Folk Art (Spring 2003)

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gallery 529 west 20th street 3rd floor new york city 10011 212.627.4819 riccomaresca.com

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BISON Exceptionally rare bison weathervane made by a blacksmith in Jackson Hole, Wyoming,ca: 1900, cedar construction with the original pitted and rusted hand forged iron horns and tail, 23"length x 13" height. This weathervane was found on an old bunkhouse and has been in my collection for twenty years.

17 East 96th Street, New York, New York 10128 Telephone:(212)348-5219, Fax:(212)427-4278, E-mail: sharksm@earthlink.net Gallery hours are from 1:00 pm until 6:00 pm,Tuesday through Saturday.

Other hours are available by appointment.

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DAVID WHEATCROFT Antiques 220 East Main Street, Westborough, MA 01581 • Tel:(508)366-1723

Visit our website at: davidwheatcroft.com

JAMES CASTLE

1900-1977

Untitled, not dated found paper, soot, 7" x S'.

J CRIST GALLERY AND ART SERVICES

The Belgravia Building 465 West Main Street Boise, Idaho 83702 Phone 208 336 2671 Fax 336 5615 Electronic Mail art@jcrist.com

3 Crist is the primary representative for the work of James Castle

Trotta-Bono Antique Native American Art

Luigi B. Pellettieri

Powder Horn Mic-Mac / Penobscot Maine, Early 19th C. Pub.: Folk Art of Early America, The Engraved Powder Horn, pp. 212-213.

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By Appointment: (914) 528-6604 • P.O. Box 34 • Shrub Oak, New York 10588 • email: tb788183(a)aol.com We specialize in collection formation and development. We are actively purchasing fine Native American Art.

FURNITURE

ART

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utstanding Chippendale carved

cherrywood two part secretary desk, having a scrolled pediment with rosette carved terminals and turned finials, above two inset paneled doors concealing a divided and shelved interior, above a slant lid base with drawers and cubbies in the interior, above three blocked end reverse serpentine drawers continuing to blocked conforming ogee fee with gadrooned base molding. Old dry finish. Found in the Northampton area of Massachusetts.

Connecticut River Valley, circa 1780-1800.

93" high, 42" wide, 19" deep, 10" deep top

Specialists in American Federal Furniture for over 30 years.

Thomas Schwenke Inc. 7.-----IN ,,x2,r'e '- Hiluili,_ 4,.,:?.., ,,,,,_. mew NM! 1P

American Federal Furniture

50 Main Street North, Woodbury, CT 06798 Tel.(203)266-0303 Fax (203) 266-0707 www.schwenke.com

WALTERS BENISEK ART & ANTIQUES ONE AMBER LANE • NORTHAMPTON • MASSACHUSETTS • 01060 • • ( 4 1 3) 5 8 6 • 3 9 0 9 • • DON WALTERS • MARY BENISEK

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FOLK ART VOLUME 28, NUMBER I / SPRING 2003

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Cover: Detail ofDRAWING,EXOTIC BIRD AND CITY / attributed to Abraham W. Heebner(1802-1877)/ Worcester Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania/1834/watercolor and ink on paper!9 x8'/Schwenkfelder Library and Heritage Center Collection

Folk Art is published four times a year by the American Folk Art Museum.

The museum's mailing address is 1414 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 101319-2514, 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 $8.00. Published and copyright 2003 by the American Folk Art Museum,45 West 53rd Street, New York, NY 10019. 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 American Folk Art Museum. 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 to the museum's mailing address at 1414 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10019-2514, 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 offolk art and it is a violation of its principles to be involved in or to appear to be involved in the sale of works of art. For this reason, the museum will not knowingly accept advertisements for Folk Art that illustrate or describe objects that have been exhibited at the museum within one year of placing an advertisement.

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FRAKTUR TREASURES FROM THE SCHWENKFELDER LIBRARY AND HERITAGE CENTER Deborah M. Rebuck and Candace Kintzer Perry

30

TOKENS OF REMEMBRANCE:TWO REDISCOVERED PORTRAITS

BY ERASTUS SALISBURY FIELD Robert P. Emlen

38

THE HIGHWAYMEN:FAST TIMES AND FAST PAINTING Gary Monroe

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EDITOR'S COLUMN

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DIRECTOR'S LETTER

15

MINIATURES

20

MUSEUM HOURS AND ADMISSIONS

22

TRAVELING EXHIBITIONS

24

SPECIAL EVENT—SAVE THE DATE

25

BOOKS OF INTEREST

26

MUSEUM REPRODUCTIONS PROGRAM

59

WINTER PROGRAMS

60

MUSEUM NEWS

64

TRUSTEES/DONORS

74

OBITUARIES

75

INDEX TO ADVERTISERS

80

SPRING 2003 FOLK ART 7

EDITOR'S

COLUMN

ROSEMARY GABRIEL

wo new exciting exhibitions opened at the museum in February—"St. Adolf-Giant-Creation: The Art of Adolf Wolfli" and "Fralctur Treasures from the Schwenkfelder Library and Heritage Center." If you haven't yet seen these wonderful presentations, take a look at our last issue (Winter 2002/2003)for a preview of"The Art of Adolf Wolfli" and at this issue for a sampling of"Fralctur Treasures." In their essay, Deborah M.Rebuck, guest curator of the fraktur exhibition, and Candace Kintzner Perry, curator of collections for the Schwenkfelder Library and Heritage Center, introduce us to the Schwenkfelders and the art that grew out of their religious convictions and artistic aesthetic. Starting on page 30, they outline for us the origins of this southeastern Pennsylvania group, and the influences that informed their beautiful, and sometimes quite fanciful, paintings and documents.

As we leave the bright, cheerful colors of the Schwenkfelders, we come upon the totally engaging but sober portraits of two young Baptist couples who embarked on a life of Christian missionary service in China."Tokens of Remembrance: Two Rediscovered Portraits by Erastus Salisbury Field," by Robert P. Emlen, university curator at Brown University, is a wellresearched, thoughtful, and touching essay, about two portraits given to Brown by descendents of the sitters, and two portraits in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts in Springfield, Massachusetts. This story begins on page 38.

Our visual journey has taken us from warm and cheerful to sober and earthy, and we land, in our third essay, on just plain "knockout." The palette employed by the Highwaymen,a group UNTITLED/ Fort Pierce, Florida / n.d./ Harold Newton /oil on cardof young,black self-taught board/20 x 16"/collection of Geoff and Patti Cook painters from in and around Fort Pierce, Florida, is simply dazzling. Starting on page 46, Gary Monroe, author of The Highwaymen: Florida's African-American Landscape Painters (University Press of Florida, 2001),tells a fascinating story of the prolific output of more than two dozen young men (and at least one woman)who,in the 1950s and 60s, painted thousands of idealized scenes of the Sunshine State and sold them out of the trunks of their cars—a very good read.

I hope you enjoy this issue of Folk Art as much as we did putting it together.

On behalf of the museum,I want to thank everyone who joined us at TAAS(The American Antiques Show)and at the Opening Night Benefit Preview of the Outsider Art Fair. We will have a full report on these and other museum programs and events in the next issue. Until then, have a lovely spring.

I

AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM PUBLICATIONS/FOUL ART Rosemary Gabriel Director ofPublications/Editor and Publisher Tanya Heinrich Exhibition Catalog and Book Editor Katharine Clark Production Editor Vanessa Davis Editorial Assistant Erikka V. Haa Copy Editor Jeffrey Kibler, The Magazine Group,Inc. Design Eleanor Garlow Advertising Sales Craftsmen Litho Printers Administration Gerard C. WertIcin Director Susan Conlon Assistant to the Director Linda Dunne ChiefAdministrative Officer Robin A. Schlinger ChiefFinancial Officer Madhukar Balsara Assistant Controller Angela Lam Accountant Irene Kreny Accounts Payable Associate Robert J. Saracena Director ofFacilities George Y. Wang Director ofInformation Technology Wendy Barbee Manager of Visitor Services Anthony Crawford Assistant Manager of Visitor Services Michele Sabatiele Visitor Services Assistant Daniel Rodriguez Office Services Coordinator Beverly McCarthy Mail Order/Reception Katya Ullman Administrative Assistant/Reception Collections & Exhibitions Stacy C. Hollander Senior Curator and Director ofExhibitions Brooke Davis Anderson Director and Curator of The Contemporary Center Celene Ryan Curatorial Assistant Ann-Marie Reilly ChiefRegistrar and Director ofExhibition Production Judith Gluck Steinberg Director of Traveling Exhibitions Elizabeth V. Warren Consulting Curator Education Diana Schlesinger Director ofEducation Rebecca Hayes Manager ofSchool and Docent Programs Lee Kogan Director, Folk Art Institute/Curator ofSpecial Projects for The Contemporary Center Laura Tilden Education Assistant Departments Cheryl Aldridge Director ofDevelopment Diana DeJesus-Medina Director of Corporate Development Beth Bergin Membership Director Suzatmah Kellner Membership Associate Lauren Potters Membership Associate Danelsi De La Cruz Membership Assistant Wendy Barreto Membership Clerk Susan Flamm Public Relations Director Monique A. Brizz-Walker Director ofSpecial Events Katie Hush Special Events Coordinator Alice J. Hoffman Director ofLicensing/Executive Director of The American Antiques Show Marie S. DiManno Director ofMuseum Shops Richard Ho Manager ofInformation Systems, Retail Operations Janey Fire Director ofPhotographic Services James Mitchell Librarian Jane Lanes Director of Volunteer Services Eva and Morris Feld Sellery Staff Dale Gregory Gallery Director Joan Sullivan Assistant Gallery Director Ursula Morillo Weekend Gallery Manager Kenneth R. Bing Security Bienvenido Medina Security Treenia Thompson Security Museum Shops Staff Managers: Dorothy Gargiulo, Louise B. Sheets, Marion Whitley; Book Buyer: Evelyn R. Gurney; Staff: Yan Chen, Michael Koh,Sandy B. Yun; Volunteers: Angela Clair, Millie Gladstone, Elayne Home,Elizabeth Howe, Judy Kenyon, Arlene Luden, Nancy Mayer,Judy Rich, Frances Rojack, Phyllis Selnick, Eugene P. Sheehy American Folk Art Museum Book and Gift Shops 45 West 53rd Street New York, NY 10019 212/265-1040,ext. 124 Two Lincoln Square(Columbus Avenue between 65th and 66th Streets) New York, NY 10023 212/595-9533,ext. 26 Miffing Address American Folk Art Museum 1414 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10019-2514 212/977-7170, Fax 212/977-8134, http://www.follcartmuseum.org info@folkartmuseum.org

8

SPRING 2003 FOLK ART

Golden Grizzly Bear: Over door carving from the Native Sons of the Golden West Fraternal Lodge, Santa Rosa California chapter. Carved and painted redwood and oak Circa 1880 31" x 15"

Allan & Penny Katz By Appointment 25 Old Still Road Woodbridge, CT 06525 Tel.(203) 393-9356 folkkatz@optonline.net

Americana

ALLAN KATZ

EDDIE ARNING

LINDSAY GALLERY 986 North High St. Columbus, OH 43201 614-291-1973 email: lindsaygallery@hotmail.com www.lincisaygallery.com

Remembrance and Ritual Jewish Folk Artists of Our Time

May 8- June 10, 2003

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Malcah Zeldis

SEDER

1995 24 x 36 oil on canvas

ANDREW EDI IM GALLERY 529 West 20th St 6th floor NYC 10011 212-206-9723 edlingallery.corn Albert Hoffman TEN COMMANDMENTS c 1971 41.5 x 16 x6.5 oak

American Folk Art Sidney Gecker

FIVE COLOR RAINBOW SPATTERWARE PITCHER 10%" HIGH

RARE SPATTERWARE CHILD TEA SET IN THREE COLOR RAINBOW PATTERN

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

JOANN GREEN AVECA\A

RARE AND IMPORTANT STONEWARE CROCK depicting an eagle standing on a shield. The decoration may be a reflection of patriotism of the end of the civil war made by WM. A MacQuoid/New York/Little West 12th St. The first of the potters marks in the time period 1863-79.

CAYUGA, NY

315.497.9877

AMOMk OLLOE 1401PE ANTIQUES, INC_

Patrick Bell / Edwin HiId P.O. Box 718, New Hope, PA 18938-0718

by appointment 215-297-0200 fax: 215-297-0300 e-mail: info@oldehope.com www.oldehope.com

Trade Sign "A.Smith's Inn & Store" Addison, Vermont, c.1824 possibly by Sheldon Peck (1797-1868) 69 1/2" x 39 1/4" Illustrated: Always in Season: Folk Art and Traditional Culture in Vermont, pg.115.

DIRECTOR'S

LETTER

GERARD C. WERTKIN

avid L. Davies joined the Board of Trustees of the American Folk Art Museum in 1990, but his interest in the museum dates back much farther. His name appears as a benefactor of the institution in a list published in volume 1 of this magazine in 1972, when it was still an occasional newsletter called The Clarion. Davies continues to be a mainstay of the Board's leadership to this day, three decades after he first became an enthusiastic supporter of the museum and its mission.

David Davies was a great friend of Herbert W.Hemphill Jr.'s, one of the museum's foundBICYCLE, LIVERY, CARRIAGE, ing trustees and its first curator. Widely known AND PAINT SHOP TRADE SIGN / Amede T. Thibault as a dedicated, even obsessive collector, 11565-1961)/ St. Albans, Hemphill was a major influence on Davies— Franklin County, Vermont / but Davies soon established a reputation for the 1895-1905/ paint on laminated wood with Columbia independence and excellence of his own eye. high-wheel bicycle /84 / 66 x Always willing to share his collection, he has 36"/ Collection American Folk been a frequent lender to exhibitions organized Art Museum, gift of David L. Davies! 1983.24.1 by the museum throughout the years. His collection has also been featured in Architectural Digest and other publications.

The late Robert Bishop, my predecessor as director of the museum, with whom Davies forged a close friendship, encouraged his deepening interest in the museum. During the period of Davies' trusteeship and before, he has demonstrated a special commitment to the development of this institution's permanent collection, both as a donor and as an active member of the Collections Committee.

Among the truly noteworthy works of art given to the museum by Davies is the now famous Bicycle, Livery, Carriage, and Paint Shop Trade Sign (1895-1905)

by Amedd T. Thibault of St. Albans, Vermont. Permanently installed in the museum's Cullman/Danziger Family Atrium,the powerful and iconic figure of a man riding a high-wheel bicycle is one of the most popular—and eye-catching—objects on display in the museum' new building. Another wonderful feature of the new American Folk Art Museum 1909 HUPMOBILE WEATHERVANE/ artist unidentified / New York / c. 1909/ is the David L. Davies Sculpture Wall. copper with traces of gold leaf / 31 The wall, which is dominated by the 50%,< 13./4" / Collection American Folk museum's outstanding collection of Art Museum, promised gift of David L. weathervanes, pays special tribute to one Davies!P18.2000.1 of Davies' enduring interests. Indeed, Davies formed one of the most significant collections of American weathervanes ever assembled,including the rare 1909 Hupmobile, now a promised gift to the museum.

Although he is often associated with folk sculpture, David Davies has also collected paintings, and he has generously committed a diverse

THE ARTIST AND HIS MODEL / Morris Hirshfield (1876-1946)/ Brooklyn! 1945!oil on canvas!

44 34"/ Collection American Folk Art Museum, gift of David L. Davies in honor of Robert Bishop / 2002.23.1 / Robert and Gail Rentzer for Estate of Morris Hirshfield, Licensed by VAGA, New York, N.Y.

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,....111,1%,.11%11;111,L,111-1-41,.:0; gathering of important twentieth-century works to the museum. Of these, none is greater than Morris Hirshfield's The Artist and His Model, now on view in the Cullman/Danziger Family Atrium. Painted in 1945 just months before the artist's death, this work of art is generally considered Hirshfield's masterpiece. A tour de force of dazzling pattern, rich color, and bold composition, the painting represents a summation of the artist's life and work. Robert Bishop encouraged its purchase by Davies more than a decade ago. It is therefore with great pleasure and the most profound appreciation that I announce David Davies' magnificent gift to the museum of this major work of art. I know it will delight visitors to the museum for generations to come and am deeply gratified that it has found a permanent home at the American Folk Art Museum.

The reception of The Artist and His Model into the museum's collection crowns a period of exceptional growth of the institution's holdings. As I have previously observed, these developments are as significant to our efforts as was the completion of our award-winning building.

With more to offer its audiences than ever before, the American Folk Art Museum is an exciting place to visit. I invite you to come to the museum often, and to take part in the rich round of programming being planned for you. Your membership dollars help sustain these varied, entertaining, and instructive programs. Thank you kindly for your generous support.*

SPRING 2003 FOLK ART 15

LAURA FISHER ANTIQUE QUILTS & AMERICANA 1050 SECOND AVENUE, GALLERY 84 (Between 55-56th Sts.) NEW YORK, NY 10022

LFAntiqueQuilts@aol.com

New York City's broadest selection of antique quilts, hooked rugs, rag carpet, coverlets, paisleys, Navajos, Beacons, home furnishings and American folk art.

EAGLE AND STARS ALBUM QUILT TOP, c. 1850, mid Atlantic region.

Thirty stars above the eagle, perhaps to symbolize Wisconsin statehood, amid classic appliqué album blocks, bordered with birds on a floral vine.

To be published QUILTS 2004 (Barnes & Noble).

CHARLTON DSHAMERICAN M

HANDMADE WHIRLIGIG American, early 20'century Ex: Herbert Hemphill 24 inches high

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Spec' zing in folk art & material culture of the Southern backcountry.

125 Furman Ave

16 SPRING 2003 FOLK ART

e Asheville, North Carolina 28801 (828) 251-1904 www.charttonbradsher.com

Clifford A.Wallach Tramp Art Specializing in fine Folk Art and Americana in rare and unusual forms.

TRAMP ART MEMORIAL WALL PIECE WITH CARVED AND PAINTED CIVIL WAR SOLDIER AND RESTING LAMBS Signed Rodney H. Circa 1870-1880 Ex Collection Ralph 0. Esmerian

81 Washington Street Suite 7J Brooklyn, NY 11201 Tel 718.596.5325 Internet. www.trampart.com

9rayes'oup1) Gallery & Antiques

Proudly Introduces

Marion Crow of

Maryland Amish Spring

Harbor Town

(Framed in Lacewood)

(Framed in Purpleheart)

15 North Cherokee Lane •Lodi, California 95240•Phone(209)368-5740•(209)473-7089 www.gravescountry.com email: graves@gravescountry.corn

CHERRY GALLERY Antiques &Art

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Native American

Yellow birch root base table with patterned maple and cherry top and yellow birch twig apron Made by Lee Fountain (1869-1941) of Wells, New York, circa 1925 Root base tables of yellow birch were one of this Adirondack craftsman's signature pieces 44 016 "

Jell Cherry 4 Sti,,•ins Mt. Lane

518 398-7531

18 SPRING 2003 FOLK ART

Kass Hogan Pine Plain: NY

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Jeff R. Bridgman American Antiques

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40" .

One of few marquetry tall case clocks known to exist. The outstanding case is of fir, redwood, and walnut and retains its original surface. Behind the frosted glass door is a cast aluminum face with hand-etched decoration and brass numerals. The works are brass and from them hang a huge, hand-hammered, brass pendulum and a single weight.

The clock was purchased from a home in Orange, NY, and dates to the arts and crafts movement (circa 1910-1920). 25" wide x 78" tall x 15" deep.

Folk Art• Early American Stars & Stripes • Painted American Furniture • Folk Style Paintings

MINIA TURES

THE

COMPILED BY VANESSA DAVIS

AMES GALLERY fs11:1;1

Early handmade Americana including quilts, carved canes,tramp art and whimseys.

Also exceptional contemporary self-taught, naive, visionary, and outsider art.

Bonnie Grossman, Director 2661 Cedar St., Berkeley, CA 94708 Tel 510/845-4949 Fax 510/845-6219 Email info©amesgallery.com www.amesgallery.com

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Carpets of Andalusia Carpets woven in Spain during the 15th and 16th centuries reflected multicultural influences because of the great political transition the country was going through at the time. Muslim weavers working under Christian rule incorporated traditional Islamic motifs, such as Arabic script and intricate geometry, as well as Christian heraldic emblems and coats of arms. Jewish dyers contributed by infusing the carpets with their signature brilliant colors. The influences of other cultures can also be found in the imagery of Spanish carpets—Roman,Visigothic, and traditional Iberian motifs. On March 8 the Textile Museum (202/667-0441)in Washington, D.C., presents the first exhibition of their collection of Spanish rugs in more than 10 years. The museum's collection of these rugs is the most comprehensive in the world, and will be on view until Aug. 10. For more information,

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HAWAIIAN QUILT / artist unknown / Hawaii / c. 1900/ 75/ 1 2 x 75"/ The Shelburne Museum

Tramp Art Twelve Drawer Box,chip carved cigar boxes, I 1.25 x 7 x 7"

20 SPRING 2003 FOLK ART

please call the museum or visit its website, www.textile museum.org.

Art of the Needle The Shelburne Museum (802/985-3346)in Shelburne, Vt., held America's first major exhibition of textiles in 1954, and

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RUG/ artist unknown /16th century / collection of the Textile Museum / acquired by George Hewitt Myers, 1926 / R44.3.2

possesses a renowned quilt collection of more than 30 years in the making. A giant survey of 18th-, 19th-, and early 20thcentury quilts—the museum's largest exhibition yet—takes place from May 17 until Oct. 26.

"Art of the Needle: 100 Masterpiece Quilts from the Shelburne Museum" includes well-known quilt works,recent acquisitions, and 40 quilts never before on view. The quilts are organized into 10 categories that encompass almost every imaginable quilt technique. Extensive programming is planned in conjunction with this exhibition. For more information, please call the museum or visit its website, www.shelbuniemuseum.org.

Collection of Carvings by 19th Century Folk Carver Franz Schwenzer Overmantle and framed panels, depicting scenes from the artist's everyday life, including local watering hole and domestic scenarios. Relief carved in poplar with old surface.

Signed and dated Allentown, PA, 1875.

Dimensions: Overmantle — 106 72 long, 141/2 deep, 26" at highest point; Panels — 28" wide, 24" high.

— details of panels and overmantle below —

-.4111P

Thurston Nichols American Antiques LLC

EXHIBITING: Chester County

Brandywine River Museum

522 Twin Ponds Rd, Breinigsville, PA 18031

Historical Society Antiques Show

Antiques Show

phone: 610.395.5154 fax: 610.395.3679

March 7-9, 2003

May 23-26, 2003

www.antiques101.com

QVC Studio Park, West Chester, PA

Chadds Ford, PA

ANNOUNCEMENT

MINIATURES

Museum Hours and Admissions History Through Mayelica AMERICAN

MUSEUM

American Folk Art Museum 45 West 53rd Street New York, NY 10019 Phone: 212/265-1040 Admission: Adults

$9

Students

$7

Seniors

$7

Children under 12

Free

Members

Free

Friday evening Free to all

6:00-8:00 PM

Museum Hours: Tuesday-Sunday

10:00 AM-6:00 PM

Friday

10:00 Am-8:00 PM

Monday

Closed

Shop Hours: Daily

10:00 Am-6:00 PM

Friday

10:00 AM-8:00 PM

American Folk Art Museum Eva and Morris Feld Gallery Two Lincoln Square Columbus Avenue Between 65th and 66th Streets New York, NY 10023 Phone: 212/595-9533 Admission: All

Iberian culture and history is Mediterranean and Spain to Mexexplored through another native ico, and reveals the cultural, art formâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;mayolicaâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;in an exhisocial, and economic influences bition at the Museum ofInternareflected in the objects as well as tional Folk Art at the Museum of the aesthetic qualities within the New Mexico(505/476art form. In addition to the 1200)in Santa Fe. pottery that will be "Cerchnica y Culon view, a recontura: The Story of structed Mexican Spanish and kitchen, a potter's Mexican workshop, videos Mayalica" conof mayolica tains more than artists working 250 pieces ranging today, and more over six centuries of will help visitors development and explore the world of BOWL or CUENCO/ artist change. This exhibimayolica. For more unknown / Puebla, Mexico / tion tracks may6lica's 1700-1750/ Museum of information, please International Folk Art, journey from the call the museum or Houghton Sawyer Collection / Islamic world visit its website, gift of Mr. and Mrs. John F. throughout the Holstius www.moifa.org.

Sufi Arts of Urban Senegal Dakar, the capital of Senegal,is a city in which almost every surface is decorated. All of this visual stimulation carries the image of Sheikh Amadou Bamba as a common theme. Bamba, a Sufi poet who resisted French colonial oppression with pacifism, inspired the Sufi movement Mouridism. UCLA's Fowler Museum of Cultural History (310/825-4361) presents"A Saint in the City: Sufi Arts of Urban

Senegal," from Feb.9 until July 27. This exhibition introduces audiences to an assortment of Mouride arts, including calligraphy,formal contemporary paintings, glass paintings, murals, signs, and textiles, all of which are an expression of this particular Muslim philosophy and the vitality of urban Africa. For more information about this show, please call the museum or visit its website, www.fmch.ucla.edu.

Free

Museum and Shop Hours: Daily 11:00 AM-7:30 PM Monday

11:00 AM-6:00 PM MURAL / Papisto (a.k.a. Pape Samb)/ Dakar, Senegal/ 1997-1998/ UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History

22 SPRING 2003 FOLK ART

PO box +57,20 Main Street Bridgeport, NJ 08014 Pkone:(856) 467-5197 fax:(856) 467-5451 raccooncreek@comcast.net

Pennsylvania folk Art Bird Carving ca. 1880

MINIATURES

TRAVELING

EXHIBITIONS

Pennsylvania German Textiles The Washington County Museum of Fine Arts (301/739-5727)in Hagerstown, Md., presents a vibrant exhibition of"Pennsylvania German Textiles," from a private collection, starting Feb. 7 and running until May 11.

Embroidery, appliqué, and piecing techniques and patterns brought from Europe were and still are incorporated by Amish,

Mennonite, and Lutheran and Reformed churchwomen. This show includes a diverse array of constructed or adorned everyday textiles, such as pockets, seed bags, pillows, and samplers. For more information on this exhibition, please call the museum or visit its website, www.wash comuseum.org.

Miss Frances A. Motley / attributed to John S. Blunt 11798-18351/ probably Maine, Massachusetts, or New Hampshire /1830-1833/ oil on canvas / 35% x 29/ 1 4"/ collection American Folk Art Museum, promised gift of Barbara and David Krashes / P7.1999.1 /from the traveling exhibition "American Anthem: Masterworks from the American Folk Art Museum"

Dodson / Washington County Museum of Fine Arts

Early American Decoration Conference

OVAL TEA CANISTER / artist unidentified / Pennsylvania /c. 1825-1850/ paint on tinplate /5% x 39/m x 2/ 1 4 "/ collection American Folk Art Museum, gift of the Historical Society of Early American Decoration, 76.1.7

24 SPRING 2003 FOLK ART

The Historical Society of Early American Decoration presents a three-day conference in Wilmington, Del.,from Friday, May 2,to Sunday, May 4. The conference will be held at the Wyndham Hotel,700 King Street. An exhibition of members' collections will be on view to the public.

Featured categories will include Country Painting, Reverse Glass Painting, Freehand Bronze, Metal Leaf Painting, Stenciling on Wood and Tin,Pontypool, Victorian Flower Painting, and Painted Clock Dials. For more information about this conference, please contact Agnes W. McCloskey at 610/296-9717, or convention planner Dolores Fumari at 888/247-3847.

Mark your calendars for the following American Folk Art Museum exhibitions when they travel to your area during the coming months: March 14—May 31, 2003 Sketches and Studies from the Henry Darger Collection at the American Folk Art Museum Intuit: The Center for Outsider and Intuitive Art Chicago 312/243-9088 April 19—June 15, 2003 Quilted Constructions: The Spirit of Design Fort Wayne Museum of Art Fort Wayne,Indiana 219/422-6467 April 26—June 29,2003 ABCD: A Collection of Art Brut Chicago Cultural Center Chicago 312/744-6330

May 24—Oct.25, 2003 Fraktur from the Ralph Esmerian Gift to the American Folk Art Museum Hancock Shaker Village Pittsfield, Massachusetts 413/443-0188 June 17—Aug. 17,2003 American Anthem: Masterworks from the American Folk Art Museum Telfair Museum of Art Savannah, Georgia 912/232-1177 June 28—Aug. 23, 2003 Quilted Constructions: The Spirit of Design The NicIde Arts Museum University of Calgary Calgary, Alberta, Canada 403/220-7234

For further information, please contact Judith Gluck Steinberg, director of traveling exhibitions, American Folk Art Museum, Administrative Offices, 1414 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10019-2514, 212/977-7170.

PLEASE SAVE THE DATE AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM'S SPRING BENEFIT CELEBRATING THE PERFECT GAME AMERICA LOOKS AT BASEBALL THURSDAY, JUNE 5, 2003 INVITATION To FOLLOW

For information please call 212. 977. 7170, ext. 322.

UNSEEN UNKNOWN UNSUNG Until now.

At the first show of an intriguing collection of orphaned paintings found over the past ten years in the outerreaches of New York and New Jersey.

April 8-May .3, 2003

Andrew Edlin Gallery 529 W 20th St 6th tIr NYC 10011 212-206-9723 edlingallery com NY

WORLD'S FAIR Interior John Shust 38 x 54 o/c 1940

SPRING 2003 FOLK ART 25

BOOKS

OF

INTEREST

ellPart and gni a Paintings and Artist's Materials from the Collection of Gordon W. Bailey

FEBRUARY 7 • MAY 25, 2003

he following recent titles are great gift-giving ideas. All titles are available at the American Folk Art Museum's Book and Gift Shops at 45 West 53rd Street and Two Lincoln Square (Columbus Avenue between 65th and 66th Streets), New York City.

To order, please call 212/265-1040. Museum members receive a 10 percent discount.

T

American Anthem: Masterworks from the American Folk Art Museum, Stacy C. Hollander, Brooke Davis Anderson, and Gerard C. Wertldn, American Folk Art Museum in association with Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 2001, 432 pages, $65 American Radiance: The Ralph Esmerian Gift to the American Folk Art Museum, Stacy C. Hollander, American Folk Art Museum in association with Harry N. Abrams,Inc., 2001, 572 pages, $75 American Vernacular: New Discoveries in Folk, Self-Taught, and Outsider Sculpture, Frank Maresca and Roger Ricco, 2002, 304 pages,$75 American Wall Stenciling, Ann Eckert Brown, University Press of New England, 2002,224 pages,$60

THE

900 E. Princeton Street • Orlando, Florida 32803 407.246.4278 • Fax: 407.246.4329 www.mennellomuseum.com The Mennello Museum of American Folk Art is owned and operated by the City of Orlando.

26 SPRING 2003 FOLK ART

The Art ofAdolf Wotfli: St. Adolf-Giant-Creation, Daniel Baumann,Elka Spoerri, American Folk Art Museum in association with Princeton University Press, 2003, 112 pages, $29.95

The Art ofthe Game:A Collection of Vintage Game Boards, Tim Chambers, Shaver and Chambers,2001,218 pages, $125 The Art ofthe Quilt, Ruth Marler, Courage Books, 2001, 128 pages, $19.98 Black Threads: An African American Quilting Sourcebook, Kyra E. Hicks, McFarland & Co., 2003, 242 pages, $38.50 Coverlets and the Spirit ofAmerica, Joseph D. Shein and Melinda Zongor, Schiffer Books,2002, 224 pages, $69.95 Darger: The Henry Darger Collection ofthe American Folk Art Museum, Brooke Davis Anderson, American Folk Art Museum in association with Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 2001, 128 pages,$29.95 Drawing on America's Past: Folk Art, Modernism, and the Index ofAmerican Design, Virginia Tuttle Clayton, Elizabeth Stillinger, Erika Doss, and Deborah Chotner, University of North Carolina Press, 2002, 254 pages,$45 Drawn Home:Fritz Vogt's Rural America, W.Parker Hayes, Jr., Fenimore Art Museum,2002, 96 pages, $19.95 Fralaur Writings and Folk Art Drawings ofthe Schwenkfelder Library Collection, Dennis K. Moyer,Pennsylvania German Society, 1997, 302 pages, $69.95

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lirmalibilAsittLak

Sculptures from the Henry Darger: In the Realms ofthe Unreal, John MacGregor, Delano Greenidge Editions, 2001,680 pages, $85

The Highwaymen: Florida's African-American Landscape Painters, Gary Monroe, University Press of Florida, 2001, 160 pages, $29.95 Let It Shine: Self-Taught Artfrom the T. Marshall Hahn Collection, High Museum of Art, University Press of Mississippi, 2001, 175 pages,$30 Long May She Wave: A Graphic History ofthe American Flag, Kit Hinrichs and Delphine Hirasuna, Ten Speed Press, 2001,223 pages,$60 Mississippi Quilts, Mary Elizabeth Johnson, University Press of Mississippi/Mississippi Quilt Association, 2001, 224 pages, $30 Ohio Is My Dwelling Place: Schoolgirl Embroideries, 1800-1850, Sue Studebaker, Ohio University Press, 2002, 310 pages,$70 Painted Saws/Jacob Kass, Lee Kogan, American Folk Art Museum,2002,56 pages,$14.95

The Peifect Game:America Looks at Baseball, Elizabeth V. Warren, American Folk Art TO PERFECT GAME Museum in association with Harry N. Abrams,Inc., 2003, 150 pages, $29.95 Ralph Fasanella's America, Paul S. D'Ambrosio, New York Historical Association, 2001, 176 pages, $39.95 Raw Vision Outsider Art Sourceboolc, Ed. John Maizels, Raw Vision magazine, 2002,228 pages, $29.95

Josh Feldstein Collection

Pill Traylor Drawings from the Luise Ross Collection

Self-Taught and Outsider Art: The Anthony Petullo Collection, Anthony Petullo, University of Illinois Press, 2001,224 pages, $50 Sins and Needles, Raymond and Melanie Materson, Algonquin Books,2002,214 pages,$20.95 Spiritually Moving: A Collection ofAmerican Folk Art Sculpture, Tom Geismar and Harvey Kahn, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1998, 176 pages, hardcover. Autographed

by Harvey Kahn. Limited quantity available,$250

FEBRUARY 7 • MARCH 31, 2003 Stars and Stripes: Patriotic Motifs in American Folk Art, Deborah Harding, Rizzoli, 2002, 256 pages, $75 Treasure or Not? How to Compare and Value American Quilts, Stella Rubin, Miller's-Mitchell Beazley, Octopus Publishing Group, Ltd., 2001, 176 pages, $27.50

THE

900 E. Princeton Street • Orlando, Florida 32803 407.246.4278 • Fax: 407.246.4329 www.mennellomuseum.com The Mennello Museum of American Folk Art is owned and operated by the City of Orlando.

SPRING 2003 FOLK ART 27

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THE KANDER VALLEY IN THE BERNESE OBERLAND [Das Kander-Thal im Berner Ober-land] Adolf WON 11864-19301 Bern, Switzerland 1926 Pencil and colored pencil on paper 18/ 1 2 243/8" American Folk Art Museum, Blanchard-Hill Collection, gift of M. Anne Hill and Edward V. Blanchard Jr., 1998.10.64

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DRAWING, WONDER FISH / artist unknown / Bucks or Montgomery County, Pennsylvania / late eighteenth century / watercolor and ink on paper / 7 x 8"/ Schwenkfelder Library and Heritage Center Collection

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from the Schwenkfelder Library and Heritage Center In the 1880s the Schwenkfelders, a small religious denomination in southeastern Pennsylvania, began preserving materials that documented their religious and cultural heritage. Among the papers they collected for their library, now known as the Schwenkfelder Library and Heritage Center, is a large group of Pennsylvania German frakturâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;handwritten and hand-colored documents. Remarkably, the majority of this fraktur collection, consisting of more than 1,000 objects, comes directly from the families of the original owners and has never before been exhibited. "Fraktur Treasures from the Schwenkfelder Library and Heritage Center," on view at the American Folk Art Museum from February 1 through May 11, 2003, features approximately eighty examples that represent the rich variety of fraktur forms and styles.

30 SPRING 2003 FOLK ART

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DRAWING, THE SEVEN RULES OF WISDOM Attributed to Susanna Heebner (1750-1818) Worcester Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania July 2,1809 Watercolor and ink on paper 1 2" 181 / 4 x 22/ Schwenkfelder Library and Heritage Center Collection

DRAWING, HOUSE AND GARDEN MADE FOR ABRAHAM W. HEEBNER Attributed to Susanna Heebner (1750-18181 Worcester Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania 1818 Watercolor and ink on paper 12 x 7" Schwenkfelder Library and Heritage Center Collection

The spiritual leader of the Schwenkfelders was Cas- duced as legal documents or for religious purposes, Amerpar Schwenckfeld von Ossig (1489-1561), a Silesian ican fraktur, produced primarily between the 1750s and nobleman who experienced what he called a "visitation of the 1850s, became more personal, individualized, and God" one year after Martin Luther posted his Ninety-Five informal. Pennsylvania German fraktur artists recorded Theses in 1517. Schwenckfeld shared his thoughts and the most important elements of their culture, expressing beliefs through writings that taught that genuine spiritual religious and moral beliefs through the written texts renewal takes place inside an individual and cannot truly they embellished. be measured or assessed by outward ritual or sacraments.

Unlike some of the other Pennsylvania German These radical ideas led to a split with Luther by 1526, and groups, the Schwenkfelders did not create exuberant to Schwenckfeld's voluntary exile from Silesia in 1529. While Schwenckfeld never sought followers, others responded to his beliefs, and a religious fellowship group, known as the Schwenkfelders, was formed based on his work. (According to Dave Luz, the director of the Schwenkfelder Library and a Schwenkfelder pastor, "Schwenckfeld's name was spelled in a variety of ways in his time, and even by the man himself. Today, it is becoming standard within the `Schwenckfeld/ Schwenkfelder' scholarly community to use the c when referring to the reformer himself and to drop the c when referring to his followers.") For more than 150 years, Schwenckfeld's followers, living 4 0 4 ci primarily in southern Germany and . lower Silesia, were persecuted. Their 3 books were burned, followers were - 1-4 4-• °4 fined and imprisoned, and group members were not permitted freedom of worship.

By 1726, Schwenkfelder families had begun to leave their homes, traveling first to Saxony and then to America, to seek spiritual freedom. Between 1731 and 1737, about two hundred Schwenkfelders arrived at Philadelphia in six migrations—bringing with them many of Schwenckfeld's original writings— and settled in Pennsylvania, already home to German immigrants and others seeking religious freedom. Unable to find land where they could all ”fiV live together, the Schwenkfelders spread out and established communities in sOr the region between Philadelphia and Allentown, Pennsylvania. Today there are six Schwenkfelder churches: /Ele two in Philadelphia and four in Montgomery County.

The Schwenkfelders, like other eighteenth-century painted furniture or interiors; instead, they concentrated on German immigrants, brought to their new home the Euro- fraktur work, producing examples that are colorful and pean custom of illuminating documents with fancy letter- often complex. Much of this material had its roots in their ing, drawings, and borders. In Europe, the German word religious life; for example, the texts used in Vorschriften Frakturschriften had referred to a broken, or fractured, and other documents with religious verses often came style of writing; but in America "fraktur" came to directly from their hymnal. Their decoration, however, designate the entire document—the design elements and was often more generalized in that motifs were frequently the inherent message as well as the decorative letters. shared among Pennsylvania German communities. Early While most European illuminated manuscripts were pro- Schwenkfelder schools often employed teachers from

SPRING 2003 FOLK ART 33

DRAWING, PITCHER WITH FLOWERS Attributed to Sarah Kriebel 11828-19081 Worcester Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania 1843 Watercolor and ink on paper 16 13" Schwenkfelder Library and Heritage Center Collection

neighboring denominations—Mennonite, Lutheran, and German Reformed—and a cross-cultural mix is evident.

The Heebner and the Kriebel families produced what are probably the most well known of Schwenkfelder fraktur artists and art. The Heebners established a long tradition of fraktur-making, and an examination of their work illustrates how their Schwenkfelder heritage and religion influenced their choice of texts and forms while their connections with the Mennonite community affected their designs. Hans Christopher Heebner (1718-1804) was a noted Schwenkfelder transcriber and compiler of hymns who immigrated to Pennsylvania in 1737. His son, Abraham Heebner (1760-1838), was a student of Huppert Cassel's (born 1751; active 1769-1796), a Mennonite schoolmaster in Montgomery County. One of Cassel's Vorschrift (a writing sample usually created by schoolmasters and given to students as an example of penmanship to study and copy) is crafted in the form of a letter from him, the teacher, to Heebner, the student. Heebner was probably influenced by both his father's talent as a scrivener and schoolmaster Cassel's talent as an artist.

Heebner created many fraktur pieces—especially for his children, who grew up to be fraktur artists themselves.

The drawing Religious Text, done by Abraham's son, David Heebner (1805-1823), was clearly influenced by a piece given to his father from Cassel. Made twenty years later, David's fraktur repeats the vertical decoration of the heart, scrolls, and tulips so characteristic of early Mennon-

34 SPRING 2003 FOLK ART

ite fraktur work. Clearly, the popularity of certain motifs and designs did not change over a generation.

Traditionally among the Pennsylvania Germans, many more men produced fraktur than women, perhaps owing to the male profession of schoolmaster that required creating guides for handwriting lessons and designing awards for students. Of the women who did make fraktur, however, it appears that most were part of the Schwenkfelder religious group, perhaps reflecting the Schwenkfelders' _emphasis on education. Knowledge of God and his teachings was critical to the Schwenlcfelders, and both boys and girls attended school and were taught to read. In addition, the Schwenkfelder practice of scriptural study through copying (carried over from the days of persecution when they were not allowed access to printing presses) led to a large number of Schwenkfelder women, as well as men, producing religious texts in manuscript form.

Abraham Heebner's sister, Susanna (1750-1818), was one of the premier artists in the community. She never married and probably spent her later years living with her brother and his family on their farm. It is unknown where she received her instruction in art; she began to use her artistic talents only when she was in her late fifties, as there are no documented works made by Susanna until after her father's death in 1804. Susanna combined a wonderful imagination with a distinctive artistic style, using vibrant colors, brightly painted hearts with

BOOKPLATE, MADE FOR DAVID SCHULTZ Attributed to Abraham Schultz (1747-1822) Upper Hanover Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania February 1,1787 Watercolor and ink on paper 6 x 3" Schwenkfelder Library and Heritage Center Collection

DRAWING, MADE FOR SOPHIA KRIEBEL Attributed to David Kriebel (1787-1848) Gwynedd Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania 1808 Watercolor and ink on paper Schwenkfelder Library and Heritage Center Collection

FRAKTUR

tulip springs, other flowers, and birds. Her imagination and artistic talent was augmented by an in-depth knowledge of hymnal texts and scripture, and the result is a series of frakturs that are both beautiful artistically and from the Schwenkfelder Library and Heritage Center that speak to the glory of God. She created much of her fraktur for her nieces and nephews. In 1808 she made a set On view at the American Folk Art Museum of religious texts for Abraham's children, each beginning 45 West 53rd Street, New York City with the child's name and illustrated with scripture that February 1—May 11,2003 made reference to a biblical character with the same name as the child. Religious Text, Madefor Abraham W. Heebhen eighteenth-century Germanic immigrants ner was created for her nephew Abraham W. Heebner, came to America, they brought with them the born in 1802. Susanna used the passage from Genesis European custom of illuminating documents 17:1, "The Lord appeared to Abraham and said to him, 'I with fancy lettering, drawings, and borders. These am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless.'" vibrant watercolors, decorated with a profusion of The wonderful Drawing, House and Garden Made angels, birds, leaves, and flowers, are spotlighted in the for Abraham W. Heebner was created by Susanna for the exhibition "Fraktur Treasures from the Schwenkfelder same nephew in 1818; his initials are in the upper corners.

Library and Heritage Center." On view from February She created another very similar drawing for his brother, 1 through May 11,2003, the exhibition focuses on the David, which is also in the Heritage Center's collection. rarely seen work produced by Schwenkfelder fraktur Garden and flower imagery was very common in Schwenkfelder fraktur, as these motifs held a strong spiritual symbolism. Although masterpieces in their own right, the house-and-garden images were copied from late eighteenth-century drawings attributed to the Reverend Melr'eP chior Schultz. (The American Folk Art `,'(0,4 .• .11; ben'uliqP.PrttriSn znetn .firr,c;.rrrind?!I 1)ir tool Museum holds one of these drawings in Jtl1ss min an0iii'ner/ifirilvergift`turnn ös6ei n the Ralph Esmerian Collection.)

46 rill oit in if 4filfj in auk&'14.1(rieb crriti tlykl 'faorm rr )011tort Susanna Heebner also used some •frnOr ran rsrlstiber tn0.grpmen )1V14( 11.11 rot.,h) of the colors and motifs of the well0 rz:7 known Mennonite fraktur artists Andreas Kolb and John Adam Eyer. Kolb and Eyer were both schoolmasters in Mennonite schools in the Schwenkfelder area, and Susanna was probably acquainted artists. To provide a broader perspective of the context with them and their work. Her fraktur in which these works were created, the museum has clearly relates to theirs in her use of colors within the texts augmented the exhibition with outstanding examples of and in her brightly painted flowers and birds. The clearest painted furniture, Amish quilts, and pottery from its influence on Susanna, however, was the work of David own collection.

Kriebel(1787-1848), a member of another family of frakOrganized by the Schwenkfelder Library and tur makers. Kriebel was the son of a Schwenkfelder minisHeritage Center in Pennsburg, Pennsylvania, the eighty ter and, when teaching school as a young man, produced works of art selected for "Fraktur Treasures" have been some of the greatest Schwenkfelder fraktur. All of his chosen to represent the rich variety offorms, styles, fraktur works were made prior to his marriage to Sarah and artists in the collection. Known primarily to scholSchultz in 1815, when he left teaching to take up farming, ars and experts in the field, the collection, begun in raising a family, and ministering among the Schwenk1884,includes more than one thousand pieces of Pennfelders. A drawing created by Susanna, perhaps as a booksylvania German fraktur, many of which have never plate for her niece of the same name, has the heavy leaf been exhibited. borders and fanned center flower associated with Kriebel's work, as evident in his Drawing, Made for Sophia Kriebel.

The exhibition is made possible by The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, Eric J. Maffei and Steven E. Trombetti, Harvey S. Kriebel's drawings represent what we think of today Shipley Miller, Mr. and Mrs. E. Newbold Smith, Mr. and Mrs. as typical Schwenkfelder fraktur. Many of Kriebel's mateNicholas S. Schorsch, The Acorn Foundation, Leslie Miller and rials, techniques, and designs—such as stars, fanned flowRichard Whorley, Dr. Richard W.Godshall, Harry B. Hartman, ers, and feathered letters—can be found in the work of David P. Flack, and Paul and Rita Flack.

An all-day symposium is scheduled in conjunction with other Schwenkfelder artists. He was the first to use the this exhibition. On April 12,The Fine Points of Fraktur will heavy, leafy-barred borders seen in fraktur art and the first explore many facets of this folk expression, including new discovto introduce intricate, multiple borders. Unfortunately, eries in the field and the role fraktur played in the community. See much of Kriebel's work shows the effects of time, which is Spring Programs in this issue for more information about the sympartly due to his technique when applying the decoration. posium and other related lectures.

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36 SPRING 2003 FOLK ART

RELIGIOUS TEXT David Heebner (1805-1823) Worcester Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania 1817 Watercolor and ink on paper 8>< 13" Schwenkfelder Library and Heritage Center Collection

Kriebel used large quantities of richly hued watercolors in a medium of thick, viscous gum arabic. The heavy layers of color have crystallized over the years, resulting in the glistening, crazed surfaces that are seen in the works today.

Later generations of the Heebner and Kriebel families carried on the traditions of fraktur art throughout the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Influences from the world outside the Pennsylvania German community, however, began to appear during this period. Artists started to borrow subjects, drawing styles, and lettering from prints, books, and periodicals of the time. With the

DRAWING, EXOTIC BIRD AND CITY Attributed to Abraham W. Heebner (1802-1877) Worcester Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania 1834 Watercolor and ink on paper 9 x 8" Schwenkfelder Library and Heritage Center Collection

advent of the Pennsylvania public school system in the 1830s, the written parts of fraktur began to change as well.

Texts traditionally used in religiously oriented fraktur disappeared, and the works took on the appearance of generic American folk art. Abraham W. Heebner (the recipient of the two pieces mentioned earlier, executed by his aunt Susanna) followed his father, Abraham, in the trade of farming and the making of fraktur. Yet, he often did not use the fraktur motifs found in the works of earlier artists and his father's. Instead, Abraham W.frequently chose to draw portraits of historical figures or to copy popular prints, as he did in Drawing, Exotic Bird and City.

David Kriebel's daughter, Sarah, rarely created fraktur with religious verses. Most of her drawings show floral bouquets with a wide variety of flowers uncommon to traditional fraktur decoration. Drawing, Pitcher with Flowers is

attributed to Sarah Kriebel. She based her color palette and flower motifs on items she found in the print and needlework patterns published in nineteenth-century periodicals.

Many have attempted to classify and identify a certain "Schwenkfelder style" in fraktur. David Kriebel's fraktur is so distinctive—and so unusual—that it stands apart not only from the entire fraktur genre, but from Schwenkfelder fraktur also. Because of its uniqueness, it has been looked at by scholars as the exemplar of Schwenkfelder fraktur. Unfortunately, it is not so easy to compartmentalize a Schwenkfelder style. Kriebel's style was so elaborate that only one other artist—Susanna Heebner, herself a master—could imitate it. Many Schwenkfelder artists seemed to be completely original, in fact, following their own artistic impulses and thereby defying the idea of a Schwenkfelder style. The delicate late eighteenth-century bookplates of Abraham Schultz of Upper Hanover Township in Montgomery County—see Bookplate, Made for David Schultz, for example—in no way relate to the exuberant work of David Kriebel, although both were Schwenkfelders.

Instead, Schwenkfelder fraktur is a fusion of influences. The Mennonite influence was powerful and transcended generations as images were passed along. The Schwenkfelders were by no means an isolated or insular group. Although encouraged to marry within their denomination, many did not. Often taught by non-Schwenkfelder teachers, having neighbors of other denominations, and trading and conducting business outside their religious community, the Schwenkfelders were exposed to and became acquainted with the ideas and art of a variety of other groups. What is clear is that there was a great deal of copying, borrowing, and adapting of ideas and artistic motifs, which the Schwenkfelder artists combined with their own religious traditions and beliefs in producing their fraktur.

"Fraktur Treasures" represents some of the most significant work in the Heritage Center's collection.

Although the majority of fraktur and folk art drawings in the exhibition were created by the Schwenkfelders, there is also a substantial body of work produced by Mennonite schoolmasters that deeply influenced Schwenkfelder artists and other artists who worked on the periphery of the Schwenkfelder communities.* Authors' note: Much of the original research on the fraktur collection in the Schwenkfelder Library and Heritage Center in Pennsburg, Pennsylvania, was done by Dennis K. Moyer in preparation for the book that accompanies this exhibition, titled Fraktur Writings and Folk Art Drawings of the Schwenkfelder Library Collection.

Deborah M. Rebuck is the guest curatorfor the exhibition "Fraktur Treasures." A graduate ofthe College of William and Mary and the University of Vermont, Rebuck is the curator/ administrator ofthe Dietrich American Foundation, located in Philadelphia.

Candace Kintzer Perry is curator ofcollectionsfor the Schwenkfelder Library and Heritage Center. She is a graduate of Pennsylvania State University and Duquesne University.

SPRING 2003 FOLK ART 37

PORTRAIT OF JOSIAH GODDARD (1813-1854) Attributed to Erastus Salisbury Field (1805-1900) Probably Palmer, Massachusetts 1838 Oil on canvas 1 4" 36/ 1 4 29/ Brown University portrait collection

Tokens of Remembrance

Two Rediscovered Portraits 38 SPRING 2003 FOLK ART

PORTRAIT OF ELIZA ANN ABBOTT GODDARD (1817-1857) Attributed to Erastus Salisbury Field (1805-1900) Probably Palmer, Massachusetts 1838 Oil on canvas 361 / 4 29/ 1 4" Brown University portrait collection

In

October of 1838, Erastus Salisbury Field (18051900) painted the portraits of his neighbors Josiah Goddard (18131854) and Eliza Ann Abbott Goddard (18171857). Mr. and Mrs. Goddard had been married less than a month, and Field painted the couple in complementary poses so that the pictures might be hung together and viewed as a pair. Field was then at the peak of his career as a portrait artist, having studied painting in New York with Samuel F.B. Morse but not yet influenced by the studio conventions of daguerreotype photography. His colorful, expressive portraits of the late 1830s are characterized by crisp draftsmanship and by the accurate delineations of character seen in the likenesses of Mr. and Mrs. Goddard.'

by Erastus Salisbury Field

By Robert P Emlen

SPRING 2003 FOLK ART 31)

Detail: Portrait of Eliza Ann Abbott Goddard

Still, compared to other Field portraits of this period, the Goddards' likenesses seem relatively plain and restrained. While he painted other country gentry disporting amid ornate household furnishings and lush landscapes, Field pictured the Goddards as thoughtful, serious, and determined people. It was not so much a matter of dress—they are both in fine clothing for the mid-1830s, he with a formal tailcoat and stock, she with stylishly gathered sleeves, a lacetrimmed collar, and a silver pocket watch on a black velvet ribbon—as it was a matter of the way the artist portrayed their characters.2 Seated on black upholstered sofas against plain, dark backgrounds, the Goddards face the viewer foursquare. They look up from their writing tables, their goosequill pens poised at their earnest tasks. Aside from their pocket watches, they display no jewelry. In the bookcase over Josiah's right shoulder are pictured leather-bound volumes with such ponderous titles as Hebrew Lexicon and History of Missions. In fact, the tone of these portraits was meant to reflect the calling of this young couple: in September, the month before their pictures were painted, Josiah Goddard had been ordained as a Baptist minister. He had graduated from the Newton Theological Institution earlier that year, and the couple was preparing to leave Massachusetts for a life of Christian missionary service in the Far East.3 They had their portraits painted on this occasion not only to celebrate their marriage union, but also to serve as keepsakes for the families they would leave behind.

Josiah Goddard was born in 1813 into a ministerial family. Himself the son of a Baptist minister, he grew up in the central Massachusetts farm town of Wendell, where his family's life revolved around his father's parish at the village church.4 After preparing for college at the nearby New Salem Academy, he went on to Brown University, which, when he graduated in 1835, was the only Baptist college in New England.

In the spring of 1838 Goddard graduated from the Newton Theological Institution. It was the eve of his twenty-fifth birthday, and he considered himself ready to take a wife and embark on a life of gospel service.

Eliza Ann Abbott was four years younger than Josiah. Born in Holden, Massachusetts, in 1817, she found religion after a period of youthful rebellion against her family. Her letters home recalled with anguish "those days in which I have slighted all your kind reproofs and have caused the arrows of affliction to pierce your heart," while at the same time, burning bright with missionary zeal, she admonished her parents to become "followers of the Savior."'

In the summer of 2001, while the Goddards' portraits were undergoing laboratory conservation at the Williamstown Art Conservation Center, paintings conservator Sandra Webber discovered that the sheets of writing paper pictured by Field had been obscured with overpainting.

When the subsequent accumulations of paint were removed in the laboratory, legible inscriptions were revealed on the pages.6 In the Goddards' portraits Field had painted the actual text beneath their quill pens.

In her portrait Eliza is pictured writing the opening lines of a letter.

Though only fragments of the text can be read today, they include the key information, "Three Rivers Oct 12th [or 19th] 1838." Three Rivers is a village lying within the town of Palmer, Massachusetts, where Field had bought property and maintained a studio in the late 1830s.7 The date on her letter confirms the occasion of this commission as a wedding portrait, and as a memento of their leavetaking for missionary service. Farther down the page can be seen the fragment of a sentence in which she resolutely refers to the "heathen land" where she soon will make her home.

The artist pictured Josiah Goddard writing a sermon. As with Eliza's letter, its theme also points toward his impending journey to the East: Now no one could for a moment contemplate The spirit of Christ without [being] convinced that It

was a spirit of love to the world—the whole world & not only a Spirit of love but also of willingness to make [the] greatest conceivable sacrifices ... 8 The Goddards' sacrifices were just starting when they bid farewell to their families. In December of 1838 they boarded the barque Apthorpe in Boston, embarking on a voyage to Moulmein, then the chief town in British Burma. From there they traveled on to Singapore and Bangkok.

Eliza recorded in her journal that she was sick for most of the four months at sea.9 Once settled in Siam, her letters home to her family in Holden describe the hardships of missionary life in south Asia. She asked her parents to send her clothing and a cask of apples from the family farm.

She was just twenty-two, and her experiences with typhoons, smallpox, and the suicide of an opium smoker beneath her house was a world away from the life she had known in rural Massachusetts.1° Along the country roads of southeastern Franklin County, Massachusetts, modern-day travelers can still find painted signs called "guideboards" pointing the way to surrounding towns. Next to the names of the towns the silhouette of a hand or an arrow points out the direction, sometimes listing the distance in miles.

The distances are relatively short, by today's standards. At Shutesbury the guideboard reads LEvEnErr 5 m[n Es], NEW SALEM 6 M[ILES], and WENDELL 8 M[ILES]. This was the world inhabited by Erastus Salisbury Field, his friends, and his extended family—the subjects of the portraits he painted.

Though he rarely signed his paintings, there is no question that Field was the artist of the Goddards' portraits. In style, technique, and materials they are entirely consistent with a large body of his known work from this period. Field's biographer Mary Black estimated that the artist may have produced as many as 1,500 paintings in the course of his seventyfive-year career," many of them portraits whose subjects can be connected through a pattern of personal relationships. "Most of Field's commissions came through a network of family

SPRING 2003 FOLK ART 41

associations," she wrote, "as relations and friends in his isolated hill town spread the word of their talented cousin and townsman."2 A pair of related portraits by Field illustrates how the subjects of his paintings reflected the small world of kinship and neighborly networks in southeastern Franldin County.

In January of 1838 Field traveled to New Haven, Connecticut, where he painted the portraits of Dyer Ball (1796-1866) and Lucy Mills Ball (1807-1844). As he did with the Goddards, whose likenesses he would paint later that year, Field pictured Mr. and Mrs. Ball as no-nonsense people in sober dress, seated, and working at their writing tables. As he did with the portrait of Eliza Goddard, Field used the letter Lucy Ball is writing to locate the commissions in time and place. Her letter begins: "New Haven, / January 1838, / Dear Parents." And, as in the portrait of Josiah Goddard, Dyer Ball's text reveals his calling as a Christian missionary: Assist, I beseech you, by sending the bible and the means of Grace, Six hundred millions of your fellow beings standing upon the verge of eternal despair, assist them immediately before they step from time into eternity and are beyond the limit of Grace and hope of redemption.'3 Dyer Ball was raised in Shutesbury, Massachusetts, eight miles by the guideboard from Wendell, home of Josiah Goddard, and five miles by the guideboard from Leverett, home of Erastus Salisbury Field. While he was a student at Yale, Ball met and married Lucy Mills, with whom he returned home to Shutesbury when he was ordained to preach in 1831.14 The proximity of Erastus Salisbury Field to the Goddards and the Balls in these nearby villages and the similarities of their circumstances leave little doubt that those neighborly connections were responsible for the distinctive similarities in their portraits.

42 SPRING 2003 FOLK ART

Field painted the Balls' portraits as they bided their time back in New Haven, waiting to depart for China. The financial panic of 1837 had impeded fund-raising for their missionary venture, and they visited there with Lucy's family as they waited for times to improve.

Throughout that year they taught themselves Chinese and worked together on creating a ChineseEnglish dictionary. Though the painted likenesses portray the Balls as serious and sensible citizens, the artist added an inexplicably mystical blaze of light to the drab backgrounds of each of their portraits, floating in the sky above their shoulders. In later years Field would develop a passion for painting allegorical scenes of a spiritual nature, and the flashes in these portraits may have been a harbinger of his own burgeoning religious and social expressions, referring perhaps to the great work awaiting these Christian missionaries. As did the Goddards, the Balls left these paintings in New England as keepsakes for their families.

Dyer and Lucy Ball set sail for Singapore in May of 1838, five months ahead of Josiah and Eliza Goddard.

The tropical climate overwhelmed Mrs. Ball's health, and she died in Hong Kong in 1844. Dyer Ball lived the rest of his life in Canton.

The Goddards fared a little better. Their four children were born in Bangkok, and Josiah had mastered the dialect of the Chinese people who lived there. Having developed tuberculosis, he moved inland in 1848 to a drier climate in mountainous Ning-po, China, where he learned an entirely new dialect and continued his work of preaching and translating the gospel. The move succeeded only in slowing his disease, and by the spring of 1854, as his health failed, the Goddards made plans to send their son, Josiah Ripley, home to Eliza's parents in Holden, Massachusetts.15 After her husband's death in

the fall of that year, Eliza returned to America with their daughters Ann Eliza, Emily, and Nellie.

Once back in Massachusetts Eliza enrolled her son at Worcester Academy, which would waive tuition for the children of Baptist missionaries. In time he attended Brown University, his father's alma mater, after which he returned to China as a missionary.

Josiah too raised an American family in China, and in turn sent his own sons home to study at Brown University. In 1944 the grandsons of those original missionaries donated the portraits of Josiah and Eliza Goddard to Brown. By then the paintings were much obscured by the effects of the passing of time, and by the ardent efforts of later artists to restore their faded and crackled surfaces. The

Detail: Portrait of Josiah Goddard I

Guideboard photographed in 2002, painted by Lorin Briggs, 1838, town of Shutesbury, Massachusetts

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PORTRAIT OF LUCY H. MILLS BALL 1 1807-1844) Attributed to Erastus Salisbury Field 11805-1900) New Haven, Connecticut 1838 Oil on canvas 1 4"(framed) 40%4 36/ Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, Massachusetts, The Morgan Wesson Memorial Collection

story of their origins in rural Massachusetts in the 1830s, of a time before the family's missionary life in China began, was only dimly remembered.

It was not until their recent laboratory conservation, when the layers of dirt and overpainting were painstakingly cleaned away, that the story of Erastus Salisbury Field, and his network of the neighbors and family who patronized his artistry, began to emerge from the canvases he had limned at the height of his career as a portraitist.*

44 SPRING 2003 FOLK ART

Robert P. Emden is university curator at Brown University. He is also senior lecturer in the department ofAmerican civilization at Brown, where he teaches courses on the material culture ofAmerican life. Emlen is an adjunctfaculty member in the department ofart and architectural history at the Rhode Island School ofDesign, where he teaches a courses on the American decorative arts.

His book, Shaker Village Views: Illustrated Maps and Landscape Drawings by Shaker Artists of the Nineteenth Century, was published by the University Press of New England.

NOTES 1 Mary Black,Erastus Salisbury Field 1805-1900(Springfield, Mass.: The Museum of Fine Arts, 1984), p. 21.

2 I am indebted to Aimee Newell,curator of textiles and fine arts at Old Sturbridge Village, for looking at Josiah and Eliza Goddard's costumes with me.

3 Alexander Wylie, Memorials ofProtestant Missionaries to the Chinese. Giving a List of Their Publications and Obituary Notices ofthe Deceased(Shanghae [sic]: American Presbyterian Mission Press, 1867), p. 114.

4 The Wendell churchyard burying ground contains the gravestones of Josiah

PORTRAIT OF REVEREND DYER BALL (1796-1866) Attributed to Erastus Salisbury Field (1805-1900) New Haven, Connecticut 1838 Oil on canvas 40/ 1 4 x 361 / 4"(framed) Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, Massachusetts, The Morgan Wesson Memorial Collection

Goddard's sisters Hannah B.(d. 1821), Mary(d. 1835), and Hannah Eliza(d.

1839).

5 Eliza Mn Abbott Goddard to Asa Abbott and Sally Morse Abbott, October 27, 1838.

Collection of the American Baptist Historical Society, Rochester, New York.

6 Sandra Webber,"Treatment Report for Portraits of Josiah Goddard and Eliza Ann Goddard," Williamstown Art Conservation Center, October 18, 2001.

7 Black, Erastus Salisbury Field 1805-1900, p. 18.

8 Excerpt of text from a page of handwriting in the portrait of Josiah Goddard as deciphered by Webber.

9 "Eliza A. Goddard, Journal on Board barque Apthorpe bound from Boston to Moulmeine and Singapore, December 23rd 1838 [ff.]." Collection of the American Baptist Historical Society, Rochester, New York.

10 Eliza Ann Abbott Goddard to Asa Abbott and Sally Morse Abbott, October 28, 1839. Courtesy of the American Baptist Historical Society, American Baptistâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Samuel Colgate Library, Rochester, New York.

11 Selectionsfrom the American Collection (Springfield, Mass., Springfield Library & Museums Association, 1999), p. 64.

12 Black, Erastus Salisbury Field 1805-1900, p. 17.

13 Transcriptions of these pages are in the curatorial files of the Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, Mass.

14 Wylie,Memorials ofProtestant Missionaries, pp.107-110.

15 Letter from Eliza Mn Abbott Goddard to Asa Abbott and Sally Morse Abbott, March 11, 1854. Courtesy of the American Baptist Historical Society, American Baptistâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Samuel Colgate Library, Rochester, New York.

SPRING 2003 FOLK ART 45

• Imes an Fmlo isliPain ing 46 SPRING 2003 FOLK ART

UtITIMED / Mary Ann Carroll/ 1965/ oil on Upson board /24 x 60"/ collection of Gary and Teresa Monroe Although Highwaymen paintings were generally mass-produced,this particular painting was commissioned by Mends of the artist, and was the first object of art that the newlyweds purchased for their new home after graduating from college.

The Highwaymen were black youths from Fort Pierce who, during the late 1950s and early 1960s, taught themselves to paint Florida scenes in the manner of Albert Ernest Backus, a prominent white regionalist of the time.

They sold their framed oils from the trunks of their cars, mainly along the state's east coast.

A fertile market existed for affordable and original regional art as families established themselves during the post-war boom.

By Gary Monroe

SPRING 2003 FOLK ART 47

The Highwaymen arrived at their form of landscape painting by shedding the established modes in favor of mass production. Their facile process yielded images that seemed to be lingering memories from having glanced at an expanse of land through the side window of a vacation-bound car. In this way, to sojourners, Florida-in-passing looked sketchy, half realized— ripe for people to lend their own meanings to. The transitory nature of their imagery offered an intimacy that would have been lost to a more formal treatment. In a meaningful way, viewers became co-authors, completing the process by "finishing" the pictures in their own mind.

The Highwaymen's story was little more than a rumor when, in September of 1998, I met with Mary Ann Carroll (he only female of the group), James Gibson, and Hezekiah Baker. The few existing accounts about the Highwaymen didn't jibe with what these artists were telling me. So I determined to find out what happened to give rise to their prodigious output of paintings and what it might mean. I subsequently identified twenty-six Highwaymen and interviewed all but a few of these artists. Their shared experiences and their paintings increasingly amazed me.

The unfolding story was intriguing, ready-made, and ripe for the telling. It needed only a sympathetic intermediary, and, as a native Floridian and an image-maker myself, I fit the bill. Although their story needed no embellishment I nevertheless encountered misinformation about the group's artistic practices.

Contrary to the accepted myth that claimed their paintings were pieced together by uncaring hands—by bird, water, and tree "specialists" each contributing to the production of a single painting—the artists, according to Roy McLendon, each "painted their own pictures." The other artists I spoke with corroborated this. And there was never a school or movement—these artists didn't even have studios. They worked in their backyards "like shade-tree mechanics," offers Mary Ann Carroll.

48 SPRING 2003 FOLK ART

In fact, there really were no "Highwaymen." Theirs was a nameless association of friends, relatives, and acquaintances who found an alternative to toiling in the citrus fields and packing houses near the places where they grew up. The youths were unlikely candidates to become the visual artists of their time and place—the ones to leave a legacy, albeit inadvertently, in the form of perhaps 200,000 oil paintings that would become the marker for the tropical version of the American Dream.

In the mid-1950s Zanobia Jefferson, an art teacher at the all-black Lincoln Park Academy in Fort Pierce, encouraged her student Alfred Hair to take painting lessons from the established white artist A.E. Backus; she could have no idea what would follow. Florida's tropical beauty provided Backus with ample inspiration.

His time-tested aesthetic yielded Arcadian images. Owning one of his canvases was tantamount to claiming the land. But young Alfred Hair read the images differently; to him they provided a means to escape a bleak future and become wealthy.

Within three years of Saturday-morning instruction, Hair left the artist's studio and gathered a few of his friends. He offered them an opportunity to rise above social

expectations and the remedial inferiority to which "Negroes" were relegated. By teaching them the conventional painting formulas that he had learned, he gave others a way out of"Blacktown."

Race is an inextricable part of this story. On one level it addresses how disenfranchised youths rose above societal expectations. But that, although satisfying, is in itself sentimental. The ultimate beauty of the story is that their success was not about race. Backus trained Hair to paint, but he knew it wasn't likely that he would gain the acceptance or have the success that Backus himself enjoyed. Hair's ambition to achieve wealth led to a cottage industry that, instead of appeasing the white majority during an era of tense segregation, appealed to their hearts and wallets.

Hair, having reasoned that neither he nor his friends were likely to be offered gallery representation, created a system to mass-produce their paintings and thereby be able to sell them inexpensively. This involved working on multiple boards—developing certain areas in phases—to minimize labor and materials, and hence maximize profits. Each artist was able to complete a group of paintings during their customary nightlong painting fests.

UNTITLED Al Black n.d.

Oil on Upson board 24 36" Collection of Geoff and Patti Cook Because business was so brisk the Highwaymen employed others to help them sell their art. Al Black entered the ranks of the Highwaymen in the mid-1960s and soon became their lead salesman. He began painting his own pictures after Alfred Hair's death in 1970.

UNTITLED Harold Newton n.d.

Oil on Upson board 26 36" Collection of Geoff and Patti Cook Harold Newton is considered the kingpin of the Highwaymen; collectors gravitate to his exquisite and formally resolved paintings.

This painting demonstrates how the Highwaymen's fluid and unembellished renditions of the pristine wilderness seduced viewers who were looking to realize The American Dream in modern Florida.

Besides teaching him to paint, Backus imparted a profound sense of community to Hair. From all accounts, both men epitomized goodwill and outstanding character that was laced with a strong work ethic and tempered by hard living.

With open arms they embraced everyone. Mary Lou McAbee remembers when, in the late 1960s, Hair had told her that although angry blacks were planning a boycott and wanted him to play a lead role, he refused. He explained that white men were his customers; that they fed his family and bought the cars he and his artist friends drove. It would be bad for business. Hair also suggested that such a protest would not improve relationships. He believed that diligence and smart merchandising would facilitate equality and prosperity. Hair and the others were chasing a dream.

"The Highwaymen" is a moniker that an art promoter assigned to the group in 1994. By then, people often came across Highwaymen paintingsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;in thrift stores, at yard sales, and the likeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and recognized that something special had happened.

The newly bestowed label ruffled some feathers at first, but folks since seem to have accepted that it was the perfect choice to get the ball rolling.

The name conjured images of bandits to some people, and it was met with resistance by a few of the artists and others close to them because the name hadn't been their choice. Perhaps fair claimsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;but the name catapulted interest in the story and the paintings, nonetheless. Madison Avenue couldn't have chosen a more effective appellation. Early admirers of the Highwaymen were primarily concerned not with their aesthetic, which is central to my interest, but

with commerce. Indeed, it would be naive to think of the Highwaymen solely as artists. Their modus operandi was about making money.

The paradox of the story is the compatibility, if not the mutual dependence, of art and commerce.

Money was not a corrupting influence in this story.

Instead of charging a price in accordance with a Backus canvas, of, say, $250, Hair opted to charge $25 for one of his own and make up for the "shortfall" with quantity. Hair made ten paintings in less time than it took Backus to complete a single one.

This fast painting led to the distinguishing characteristics of the Highwaymen's art. They arrived at their connotational style by necessity; the quickness with which they painted corrupted the classical pictorial strategies that Backus so well incorporated. One might fairly reason that

SPRING 2003 FOLK ART 41

the artists' haste would UNTITLED Livingston Roberts have resulted in inferior n.d. paintings. Ironically, Oil on Upson board though, the speedâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;their 24 36" Collection of Tim and painting in the momentâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; Eileen Jacobs freed these artists, allowing them to paint responsively and, like a wellspring, let their intuitions flow.

In their day, the painters were "transparent," not wanting to draw attention to themselves as they traversed the state selling their wares.

This wasn't primarily because they did business without the required occupational licenses. Rather the focus had to remain on the interests of the viewers: the gestural nature of the images conveyed only a sense of place. But, as with a photograph whose subject is inevitably removed from its context, the landscape's significance is similarly and necessarily made raw and mysterious, equally ethereal and up for grabsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;just like Florida itself at that time. The Highwaymen painted the dream-state.

"The wilderness," said Ansel Adams, "is a state of mind."

The inability of the image to confirm a narrative left a void that compelled each viewer to interpret the land pictured for him or herself.

And given their varied symbols, sublime beauty, and willing collaborators, ascribing meaning to the images was compelling. So powerful was the draw that buyers personalized generic scenes with confidence. That river bend was inevitably "the spot where this bass was caught" or "that place on the St. Johns where ..."

Because making money, not art, was their goal, the Highwaymen needed to shower the state with paintings. And they did. The artists often got together to paint through the night. It wasn't unusual for an artist to make ten, even twenty, paintings at a stretch. The Highwaymen's hybrid landscapes each took as little as half an hour to complete; seldom did they spend much more than an hour on a painting.

To maximize profits, the artists painted on inexpensive Upson boards, a builder's sheeting product used as wallboard, in eaves, and even for bed boards. The quarter-inch 4 x 8' sheets were easily cut into wastefree sizes, typically four 2 x 3' pieces

50 SPRING 2003 FOLK ART

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SPRING 2003 FOLK ART 51

(the Highwaymen's signa- UNTITLED ture size), with the remain- Roy McLendon n.d. ing piece cut in some Oil on canvas board combination of 2 x 3, 12 X 20 24" of Henry 24, and 18 x 24", or left as Collection and Julia Bosma is, 2 x 4'. The cut boards were then shellacked (as a primer), painted on, and sold before the oils had time to dry.

To the Highwaymen, a painting wasn't finished until it was sold!

Because the artists rushed, flaws were not too unusual. Trees with a branch or two missing in a reflecting pond are telling examples, albeit the exception. I saw a Mary Ann Carroll seascape on which a bright yellow fingerprint floated in an equally bright blue sky; it is possible that the imprint wasn't hers but belonged to a fellow artist or one of their salesmen, who had moved the painting in preparation for transport to sell. In fact, business was so brisk that the artists employed a small army of salesmen, to whom they even loaned cars. Nor is it unusual to see smudged paintings. Highwaymen frames were constructed from crown molding that was designed as door, window, and floorboard trim. At 9 cents a foot it was more practical than buying frame molding strips. The standard sizes facilitated stacking and nesting the paintings for transport, but occasionally paintings would get bumped and the pigments smudged. Al Black, who joined the Highwaymen initially as a salesman, says that he "learnt [to UNTITLED James Gibson paint] by fixing them." n.d.

As Al Black observed, Oil on Upson board "Alfred [Hair] could paint as 24 36" of Terry good as he wanted and as Collection Green and Chris fast as he wanted." He pre- Roesner ferred his mass-production Although no sales mode. Hair was so driven, in records were kept fact, that he lifted weights to of their prodigious enable himself to paint output of paintings, Gibson was likely the longer without tiring. He group's most prolific was determined to be a mil- artist. He estimates that he alone made lionaire by his thirty-fifth 60,000 paintings. birthday. The Highwaymen The royal Poinciana had to paint fast and paint a tree is among the most desirable sublot. With "wads of dough" jects to collectors of in their pockets, everything this art. was going better than they had planned.

The charismatic Alfred Hair would probably have acquired the wealth he desired. The cash rolled in and he, and other painters, sported the high life. But just shy of turning thirty years old and on top of the world, Hair was caught in a love tryst and shot dead in a juke joint. He had succeeded, however, in forming the unlikely atelier that

52 SPRING 2003 FOLK ART

UNTITLED Attributed to Willie Daniels Signed Al Black n.d.

Oil on Upson board 36 48" Collection of Terry Green and Chris Roesner Authorship was not central to the Highwaymen's egos or business acumen. So, often, lead salesman Al Black would sign his name to others' paintings in front of prospective buyers to facilitate closing the sale.

UNTITLED Alfred Hair n.d.

Oil on Upson board 24 = 36" Collection of Geoff and Patti Cook Alfred Hair inadvertently arrived at the Highwaymen's distinctive notational style. lime meant money, and the speed in which he and his cohort painted resulted in their generally shared style.

Hair's dream and his natural charisma led other marginalized young black men out of the citrus fields and into the business of artmaking; together they left a palpable legacy of the Sunshine State.

SPRING 2003 FOLK ART 53

The Highwaymen: Florida's African-American Landscape Painters, a 160-page clothbound book featuring more than 60 fullcolor illustram14106.111111ATIIIIWN tions, is available for $29.95 at the American Folk Art Museum's Book and Gift Shops at 45 West 53rd Street and at Two Lincoln Square(between 65th and 66th Streets). Museum members receive a 10 percent discount. For mail order information, please call 212/265-1040, ext. 124. was responsible for becoming the force behind the creation of the visual legacy of the Sunshine State.

Business remained brisk. The artists prevailed during the 1970s, selling their paintings "door to door and store to store." Shop owners and career professionals were among their best customers. They approached realtors, bank tellers, and telephone operators at work to take advantage of multiple sales. Calculating the daily pay of a middle-class worker set prices. The larger paintings, at $25 and $35, weren't necessarily cheap, but they were affordable and, to many, irresistible. As Curtis Arnett points out, "People waited for us to come by."

The artists showed up on paydays.

The art of the Hudson River School, which a century before gave rise to the tradition of landscape painting in America, carried nearreligious significance. This spiritual presence remained essential to the genre. Such imagery sanctifies one's beliefs: Backus addressed the congregation while the Highwaymen looked for converts, so to speak. Backus had the knack, with his bejeweled light and brilliant colors, to make those of us who are so susceptible weak in the knees.

The Highwaymen's customers were people who didn't generally purchase art—people that, from all accounts, didn't know much about art, but knew what they liked. And the Highwaymen's paintings were perfectly suited to them. The images engaged people to look at Florida as paradise attainable. The artists' paintings were as fanciful as they were

54 SPRING 2003 FOLK ART

realistic; their landscapes weren't the beau ideal, but they were enticing enough to sanctify the consumers' beliefs. They tapped into a shared conviction by arriving at the archetypes of the landscape. They achieved this by stripping bare the artifice that distinguished conventional landscape painting—the approach that objectified the land, rendering it foreign to the people who flocked to Florida during the Eisenhower years. Their paintings were made for folks seeking assurance, not those desiring high art.

Those who questioned the images' veracity seemed pitifully uninitiated. A turbulent sky that changes from yellow rays of sunshine, intensifying the verdant land and leaving the sky painfully blue, only to soften with wisps of pink and intensify to an unforgiving orange before fading to magenta and then into a navy-blue moonlit night, light shimmering off water, is reality in this state. Floridians see these colors and experience their "moods" regularly. Indeed, Floridians were the point of the Highwaymen's art.

Maybe the Highwaymen's picture-window paintings (unlike Backus') didn't celebrate unspoiled nature as much as they reflected the consumers' aspirations. In that their heyday coincided with the settling of contemporary Florida, these paintings commemorated the homesteading of the region and the state. By extension, the paintings reflected the broader ethos that would establish Florida as Eden.

Now, having served their purpose as banners proclaiming one's arrival, the paintings have been dusted off, reconsidered, and commodified. In Florida today, there is a near feeding frenzy over acquiring Highwaymen paintings.

The resurgent popularity of Highwaymen paintings is, in part, a reprieve from our technologically driven and often alienating society: pastoral living is viewed with increased enthusiasm as the land gets paved over.

Meanwhile, gated communities take the names of the trees that the developers cleared. Names with "Ridge" and "Hills" and "Views" often grace their entrances. But the presence of the land so painted transcends change and all it brings—fast-food drive-thrus, strip malls, and traffic jams.

Although nostalgia is incompatible with contemporary aesthetics, even high art aficionados are finding virtue in what some detractors have called "motel art." I find the pejorative referent uplifting; the paintings document wondrously the culture that gave rise to them. The paintings may have been seen as "shabby chic" before their time, but, more to the point, the aesthetic was distinctly these artists' own. A non-traditional sensibility may be required to appreciate Highwaymen paintings, but, after all, fresh eyes are necessary for any artist to make relevant observations.

The unspoiled landscape that the pictures represent and the slower times they suggest may provide solace as we wipe mildew from the furniture, tolerate increasing traffic on the roads, and rude soccer parents on the sidelines.

They may be an antidote, offering stability as we face our uncertain post—World Trade Center future. Or perhaps acquiring a Highwaymen painting provides solace, because at the heart of the images are disenfranchised blacks who had suffered through "Jim Crow" Florida and escaped their own bleak destinies.

There is satisfaction in seeing the oppressed prevail. Nevertheless, there is more to the paintings than meets the eye.* Photography: Alan Maxwell; page 46-47,48, 50-51, and 52 top. Randall Smith; page 49,52 bottom, and 53 top and bottom.

Gary Monroe is the author ofThe Highwaymen: Florida's African-American Landscape Painters (University Press of Florida, 2001). His pioneering research has defined the Highwaymen. He has received grantsfrom the National Endowmentfor the Arts, Florida Division of Cultural Affairs, Fulbright Foundation, and other institutions. The Florida Humanities Council supported his research on the Highwaymen. Appointed to the council's Speakers Bureau, Monroe presents public lectures on the Highwaymen. His book about self-taught art in Florida will be released nextfall by the University Press ofFlorida, and he is currently writing about memory painter Jorko "George" Voronovsky. Gary Monroe lives with hisfamily in DeLand, Florida, and may be reached via e-mail at: monroe51@bellsouth.net.

TYSON TRADING CO. ART&ANTIOUES

"The Highwaymen"

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Including Paintings By: • Harold Newton • Livingston Roberts • George Buckner • Alfred Hair S • and more oftfivv Published by: ,

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56 SPRING 2003 FOLK ART

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QUILTS

Modern handcrafted quilts made to order. www.dsquilts.com 800.621.9017

A.E. Backus Gallery & Museum Established In 1960 by A.E. Backus, Mentor to The Highwaymen

Handling the Finest in Folk Art by The Highwaymen Focusing on Paintings by Alfred Hair and Harold Newton

Specialists in Florida Landscape Art Nation's Largest Selection of A.E. Backus Originals

500 N. Indian River Drive, Fort Pierc( I I 772-465-0630 iew our online Gallery at www.backusgallery.com

58 SPRING 2003 FOLK ART

pane a day gallery calendar ->on4 MUSEUM

REPRODUCTIONS

PROG RAM

folk

ALICE J. HOFFMAN

FOLK ART

art

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

COLLECTION New Directions

* On The Wall Productions, Inc.

* Workman Publishing An art

Folk art magic! On The Wall Productions has created a boxed Magic Cube puzzle featuring nine masterpieces of folk art from the museum's permanent collection.

A guidebook complete with information about the museum and featured objects is included with each puzzle.

gallery for the desk! Enjoy a year of Americana. Workman Publishing, a leading publisher and distributor of calendars and books and the inventor of Page-A-Day® Gallery Calendars, is the museum's newest licensee.

Workman is creating a Page-ADay® Folk Art Gallery Calendar for 2004,featuring selections from the American Folk Art Museum's permanent collection; 160 pages are printed on two sides in full color, then boxed unbound in a clear plastic case.

Flip open the top, and the case becomes a self-standing display.

The folk art calendar will be available late summer,early fall.

News from Museum Licensees

Share our legacy—look for new products from our family of licensees, featuring unique designs inspired by objects from the museum's collection. * Fotofollo Batter up! Take

note—introduce a baseball fan to the world of folk art or a folk art enthusiast to a major part of American culture. Fotofolio is creating a line of postcard books and note cards featuring objects from the museum's exhibition, "The Perfect Game," a celebration of baseball and the folk artists that have approached this subject with passion, conviction, and creativity. Cards will be available on June 17, opening day of the show.

from

the American Folk Art ',Museum

Page-A-Day' Folk Art Gallery Calendar for 2004,featuring selections from the American Folk Art Museum's permanent collection

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 American Folk Art Museum Collection, please contact us at 212/977-7170.

3 MAXIMO BLOOMER GIRLS BASEBALL CLUB! Lewis Smith (1907-19981 / Maximo, Ohio / c. 1970/ crayon on cardboard / 20 50" / The Gladstone Collection of Baseball Art

Family of LJcensees Carvin Folk Art Designs,Inc.(212/755-6474) gold-plated and enameled jewelry.* Concord Fabrics,Inc.(212/760-0343) printed fabric by the yard and prepackaged fabric craft kits.

Crossroads Accessories, Inc.(800/648-6010) quilted-fabric totes, handbags, travel cases, and cosmetic bags.* Denyse Schmidt Quilts (800/621-9017)limited-edition quilt collection, decorative pillows, and AFAM eye pillows.* Fotofolio(212/226-0923) art postcard books, wooden postcards, boxed note cards, and magnets.* FUNQuilts(708/445-1817)limited-edition quilt collection.* Cason (212/354-8840) boxed note cards and jigsaw puzzle.* LEAVES Pure Teas(877/532-8378)loose tea in decorative tins.* Mary Myers Studio(800/829-9603) wooden nutcrackers, nodders, and tree ornaments.* On The Wall Productions,Inc. (800/788-4044) Magic Cubes.* Organic Lands (607/544-1090)organic deli items. Ozone Design,Inc.(212/563-2990)socks.* PDK Worldwide Enterprises, Inc.(508/676-2155) bedcovers, quilts, coordinated pillows and rugs, and throws. Takashimaya Company,Ltd. (212/350-0550)home furnishings and decorative accessories(available only in Japan). Wild Apple Graphics,Ltd.(800/756-8359)fine art reproduction prints and posters.* Workman Publishing Co.,Inc.(800/722-7202)Page-ADay® Gallery Calendar.*

JACKIE ROBINSON STEALING HOME/Sam Doyle 119061985)/ St. Helena Island, South Carolina / 1978-1981 / enamel on tin / 51 36" / collection of Lanford Wilson

*Available in the American Folk Art Museum Book and Gift Shops. Visit our website and online store at www.folkartmuseum.org.

SPRING 2003 FOLK ART 59

SPRING

PROGRAM

HIGHLIGHTS

Unless otherwise specified, all programs are held at the American Folk Art Museum,45 West 53rd Street, New York City. Programs are open to the public, and admission fees vary. For more information, please call the education department at 212/265-1040, ext. 102, or pick up the museum's Public Programs brochure.

SLIDE TALK Why WOlfi During All These Years?

Phyllis Kind, art dealer Friday, March 21 6:30 PM Free to members $5 general MUSICAL PERFORMANCES Algebra=You Are Music Hans Burgener, violin Giinter Muller, electronics Margrit Rieben, drums Hans Koch,sax and clarinet Daniel Ludwig, actor Sunday, March 23, at 12:30 PM Tuesday, March 25, and Wednesday, March 26, at 8:00 PM $35 general $30 members, seniors, and students PANEL DISCUSSION Mutual Obsessions: Three Cartoonists Look at Darger The Nathan Lerner Annual Lecture Gary Panter Art Spiegelman Chris Ware Moderator: Dan Nadel Friday, April 11 6:30 PM $20 general $15 members, seniors, and students Co-sponsored by The Contemporary Center SYMPOSIUM The Fine Points of Fraktur Saturday, April 12 10:00 AM-4:30 PM Reception to follow $60 general $50 members, seniors, and students

Developed in conjunction with the dynamic exhibition "Fralctur Treasures from the Schwenkfelder Library and Heritage Center," this full day symposium explores many facets of fralctur, including new discoveries in the field and the role fraktur has played in the Pennsylvania German and Anglo-American communities. A panel of collectors speaking on their collections and interests will complete the program.

SYMPOSIUM Intersection of Art and Psychiatry Saturday, May 10 10:00 AM-3:00 PM $60 general $50 seniors, students, and members This symposium explores the relationship between neurobiological disorders and the artistic temperament. Valued scholars in the fields of art, psychiatry, and medicine will discuss historic precedents as well as contemporary research and artists.

This symposium is co-organized with the National Alliancefor Research on Schizophrenia and Depression.

FILM SCREENINGS AND DIALOGUES Outside the Frame: SelfTaught Artists on Film Wednesdays 6:30-8:00 PM $10 general $5 members, seniors, and students

1,2,3, Much Wednesday, April 23 Doris Vila, visuals David Weinstein, music Charles Allcroft, performance

New York Detail: Anonymous Craftsmen and the Building Decoration on the Upper West Side Sunday, March 16

Four Women Artists Wednesday, May 21 William Ferris, professor of history, adjunct professor in the curriculum in folklore, senior associate director, Center for the Study of the American South This series is co-organized by Caroline Kerrigan and the American Folk Art Museum.

Buildings,Signs and Symbols: Icons and Images in the Financial District Sunday, April 13

LET'S TALK FOLK ART This slide-talk series takes place at the Donnell Library Center at 20 West 53rd Street.

Admission is free.

Nature and Spirituality In the Contemporary Collection Brooke Davis Anderson, director and curator of The Contemporary Center, American Folk Art Museum Tuesday, April 8 12:30 PM WALKING TOURS This series is given in collaboration with The Municipal Art Society of New York,457 Madison Avenue,212/9353960. Tours proceed rain or shine. No reservations necessary. Meet and pay for the tour at the designated meeting site.

11:00 AM $15 general $12 MAS and museum members

FAMILY ART WORKSHOPS Seesaw Workshops To take place at the museum's Feld Gallery.

Saturdays from 2:00-4:00 PM April 12, May 10 FOLK ART FUN FOR FAMILIES (For Ages 6 and Up) Sundays from 2:00-4:00 PM One two-day session: $15 per family $10 per member family Entire program series: $80 per family $40 per member family Tickets include museum admission.

Reservations required.

Please callfor details.

April: Folk Art Puzzle Books April 6, April 13 May: Beginning Quilts May 11, May 18 GALLERY TOURS For information about public tours, please call 212/265-1040, ext. 102.

For information about adult group and school tours, please call 212/265-1040, ext. 119.

Public programs at the American Folk Art Museum are made possible in part byfundsfrom The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Carnegie Corporation ofNew York New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Consolidated Edison Company ofNew York, Inc., and Sotheby's.

60 SPRING 2003 FOLK ART

II 7I hrough estate planning, our support will have an ongoing impact on the museum's success. This ensures that future generations will be able to enjoy, as we have, the beauty and power of folk art."

-Dorothea and Leo Rabkin

AMERICAN

MUSEUM

For more information on planned giving options at the American Folk Art Museum, please call the development office at 212. 977. 7170, ext. 346.

WORKS BY

SUSAN SLYMAN CAN BE SEEN AT

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62 SPRING 2003 FOLK ART

Stacey Lambert, Tattooed Lion, PAINTED

CERAMIC

FENIMORE ART MUSEUM Cooperstown,NY A new addition to Fenimore Art Museum's

American Memory:Recalling the Past in Folk Art An ongoing exhibition showcasing the museum's premier collection of folk art

Columbia, ca. 1850,Artist unidentified Painted wood

First time in the United States and only in Cooperstown

\ PRACTICAL PROPER D

tURE.& DARI

ii[IGHrs OF

fAsHi9n Art of the Elevated Foot

Heights ofFashion:Art ofthe Elevated Foot Kicks off this Spring, Through December 2003 Exhibition organized by the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto Curated by Elizabeth Semmelhack, Curator of the Bata Shoe Museum

H fenlmore art museum

Fenimore Art Museum Lake Road, Route 80, Cooperstown, NY 13326 1-888-547-1450 • vvww.fenimoreartmuseum.org • wwvv.nysha.org

MUSEUM

NEWS

COMPILED BY VANESSA DAVIS

WWII Exhibition Opens

MARGUERITA SYLVA ALS CARMEN / Books with Songs and Dances, Book 16, p. 975/ Adolf Won 11864-1930)/ Bern, Switzerland / 1919/ pencil, colored pencil, and collage on newsprint / 293A 173/4"/ Collection of the Adolf WORD Foundation, Museum of Fine Arts, Bern, Switzerland, A9304-59

he stunning exhibition Betsey Farber, and Barbara and "St. Adolf-Giant-CreTracy Cate in memory of Anne ation: The Art of Adolf Hill Blanchard; and Audrey B. Won,"featuring more than 100 Heckler, Marilyn Oslunan, works by the Swiss artist, opened Robert Roth, and The Williams at the American Folk Art Collection.

A full-color, 112-page cataMuseum on Feb. 25. Considered log, published by the American by many as the greatest artist in Folk Art Museum in association the European tradition of art brut, Won is celebrated for his with Princeton University Press, intense visionary imagery, which is available for $29.95 at the American Folk Art Museum's virtually pulls one into the art while simultaneously exploding Book and Gift Shops at 45 West out into the exhibition space.

53rd Street and at 2 Lincoln This sumptuous presentation, Square, Columbus Avenue, organized by guest curators Elka between 65th and 66th Streets.

Spoerri and Daniel Baumann,in Museum members receive a 10 collaboration with Brooke Davis percent discount. For mail order information, please call 212/265Anderson, director of the American Folk Art Museum's Contem1040, ext. 124. porary Center, will be MEDICAL FACULTY IMediziinische Fakultaat]/ Adolf Wong (1864-1930)/ Bern, on view through May 18.

Switzerland / 1905 / pencil on newsprint / 29/ 1 2 x 39'/4" / Collection of the Adolf Wolfli We sincerely urge you Foundation, Museum of Fine Arts, Bern, Switzerland, A1988.9 not to miss it! See Spring * 0 0 00.400* . iiS 41 Programs for details 4 • ki— IS ikFAT/444=1411 -on lectures and events 47' * iingefiktaaliCW organized in conjunction with this astonishing show. We will report on the Members' Opening Reception and programs in the next issue of Folk Art. The exhibition is sponsored in part by the generous support of the Swisspeaks Festival, an initiative of the Swiss government commission, PRS Presence Switzerland, Pro-Helvetia Arts Council of Switzerland, ....."::'...._•-- ' ....

1 and the Consulate GenN...---- ....-,..... eral of Switzerland in New York. Additional //400'"i111111101t0 support is provided by ..,ej leoalatM.Nem.,;:..,„, --\ The Andrew W. Mellon -7:--it= z-.:.........,:%•`.

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34 SPRING 2003 FOLK ART

Slotin Folk Art Auction The Herbert W. Hemphill

Lost and Found Sale May 3, 2003 • Buford, GA • 800 LOTS For years, hundreds of treasures have been lost in the Smithsonian's vast warehouses and only recently discovered. Slotin Auction will sell the entire grouping to benefit The Herbert W. Hemphill Folk Art Fund at The Smithsonian American Art Museum.

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O 4CO Of Ak1111411bA/3111)1111e

allatit- Iapt ion ark

Order your catalog now!

Send $25 to: Slotin Folk Art Auction 5967 Blackberry Ln. Buford, GA 30518 • 770 932-1000 folkfest©bellsouth.net • www.slotinfolkart.com • GAL #2864

MUSEUM

NEWS

AIA Honors Tod Williams and Billie Tsien n Jan.6 the American Institute of Architects (AIA)announced the recipients of the AIA Honor Awards for 2003, the profession's highest recognition of works that exemplify excellence in architecture, interiors, and urban design.

Selected from nearly 600 total submissions,31 recipients will be honored in May at the 2003 AIA National Convention and Expo in San Diego, Calif.

Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects will receive an MA Honor Award for Outstanding Architecture, for the American Folk Art Museum in New York City. Williams and Tsien have received more than six prestigious awards for the American Folk Art Museum building.

The AIA award is particularly important to them because it is

0

reaki.GARDE-RAIL.CO

given by their peers. Jury comments included,"A unique approach to architectural design with products of enough quality to begin new trends within the industry. Great mix—great styling. The investigation into materials was exciting.... It also showed a great understanding of the scale offolk art."

"For 54 years, the MA has highlighted the architecture profession's most innovative and important contributions to the built environment through the MA Honor Awards program.

This year's recipients represent a wide range of architectural solutions, all of which in some way reflect architects' continued commitment to improving the quality of life in communities around the country," said MA president Thompson E.Penney.

American Radiance at Groton School elections from the exhibition "American Radiance: The Ralph Esmerian Gift to the American Folk Art Museum" were on view last fall at the de Menil Gallery of the Groton School in Groton, Mass. From

S

Oct. 15 to Dec. 14, 2002,71 objects from this extraordinary collection graced the gallery of the school—Esmerian's alma mater—and were seen by students, parents, faculty, and friends.

ANTON HAARDT GALLERY 2858 Magazine St. New Orleans, LA 70115 (504)891-9080 t (504)897-2050 f www.antonart.com The Groton School's de Menu! Gallery, Groton, Mass., 2002

66 SPRING 2003 I (His Ai<

DOYLE NEW YORK AMERICAN FURNITURE AND DECORATIONS Including Paintings and Historical, Decorative and Aububon Prints AUCTION: Tuesday, April 29 at 10am EXHIBITION: April 26-28 CONTACT: Jeni L Sandberg 212-427-4141, ext 271 american@DoyleNewYork.com DOYLE NEW YORK

AUCTIONEERS & APPRAISERS

Drawing on America's Past

H.K. Goodman Portrait of a Man Writing Oil on canvas, 30 1/4 x 42 1/4 inches Estimate: $10,000-15,000

175 EAST 87TH ST

NY, NY 10128

Drawing on America's Past Folk Art, Modernism, and the Index of American Design VIRGINIA TUTTLE CLAYTON, ELIZABETH STILLINGER, ERIKA DOSS, AND DEBORAH CHOTNER

Commemorates the 6oth anniversary of the National Gallery's acquisition of the important New Deal Project visual archive of Americana up to 1900.

Showcases 82 of the Index's 18,000 watercolors and photographs of selected artifacts, from quilts to weather vanes. Three essays explore the Index's history and early folk-art collecting.

Published in association with the National Gallery ofArt, Washington, D.C.

—BACK

212-427-2730

DOYLE NEWYORK.COM

IN PRINT—

Stitched from the Soul Slave Quilts from the Antebellum South GLADYS-MARIE FRY

With a new preface by the author Celebrates the quilting artistry of slaves.

StitcItt11rot tItSvd Slave Quilts from the Antebellum South ',ARIL 110

"Slave-made quilts, some utilitarian and others wonderful examples of the seamstress's art."

—Washington Post Book World Oversized, 112 pp., 73 Color 50 b&w illus. $27.50 paper

Oversized, 256 pp., 134 color / 38 b&w illus. $45.00 cloth

THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA PRESSat bookstores or 800-848-6224 I www.uncpress.unc.edu

SPRING 2003 FOLK ART 67

MUSEUM

AMERICA'S OLDEST MAKERS OF COLONIAL AND EARLY AMERICAN LIGHTING FIXTURES

AUTHENTIC DESIGNS www.authentic-designs.com West Rupert, Vermont 05776 (802) 394-7713 • 800-844-9416 Catalogue $3.00

NEWS

Upcoming Exhibition: The Perfect Game n baseball, a "perfect" game occurs when a pitcher and his teammates allow no base runners and commit no errors during the course of a complete game."The Perfect Game: America Looks at Baseball" opens this year at the American Folk Art Museum on June 17.

This one-of-a-kind gathering of baseball art and ephemera celebrates more than 150 years of baseball's—and America's— past. Self-taught and visionary artists have long been inspired by baseball, and have carved, painted, and stitched their love of the game from as early as the 1800s to the present. With a consummate curator's eye and an earnest love for baseball, guest curator Elizabeth V. Warren presents a spirited array of paintings, carvings, metal carnival figures, quilts, embroideries, gameboards, photographs, early bats, balls, and scorecards. The exhibition,"The Perfect Game: America Looks at Baseball," is sponsored in part by Sports Illustrated magazine, a special grant

from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and Fred Wilpon.

A wonderful 150-page,fullcolor book, written by Elizabeth V. Warren with Margaret S. Smeal, accompanies the exhibition. It provides an idiosyncratic look at the rich and varied aspects of baseball's history, including baseball teams and ballparks of yesteryear, how equipment has changed, the "women's game" and the "children's game," and baseball as an international sport. New Yorker columnist Roger Angell, one of the outstanding baseball writers of our age, contributes some of his own cherished reminiscences of the national pastime. The Perfect Game: America Looks at Baseball, with an introduction by the museum's director, Gerard C. Wertkin, published in association with Harry N. Abrams,Inc., is available for $29.95. A 48-page conlpanion children's book, Baseballfor Everyone: America's Perfect Game, written by Janet Wyman Coleman with Elizabeth V. Warren, also

JAN WHITLOCK •••• Textiles Interiors- ••• 3021 655-1117

LIBERTY NINE OF NEW BRUNSWICK, NEW JERSEY, PLAYING THE BALTICS OF BROOKLYN IN ELYSIAN FIELDS OF NEW BRUNSWICK / artist unidentified / probably New York or New Jersey / c. 1870/ watercolor on paper / 23 30'!collection of Neil S. Hirsch

68 SPRING 2003 FOLK ART

BARN

published by Abrams in association with the museum, will be available in June for $16.95.

Both books can be purchased at the American Folk Art Museum's Book and Gift Shops at 45 West 53rd Street and at

STAR PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS

2 Lincoln Square, Columbus Avenue, between 65th and 66th Streets. Museum members receive a 10 percent discount.

For mail order information, please call 212/265-1040, ext. 124.

ilade phia's Navy Pier Antiques Show PRESENTED BY

Philadelphia EM21151112:11111

Friday-Sunday/April 415&6 Friday:10am - 6pm, $15 Saturday:10am - 7pm, $10 Sunday: 11am - 5pm, $10

A quality show featuring 69 nationally recognized American and European antiques specialists Formal & Rural Furniture, Jewelry, Folk Art, Textiles, Ceramics, Fine Art, Metalwares, Garden, Period Accessories, Oriental Rugs, and more No Preview No Early Buyers. â&#x20AC;˘

Convenient and free parking, On-site shipping, Gourmet cafe and Free shuttle service Located at the Philadelphia Cruise Terminal at Pier 1 (known as the Naval Business Center, Building #3)

5100 S. Broad St.,just off 1-95, at Exit 17(N/S) Philadelphia, PA FIGURE OF A CATCHER!artist unidentified / United States; found in Hoboken, New Jersey!

1930-1940/ carved and painted wood with metal, canvas, and manufactured wood baseball bat, leather mitt, and chest protector! 38 16 12" / private collection

For further information or to request a brochure call (845) 876-0616 or visit www.barnstar.com

SPRING 2003 FOLK ART 69

MUSEUM

JEANINE TAYLOR FOLK ART

NEWS

Come Explore With Us oin the American Folk Art Museum Explorers on two exciting upcoming tripsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; Ireland: Cottages to Castles(May 14-25), and Cuba(Nov. 8-15).

The tours are already filling up fast, so reserve your space now!

Come along with us and explore some of Ireland's scenic wonders and architectural splendors, including the beautiful Dingle Peninsula, the lakes of Killarney, a seventh-century oratory, earthen cottages with thatched roofs, medieval castles, and Dublin's beautiful Georgian townhouses. You will have the opportunity to discover the country's unique folk art, antiques, and

J Highwayman Artist, Sam Newton,33"x 61"

A full service art brokerage specializing in contemporary southern folk art.

www.JTFOLKART.com 407.740.0991

crafts. You don't have to be Irish to fall in love with the scenic and friendly Emerald Isle!

The Folk Art Explorers are traveling to Cuba again! Because the March 2002 trip was such a great success, we've scheduled another for November of this year. Take this rare opportunity to immerse yourself in a vibrant culture that has been off limits to U.S. citizens for more than a generationâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a trip that promises to be the experience of a lifetime. For either tour, please call the membership department at 212/977-7170 or send an e-mail to membership@ folkartmuseum.org for more information and to reserve your place.

ORLANDO. FLORIDA

Seeing by Feeling

OtAbit 9 ANTIQUE MALL

he American Folk Art Museum collaborated with the Museum of Modern Art to host a special "touch tour" of our own "American Anthem" exhibition for MoMA's Access program for people with visual impairments. Visitors explored the museum by feeling a collection of"touchable" objects in the show as well as the unique tombasil surface of the museum building itself. Chief Registrar

T

Ann-Marie Reilly and Manager of School and Docent Programs Rebecca Hayes organized the tour and chose the objects to display, and Ms. Hayes led the visitors through the tour, describing each object they encountered. For more information on MoMA's Access programs, please call 212/708-9864 (voice) or 212/247-1230(TTY), or send an e-mail to access programs@moma.org.

The Mecca for

Florida Highwaymen Art Well known for our outstanding selection and expertise View paintings for sale at

www.grantantiquemall.com (321) 726-6778 5900 US Highway 1 in Grant, Florida Learning about the Holy Family sculpture through touch

70 SPRING 2003 FOLK ART

ULRICH BLEIKER SCULPTURES

Teen Docent Program program to become teen docents at the American Folk Art Museum. The students learned about the museum's permanent collection by studying the current survey exhibit,"American Anthem." They also learned how to lead a public tour. Through meetings with museum staff members they explored various job categories within an art museum. The program culminated in December 2002 with the new docents leading tours of "American Anthem" for their fellow Docent Julie Figueroa leads her class on a tour of "American Anthem." classmates.

aleena Aviles, Julie Figueroa, Jena Homsey, Nicoletta Karvelas, Cassandra Laurencio, and Jack Su,six students from Vanguard and LaGuardia high schools, participated in an eight-week pilot

K

08/04-07/06/2003 BENJAMIN BONJOUR KURT HAAS ALOIS WEY And other Swiss Artists

GALERIE SUSI BRUNNER Spitalgasse 10 V 8001 Z rich Tel 01/251 23 42 V Fax 01/ 261 23 49 V www.susibrunner.ch

PREVIEW OPENING at Outsider Art Fair, Puck Building, NYC January 23-26

INSIDE OUT

A Day Without Art n Nov. 26, 2002,the American Folk Art Museum hosted its annual Day Without Art at the museum's Eva and Morris Feld Gallery on Columbus Avenue and 66th Street. Clifford Smith, an artist living with HIV in New York City, presented his art to Karyn Kay's creative writing class from the neighboring LaGuardia High School. Smith's mandala-like rugs and hangings are created out of found materials, including plastic bags and eggshells.

Smith told the students that he finds the process of creating his art meditative and healing, and spoke about the work's importance to him. Although he has been a dancer for many years, he no longer has the physical strength to dance professionally,

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and his newly found love for visual art means that he can continue to live his life as a creative person. Through the museum's multiyear collaboration with the organization Visual AIDS in New York,the efforts of the staff at LaGuardia High School, and a creative writing initiative sponsored by William Louis-Dreyfus, president of the American Poetry Society, each year LaGuardia students create poems based on their encounters with artists living with HIV. The museum prints the poems in a small booklet that is distributed to all participants at a follow-up breakfast, where three poems chosen by Mr. LouisDreyfus are read by their authors.

The names of the participating young poets and some of their work will appear in next issue's Museum News.

February 1 rch 32 page catalog available Essay by Gail Levin, $15PP

GARY SNYDER FINE ART 601 West 29th Street, New York, NY 10001 phone 212 871 1077 fax 212 871 1262 www.garysnyderfineart.com Exhibition can be viewed at ModernAmericanArt.com

SPRING 2003 FOLK ART 71

ANTIQUES

SHOW Parents As Art Partners

At the Historic 23rd Street Armory 22 South 23rd Street(between Market and Chestnut) Just 5 blocks from the Philadelphia Antiques Show

T

April 3-6,2003 i 11----\.D Friday 12 pm -6 pm Saturday 10 am - 6 pm $10 Sunday 10 am - 5 pm $10 I

"Fine,fresh antiquesfor the American collector" OPENING RECEPTION THURSDAY, APRIL 3 c•-• 7- 9 Pm The Kick-off Eventfor Antiques Week in Philadelphia Wine Tasting by Moore Brothers Wine Company Tickets $25 • American and English formal and country furniture; ceramics and pottery; paintings and prints; early folk art; clocks; silver; textiles; garden architecturals, and more. . .

Cafe on premises , e •• Free Antiques Week Shuttle lAMME,Inc. Barry M. Cohen, Manager

b4rtime@cmcnet

ON/El-140 FOLKSIKTISTS

V k k Ma

he American Folk Art Museum's education department was recently awarded the Center for Arts Education's "Parents As Art Partners" grant, to collaborate with the parents of students of Public School 163 in Manhattan. The purpose of "Parents As Art Partners" is to organize cultural opportunities for parents wishing to visit museums and develop creative projects with museum educators. On Saturday, Jan. 25, Manager of School and Docent Programs Rebecca Hayes took P.S. 163 parents and students on a tour of"American Anthem," focusing on the quilts featured in

I Weirro:

the exhibition. After the tour, quilt artist Lupe Miller led an artmaking workshop in which parents and children worked together to create their own unique quilt squares. The parents and students returned to visit the museum again in February to explore "Fralctur Treasures from the Schwenkfelder Library and Heritage Center" and to participate in another workshop with Ms. Miller, who in turn led more workshops at P.S. 163.

Winter's Eve at Feld he American Folk Art Museum's Eva and Morris Feld Gallery at Lincoln Square was part of the third annual Winter's Eve celebration, organized by the Lincoln Square Business Improvement District, on Dec. 2,2002. The festival featured a night of free entertainment and activities, shopping, and eating. More than 750 people visited the Feld Gallery and enjoyed the music of Upper West Sider Jay Leonhart and his musical family.

Leonhart, an acclaimed jazz bassist and songwriter, has been playing with some of music's

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most legendary performers for more than 40 years, and he now performs his one man show, The Bass Lesson, all over the country.

His wife, Donna,is a longtime volunteer at the Feld, and she and daughter Carolyn are accomplished jazz singers in their own right. Michael,the Leonharts' son, also played solo trumpet at the Feld at the neighborhood event, A Night at Sharkey's. For more information on the many dynamic and free events at the Eva and Morris Feld Gallery, please call 212/595-9533.

i*TRADITIONSIL efil1FTS0 346 Riverfest Weekert(fs FoLiaife firt Show Salm • Meet the Sirtists!

April 25, 26, 27, 2003, at historic South Commons on the banks of the Chattahoochee River in Columbus, Georgia. lacti.00LliTilbiiSriVerfeSte OM

For information,contact Viititi Mama Weisel at 706.3n4.7417 or 706.323.1439 or vikitimancileliohoo.com Bassist lay Leonhart with his family—son Michael, wife Donna, and daughter Carolyn

72 SPRING 2003 FOLK ART

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BOARD OF TRUSTEES Executive Committee Ralph 0. Esmerian Clulinnan ofthe Board L. John Wilkerson President Frances Sirota Martinson, Esq. Executive Vice President and Chairman, Executive Committee Lucy C. Danziger Executive Vice President Joan M.Johnson Vice President Barry D. Briskin Treasurer Jacqueline Fowler Secretary

Joyce B. Cowin Samuel Farber Members Paul W.Caan Barbara Cate David L. Davies Jonathan Green Susan Gutfreund Robert L Hirschhorn

Kristina Johnson, Esq. David Krashes Taryn Gottlieb Leavitt Nancy Mead George H. Meyer, Esq. Cyril L Nelson Laura Parsons J. Randall Plummer Julia T. Richie Margaret Z. Robson

R. Scott Bromley The Brown Foundation, Inc., Houston.

Curtis F. Brown, Hayden Goldberg Mr.& Mrs.Edward James Brown Gail Brown Marc Brown & Laurene Krasny Brown J. Bruce Antiques Fred & Theresa Buchanan in memory of Sybil Gibson Charles & Deborah Burgess Jim Burk Antique Shows The Burnett Group Marcy L. Burns/American Indian Arts Joyce A. Burns Paul & Dana Cam Lewis P. Cabot Elinor B. Cahn Mr.& Mrs. Donald Campbell Bliss & Brigitte Camochan Caterpillar Foundation John W.Castello in memory of Adele Earnest Donald N. Cavanaugh & Edward G.Blue Edward Lee Cave Virginia G.Cave Shari Cavin & Randall Morris Peter P. Cecere Sharon S. Cheeseman Christie's Richard & Teresa Ciccotelli Barbara L. Claster Lou Cohen Alexis & George Contos In memory of Daniel Cowin Mrs. Daniel Cowin Jeanne D. Creps Mr.& Mrs. Edgar M. Cullman Elissa F. & Edgar M. Cullman Jr. Joe & Joan Cullman Susan R. Cullman Catherine G. Curran Kendra & Allan Daniel David & Sheena Danziger Lucy & Mike Danziger Peggy & Richard M. Danziger David L. Davies Darwin/ Carolinn Pocher & William Woody Vincent & Stephanie DiCicco H. Richard Dietrich Jr. Mr.& Mrs. Charles M. Diker Patricia McFadden Dombal Colette & Jim Donovan Doyle New York/Kathleen M. Doyle Deborah & Arnold Dunn Ray & Susan Egan Gloria Einbender Sharon & Ted Eisenstat Elitzer Family Fund in honor of Anne Hill & Monty Blanchard David & Doris Walton Epner Joyce & Klaus Eppler Ralph 0.Esmerian Susan H.Evans In Memory of Heila D.Everard

Sam & Betsey Farber Nancy Fanner & Everette James Mike & Doris Feinsilber Bequest of Eva & Morris Feld Elizabeth C. Feldmann M. Finkel & Daughter Fireman's Fund Insurance Company Deborah Fishbein Alexander & Enid Fisher Laura Fisher/Antique Quilts & Americana Jacqueline Fowler Beverly Frank Gretchen Freeman & Alan Silverman Mrs. Albert D. Freiberg Susan 0.Friedman Alvin E. Friedman-Kien, M.D. Furthermore, the publication program of the J.M. Kaplan Fund Galerie St. Etienne, Inc. Gallery of Graphic Arts, Ltd. Rebecca & Michael Gamzon Judy & Jules Garel Garth's Auctions, Inc. Rich & Pat Garthoeffner Sidney & Sandra Gecker Nancy Gerber Morad Ghadamian Sima Ghadamian Merle & Barry Ginsburg James & Nancy Glazer Mr.& Mrs. Merle H. Glick Carla T. Goers Edith H. Goldberg Russ & Karen Goldberger Mrs. Toni L. Goldfarb Tracy Goodnow Art & Antiques Ellin & Baron Gordon Howard Graff Jonathan Green Nancy M.& Ben S. Greenberg Greene & Mays American Antiques Marion E. Greene Blanche Greenstein & Thomas Woodard William & Shirley E. Greenwald Peg & Judd Gregory Audrey Elkinson Griff Bonnie Grossman/The Ames Gallery Pat Guthman Alan & Elaine Haid Robert & Linda Hall Cordelia Hamilton Ken & Debra Hamlett Nancy B. Hamon Jeanne & Herbert Hansel] Deborah Harding Marion Harris & Jetty Rosenfeld Harvey Art & Antiques Audrey Heckler Donald Heller, Heller/Washam Nina Hellman Jeffrey Henkel Mr.& Mrs. George Henry Mr.& Mrs. Samuel Herrup

Selig D. Sacks, Esq. Bonnie Strauss Nathaniel J. Sutton Richard H. Walker, Esq. Trustees Emeriti Joseph F. Cullman 3rd Cordelia Hamilton George F. Shaskan Jr.

CAPITAL CAMPAIGN DONORS The American Folk Art Museum announced a $34.5 million campaign to construct and endow its new home on West 53rd Street. As of January 31, 2003 the following donors have contributed $33,800,000: Marjorie W. Abel James & Gail Addiss Dr. & Mrs. Karl P. Adler Alconda-Owsley Foundation Judith Alexander George R. Allen/Gordon L. Wyckoff-Raccoon Creek Antiques American Capital Access American Folk Art Society Barbara Anderson Ingrid & Richard Anderson Mama Anderson Judy Angelo Cowen Foundation Marie T. Annoual Aame Anton Barbara Ardizone Marion Armstrong R.R. Atkins Foundation Lois S.& Gad Avigad Joan & Darwin Bahm Marcia Bain Lori Ann Baker, Baker & Co. Designs Ltd. Marianne E. Balazs Denny Beach Judy & Barry Beil in honor of Alice & Ron Hoffman Bankers Trust Company Bam Star Productions, Inc. Didi & David Barrett Jimi Barton-Rhinebeck Antiques Fair Joyce & Ron Bassin/Bird In Hand Patricia Beatty Mary F. Beck Ellen Stone-Belic Philip & Leah Bell Laurine Hawkins Ben-Dov Mrs. Arthur M. Berger Julie M. Bemson Big Apple Wrecking & Construction Corporation Mrs. George P. Bissell Jr. Diana H. Bittel Edward V. Blanchard & M. Anne Hill Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Fund Lenore & Stephen Blank Bloomberg L.P. The Bodman Foundation Booth Ferris Foundation Robert, Katharine & Courtney Booth Catherine & Chris Botta Marilyn W.Bottjer Edith S. & Barry D. Briskin/Shirley K. Schlafer Foundation Susan Brodish Florence Brody Sheila & Aaron Brog

74 SPRING 2003 FOLK ART

Ann Hickerson & Martha Hickerson Antonio Hidalgo The High Five Foundation Frederick D. Hill Pamela & Timothy Hill Kit Hinrichs The Hirschhorn Foundation, Robert & Marjorie Hirschhorn, Carolyn Hirshhorn Schenker Historical Society of Early American Decoration Arlene & Leonard Hochman Mr.& Mrs. Joseph C. Hoopes Jr. Carter G. Houck Sr. Evelyn Houlroyd Ellen E. Howe Mr.& Mrs. Philip Howlett Allen & Barry Huffman Peter D. Hynson Antiques Paul Ingersoll In the Beginning Fabrics Thomas Isenberg In memory of Laura N.Israel Thomas & Barbara Israel The Jamison Williams Foundation Johnson & Johnson Joan & Victor Johnson Kristina Johnson, Esq. Louise & George Kaminow Julie & Sandy Palley and Samuel & Rebecca Kardon Foundation Allan & Penny Katz Edwin U. Keates, MD. Steven & Helen Kellogg Jolie Keller & Michael Malice Richard Kemble & George Korn, Forager House Collection Mrs. David J. Kend Leigh Keno Amy Keys Jacqueline & Jonathan King Phyllis Kind Joe K. Kindig ifi Susan & Robert E. Klein Nancy Knudsen Nancy Kollisch & Jeffrey Pressman Greg K. Kramer David & Barbara Krashes Dr. Robert & Arlene Kreisler Sherry & Mark Kronenfeld Robert A. Landau Bruno & Lindsey LaRocca Michelle & Lawrence Lasser William & Karen Lauder Jerry & Susan Lauren Wendy & Mel Lavitt Mark & Taryn Leavitt The Edith and Herbert Lehman Foundation, Inc. In Memory of Henry J. & Ema D. Lair John A. Levin & Co.,Inc. Bertram Levinston, M.D.

(continued on page 76)

OBITUARIES

SeIden Rodman(1909-2002) elden Rodman,cultural critic, author of more than 40 books, poet, and advocate for Haitian art for 60 years, died in Ridgewood, N.J., of a cerebral hemorrhage on Nov. 2. In the 1940s, as co-director of Le Centre d'Art in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, along with DeWitt Peters, Rodman helped established a place where Haitian artists could exhibit and sell their work.

Among his significant accomplishments, Rodman directed eight Haitian artists in mural painting at the Cathedral Ste. Trinite in Port-au-Prince and encouraged subsequent generasmaller number of works have tions of Haitian artists. been donated to the Yale UniverRodman was committed to sity Art Gallery, in New Haven, bringing Haitian and other folk Conn. Each institution has pubart to the broadest possible audilished an extensive catalog. ence. He wrote the first monoOver the years, Rodman maingraph on self-taught African tained joint residences in Jacmel, American artist Horace Pippin— Haiti, and Oakland, N.J. In 1989 Horace Pippin, Negro Painter Rodman lectured on Haitian art (1947), and the first book on Haitian art—Renaissance in Haiti for the American Folk Art Museum's Folk Art Institute.

(1948). Other books by Rodman Marking his death, Randall Morinclude Haiti, the Black Republic ris, who wrote an essay for the (1954), The Miracle ofHaitian Art(1974),Artists In Tune with catalog at Ramapo College, commented,"Rodman essentially was Their World: Popular Artists of a pathfinder for other Americans the Americas and Their Relation to see the importance of Amerito the Folk Tradition (1982), and can self-taught artists. He was Where Art Is Joy: Haitian Art: one of the first to understand the The First Forty Years(1988). In continuities in the broader spec1983 and 1985 Rodman and his trum linking art of all the wife, Carole Cleaver, began to Americas." donate a substantial number of Rodman is survived by his Haitian, Brazilian, Mexican, and wife of40 years, Carole Cleaver, American folk paintings to Ramapo College, in Mahwah, two daughters, Oriana Rodman and Carla Oschwald, of Santa Fe, N.J., with continuing additions N.M., a son, Van Nostrand Rodover the years. On Oct. 13, 2001, man,of Oakland, N.J., and three Ramapo College opened the grandchildren.

Selden Rodman Gallery of Popu—Lee Kogan lar Art, with more than 200 works in the permanent collection. A

S

Materials for the Arts he American Folk Art Museum would like to acknowledge and thank Materials for the Arts, NYC

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Department of Cultural Affairs/ NYC Department of Sanitation/ NYC Board ofEducation for their generous contributions.

Intuit Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art 756 N. Milwaukee Ave. Chicago, IL 60622 312.243.9088 fax 312.243.9089 intuit@art.org Open Wednesday-Saturday noon to 5 and by appointment

www.artorg

DISTINCTIVE PHOTOGRAPHY OF ARTWORK AND OBJECTS FOR COLLECTIONS, GALLERIES AND MUSEUMS

Matt Flynn PHOTOGRAPHY 212/627 2985 rnattflynnphoto@aol.com

SPRING 2003 FOLK ART 75

DONORS

Continuedfrom page 74 Levy Charitable Trust Judy Lewis The Liman Foundation Lipman Family Foundation The 2000 Lipman Fellows Bruce Lisman In Memory of Zeke Liverant Nancy MacKay Nancy & Erwin Maddrey Anne & Vincent Mai Maine Antique Digest The Jane Marcher Foundation Harriet IVIarple Plehn Trust Paul Martinson, Frances Martinson & Howard Graff in memory of Burt Martinson Mr.& Mrs. Christopher Mayer In honor of Nancy Mayer Mrs. Myron Mayer Kerry McCarthy Milly McGehee Nancy and Dana Mead Mary 0. Mecagni Robert & Meryl Meltzer Charles W.Merrels Evelyn S. Meyer George H. Meyer Jim & Enid Michelman Mrs. E.J. Milano Mr.& Mrs. Samuel C. Miller Judith & James Milne Jean Mitchell Sandra Moers JP Morgan Chase & Co., Inc. Keith & Lauren Morgan Morris Levinson Foundation,Inc. Alden & Jane Munson Lucia Cirino Murphy Drew Neisser Cyril Irwin Nelson New York City Department of Cultural Affairs New York State Margaret & David Nichols Thurston Nichols Mr. & Mrs. Frank N. Norris Jr. Northeast Auctions, Ronald Bourgeault Susan Nova

Sally W.O'Day Odd Fellows Antiques Bequest of Mastic Lou O'Kelley Olde Hope Antiques Cheryl Oppenheim & John Waters The Overbrook Foundation Patsy Palmer & Talbot D'Alemberte Virginia Parks Patemostro Investments Eloise Paula Rolando & Karin Perez Jan Petry Philip Morris Companies Inc. Elizabeth A. Pile Harvey S. Shipley Miller &J. Randall Plummer Frank & Barbara Pollack Lucile & Maurice Pollak Fund Pook & Pook Inc./Ronald & Debra Pook Wayne Pratt, Inc. Fran Puccinelli Jackie Radwin Teresa Ranellone Christopher T. Rebello Antiques Ricco/Maresca Gallery Julia & Leroy Richie Jeanne Riger Marguerite Riordan John & Margaret Robson Foundation Le Rowell Miss Virginia Carolyn Rudd F. Russack Antiques & Books, Inc. Selig D. Sacks Judith Sagan Mary Sams-Ballyhack Antiques Jack & Mary-Lou Savitt Peter L. Schaffer Carol Peden Schatt Shirley K. Schlafer Memorial Fund In memory of Esther & Sam Schwartz Marilyn & Joseph Schwartz The Schwarz Gallery, Philadelphia Phyllis & Al Selnick The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation Jean S. & Frederic A. Sharf In honor of George Shaskan

The George and Myra Shaskan Foundation, Inc. Roz & Steve Shaw Arthur & Suzanne Shawe Elle Shushan Jo Sibley John Sideli Eleanor R. Siegal Francisco F. Sierra Elizabeth Silverman Skinner, Inc., Auctioneers and Appraisers of Antiques and Fine Art Sanford L Smith & Patricia Lynch Smith Sarah Barr Snook Elliott & Grace Snyder Mr.& Mrs. Peter J. Solomon Sotheby's Maxine Spiegel The Splendid Peasant/Martin & Kitty Jacobs Nancy T.& Gary J. Stass Frederick Stecker Stella Show Mgmt. Co. Su-Ellyn Stern Tamar Stone & Robert Eckstein Rachel & Donald Strauber Bonnie & Tom Strauss The R. David Sudarsky Charitable Foundation Nathaniel J. Sutton Leslie Sweedler John & Catherine Sweeney William Swislow Takashimaya Co., Ltd. Connie Tavel Richard & Maureen Taylor Nancy Thomas David Teiger Tiffany & Co. Jeffrey Tillou Antiques Peter Tillou Pamela P. Tisza Jean I. & Raymond S. Troubh Fund Tucker Station Antiques Karen Ulfers John & Kathleen Ullmann Joseph Del Valle Lee & Cynthia Vance

Jacob & Ray Van Gelder Bob & Ellie Vermillion Joan & Clifford Vemick Joseph & Meryle Viener Robert E. Voelldg David & Jane Walentas Jennifer Walker Clifford A. Wallach Irene N. Walsh Don Walters & Mary Benisek Warburg Pincus The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Elizabeth & Irwin Warren Nani S. Warren Martha Watterson Weeden Brothers: Bill, Alan, Jack & Don Mr.& Mrs. Alan N. Weeden Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP Frederick S. Weiser David M. Weiss Jay & Meryl Weiss Julia Weissman Ed Weissman Mr. 8c Mrs. Peter Wells Ben Wertkin David Wheatcroft Harry Wicks Donald K. Wilkerson, M.D. John & Barbara Wilkerson Nelson M.Williams John Wilmerding Charles & Phyllis Wilson Robert N. Wilson & Anne Wright Wilson Dr. Joseph M.& Janet H. Winston Susan Yecies J. Evelyn Yoder Valerie Young Shelly Zegart Antique Quilts Malcah Zeldis I. H.& Birgitta X.L. von Zelowitz Bernadette Mary Zemenick Steven J. Zick Jon & Becky Zoler 27 Anonymous Donors

RECENT DONORS FOR EXHIBITIONS AND OPERATIONS—as of February 10, 2003 The American Folk Art Museum appreciates the generous support of the following friends: 6100,000 and above Carnegie Corporation The Andrew W.Mellon Foundation Sports Illustrated $99,999—$50,000 Bloomberg L.P. William Randolph Hearst Foundation Leir Charitable Trusts Margaret Z. Robson Swiss Peaks Festival Corporation John & Barbara Wilkerson Two anonymous donors $49,999—$20,000 Burnett Group Paul & Dana Casts Cahill Gordon & Reindel Joseph F. Cullman 3rd Lucy C.& Frederick M. Danziger David L. Davies & Jack Weeden Deutsche Bank Ralph 0.Esmerian Samuel & Betsey Farber Jacqueline Fowler

78 SPRING 2003 FOLK ART

Robert & Luise Kleinberg Barbara & David Krashes Mr.& Mrs. Lawrence J. Lasser Latham & Watkins Taryn & Mark Leavitt J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.,Inc. National Endowment for the Arts National Financial Partners Dr. & Mr. Richard D. Parsons Selig D. Sacks Shearman & Sterling Sidley Austin Brown & Wood The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. Fred Wilpon Two anonymous donors $19,999—$10,000 Athena Group LLC The Bachmann Strauss Family Fund,Inc. Bear Stearns Companies,Inc. Dr. & Mrs. Alex Berenstein Edward V. Blanchard & M. Anne Hill Edith S. & Barry D. Briskin Bristol-Myers Squibb Company Brooklyn Digital Foundry Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft Vice President & Mrs. Richard B. Cheney Citigroup, Inc.

Consolidated Edison Mrs. Daniel Cowin Credit Suisse First Boston The Gladys ICrieble Delmas Foundation William Doyle Galleries , Douglas E. Ente in memory of Ellin Ente FleetBoston Financial Foundation Furthermore, the publication program of the J.M. Kaplan Fund Marion Greene Mr.& Mrs. John H. Gutfreund Joan M.& Victor L. Johnson Johnson & Johnson Companies The Robert and Luise Kleinberg Fund at the Jewish Communal Fund The Lipman Family Foundation, Inc. Mr.& Mrs. Vincent Mai Frances Sirota Martinson,Esq. Nancy and Dana Mead George H. Meyer, Esq. Mr.& Mrs. Keith Morgan New York State Council on the Arts Pfizer, Inc. Philip Morris Companies Inc. J. Randall Plummer Julia T.& Leroy Richie Mr.& Mrs. Daniel Rose The Judith Rothschild Foundation The Shirley K. Schlafer Foundation

Sotheby's Nathaniel J. Sutton The Tomorrow Foundation Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP The Jamison Williams Foundation One anonymous donor $9,999—$4,000 ABC,Inc. AOL Time Warner, Inc. Molly F. Ashby & Gerald M. Lodge Bloomingdale's The John R. & Dorothy D. Caples Fund The Jay Chiat Foundation The Judy Angelo Cowen Foundation Peggy & Richard M. Danziger Debevoise & Plimpton Steven Ente in memory of Ellin Ente Evelyn Frank in honor of Myra & George Shaskan Barry & Merle Ginsburg Audrey B. Heckler Stephen M. Hill The Magazine Group Marstrand Foundation The Manic Lou O'Kelley Memorial Trust MBNA America, N.A. Christopher Mayer New York City Department of Cultural Affairs

DONORS

Mary Michael Shelley Pat Parsons Paul & Judy Patemostro Ricco/Maresca Gallery Robert and Dale Rosen Charitable Foundation Schulte Roth & Zabel The William P. & Gertrude Schweitzer Foundation, Inc. The George F. and Myra Shaskan Foundation, Inc. Manoogian Simone Foundation E. Newbold and Margaret du Pont Smith Foundation David Teiger Wilkie Fair Gallagher Robert N. Wilson/ Pheasant Hill Foundation Three anonymous donors $3,99942,000 The Acorn Foundation, Massachusetts Deborah & James Ash Aventis Pharmaceuticals Jeremy L. Banta Ms. Denise Benmosche Jessica and Natan Bibliowicz Alvan & Claude Bisnoff Mr. & Mrs. Sheldon Bonovitz Robert & Kathy Booth Brenda Brody Edward J. & Margaret Brown Mr.& Mrs. Edgar M. Cullman Kendra & Allan Daniel Maureen D. Donovan The Charles Edlin Family Charitable Foundation Gloria G. Einbender Fastsigns Eric J. & Anne Gleacher Elise Goldschlag & Kevin Lundeen Terry B. Heled Mr.& Mrs. Richard Herbst Pepi & Vera Jelinek Kristina Johnson, Esq. Allan & Penny Katz Mr.& Mrs. Lawrence J. Lasser Jerry & Susan Lauren Lehman Brothers Mary & Stephen Meadow Merrill Lynch Joan & Martin Messinger Loree & Richard Meyer Mr.& Mrs. J. Jefferson Miller II Lesile Miller & Richard Whorley Donald & Cynthia Murphy Neuberger Berman,LLC Oshman's Foundation Dorothea & Leo Rabkin Mr. & Mrs. Keith Reinhard Paige Rense Marguerite & Arthur Riordan John R. Robinson,Esq. Gerald & Janet Ruttenberg Carol Peden Schatt Richard & Stephanie Solar Irwin H.& Elizabeth V. Warren Gerard C. Wertlcin The Zankel Fund $1,99941,000 Mr. & Mrs. A. Marshall Acuff Jr. Mr.& Mrs. Ted Alfond Grace Allen Jamie Davis Anchin James Asselstine & Bette J. Davis Didi & David Barrett Marvin & Jill Baten Mr.& Mrs. Barry Beil Daniel Berman Mrs. Peter Bing

Rhoda & Gerald Blumberg Betsy Bogner Bernard & Judy Briskin in Honor of Barry Brisldn Marvin & Lois P. Broder/ Lucile & Maurice Pollak Fund Marc & Laurie Krasny Brown Charles & Deborah Burgess Citicorp Foundation Matching Gifts Program Coach Dairy Goat Farm Congregation Beth Israel, Houston Mr.& Mrs. Edgar M.Cullman Aaron & Judy Daniels Michael Del Castello Mr.& Mrs. Richard DeScherer Dunphy Family Foundation, Inc. The Echo Foundation Gloria G.Einbender Jill Gallagher Daniel M.and Lianrta Gantt Mr. & Mrs. Bruce Geismar Mrs. Bruce Gimbel Dr. Kurt A. Gitter & Ms. Alice Yelen Barbara Gordon & Steve Cannon Susan Zises Green Cordelia Hamilton Mr.& Mrs. James Harithas Stephen M. Hill The Hirschhorn Foundation Thomas Isenberg Theodore J. Israel Mr.& Mrs. Thomas C.Israel J&B Auto Body & Repairs Betty Wold Johnson & Douglas F. Bushnell Richard T. Kanter Nancy Kollisch & Jeffrey Pressman Mr.& Mrs. Abraham Krasnoff Robert A. Landau JoCarole & Richard Lauder Glorya & Fred Leighton Barbara S. Levinson Robert A. Lewis Mr.& Mrs. Carl M.Lindberg Ronnie Livia Carl D.Lobell Louis Dreyfus Holding Company Mary's East Michael T. Martin The Helen R.& Harold C. Mayer Foundation Mrs. Myron L. Mayer Michael & Gael Mendelsohn Virginia B. Michel Judith & Bernard Newman New York Yankees Foundation Victor & Susan Niederhoffer David O'Connor Philip V. Oppenheimer & Mary Close Mr.& Mrs. Francis C.Parson Jr. Anthony J. Petullo Foundation Robert & Marianne Polak Mr.& Mrs. Mortimer Propp Jack & Roberta E. Rabin Jean Rather Irene Reichert William D. Rondina Mr.& Mrs. Jeff T. Rose Robert A. Roth Paul J. Schatt Paul & Elizabeth Schaffer Peter L. Schaffer Mr.& Mrs. Marvin Schwartz Philip & Cipora Schwartz Mr.& Mrs. Peter L. Sheldon Harvey S. Shipley Miller Myron B. & Cecile B. Shure Hardwick Simmons Donna & Elliott Slade Patricia & Robert Stempel

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Demonstration carving on summer Saturdays at the Ithaca Farmers' Market, Ithaca, NY.

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DONORS

Elizabeth & Geoffrey A. Stern Su-Ellyn Stern Donald & Rachel Strauber Maryann Sudo Doris & Stanley Tananbaum Dennis Thomas Ms. Karel F. Wahrsager Jennifer Walker Linda Waterman Donald & Pat Weeden Pastor Frederick S. Weiser Janis & William Wetsman Mrs. Joseph M. Winston Ms. Teri Wilford Wood & Mr. John Busey Wood Four anonymous donors

TESCOIRCIS TRADING COMPANY, wvvw.tesoros.corn FOLK ART & OTHER TREASURES FROM AROUND THE WORLD RETAIL: 209 CONGRESS AVENUE•AUSTIN, TEXAS 78701•512 / 479-8377 WHOLESALE: 512 /479-8341

$999-8500 Robert & Wendy Adler Anthony Armese Joel Banker Frank & June Barsalona Deborah Bergman Mrs. George P. Bissell Jr. Dena Bock Mr.& Mrs. James A. Block Mr.& Mrs. Leonard Block Jeffrey & Tina Bolton Miriam Cahn Marcy Carsey Gabrielle & Frank Casson The Chase Manhattan Foundation Matching Gift Program Marjorie Chester Kathleen Cole Mrs. Phyllis Collins

Stephen H. Cooper & Prof. Karen Gross Simon Critchell Susan R. Cullman Kathryn M. Curran Gary Davenport David & Sheena Danziger Dr. Janet L. Denlinger Michael Donovan & Nancye Green Richard and Barbara Donsky Foundation Nancy Druckman Arnold & Debbie Dunn Shirley Durst Mr.& Mrs. James A. Edmonds Jr. Sanford B. ElirenIcranz Ross & Gladys Faires Jessie Lee Farber Thomas K. Figge Lawrence Fink Jane Fonda Charlotte Frank Gail Furman,Ph.D. Judy & Jules Garel Gemini Antiques, Ltd. Margaret A. Gilliam William L.& Mildred Gladstone Henry Goldstein & Linda Broessel Kelly Gonda Ellin & Baron J. Gordon Mariko Gordon Howard M. Graff Peter T.& Laura Grauer Robert M. Greenberg Nanette & Irvin Greif Stephen Hessler 8c Mary Ellen Vehlow Leonard & Arlene Hochman Mr.& Mrs. Robert Hodes

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Mr.& Mrs. Anthony P. Picadio Mr.& Mrs. Terry Pillow Daniel & Susan Pollack Mr.& Mrs. F.F. Randolph Jr. Toby & Nataly Ritter Cheryl Rivers & Steve Simons Dr. & Mrs. Roger Rose Abbey Rosenwald Frank & Nancy Russell Mr.& Mrs. Robert T. Schaffner Margaret Schmidt Mr.& Mrs. Carl J. Schmitt Mr.& Mrs. Joseph D. Shein Mr.& Mrs. Ronald Shelp Raymond & Linda Simon Arun & Barbara Singh Arthur M.Siskind & Mary Ann Siskind Stephanie Smither Theresa Snyder Karen Sobotka Mr.& Mrs. David Stein Donald & Rachel Strauber Jane Supino Mr.& Mrs. Peter Tishman Mr. Frank Tosto Mr.& Mrs. David Walentas Brenda Weeks-Nerz Mr. & Mrs. John L. Weinberg Bennett & Judie Weinstock Judy & Harold Weissman Herbert C. Wells Mr.& Mrs. Ira Wender Richard &Margaret Wenstrup Mr. & Mrs. C. A. Wimpfheimer Cyria & Melvyn Wolff Family Foundation Rosalie Wood J. Evelyn Yoder Tim & Nina Zagat Diana Zanganas Louis & Susan Zinterhofer Jon & Becky Zoler Benjamin & Barbara Zucker Mr.& Mrs. Donald Zuckert

RECENT DONORS TO THE COLLECTIONS Rebecca Alexander Larry Amundson & Gordanna Amundson Cole Brother Industries, Ltd. Barbara & Tracy Cate Nek Chand Maury Cohen Creative Growth Art Center Herbert & Dolores Danska Ralph 0.Esmerian Jane Ferrara Josh Feldstein Jane Fonda Charlotte Frank Jack L. Goldstein Mr.& Mrs James Goodman Lewis & Jean Greenblatt Jerry Grossman Nicholas Herrera Marion Harris & Jerry Rosenfeld Dr. Jean Ellen Jones & Alan Pieper Ivan & Marilynn Karp J.M. KaplanFund Ray Kass & Dr. Jerrie Pike

Steven & Helen Kellogg Ed & Lee Kogan Gael & Michael Mendelsohn Kathryn Morrison Alan R. Moss & Robert D. Walsh Cyril I. Nelson Setsuko Obi Palley Family Pauline C.Pharr Claudia Polsky Dorothea & Leo Rabkin Frances Rasmussen Joe P. Rhinehart Gleaves Rhodes John & Margaret Robson Cheryl Rivers Margaret Hardy Sachter Steven Scudder Smith The Steel Quihers Unilever United States, Inc. Thea Westreich & Ethan Wagner David B. Wiggins Sharon Yenter Miriam Troop Zuger

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INDEX

A.E. Backus Gallery Allan Katz

58 9

American Folk

62

Ames Gallery

20

Andrew Ecllin

11,25

Anne Bourassa

57

Anton Haardt Gallery

66

Authentic Designs

68

Barn Star

69

B4R Time

72

Charlton Bradsher

16

Cherry Gallery

18

Classic Rug

79

Clifford A. Wallach Folk Art

17

David Wheatcroft Antiques

2

Denyse Schmidt Quilts

58

Doyle New York Epstein/Powell Firestone Sales Company Galerie Susi Brunner

67 80 56

Gary Snyder

71

SO SPRING 2003 FOLK ART

71

Garde Rail Gallery 66 Grant Antiques 70 Graves' Country Gallery and Antiques 18 Hancock Shaker Village 78 75 Intuit J Crist 3 Jackie Radwin Back Cover 68 Jan Whitlock Jeanine Taylor 70 Jeff Bridgman American Antiques 19 79 Karen S. Robinson Laura Fisher Antiques 16 Lindsay Gallery 10 77 Margaret Shaw Mary Michael Shelley 77 Matt Flynn Photography 75 Mennello Museum 26,27 Morfab Gallery 13 New Hampshire Antiques 73 New York Historical Association 63 Northeast Auctions Inside Back Cover

Olde Hope

14

Phillips and LeBlanc

56

Raccoon Creek Antiques, L.L.C.

23

Ricco/Maresca Gallery

Inside Front Cover

Riverfest

72

Sidney Gecker

12

Steve Miller Steve Slotin

65

Susan Slyman

62

Swisspealcs Festival

29

Tesoros Trading Company

78

Thomas Schwenke Inc.

5

Thurston Nichols American Antiques Trotta-Bono

21 4

Tyson Trading Company

55

University of North Carolina Press

67

Walters/Benisek

6

Faces of the Prior School

NORTHEAST AUCTIONS

0

Ronald Bourgeault,Auctioneer 93 Pleasant Street, Portsmouth, NH 03801 Tel:(603)433-8400 www.northeastauctions.com

Important Folk Art Auction August 2-3, 2003

AWL • IN

JACKIE RADWIN

Rare New England Apothecary Chest Original painted surface. Two-way drawers.

Maine, circa 1800-20. Height 25". Width 31". Depth at top 131/2"

By appointment • San Antonio, Texas •(210) 824-7711 Visit us at our website www.jackieradwin.com