail Furman Wendell Garrett Fred Giampietro Peter & Barbara Goodman Barbara L. Gordon Howard M. Graff Bonnie Grossman Anne Groves Warren & Sue Ellen Haber Pepi & Vera Jelinek Linda E. Johnson Harvey Kahn Allan Katz Steven & Helen Kellogg

David & Barbara Krashes Jerry & Susan Lauren Patrick M.& Gloria M.Lonergan Frank Maresca Gael Mendelsohn John E. Oilman J. Randall Plummer Drs. Jeffrey Pressman & Nancy Kollisch Leo & Dorothy Rabkin Betty Ring Marguerite Riordan Stephen Score Jean S. & Frederic A. Sharf Joseph & Janet Shein Raymond & Linda Simon

Susan Yecies Shelly Zegart Bequests Mildred Hart Bailey Trust Laura Harding Anne S. Marsh

R. Scudder & Helen Smith Richard & Stephanie Solar Lynn Steuer Donald & Rachel Strauber Stanley & Doris Tananbaum Jim & Judy Taylor David Teiger Sin von Reis Irwin H.& Elizabeth V. Warren Peter & Leslie Warwick G. Marc Whitehead Susan Yecies

VVVV 01 51'....ON°.:

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.

U

DISCOVER the largest collection • •

•

W HoL ▪ MAckEREL • Folk Art S .

"NhAra,

Scotiar\

s • b68 MAIN a MARIE BAN/ FlisToRic PRopERliEs HAUFA-b NoVA ScollA CANADA 902-624-12B8

of American Folk Art prints available today. Magnificent works of art from leading museums and prestigious private collections.

Charming portraits, colorful landscapes and still-lifes.

Meticulously reproduced rare samplers and quilts. Over 150 outstanding American Folk Art prints beautifully illustrated in our new full color catalog.

SEND ONLY SIX-DOLLARS

HEDGEROW HOUSE 6401 East Rogers Circle•Boca Raton, Florida 33487-2647 Tel(561)998-0756 • Fax (561)998-0763

e-mail: whomac@auracom.com

me•NN'eenW• SUMMER 1997 FOLK ART 71

MAIN STREET ANTIQUES and ART Colleen and Louis Picek Folk Art and Country Americana (319) 643-2065 110 West Main, Box 340 West Branch, Iowa 52358

â&#x20AC;˘%$

On Interstate 80

Send a self-addressed stamped envelope for our monthly Folk-Art and Americana price list

INDEX

TO

Always seeking the unusual, Carmen Miranda dolls to watch gear lamps!

ADVERTISERS

American Pie 26 American Primitive Gallery 8 19 The Ames Gallery 4 Antique Associates Art/Quilt Magazine 56 Bingham & Vance 50 20 Blue Spiral 1 Anne Bourassa 61 The Chris Butler Group 67 65 Campus Collection 13 Robert Cargo Folk Art Gallery 53 Caskey-Lees Cavin-Morris Gallery 9 H.L. Chalfant Antiques 28 Christie's 10 Country Living Inside Back Cover Epstein/Powell 59 Craig Farrow 56 3 Fleisher/Oilman Gallery Galerie Bonheur 65 The Gallery at Studio B 7 12 Sidney Gecker Giampietro Back Cover

72 SUMMER 1997 FOLK ART

Gilley's Gallery Graves' Country Gallery & Antiques Anton Haardt Gallery Hacldey Gallery Carl Hammer Gallery James Hastrich Hedgerow House John C. Hill Hustontown Kentucky Folk Art Center, Inc. ICnoke Galleries The LaRoche Collection MCG Antiques Promotions, Inc. Main Street Antiques and Art Mayor's Office Frank J. Miele Gallery Steve Miller The Modern Primitive Gallery Museum Charlotte Zander New England Antique Show Management The Pardee Collection William Peltier Jay Potter

27 24 16 66 2 58 71 58 19 54 14 23 69 72 65 22 1 15 63 69 62 14 28

25 Pottery Plus 67 Judith Racht Gallery Inside Front Cover Ricco/Maresca Gallery Rising Fawn Folk Art 66 69 Riverside Antiques Show 54 Rocky Mountain Quilts 22 Rosehips Gallery 26 Shelton Gallery and Frame 12 John Sideli 51 Steve Slotin 52 Sanford L. Smith & Associates Southern Folk Pottery Collectors Society 17 54 Southern Vision's Pottery and Folk Art 57 Jef Steingrebe 55 Kimball M. Sterling, Inc. 56 Barbara Strawser 60 Wanda's Quilts 25 Weathervane Folk Art Gallery 27 Marcia Weber/Art Objects 21 David Wheatcroft 71 Wholly Mackerel 62 Yard Dog 16 Ginger Young Gallery

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