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An Edmondson Masterpiece Adam and Eve, ca. 1932-36, limestone, 22 x 30 x12 inches
riccolmaresca GALLERY 529 west 20th street
3rd floor new yorl< ny 10011 212.627.4819
riccomaresca.corn
the finest American country antiques and folk art Patrick Bell/ Edwin HiId P.O. Box 718, New Hope, PA 18938-0718
By Appointment 215-297-0200
CIPILIDE 144:11P'E ANTIQUES, INC_
fax: 215-297-0300 e-mail: info@oldehope.com www.oldehope.com
Portrait of a Little Girl with a Primer Said to be Sarah North of Portsmouth, NH An. to Sturtevant J. Hamblin, ca.1845 Oil on canvas, 27" x 22"
Exhibiting at the 51st annual Winter Antiques Show, NYC,January 20-30
Sailor Whirligig • polychrome • probably New England early 19th century • 14 in. height Provenance: Barenholtz Collection
DAVID WHEATC OFT Antiques 26 West Main Street, Westborough, MA 01581 • Tel:(508) 366-1723 davidwheatcroft.com
OON REEK Antiques, L.L.C.
Large Folk Art painting on beaded wallboard, signed "Christian 15. Fink' George R. Allen • Gordon L. W,9c1(..off• Phone:(856) +67-3197• raccooncreek@msn.com
Trotta-Bono Antique Native American Art Art of the Frontier and Colonial Periods
Penobscot Belt Cup Northeastern Woodlands Early 19th C.
By Appointment: (914) 528-6604 • P.O. Box 34 • Shrub Oak, NlY 10588 • Email: tb788183zi,aol.com We are actively purchasing fine individual pieces and collections.
,4;,410
FURNITURE
ART
Very fine sheraton carved mahogany swivel top card table, with crotch mahogany top with mahogany crossbanded edge, above a figured mahogany apron, on an acanthus carved bulbous column raised on four acanthus carved and reeded sabre legs ending in carved paw feet. School of Duncan Phyfe, New York, circa 1815. 37" wide, 19" deep, 30" high.
Specialists in American Federal Furniturefor over 30 years.
Thomas Schwenke Inc lialoo1111111
American Federal Furniture
50 Main Street North, Woodbury, CT 06798 Just past Rte. 47
Tel.(203)266-0303 Fax (203) 266-0707 www.schwenke.com
A SELECTION OF
PORTRAITS,
WATERCOLORS
& MINIATURES
FROM THE
AMERICAN FOLK ART
COLLECTION OF
JON & REBECCA ZOLER
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Imomegrew—
American Folk Art Collection of Jon & Rebecca Zoler Auction in New York 72 & York EXHIBITION OPENS • January 14, 2005 AUCTION • January 22, 2005 INQUIRIES • The Zoler Collection is available for private viewing by appointment with Nancy Druckman & Lisa Ramaci at Sotheby's Folk Art Department +1 212 606.7225 CATALOGUES Etr SUBSCRIPTIONS • +1 888 752.0002 or +1 541 322.4151 TO SIGN UP FOR EMAIL UPDATES PLEASE VISIT www.sothebys.com
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: SAMUEL ADDISON SHUTE AND RUTH WHITTIER SHUTE, TWO CHILDREN FROM THE PRESCOTT FAMILY; ISAAC W. NUTTMAN, A STILL-LIFE PAINTING WITH FRUITS, VEGETABLES AND A ROBIN; ZEDEKIAH BELKNAP, PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG GIRL IN A CHILD'S WINDSOR CHAIR WITH DOLL; HARRIET MOORE, IN MEMORY OF SALLY FLETCHER: A DOUBLE MOURNING PICTURE; JOHN BLUNT, PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG BOY IN A CLARET COLORED COSTUME; MRS. MOSES B. RUSSELL, MINIATURE WATERCOLOR PORTRAIT ON IVORY OF FIVE CHILDREN; AMERICAN SCHOOL, 19TH CENTURY, A SCHOOL-GIRL ' S DEPICTION OF LAURENCE STERNE ' S MARIA
Sotheby's
WALTERS BENISEK ART & ANTIQUES ONE AMBER LANE • NORTHAMPTON • MASSACHUSETTS •01060 • •• ( 4 1 3) 5 8 6 • 3 9 0 9 • WALTERS • MARYBENISEK DON
EXCEPTIONAL STAG WEATHERVANE ATTRIBUTED TO J W FISKE
FOLK ART VOLUME 29 NUMBER 4 / WINTER 2004/2005
FEATURES
46
To Please the Eye:Justus Da Lee and His Family Suzanne Rudnick Payne and Michael R. Payne
58
Anna Zernankova: The Flowers of Passion Terezie Zemdnkovd
A Newly Discovered Needlework School in New York State
66
Leslie and Peter Warwick
Old World, New Country: The Life and Art ofJoseph Garlock
70
Martha Watterson
DEPAR
Cover: UNTITLED Anna Zemenkova (1908-1986) Prague, Czech Republic 1962-1964 Pastel, gouache, and India ink on paper 33 x 231/2" Collection of the Zemankova family
T
M
EN
TS
Editor's Column Director's Letter Miniatures Conversation Americus Group The Collection: A Closer Look Update:The Library Membership Special Outsider Art Week 2005 Update:The Henry Darger Study Center Quilt Connection Space Rental Museum Reproductions Program
10 15 22 32 34 36 38 43 76 78 80 82 84
86 88 89 90
Books ofInterest Public Programs Blue's Clues Family Day The American Antiques Show Museum News Gerard C.Wertkin Exhibition Fund Clarion Society Rug Day Museum Information: Exhibition Schedule, Hours & Admissions Trustees/Donors Index to Advertisers
92 94 99 99 100 102 108
MIMI Folk Art is published four times a year by the American Folk Art Museum.The museum's mailing address is 1414 Avenue ofthe Americas, New York,NY 10019-2514,Tel.212/977-7170, -3> 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 2004 by the American Folk Art Museum,45 West 53rd Street,New York,NY 10019.The cover and contents ofFolk 0 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 ofthe American Folk MIMI Art Museum.Unsolicited manuscripts or photographs should be accompanied by return postage. Folk Art assumes no responsibility for the loss or damage ofsuch materials. Change of address: Please send both old and new addresses to the museum's mailing address at 1414 Avenue ofthe 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 imognized in the trade,but despite the care with which the advertising department screens photographs and t,tcx submitted by its advertisers, it cannot guarantee the unquestionable authenticity ofobjects or quality ofservices 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 ofobjects or services advertised in its pages.The museum is dedicated to the exhibition and interpretation offolk art and it is a violation ofits principles to be involved in or to appear to be involved in the sale ofworks ofart. For this reason,the museurn will not knowingly accept advertisements for Folk Artthat illustrate or describe objects that have been exhibited at the museum within one year ofplacing an advertisement.The publisher reserves the right to exclude any advertisement.
WINTER 2004/2005
FOLK ART 9
EDITOR'S
COLUMN
TANYA HEINRICH
ortraits invite further inquiryâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;who was this person? What was their life like? Is it an accurate likeness? When the sitter and the artist are unidentified, we must appease our curiosity with the formal qualities of the composition. However,if enough facts about either are documented, we can begin to formulate a story. And sometimes, when the right piece ofinformation surfaces, one by one the pieces ofthe puzzle can be put together. The reward is the feeling that we can begin to know artist and sitter, with a satisfying glimpse into his or her life and persona, across the centuries.Through diligent research, Suzanne Rudnick Payne and Michael R. Payne have uncovered some elusive biographical details of portraitist Justus Da Lee, determining that some ofthe delicate, diminutive pencil and watercolor works for which he is highly revered (see the portrait at right) can also be attributed to family members. Our lead story,"To Please the Eye:Justus Da Lee and His Family," begins on page 46. Anna Zemankova's dreamy meditations begin where Karl Blossfeldt's exquisite photographs ofplant life leave off. Beginning on page 58,art historian Terezie Zemankova,the artist's granddaughter, offers an insightful examination ofthe tenderly limned works on paper, which YOUNG GIRL IN RED / Justus Da Lee morph from stem and stigma into cell and viscera. Leslie and Peter Warwick's investigation of a (1793-1878)/ New York State / c.1835-1840 / watercolor and pencil lovely needlework sampler they first encountered on paper / 4/ 3 4.3" / American Folk Art in 2000 revealed a link to two others created in Museum, promised gift of Ralph the same region, and they have identified a pre- Esmerian, P1.2001.47 viously unknown needlework school,in Orange County,New York;for an account oftheir process of discovery, please see page 66.The work ofJoseph Garlock was uncovered quite by chance in 1999,twenty years after the artist's death. For our final essay, beginning on page 70,curator Martha Watterson,who has organized a show of Garlock's work now on view at Intuit,in Chicago,takes a look into the life and art ofthis quiet and solitary man. The important gift by Cuesta Benberry of her vast library of quilt-related materials and research to the museum's Shirley K. Schlafer Library is celebrated in an expanded edition ofour quarterly library update. A profile of this remarkable woman,by Lee Kogan and James Mitchell,can be found on page 38. Quilt enthusiasts also have a new regular column to look forward to:'Quilt Connection," on pages 80-81,will detail quilts from the museum's collection and provide a roundup of quilt-related programs across the nation. Don't miss our current exhibitions,"Masterpieces of American Jewelry," "Blue," and the recently mounted "Folk Art Revealed";look to the next issue of Folk Artfor an in-depth look at this show's exquisite side-by-side pairings oftraditional and contemporary objects from our collection. I wish you a happy and peaceful holiday season. See you in spring!
p
AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM
PUBLICATIONS/FOLK ART Tanya Heinrich Director ofPublications/Editor and Publisher Lori T. Leonard Production Editor Vanessa Davis Assistant Editor Eleanor Garlow Advertising Sales Erikka V. Haa Copy Editor Jeffrey Kibler, The Magazine Group,Inc. Design Cenveo Printers ADMINISTRATION Gerard C.Wertkin Susan Conlon Linda Dunne Robin A. Schlinger Madhulcar Balsara Angela Lam Irene Kreny Robert J. Saracena Anthony Crawford Alexis Davis Richard Ho Daniel Rodriguez Beverly McCarthy Katya Ullman
Director Assistant to the Director ChiefAdministrative Officer ChiefFinancial Officer Assistant Controller Accountant Accounts Payable Associate Director ofFacilities Manager of Visitor Services Assistant Manager of Visitor Services Manager ofInformation Technology Office Services Coordinator Mail Order/Reception Administrative Assistant/Reception
COLLECTIONS & EXHIBITIONS Stacy C. Hollander Senior Curator/Director ofExhibitions Brooke Davis Anderson Director and Curator of The Contemporary Center and the Henry Darger Study Center Ann-Marie Reilly ChiiRegistrar/Director ofExhibition Production Elizabeth V. Warren Consulting Curator EDUCATION Diana Schlesinger Janet Lo Lee Kogan DEPARTMENTS Cathy Michelsen Christine Corcoran Pamela Gabourie Katie Hush Radhika Natarajan Dana Clair Danelsi De La Cruz Wendy Barreto Susan Flamm Alice J. Hoffman Marie S. DiMarmo Janey Fire James Mitchell Jane Lanes Caroline Kerrigan
EVA AND MORRIS FELD Dale Gregory Ursula Morino Kenneth R. Bing Bienvenido Medina
Director ofEducation Manager ofSchool and Docent Programs Director ofthe Folk Art Institute/Curator ofSpecialProjects for The Contemporary Center Director ofDevelopment Manager ofIndividual Giving Manager ofInstitutional Giving Special Events Manager DevelopmentAssociate Membership and DevelopmentAssociate Membership Assistant Membership Clerk Public Relations Director Director ofLicensing Director ofMuseum Shops Director ofPhotographic Services Librarian Director of Volunteer Services Executive Director of The American Antiques Show GALLERY STAFF Gallery Director Weekend Gallery Manager Security Security
MUSEUM SHOPS STAFF Managers: Dorothy Gargiulo, Louise B. Sheets, Marion Whitley; Book Buyer: Evelyn R. Gurney; Staff Eddie Bang, Matthew Beaugrand,Eugenie Boland, Erin Caprara,Jessica Lord, Sandy B.Yun; Volunteers: Angela Clair, Millie Gladstone, ElizAbeth Howe,Judy Kenyon, Hiromi ICiyama, Nancy Mayer,Judy Rich, Phyllis Selnick 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 MAILING ADDRESS American Folk Art Museum 1414 Avenue ofthe Americas, New York, NY 10019-2514 212/977-7170, Fax 212/977-8134,info@folkartmuseum.org, www.folkartmuseum.org 0
10 WINTER 2004/2005
FOLK ART
ALLAN Americana
Rooster Weathervane A. L. Jewell and Co. Waltham, Mass. Ca. 1875. Copper with lead and zinc. Early in-use bullet hole repair on one side. Completely untouched surface. 21 1/2"h
Allan & Penny Katz By Appointment 25 Old Still Road Woodbridge, CT 06525 Tel.(203) 393-9356 folkkatz@optonline.net
-41k
0,04,14
4
Morton Salt Girl (verso) c.1950 watercolor,collage and carbon tracing on paper 24 x 53 1/2 inches
FLEISHER C:ILL AN GALLERY 1616 Walnut Street suite 100/Philadelphia Pa 19103 215 545 7562/fax 545 6140/fleisher-ollmangallery.com
011
560 Broadway Suite 405 B Tel
212 226 3768
New York, NY 10012
Fax
212 226 0 155
mysteries@aol.com www.cavinmorris.com
+CHANNING+
LUCKY MAGER
Todd Webb 1905-2000 In the light of the ladies' room, New Mexico. Circa 1950s
W E. CHANNING & CO . 805 Apodaca Hill. Santa Fe. NM 87501 . 505 988 1078 . info@artmud.com
DIRECTOR 'S
LET
TER
GERARD C. WERTKIN
s many readers ofthis column know,last March I notified the Michelsen,director ofdevelopment; they have been stalwart and Board ofTrustees of my intention to retire as director ofthe strong,creatively addressing the challenges facing the museum and American Folk Art Museum.I plan to begin this new phase warmly committed to its success. And Robert J. Saracena, director of of my life by year's end. After twenty-four years with the facilities, assumed the prodigious role ofintegrating the varied operamuseum,the last thirteen as director,I approach my leavetions ofthe museum into a new building, a complex and sometimes taking with mixed emotions.I genuinely look forward to the opportuthankless task, while seeing to the security and safety of staff and visinities that a very active retirement will provide. On the other hand,I tors alike. will profoundly miss the museum and my responsibilities as its director. On the program side, Stacy C. Hollander,senior curator and direcThrough the years of my directorship, this column has given me the tor ofexhibitions, and Brooke Davis Anderson, director and curator, wonderful opportunity to focus attention on major developments in the The Contemporary Center,continue to impress me with their brilliant institution and its service to the public. It has served as my"bully puleye,dedication to scholarship, and insistence on excellence; the exhibipit," a place where I could share with readers my passionate beliefin tion program has flourished under their joint aegis. During a time of the museum and its bright future, bring to you news ofits most signifi- dramatic growth in the permanent collection, Ann-Marie Reilly, regiscant accomplishments, and encourage your active participation in its trar and director ofexhibition production, has overseen its care and exciting programs and special events.Through the "Director's Letter,"I custody with professional aplomb,while working closely with the curahave also endeavored to chronicle the rich and varied life ofthe institu- tors on the design and installation ofexhibitions.The museum's comtion by introducing readers to the museum's mitment to public service is nowhere more board,highlighting the work ofits professional clearly demonstrated than in the engaging prostaff, and acknowledging the generous support gramming developed and administered so ofits patrons and sponsors.I am grateful for expertly by Diana Schlesinger, director ofeducathe thoughtful response that my remarks have tion. Lee Kogan,director ofthe Folk Art Instielicited from members and friends through the tute, has been a respected mentor to successive years and will miss having this platform to waves of grateful students and a gifted scholar express my strong conviction that the museum and curator in her own right.The publications has played, and continues to play, a critically program, under the guidance ofTanya Heinrich, important role in American life and culture. director of publications, is thriving; the content In the last issue ofFolk Art(fall 2004),in a and design of printed materials produced by the wide-ranging dialogue with editor Tanya museum are a true credit to its mission. As Heinrich,I reflected on my career at the librarian,James Mitchell has transformed the museum.I hope that I conveyed a sense of my Shirley K. Schlafer Library into a real institudeep and abiding gratitude for the opportunitional asset. ties that leading the American Folk Art No one has served with melonger than Museum has provided to me.It has been a Susan Flamm,director ofpublic relations, who momentous period, marked by many developorganized a world-class communications proGerard C. Wertkin and Ralph 0. Esmerian, chairman of the ments in the field and in the museum.Withgram for the museum and has been a trusted Board of Trustees, cutting the ribbon at the opening of the out the participation ofa dedicated Board of museum's new home, December 11, 2001 adviser and confidante for twenty-four years. Trustees, a gifted professional stag a commitMarie DiManno,director of museum shops, has ted volunteer corps, and a generous commubeen nothing less than a magician,establishing nity of museum friends and members,including scholars,curators, one successful shop after another and never failing to engage her collectors, and dealers, little could have been accomplished. admiring constituency with her ingenuity,flair, and dedication. Alice It would be impossible for me to list all the friends, colleagues, and Hoffman,director oflicensing, another long-serving friend, has always associates to whom I owe debts of gratitude. Before the baton is passed brought a wonderful sense of style, brio, and business acumen to her to a new leader,I hope to speak personally to as many of you as possible varied responsibilities. As director ofphotographic services,Janey Fire, to thank you for your roles in my career and, more important,in the a valued "comrade-in-arms," has been an indispensable member ofthe growth and development ofthe American Folk Art Museum. But I do team. And my own dear Sue Conlon,assistant to the director, has want to acknowledge with the warmest of appreciation the three board helped make coming to work each day a joy. presidents with whom I have been proud to serve, Ralph Esmerian,L. In his final "Director's Letter," my late predecessor and friend,Dr. John Wilkerson,and Laura Parsons,and my extraordinary staff Robert Bishop,concluded his remarks by observing that"an institution On the administrative side ofthe stag I have enjoyed an especially like the museum grows because people care, and it is loved."Thirteen productive relationship with my colleagues Linda Dunne,chief admin- years later, that statement is no less true.I encourage your continued istrative officer; Robin Schlinger, chieffinancial officer; and Cathy commitment to the museum and extend my best wishes to you all.*
A
WINTER 2004/2005
FOLK ART
15
AMERICA'S LEADING ANTIQUE SAMPLER AND NEEDLEWORK DEALER
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Important Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania sampler by Sarah Ann Graffin dated 1839
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AMERICA'S LEADING ANTIQUE SAMPLER AND NEEDLEWORK DEALER
936 Pine Street • Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19107 • tel: 215.627.7797 • fax: 215.627.8199 www.samplings.com • mailbox@samplings.com
CHRISTIE'S
RUTH DOWNER (1797-1833) Aurora Watercolor and gold collage on silk 21 x 24 'a inches
Highly important American Furniture and Folk Art Inquiries
New York
January 20-22
212 636 2230
20 Rockefeller Plaza New York, New York 10020
Viewing
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January 15-20
800 395 6300
Auction
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CHARLTON BRADSHER AMERICAN ANTIQUES
Iland-crafted monument by W. A. Holsenback with turned, applied, and cutout polychrome elements. Holsenback created furniture, frames and sculpture in Ranger. Georgia during the 19.30's. Measures N8" high, 38" wide.
Specializing in folk art & material culture ofthe Southern backcountry. By Appointment. (828) 251-1904 Asheville, North Carolina www.charltonbradsher.com
HILL GALLERY 407 West Brown Street Birmingham MI 48009 248.540.9288 fiillgalleiy@earthlink.net
Portrait Bust
Carved and Painted
Circa 1940
Pennsylvania Origin
10"H x 5"W x 4"D
CARL HAMMER GALLERY Folk, Outsider, and Contemporary Art from the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries
Important and unique hand wrought weathervane by Henry Driehaus, Frederick Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Circa late 19th Century, stamped with blacksmith's initials "HD" on westerly directional. Dimensions: 77 x 28 x 28 inches. Henry Driehaus is featured and photographed in Jeannette Lasansky's publication, TO DRAW,UPSET,& WELD:The Work ofthe Pennsylvania Rural Blacksmith 1742-1935. Penn State U. Press, 1980.
740 N. WELLS STREET, CHICAGO, IL 60610 PH: 312-266-8512 / FX: 312-266-8510
hammergall@aol.com www.hammergallery.com
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David Cook fine American Art
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1637 Wazee Street • Denver, Colorado 80202 • Tel 303.623.8181 www.davidcookfineamericanart.com
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BY VANESSA DAVIS
GENTLE COMPANIONS Stuffed animals from Amish and Mennonite communities are the subject of a new exhibition,"Gentle Companions," at the Lancaster Quilt and Textile Museum (717/2996440;vvww.lancasterheritage.com) at the Heritage Center of CAMEL / Mennonite, maker Lancaster County in Lancaster,Pa., on view until April 23, unknown / probably Lancaster 2005. Organized by guest curators Anne County, Pennsylvania / Lewis and Stella Rubin,the show c.1920 / cotton striped indudes more than 100 examples of fabric, white button eyes / homemade stuffed toys from the late courtesy Lancaster Quilt and Textile Museum, 19th and early 20th centuries, on loan Lancaster, Pennsylvania from private and public collections. A tremendous diversity in technique and subject matter is featured in the show, as well as a diversity of creatures,including animals as exotic as camels, elephants, Jonah's whale, and other examples seen in books or at circuses and then re-created at home. MAROON CAT! Amish, maker unknown / Lancaster County, Pennsylvania / c.1920 / upholstery fabric with buttons and embroidery thread / courtesy Lancaster Quilt and Textile Museum, Lancaster, Pennsylvania
NORTH CAROLINA POTTERY The Mint Museum (704/337-2000; vvvvw.mintmuseum.org) in Charlotte, N.C.,presents "North Carolina Pottery: A Restless Tradition" until Feb.27,2005.Traditional and contemporary works are juxtaposed to illustrate the passionate continuation ofthe area's pottery tradition. Fifty works from the permanent collection reflect TEAPOT / Dorothy Auman, Seagrove Potthe element tery / North Carolina / c.1960s / ofchange stoneware / Mint Museum, Charlotte, and the North Carolina development of North Carolina ceramists, as well as the adjustment to new marketplace demands and technological advancements.The show is complemented by a catalog and will travel throughout the Southeast following the initial exhibition.
22 WINTER 2004/2005
FOLK ART
EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN The Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities(SPNEA) has changed its name to Historic New England (617/227-3956; www.historicnew england.org). The name change was inspired by a focus on expanding audiences by inviting more people to experience the lives and stories of the individuals and families who made New England what it is today. Like SPNEA,Historic New England will still offer access to 35 properties across the region that span a range of time periods and architectural styles; traveling exhibitions of New England treasures; an archive of more than 1 million items; educational programs and events that use history to reach adults and students alike; and a tradition of partnerships with owners of historic properties. The society is also adding new programs,such as tours, family and educational programs, and new membership options.
NAVAJO WEAVING The I Navajo origin story of weaving describes how the Spider Woman taught the Navajos to weave on a loom built for them by the Spider Man.Further along in history they learned from the Rio Grande settlers how to weave with wool,and adapted both Mexican Indian and Spanish designs into their weaving. "Navajo Weaves:The Collection of Mingei International," an exhibition of more than 33 objects, includes blankets, chief's robes, and rugs woven in the late 19th and NAVAJO WOOL PICTORIAL 20th centuries, representing the RUGâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;MY ANIMALS ARE Crystal, Ganado,and Lukachukai GOOD (Enzuina She weaving districts ofthe Navajo Heat / Native American / Reservation.The show takes place Germantown plied wool / at the Mingei International 72,531 / 2"/ Mingei International Museum, Museum (619/239-0003; San Diego www.mingei.org)in San Diego, Calif., and is on view through February 2005. Highlights include a wearing blanket featuring a bold diamond pattern, an especially early example (1875) ofa pictorial rug depicting horses and cattle, a 1920s example ofthe Rainbow Sand Painting design, and a sampler of weaving patterns.
NAVAJO WOOL DAllLER WEARING BLANKET! Native American / homespun wool with natural and chemical dyes / 80 48"! Mingei International Museum, San Diego
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We will be showing work by these and other artists by appointment in New York during the Outsider Art Fair. Call 614-578-1973 to schedule.
Jacques de Dil-Glass {James Donald Beatty} 1931-2001
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LINDSAY GALLERY 986 North High St. Columbus, OH 43201 614-291-1973
www.lindsaygallery.com
MINI
AT
UR
ES
GALLERY AT CATS CRADLE ANTIQUES BILL TRAYLOR AND WILLIAM EDMONDSON Two major figures in American and African American art history are the subject ofa new exhibition at the Birmingham Museum of Art (205/254-2566; www.artsbma.org)in Birmingham,Ala."Bill Traylor and William Edmondson:African American Art and the Modernist Impulse" opens Feb.6,2005, and UNTITLED (FIGHTING COUPLE)/ Bill runs until April 3. Approximately 50 Traylor / Montgomery, Alabama / drawings and paintings by Traylor 1939-1942/ pencil and colored pencil on and 25 sculptures by Edmondson cardboard / Birmingham Museum of Art will be on view, as well as period photographs of the artists working within their communities by Edward Weston,Louise Dahl-Wolfe, and Charles Shannon.This is the first exhibition to examine Traylor and Edmondson within the broader context of American and European art and culture ofthe first halfofthe 20th century drawing comparisons between the work ofthese two self-taught artists and the modernist and avantgarde works of the academic art world. The show is accompanied by a catalog, Meditations on Black Aesthetics. Closing Dec.12 is"Do We Think Too Much? I Don't Think We Can Ever Stop: Lonnie Holley, A Twenty-five Year Survey" which also has a catalog. ANGEL/William Edmondson / Nashville/ 1937-1939/ limestone / private collection
P.O. Box 51442 • Provo, UT 84605-1442 (801) 374-1832 Glen C. Rollins, Director
Joe Adams • Dec. - Jan.• Catalog online
www.catscradlegallery.com
24 WINTER 2004/2005
FOLK ART
NEEDLEWORK SEMINAR The Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts(336/721-7360; www.oldsalem.org)in WinstonSalem, N.C.,presents "Conversations with Samplers: Eight Centuries ofOld World Traditions,"Jan. 26-29,2005.The seminar provides an opportunity to explore structures, patterns, and techniques from 12thcentury Egypt,across Mediterranean countries, to post-Reformation northern Europe, Stuart England,and finally New Spain/Mexico. Stories of these samplers and their makers embody histories of trade, politics, religion, and education. Participants will study pieces from private collections as well as learn the basics ofembroidery research. Workshops,lectures, and collections studies will concentrate on the Middle East, Europe, and Central America,but will also offer participants the opportunity to compare these forms with the samplers made in British North America.The lecturers for this seminar are Margriet Hogue, Sumru Belger ICrody, and Kathleen Staples.The deadline for registration is Jan.5,2005.To register, visit the museum's website or e-mail jlucas@oldsalem.org.
AMERICAN VISIONARY ART MUSEUM'S NEW EXPANSION
JIM ROUSE VISIONARY CENTER The American Visionary Art Museum (410/244-1900; www.avam.org)in Baltimore has expanded to add the Jim Rouse Visionary Center, which opened on Nov. 13.The building is a historic whiskey-barrel warehouse that the museum separated into three levels: Visionary Village, an exhibition arena for large and kinetic sculptures, art cars, and installations, occupies the first floor; classrooms take up the second-floor balcony in addition to further exhibition space; and the Visionary Conference and Performance Center, a whitewashed,barn-style hall with a seating capacity of 500,is on the third floor. A sculpture plaza, a Speaker's Corner,an outdoor movie theater, and an amphitheater surround the new building. Inaugural exhibitions include a show on the painted screen art of Baltimore and the contemporary automata of Cabaret Mechanical Theater.
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BIRD'S NEST BALCONY! David Hess / Maryland / 2004 / stainless steel / 10 38'/ American Visionary Art Museum, Baltimore
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THE JIM ROUSE VISIONARY CENTER THE VISIONARY CONFERENCE 8 PERFORMANCE CENTER A 500-seat conference space and think tank
ONE MAN'S TRASH ... Lost and throvvn-away items such as snapshots, to-do lists, failed poetry, drafts ofrésumés,and Post-It notes,simultaneously anonymous and extremely personal, are fascinating and revealing reminders ofthe internal lives ofstrangers. Found (vvww.foundmagazine.com),a magazine devoted to the humor and humanity evoked in this discarded ephemera, has its first exhibition of the objects that inspire its publication. Intuit:The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art(312/243-9088; wwvv.art.org),in Chicago,presents "Found:The Magazine, the Stuff,"Jan. 7-29.
for exploring self-taught creativity infields beyond the visual arts. THOU ART CREATIVE CLASSROOMS Two blue-glass-walled classrooms—onefor hands-on art-making inspired by visionary artists and one hard wiredfor exploring best global creative innovations to better community life. VISIONARY VILLAGE A cavernous new exhibition areafor large sculptures and visionary environments. VISIONARY CENTER OUTDOOR SCULPTURE PLAZA with a 4o-ft steel Phoenix by Dr. Evermor, 8-ft. Cosmic Egg (above) by Andrew Logan, 1 i-ft. Divine Hand by Adam Kurtzman,38-ft wide Bird's Nest balcony by David Hess, Outdoor Movie Theater, Speaker's Corner, and Amphitheater 800 Key Highway • Baltimore, MD 410.2 .1900
WINTER 2004/2005
FOLK ART
25
New York City's largest and finest selection of antique quilts, hooked rugs, coverlets, paisleys, Navajos/Beacons blankets, home furnishings, American folk art, Historic Hooked Rugs°,and more...
LAURA FISHER 1050 Second Avenue, #84 (between 55-56th Sts.) New York, NY 10022 11:00-6:00 Mon-Sat. or by appointment
(212)838-2596 (212) 866-6033 (after hours) Email: info@LauraFisherQuilts.com www.laurafisherquilts.com
Broderie Perse Eight Point Star pieced and applique quilt, chintz, circa, 1820.
Amish Railroad Crossing pieced quilt, Holmes County, Ohio, circa, 1930.
When in New York City, visit our shop to see our latest ventures: ISTORIC HOOKED RUGS°, our new line of outsized rugs and runners in traditional patterns and palett FROM THE ORIGINAL°,exact copies of your rug or ours, custom sized and colored to your needs.
MINI
A
TUR
ES
CHITIMACHA PLAITED WEAVE BASKETS / Louisiana / National Museum of the American Indian, New York
AMERICAN STYLE Substantial secretary bookcases, chests, tables,chairs,looking glasses, and specialty forms representing a great variety of woods and techniques are featured in "Our Young Nation: American Federal Furniture and Decorative Arts from the Watson Collection," at the Columbus Museum (706/649-0713; www.columbusmuseum.com)in Columbus, Ga., until Jan. 9,2005.The show is a comprehensive profile offurniture made in cabinetmaking centers from Boston to Charleston, S.C.,from the late 1780s to the 1820s. While the featured pieces demonstrate the artistry offurnituremakers ofthe Federal period, they are organized to reflect the evolving character ofdomestic life in America and the emergence offundamentally American stylistic elements. A catalog accompanies the show. JIMMY LEE SUDDUTH "Jimmy Lee Sudduth," an exhibition of works by the 94-year-old native Alabaman at the Montgomery Museum of Art(334/244-5700; www.mmfa.org)in Montgomery,Ala.,is on view Jan. 15—March 27,2005. An African American self-taught artist, Sudduth has been creating mud paintings on plywood for more than 80 years. He boasts of identifying 36 different shades of mud around his rural Fayette, Ala., home. His innovative and distinctive mud-painting technique includes using rose petals for red, wild turnip leaves for green, and a chalky clay for white.
26 WINTER 2004/2005
FOLK ART
BASKETS AND THE WEAVING PROCESS "The Language of American Baskets: From the Weavers'View," at the National Museum of the American Indian (212/514-3700; www.nmai.si.edu)in New York City, is on view through Jan. 9,2005.The show presents more than 200 examples of basketry from the museum's collection and focuses on Native American ideologies surrounding basketmaking.The process of weaving is emphasized, rather than the finished product,and the exhibition highlights how different weavers interpreted and personalized what was primarily a utilitarian object. The museum's new building in Washington, D.C., had its grand opening on Sept. 21,2004. For information about exhibitions and events at that location,visit the museum's website or call 202/633-1000.
Perry County Blanket Chest Dower chest with lift lid and three drawers over turned feet. Chest is polychrome decorated with a yellow ground color and red graining. Decorated with compass stars and geometric borders done in a Sgraffito technique. Signed on back. Perry County, Newport, PA. Circa 1830. Dimensions: Height: 27", Width: 48", Depth: 21 1/2". Related example: The Pennsylvania Decorated Chest by Monroe Fabian, p215, plate 248.
details of blanket chest paint decoration, side panel, and drawer pictured to the left
-17 Thurston Nichols American Antiques LLC 522 Twin Ponds Road Breinigsville, PA 18031 phone: 610.395.5154 fax: 610.395.3679 www.antigues101.com
AMERICAN FOLK ART EXTENSIVE SELECTION FROM OVER 90 ARTISTS
Sister Gertrude Morgan New Jerusalem" 20"x15"
Bill Traylor "Running Man" 7"x13"
Justin McCarthy "S.I.Ferry" 24"x24"
Including the following artists: Sam Doyle Clementine Hunter Mary T. Smith Raymond Coins David Butler Charles Hutson Rev. Johnny Swearingen Popeye Reed Sultan Rogers Mose Tolliver Jimmy Lee Sudduth Bessie Harvey J. P. Scott J. B. Murry Herbert Singleton Howard Finster Homer Green Charlie Lucas Rev. B. F. Perkins Chief P. L. Willey Milton Fletcher and more...
PAUL Sz. ALVINA HAVE RKAMP (by appointment in New Orleans) 504-866-3505 ahaverkamp@cox.net
DAVI1 DB !TILER Be sure to visit our booth at the OUTSIDER ART FAIR January 28 — 30, 2005 Puck Building • SOHO • New York City
CALLEQY AND
R
AMING
8750 Florida Boulevard Baton Rouge, LA 70815 225.922.9225 outsider@eatel.net or visit us online at: Whirrlygig with 2 Figures and Peacock • 38" x 20" • Pointed Tin and Wood
28 WINTER 2004/2005
FOLK ART
www.gilleysgallery.com
THE
AMES GALLERY
Jon
JS 41, Jon Seri, Coping, ND, oil on masonite, 36 x 27"
Works by contemporary, visionary, self-taught and outsider artists including Eddie Arning, Dorothy Binger, jack Fitch, Julio Garcia, Wilbert Griffith, Harry Lieberman, Dwight Mackintosh, Alex Maldonado, A.G. Rizzoli, Jon Serl, Early
handmade Americana including
Bonnie Grossman, Director fax: 510/845-6219
Barry Simons, Donald Walker, and
carved
canes, tramp
art, quilts
2661 Cedar Street, Berkeley, CA 94708
email: info@amesgallery.com
and
others.
whimseys.
tel: 510/845-4949
online: www.amesgallery.com
FOLK AMERICA American Folk and Self-Taught Art of the 20th Century by Howard Finster, Jimmy Lee Sudduth, Mose Tolliver, Rev. B. F. Perkins, Dilmus Hall, Purvis Young, Mary T. Smith, Georgia Blizzard and others.
Oil FOSTER LL SE
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HOWARD FINSTER HOWARD FIGHTING THE DEVIL AND ALL EVIL - 3000 AND 629 - JULY 26t84 ARTIST FRAMED 24"x 24" ,
P.O. Box 734â&#x20AC;˘ Summerville, Georgia 30747 (706) 862-2442 by appointment and on the web www.folkamerica.net
ANTON HAARDT GALLERY CONTEMPORARY FOLK ART FROM THE DEEP SOUTH
The Folk At! or Niose
Nose
Available at
www.antonart.corn
By Anton lit.tardt I .,1,41!1 I, I
30 WINTER 2004/2005
FOLK ART
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2858 Magazine Street New Orleans, LA 70115 (504) 891-9080 gallery@antonart.corn
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12th Annual Outsider / Contemporary Folk Art Exhibition January 26 - February 6, 2005 The Broome Street Gallery 498 Broome Street, SoHo ground floor - near corner W. Broadway & Broome Street Every day 11 a.m. -6 p.m. except Monday 212. 226. 6085 during exhibition Artists' Reception - Saturday, January 29, 6 - 9 p.m.
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Marcia Weber/Art Objects 1050 Woodley Road • Montgomery, Alabama 36106 334.262.5349 • weberart @ mindspring.com • Fax: 334.567.0060 www.marciaweberartobjects.corn
CONVERSATION
Gene Epstein and Kay Powell have been collecting the work of self-taught artists since the late 1970s. In their inviting loft, in Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood, careful groupings of works by self-taught artists—the widely revered and the anonymous— hang floor to soaring ceiling. As part of this column's exploration of how art collections develop, I sat down with Gene in mid-September to reflect on the process of discovery and honing one's eye. —Tanya Heinrich
TH Tell me where it begins. GE I've always been magnetized by the primitive quality of Henri Rousseau's paintings—there's something powerful there. But I had no thought of collecting art of this kind until the late seventies. We'd recently been to a mindblowing exhibition of Haitian art at the Brooklyn Museum that gave me a Rousseau-like feeling. Shortly afterward we were able to acquire a piece by one of the artists in that show. Something new had moved into our lives, and we began to explore. Hemphill and Weissman's Twentieth Century American Folk Art and Artists [1974] became a kind of bible. It showed us that
MOTHER AND OFFSPRING Justin McCarthy Weatherly, Pennsylvania c. 1950 Mixed media on cardboard 12 x18" Collection of Gene Epstein and Kay Powell
32 WINTER 2004/2005
FOLK ART
this kind of art was a continuing saga. We would each go through the book independently and then compare notes. We visited artists when we could and found retail sources, but there weren't many then. We made some mistakes, as new collectors invariably do, but we also made many soul-stirring acquisitions. TH Where does Sterling Strauser enter the picture? GE Another collector we'd encountered on our travels told us about him,and we went to see him in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. He became a friend and mentor. He championed works by self-taught artists such as Justin McCarthy—whom he and his wife, Dot, had discovered— Victor Joseph Gatto,Ironsides Pry, and a whole lot of others. We were hooked.TH While Gatto's dense and thick oil paintings are quite different from the confident, sketchy lines of McCarthy's drawings and watercolors, they make for a very harmonious
installation on your walls.The groupings create a sense of dialogue, especially with your portrait drawings by Gatto. GE At first look, McCarthy hardly appealed to me; at the second look, almost everything about him did. He seemed in many ways a man with a damaged sense of himself; but when it came to making art, the needle was in its groove. TH You also have some carvings by Jesse Aaron. GE At the 1982 Corcoran Gallery of Art show in Washington, D.C.["Black Folk Art in America, 1930-19801, we saw many of these artists in the flesh for the first time—it was stunning to see all of them in a classic gallery setting, truly a feast for our eyes. Aaron's creations were for me an especially moving experience—primeval wooden creatures out of a swamp. TH I like the simplicity of the carving. GE He knew when to stop. TH In my opinion you live in sort of the epitome of the perfect loft—lots of books and plants, very stylish and homey,and yet the space is inescapably a relic of its industrial past. Like the art collection, each object and piece offurniture looks as if it was acquired piece by
NICKELODEON Victor Joseph Gatto New York c. 1944 Oil on canvas 24 x 30" Collection of Gene Epstein and Kay Powell
piece, with great consideration, while fitting seamlessly into the overall aesthetic that you and Kay maintain. GE Kay has a very good eye. I try to emulate her. I don't know of anything better than a shared passion. TH You've been selling works from your collection almost from the beginning. Is it hard for you to ... GE I know what you're going to ask. Yes and no. It's hard to part with a work of art you've grown particularly fond of, but it's also gratifying when another collector shares the same conviction about the value of this art. Also, we have no problem filling the gap with another piece ofgood art. TH What's on your wish list? GE Ofcourse I wish I had a Rousseau, but that'll never happen. His works give me the same feeling as these other artists. Like entering someone's dream. A detailed dream.*
Slotin Folk Art Auction Spring Sale - 800 Lots April 30, 2005 Buford, GA Bill Traylor
Consignments Welcome
S L Jones
FREE CATALOG - Call, Fax or Email 770 932-1000 • 404 403-4244 • 770 932-0506 fax Email: folkfest@bellsouth.net • Website: www.slotinfolkart.com GAL #2864
—
-P
Make the tre
A world of wonder awaits at the Kentucky Folk Art Center.
Kentucky Folk Art Center • 102W.First Street • Morehead,KY 40351 I 606.783.2204 KFAC is a cultural, educational and economic development service of Morehead State University.
www.kyfolkart.org
THE AMERICUS GROUP of the American Folk Art Museum brings together folk art enthusiasts under the age of 45 for a variety of engaging educational and social activities.This dynamic group of young art patrons receives unparalleled access to the Museum's resources and gains insight to the vibrant world of traditional and contemporary folk art.
ENJOY EXCLUSIVE AMERICUS GROUP EVENTS, INCLUDING: • Unlimited free admission to the Museum for one person • Invitations for two to member's exhibition previews • Annual subscription to Folk Art magazine
BIRD OF PARADISE QUILT TOP / artist unidentified / vicinity of Albany, New York /1858-1863 / cotton, wool, silk, and ink with silk embroidery / 841/2 x 69 5/8 in. / Gift of the trustees of the American Folk Art Museum,1979.7.1
34 WINTER 2004/2005
FOLK ART
• Curatorial tours of special exhibitions, visits with local artists, and tours of private collections • Special members-only sales at the Museum shop and partner institution stores
To learn more about the Americus Group, please contact Radhika Natarajan at 212. 977. 7170, ext. 318, or rnatarajan@folkartmuseum.org.
AMERICAN
MUSEUM
5" x 8"(base) • 9" x 14"(bird) • 13"(height)
hanninvestco@yahoo.com • 615 292 3711
THE
COLLECTION:
A
CLOSER
LOOK
BY GERARD C. WERTKIN AND BROOKE DAVIS ANDERSON
KNITTED RUG Attributed to Elyira Curtis Hulett (c.1805-1895) Probably Hancock, Massachusetts c. 1890-1895 Wool 50" diam. American Folk Art Museum, promised gift of Ralph Esmerian, P1.2001.295
ugs ofvarious kinds were woven,braided, hooked,and knitted in Shaker communities,both for household use and for sale to visitors. The earliest Shaker rugs were probably produced in the 1830s, at about the same time that floor rugs became widely used by the greater American population. Late19th- and early-20th-century photographs of the salesrooms at the neighboring Shaker villages of New Lebanon,N.Y.,and Hancock,Mass.,show decoratively patterned rugs displayed for sale. By then,the leadership ofthe Shaker Society had relaxed earlier strictures against ornamentation. This striking knitted rug is attributed to Elvira Curtis Hulett,a Hancock Shaker,on the basis ofa note on the backing ofan example almost identical in design and technique.The rug is a technical tour de force. It is distinguished by a brilliant use ofcontrasting colors and the varied patterns—crosses, diamonds,checkerboards,and chevrons—that decorate each ofits concentric rings. These patterns are suggestive of Hulett's early experience as a weaver. She knitted the rug in strips oftwo or more colors worked together.The strips were sewn together, and then the rug was edged with a braid of woven fabric. The center clockwise spiral tapers to a point,forming a circle, which is surrounded by five knitted rings, each with a different pattern. —G C.W
R
Knitted Rug is on view in "Folk Art Revealed"
36 WINTER 2004/2005
FOLK ART
WONDERBREAD RUG Artist unidentified, possibly Desire Parker Connecticut c. 1920-1930 Plastic Wonderbread wrappers 60" diam. American Folk Art Museum, gift of Claudia Polsky, 2001.10.1
he Wonderbread Rug was found in the Ledyard, Conn.,home of Desire Parker, an electrical designer at Electric Boat, after she passed away;it was either created by Parker or by an acquaintance. Made entirely ofcrocheted strands of plastic Wonderbread bags, this is a whimsical example of a common pattern in folk art: recycling. Many vernacular objects valued as folk art are composed by someone who transforms material from its original purpose to a new one.This is a timeless global phenomenon not tied to culture or community For example, used matchsticks may be glued together to make a jewelry box, or discarded Popsicle sticks can be reconstructed into a lamp,or empty soda cans are cut up into toy cars and airplanes.The "make something from nothing" aesthetic is very much at play here. —B.D.A
T
Wonderbread Rug is on view on the museum's thirdfloor.
FOUR THEMES - UTILITY, COMMUNITY, INDIVIDUALITY, AND SYMBOLISM - REVEAL THE REMARKABLE DEPTH AND DIVERSITY OF THE MUSEUM'S COLLECTION OF FOLK ART FROM THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY THROUGH THE PRESENT
REVEALED NOW ON VIEW AT THE AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM
above: ANIMALS APPEAR AS PLANTS— DWELLERS OF THE SEA (detail) / Eugene Von Bruenchenhein (1910-1983) / Milwaukee /1956 / paint on corrugated cardboard / 21 x 24" / American Folk Art Museum, Blanchard-Hill Collection, gift of M. Anne Hill and Edward V. Blanchard Jr., 1998.10.58 / photo by Gavin Ashworth below: LOW BLANKET CHEST (detail) / artist unidentified / New England / c.1830 / paint on wood / 22 x 41 1/4 x 18 I/2" / American Folk Art Museum, gift of The Lipman Family Foundation in honor of Jean and Howard Lipman, 1999.8.7 / photo by Gavin Ashworth "Folk Art Revealed" is made possible by leadership support AMERICAN
45 WEST 53RD STREET BETWEEN 5TH AND 6TH AVENUES NEW YORK CITY
MUSEUM
from the Peter Jay Sharp Foundation and major support from the Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Fund. Additional funding has been provided by The Brown
212. 265.1040
Foundation, Inc., of Houston, the Robert Lehman Foundation,
WWW.FOLKARTMUSEUM.ORG
and the Jean Lipman Fellows.
UPDATE:
THE
LIBRARY
BY LEE KOGAN AND JAMES MITCHELL
Beeton's Book of Needlework, Ward, Lock & Co., London, 1870
Cuesta Benberry, January 2004
hen asked to comment on Cuesta Benberry's contributions to quilt scholarship since 1970,quilt historians without exception acknowledge her outstanding and significant research in the fields of quilt and textile studies. She is unsurpassed in professional generosity and mentoring. For more than 40 years, Benberry's books,exhibition catalogs, newsletters,journal articles, and presentations at seminars and symposia have met the highest research standards. She was inducted into the Quilter's Hall ofFame (1983),is cited in Who's Who in America as "a quilt historian, archivist, and consultant," and has amassed an extraordinary library of quiltrelated material. Her particular areas of specialization include knowledge ofquiltmakers,the history ofquilt patterns, and African American quilts. In August 2004, Faith Ringgold's Anyone Can Fly Foundation awarded a distinguished scholar prize to Benberry for her signifi-
W
38 WINTER 2004/2005
FOLK ART
cant quilt research over many years. The American Folk Art Museum is pleased to announce that Cuesta Benberry has donated her extensive library, the "library of her mind," to its Shirley K. Schlafer Library, where it will be housed as the Cuesta Benberry Quilt Research and Reference Collection.'This is Benberry's second gift to the museum's library, and the wealth of material forms one ofthe country's most comprehensive research centers and reinforces the museum's extraordinary collection of more than 500 quilts.2 The extensive library and collection ofarchival materials, which consists of books, museum exhibition catalogs, periodicals, pattern catalogs,individual patterns, kit materials, and additional ephemera,is an unparalleled resource for the study oftwo centuries ofquiltmalcing and textile history. Some of the rare and firstedition titles in Benberry's collec-
tion include The Art ofNeedleworkftom the EarliestAges by the Countess ofWilton (1840); The Lady's ManualofFancy Work by Matilda Pullan (1858); Beeton's Book ofNeedlework,with 600 illustrations(1870);Art and Handicraft in the Woman's Building ofthe World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893; and the rare catalog ofthe 1926 sale of the Toledo Museum of Art's Col. George Ketcham quilt collection at the Anderson Galleries,in New York City. Needlework Through the Ages by Mary Symonds and Louisa Preece (1928),a much-treasured volume, was acquired after a 30-year search.The Benberry Collection also includes significant examples of 18th- and early-19th-century fiction that served as sources for quilt patterns. Children's book illustrations by artists such as Bertha Corbett, Grace Drayton, and Kate Greenaway went on to become familiar embroidery patterns for quilt tops. A 1951 edition of TheJollyJingle Picture Book, with illustrations by Ruth Caroline Eger,an 1875 edition of Harriet Beecher Stowe's The Minister's Wooing(which contains a familiar passage on quilting parties), and a first-edition copy of Rebecca ofSunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggins(1903) add additional facets to quilt documentation. Cuesta Benberry was born Cuesta Ray in Cincinnati. She was raised by her father,Walter, and her maternal grandmother, Letha Jennings,in St. Louis, Mo.,following the death of her mother, Marie, when she was very young. She attended local public schools, and upon graduation from Vachon High School she attended Stowe Teachers' College(now Harris-Stowe State College),from which she received
Home Needlework Magazine(January 1900), Florence Publishing Company, Florence, Mass.
her bachelor's degree in education in 1945. Benberry taught in the St. Louis public school system for approximately 40 years and also worked as a reading specialist and school librarian. In 1967 she was awarded state certification in library science, and in 1973 she earned a master's degree in elementary education from the University of Missouri, St. Louis,and acquired additional graduate credits from St. Louis University and the University ofIllinois.
them as bedcovers and referring to nnl rt2nel 4r -m, them by the plain border strip. C003118 appropriate patOhl., dal.1 yellow, end USE yellow ere saggeeted tor this quilt. It ...red tern name.They " color, the lighteet, Tien. No.l. MOUT OP MATNRIAL also entered them Po be Hlosks Lgt. tellow..3 1 in competitions at gUMBIR OP PIECES TO DECO, mane local county and Whit White g :: 2 320 lithe yellow state fairs. Ben33,3 3NOT3 "r"'; 'Mt berry was fasciCut the border etripor...t°" to get Lull length without piecing nated with the NOMMITOSS PON CONDI° #2 #2 11. LY W Tref. pieces of the pattern on light cardboard or sandpaper •nd out out this these cardboard or sandpaper colors, patterns, pie.. el cutting guides The moot seem method is to lay car ano•rd rk and stitching of tfght 701100 1:51rair:: White Whitt Whi e out on pencil lines' :g:ILer''t the family quilts, poseible ley straight edges of the LY Light pillow allel witb the <breads and she began to TWILTINO ask questions and 11:a grttle ' lr= "" ""t".43.4" 80 OttIttgl:1 11511.9 ART CO. Sines Mgt sx. 60083, MISSOURI photograph them. An interest in the origins of patterns led Benberry to begin to amass her legendary archives. As early as 1977,Joyce Gross of the Mill Valley Quilt Authority(Mill Valley Calif.) wrote after a Churn Dash, pattern No.112, Ladies Art Co., St. Louis, recent visit with Mo., late 19th century midwestern scholars that Benberry had "the most extensive files.' Benberry collected quilting magazines such as Aunt Her professional training has Kate's Quilting Bee (serving Texas, given her the expertise and Oklahoma,and Ohio),Jay Bees research skills necessary for the (Missouri), and Quilter's Swap building of a scholarly library Shop Monthly(Oklahoma).In the In 1951 she married George 1960s these magazines consisted Benberry, and two years later she ofsmall mimeographed pages of gave birth to a son, George Jr. As patterns and lists ofpeople Benberry tells it, she married into a quiltmaking family; her mother- interested in collecting patterns, in-law, Minnie Benberry,gave her making quilts, and networking with other quilt enthusiasts.The a Works Progress Administration early newsletters/journals also (VVPA)quilt in the tulip design pattern as a wedding present. But sponsored "round robins," which further expanded pattern it was not until she visited her husband's family in western Ken- exchange and correspondence among quiltmakers. tucky that she developed special Quilt patterns and quiltappreciation for quilts.They took makers continued to interest great pride in their quilts, using Two..
WILT PAPtgfg NO.112—CR8SS
SIZE OP QUILT, 01,99 image A. quilt"coda vp et eihty 9.4006 g.
1 N/
Benberry,and her natural enthusiasm for research was buttressed by her professional skills as a librarian. From 1970 to 1975 she wrote regularly for Nimble Needle Treasures, a quilt magazine published from 1969 to 1976. She contributed the significant Hatfield-McCoy Victory Quilt articles, along with so many others that she requested they be printed without her byline.'The Hatfields and the McCoys were two long-feuding Appalachian families who overcame 80 years of hostility dating back to the Civil War,when they joined to make a quilt together in 1944. Benberry contributed articles to Quilter'sJournal(1977-1987), beginning with a brief note in the first issue.' Her article "TwentiethCentury Game Plan: Naming the Quilt Pattern"(a column originated by her in the "Quilter's Calendar" section) is a great example ofthe thoroughness of her research.6 She traced the names of a quilt pattern first published as the Double Wrench in the June 1884 issue ofFarm and Fireside magazine; it reappeared in 1889 under the same name and the number 148,from the Ladies Art Company of St. Louis.They apparently also issued a very similar pattern, No.112,under the name Churn Dash. Subsequently, the two names became conflated. The pattern continued to appear under such names as Monkey Wrench, Bride's Knot,Dragon's Head,and Aeroplane-36 different names in all—in addition to the original Double Wrench. At the invitation ofeditor Bonnie Leman,Benberry contributed to Quilter's Newsletter Magazine for almost 20 years, writing book reviews and articles on pattern history and quiltmakers. An early piece traces the history ofthe Biloxi pattern from its
first appearance in Scribner's Magazine(1894).The pattern, originating from a nearly extinct Siouan American Indian tribe from sections of Mississippi and Louisiana,contains a windmill motifsurrounded by eight elliptically shaped patches and outer triangles. Patterns of similar construction appeared in other magazines as Winding Walk,and Fox Chase.' During this country's bicentennial, which encouraged Americans to study their ethnic heritage, Benberry began to concentrate on African American quilt research, a subject that continues to hold her interest. In 1980 she presented a paper entitled "Afro-American Women and Quilts: An Introductory Essay" at the first symposium ofthe newly formed American Quilt Study Group(AQ5G),of which she was a charter member.It was published in the first volume of the journal Uncoverings:The Research Papers ofthe American Quilt Study Group(1980). She presented papers at two subsequent AQ5G seminars, in 1983 and 1986.8 She also spent seven years researching—and confirming—the story ofa quilt made by Martha Ann Ricks, a former slave who had been repatriated to Liberia.The Coffee Tree Quilt was made for Queen Victoria, and Ricks traveled to London to present it to her.' Benberry was a consultant to several state quilt projects (for Iowa, Louisiana, and Missouri, among others), and has been invited to lecture on quilts throughout the United States and Europe.In London during an 1986 exhibition on appliquéd quilts ofthe Zamani Soweto Sisters Council of South Africa,she gave a major address entitled "Soweto:The Patchwork ofOur
WINTER 2004/2005
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39
UPDATE:
THE
LIBRARY
Lives." She established a relationship with the Soweto Sisters, whose quilts show the influence ofthe customs and traditions of black South Africans struggling under the oppressive policies of apartheid.They were dedicated to building a center to serve their community,with classes and workshops teaching literacy, typing,sewing, knitting, and patchwork quiltmaking,under the direction of British art quiltmaker Deirdre Amsden. Benberry has served as curator of several exhibitions, many of which were accompanied by catalogs,including "Always There: The African American Presence in American Quilts"(1991), and "A Piece of My Soul: Quilts by Black Arkansans"(2000). With "Always There," organized at the request of Shelly Zegart and Jonathan Holstein ofthe Kentucky Quilt Project, Benberry convincingly demythologized the notion that African American quilting was monolithic, with a single recognizable aesthetic; she identified a remarkable variety offorms among African American—made quilts."A Piece ofMy Soul" called attention to previously ignored African American quiltmakers and their contributions to Arkansas folk arts and culture. In 1997 she joined historian Joyce Gross as co-curator of the meticulously researched exhibition "20th-Century 1900-1970:Women Make Their Mark," at the Museum of the American Quilter's Society in Paducah,Ky.1° Benberry's most recent book is Love ofQuilts:A Treasury ofClassic Quilting Stories(2004),compiled with Carol Pinney Crabb.11 She was also a frequent contributor to and founder ofthe Women ofColor Quilters Network Newsletter, published from 1987 to 1993.
40 WINTER 2004/2005
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Though not primarily known as a textile artist, Benberry designed an original quilt block, Kennedy's EternalFlame(1965), which won an honorable mention in Aunt Kate's Quilting Bee Magazine. In 1979 she also made a 12block appliquéd and pieced sampler teaching quilt, which is titled Afro-American Women and Quilts. Among the blocks are references to actual quilts by or about African Americans in particular moments in American history,including Harriet Powers's iconic Bible Quilt(c. 1886);an early Star Cradle quilt made for sale at an 1835 Boston Anti-Slavery Society fund-raising Ladies Fair, with an ink inscription that expressed abolitionist sentiments; a 1967 quilt from the Freedom Quilting Bee of Gee's Bend,Ala.; and the tulip design quilt pattern brought to a Benberry family member and others in Kentucky by WPA workers in the 1930s!2 Her expertise and extensive archives were helpful in tracing the pattern sources for two quilts in the American Folk Art Museum's collection.The Calico Cat Quilt was traced to the Old Chelsea Station Needlecraft Service in New York City, which published patterns under the names of Alice Brooks, Laura Wheeler,and Carol Curtis. Patterns were obtained, according to Benberry's research,from a column in the local newspaper or directly from Needlecraft Service, which published the pattern in the late 1930s or early 1940s.The paper patterns, ordered by number, were available for several years, and they were at times later reprinted with a different number.The pattern example Benberry located was called Kitten Applique!' The pattern for the English Flower Garden Quilt was traced
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YOU MI GLIM TIE SADY TO FOLLOW IOUS/MUD CHART RIRDESHED
AN
ERAMPLE OF BEAUTIFUL PATCHWORK MADE FROM READY CUT AND HARMON, OUSLY BLENDED COLOR COMBINATIONS — WITH MATERIALS THAT NEVER FADE D Almnrowl M'My SM.M a/ Ms 9 NM* am Ma ••••11•1I Joh. *ea hoody ginia.6 as CmDmms. MIRDERM ommtdol M *Wm mmmIlimmt mo mom pm OM MM.ad Falm m mt
Mom me mmdm pagai , Orti•E Form
Lone Star quilt pattern, Needlecraft Supply Co., Chicago, c.1937
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LONE STAR QUILT Artist unidentified Ohio 1925-1935 Pieced cotton 75/ 3 4 73/ 3 4" American Folk Art Museum, gift of Mr. and Mrs. William B. Wigton, 1984.25.20
by Benberry to two sources, primarily a Ruby S. McKim design published in the Kansas City (Mo.)Star on April 9, 1930,and in McKim's book 101 Patchwork Patterns(1931). Benberry referred the museum's senior curator, Stacy C.Hollander,to a collector
to the American Folk Art Museum!'The quilt, made by Lizzie Forrester and Ann Kirby, a mother and daughter from Missouri, pays homage to American World War I soldiers buried in European cemeteries.The floral appliquĂŠ quilt was inspired by the
sensitive poem "In Flanders Field," written in 1917 by a young Canadian, Lt. Col.John McCrae. When she was inducted into the Quilter's Hall ofFame in 1983,Benberry expressed her thoughts with clarity and do-
CALICO CAT QUILT Artist unidentified Possibly Kentucky 1930-1945 Cotton with cotton embroidery 83 67" American Folk Art Museum, gift of Laura Fisher, Antique Quilts and Americana, 1987.8.1
AFRO-AMERICAN WOMEN AND QUILTS Cuesta Benberry St. Louis, Missouri 1979 Pieced and appliquĂŠd cotton 78 53" Collection of the artist
who had every published Kansas City Star pattern. Hollander learned that the pattern source may also have been previously published in Capper's Weekly as a Quilt Block Service Pattern (Nov. 16, 1929), though not credited to McKim.The maker,Jennie Pingrey, combined the McKim art deco geometric designs with a border created by Eveline Foland Stotts, MclCim's successor at the Kansas City Star, and used her own touches oforange on the flowers and flowerpots.' Benberry is also donating the quilt Poppy Fields ofFrance(1918)
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41
UPDATE:
THE
LIBRARY ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN QUILT Jennie (Mrs. Charles 0.) Pingrey Stotts Yates Center, Kansas 1930-1935 Cotton 95 77/ 3 4" American Folk Art Museum, gift of a museum friend, 1987.17.1
Notes 1 "Library of her mind,"Peg Hartwell,e-mail to Lee Kogan and James Mitchell, May 2,2004. 2 The first gift was received in 1986, the year of the museum's first Great American Quilt Festival. 3 Joyce Gross,"Editor's Comments," Quilter'sJournal 1, no.2(winter 1977), n.p. 4 "Hatfield-McCoy Victory Quilt," Quilter'sJournal2, no.3(fall 1979): 6-7. 5 Quilter'sJournal 1,no.1 (fall 1977):6. 6 Quilter'sJournal 1, no.2(winter 1977): 10-11. 7 Quilter's Newsletter 10, no.3 (March 1979): 13,15.In the 1894 Scribner's Magazine article, author Fanny Bergen called the pattern, of Native American origin,"Biloxi." Benberry's research ofsubsequent listings ofsimilarly designed blocks at later dates under different names in different sources led her to conclude
42 WINTER 2004/2005
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that patterns ofsimilar constructionâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Winding Walk,in Ladies Art Company Catalog(1898), and Fox Chase,in Hearth and Home Magazine (1902)â&#x20AC;&#x201D;were variations ofthe earlier Bikud. 8 See "White Perspectives of Blacks in ()silts and Related Media," Uncoverings 4(1983): 59-74,and "Quilt Cottage Industries: A Chronicle," Uncoverings 7(1986): 83-100. 9 See Cuesta Benberry,"A Quilt for Queen Victoria," Quilter's Newsletter Magazine 18, no.2(February 1987): 24-25;and Kyra Hicks,"The Coffee Tree Quilt," Quilter's Newsletter Magazine 34, no.2(March 2003):34-35, 72. Hicks is currently writing a book on the subject. 10 Benberry and Gross organized a seminar in conjunction with the exhibition that featured presentations by several noted quilt historians, including Hazel Carter, Bettina Havig, Erma Kirkpatrick,Julie Powell,and Kathryn Sullivan. 11 Stillwater, Minn.: Voyageur Press, 2004. Reprint ofA Patchwork ofPieces: An Anthology ofEarly Quilt Stories, 1845-1940(Paducah, Ky.: American Quilter's Society, 1993.) 12 Research into the Star Cradle quilt was among the most significant of Benberry's career. See Cuesta Benberry,"A Quilt Research Surprise," Quilter's Newsletter Magazine 12, no. 7(July/August 1981): 34-35. 13 See Elizabeth V. Warren and Sharon L. Eisenstat, Glorious American Quilts: The Quilt Collection ofthe Museum ofAmerican Folk Art(New York: Penguin Studio in association with the Museum of American Folk Art, 1996), p. 104; and curatorial files, American Folk Art Museum. 14 Curatorial files, American Folk Art Museum. 15 For an illustration of this quilt, see Joyce Gross and Cuesta Benberry, 20th-Century Quilts, 1900-1970: Women Make Their Mark(Paducah, Ky.: Museum ofthe American Quilter's Society, 1997), p. 9. 16 See Benberry,letter to Hazel Carter, quoted in Quilter's Hall ofFame induction ceremony booklet,1983.
Cuesta Benberry's 1983 induction into the Quilter's Hall of Fame, with Hazel Carter (right)
COURTESY QUIETER'S HALL 0
quence:"I think I share with other quilt researchers the desire to explore, expand, and enrich quilt history, and to do it with accuracy and truth. A personal objective is to change the intellectual community's perception of quilt history. In general, quilt history is not considered a serious scholarly subject. I believe the efforts of the present generation of quilt researchers, working in a climate where the status of women has changed significantly, will result in works so compelling that further denial of the value and importance of quilt history will be impossible."' With dedication and unflagging devotion, Cuesta Benberry's study, documentation,collecting, and writing have earned her a reputation as a rare national treasure.The museum is profoundly grateful that this eminent scholar has chosen the American Folk Art Museum to house her incomparable quilt archives.*
GIVE A GIFT OF MEMBERSHIP... AND SAVE $10 OFF ANY CATEGORY! Purchase a gift membership and mention this ad to receive $10 off any level of membership. Contact the membership office at 212. 977. 7170, ext. 306, or e-mail membership@folkartmuseum.org. Membership includes unlimited free admission to the museum, an annual subscription to Folk Art magazine, and a 10 percent discount at the museum Book and Gift Shop.
Patron Membership starts at $150 and benefits include a host of special events and programming. Please contact the membership office for more details!
AMERICAN
MUSEUM
AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM TEL: 212. 265. 1040 WWW.FOLKARTMUSEUM.ORG
45 W. 53RD ST, NEW YORK CITY
REMINDER TO MEMBERS: Please bring a friend and join us at the museum for holiday cheer, exhibition tours, and a one-night-only special shop discount at the Members Holiday Party, Monday, December 13, 5:00-7:30pm. RSVP by December 8 to 212. 977. 7170, ext. 306.
American Folk Art Sidney Gecker , 0 1-•
MOUNTAIN BOY AND JOCKEY WEATHERVANE SUPERB ORIGINAL CONDITION AND SURFACE •LENGTH:32 INCHES•HEIGHT:19 INCHES • 226 West 21st Street ;Arew Yor*, ' N.Y. 10011 •(212)929-8769•Appointment Suggested
STEPHEN
0 Ig RIEN JR.
AMERICAN,SPORTING & WESTERN PAINTINGS ANTIQUE DECOYS & AMERICAN FOLK ART
Merganser Hen by George Huey.(1885-1946), Friendship, Maine, circa 1915.
APPRAISALS • AUCTION REPRESENTATION • BROKERAGE • COLLECTIONS MANAGEMENT
268 Newbury Street• Boston, MA 02116 • (617) 536-0536 — by appointment only www.americansportingart.com
44 WINTER 2004/2005
FOLK ART
JOAN R. BROWNSTEIN ART & ANTIQUES
THE THEODORE HART FAMILY OF CANANDAIGUA, NEW YORK, PAINTED IN 1842 BY JUSTUS DA LEE
A rare intact family group of seven watercolor portraits, which includes all three of Da Lee's modes of representation: half-length adult portraits, three quarter-length portraits of the older children, and an example of the seldom
24 PARKER STREET
found full-length portrait of the family's youngest child. All are beautifully detailed, retain exceptional color, and are in their original frames which are each inscribed with the sitter's name.
NEWBURY
MA 01951
978.465.1089
WWW.JOANRBROWNSTEIN.COM
TO PLEASE THE
EYE Da Lee and His Family
DA LEE FAMILY MEMORIAL Attributed to Justus Da Lee (1793-1878) Cambridge, New York c. 1833-1834 Watercolor and ink on paper 14% x 20" American Folk Art Museum, promised gift of Elizabeth, Irwin, and Mark Warren
By Suzanne Rudnick Payne and Michael R. Payne The American Folk Art Museum has received a promised gift of the elaborate watercolor memorial made by Justus Da Lee for his family. In an unusual format, with gravestones, this memorial contains portraits ofJustus, his wife, Mary, and their first eight children. Who was the artist,Justus Da Lee?' A brief description of his life has been presented, but even his birth and death dates have not been published.' Yet our investigation ofJustus Da Lee has uncovered many fascinating details about his life and times. Additionally, we have found that the small ink, pencil, and watercolor portraits traditionally attributed to him could also be the work of several other Da Lee family members. We have discovered that both his son Amon G.J. and his brother Richard W.M. also painted portraits in a similar style.
This family record is attributed to Justus Da Lee because the adult figures are similar to his printed family records. At some point. Justus's face was carefully cut out and replaced with a new face, which was sealed on the back with red wax. As the new face is consistent with the rest of the memorial, Justus may have been unhappy with his first attempt at a self-portrait. The memorial was made after the birth of daughter Ruth Anstis in 1833, who was included in the memorial. Her death in 1834 and the birth of son Albert Waterman in 1835 are not recorded on the piece. This allows us to date this memorial between 1833 and 1834.
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47
RISING FAMILY RECORD Justus Da Lee Cambridge, New York Mid-1830s Watercolor and ink on preprinted paper 14 111 / 2" Private collection
TAIVEIS =V) IITII ti
Signed "J. Dalee Cambridge" at the lower right.
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PROFILES OF HENRY BURCH'S FAMILY Justus Da Lee Cambridge, New York 1838 Watercolor, ink, and pencil on paper 13,/2 s 111 / 4" Private collection
r1
These portraits are accompanied by the Burch family record, which is signed "J. Dalee, Cambridge."
Henri, 11
48 WINTER 2004/2005
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An account ofJustus Da Lee's life begins with the saga ofa group of Baptists who left Providence, Rhode Island, in 1793 to settle and establish churches in New York near the Vermont border. This was a group of Free Will Baptists, an evangelical sect that emphasizes the establishment ofchurches.The group included his parents, James (1765-1840) and Anstis (1775-1849), who had been married only seven months, as well as their parents. A letter from Albany dated June 1793 described their journey and how "every heart is animated with lively sensations ofarriving soon at the promised land."' The Da Lees first settled in Pittstown, New York, about twenty miles northeast of Albany. Justus was born there on October 1, 1793. He was the first of thirteen children, although five would die in infancy. The family moved several times within a twenty-mile radius over the next few years. By 1805 they were settled in the small town of Cambridge, New York, in Washington County. Located on a fertile plain that provided excellent farming as well as a clear title to the land, the town included what was probably the first Baptist church in Washington County.' Except for his traveling in search of portrait commissions,Justus would live in this town almost continuously until age forty-seven. His brother Richard was born on October 18,1809. During the War of 1812,Justus, at age twenty, enlisted in the Cambridge militia under the command of a local blacksmith, Col. Hercules Rice. He was probably enticed by newspaper advertisements offering a very generous $124 enlisting bounty ($50 for signing, $50 when mustered, $24 at discharge), $8 per month pay, and 160 acres ofland.' On September 1, 1814, as British warships were moving down Lake Champlain, Da Lee's company was called out, and he served as one of the musicians. The company went to Burlington, Vermont, but when news of the American victory at Plattsburgh on September 11 reached them, the company was discharged, on September 20, 1814.6 Many years later, Justus would apply for a pension based on this military service. Prior to 1815, Justus was teaching in the local Cambridge school. Public education had become a topic of intensive debate in New York with the passage of the Common School Act of 1812.This legislation was the first ofits type in the United States and was meant to provide a basic education to all children between the ages of five and fifteen. It divided New York State into 12,000 school districts, so that no student had to walk more than three miles, and it provided each district with money for teachers' salaries. While the state controlled the school districts through an appointed state superintendent, each town was directed to provide matching funds and maintain the school buildings. In 1813 Cambridge voted to accept the provisions of the 1812 law.' The Rate Bill was passed in 1814 and ordered local taxation of parents with students in the schools, resulting in many poor people not sending their children to be educated.' In 1815 Justus had "printed for the author" two editions of a twelve-page pamphlet,"An Address Delivered to the Scholars of the English School in District No. 27 in the Town of Cambridge...."9 The first edition was a stern lecture to his students concerning the importance oflearning, good behavior, and the dangers of swearing. The last page expressed his outrage at governmental control of the
school and his anger at being terminated for being overly strict. The address also exists in a "Second Edition" that had been "Corrected and Revised by the Author" with exactly the same title and publication date of March 22, 1815. The second edition was almost completely rewritten as a fatherly sermon to his students, with the complete deletion of the last page describing his complaints. Both editions contain the same delightful poem in which each of his students (forty-three boys and forty girls), as well as George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, are briefly commented upon in individual stanzas. Additional stanzas include: Let swearing language always cease And every person live in peace That baneful practice of mankind Destroys the virtue ofthe mind. Let gold nor silver never make You put your own dear life at stake But scorn to live a life of sin And you'll the crown ofglory win. These documents show that Justus was a highly educated schoolteacher who lost his teaching position during the education turmoil of the 1810s for, in his own words, "usurping government." On October 13, 1816,Justus married Mary Fowler in the Baptist church. Mary was born in Cambridge, and her father was probably a member of the 1793 Baptist group from Providence. Mary's brother,Jonathan, also served as a musician with Justus in Colonel Rice's militia.째Their first child, Mary Ann, was born in 1817. All but one of their ten children would be born in Cambridge.The first surviving son, Amon, who would be particularly close to his father, was born on August 9, 1820. Justus continued to teach school and was appointed to the Office of Inspector in the Cambridge school district, bearing responsibility for determining teachers' qualifications and the state of the school buildings. Common-school teachers were very poorly paid. In 1821, 659 children were taught in Cambridge and the town appropriated $389.26 for teachers' salaries. In comparison, the local private Cambridge Washington Academy hired its first teacher in 1816 at $600 annually to teach fifty-eight students and, in 1817, ' hired an assistant for $300.1 In 1824 Justus's parents and several sisters and brothers, including Richard, left Cambridge and settled in western New York next to Lake Erie around the town of Portland, in Chautauqua County. Justus stayed in Cambridge, and in 1825 his home included eighteen and three-quarter acres of farmland, one cow, and two horses.째 Many years later, Amon would remember his father as "a man of education, a teacher and a merchant, a prominent man in the Baptist church,a man ofeminent piety and marked ability?"' The first evidence of Justus's artistic interest is his sketchbook, Emblematical Figures, Representations & To Please the Eye.14 The title page is dated May 19, 1826, the last dated drawing, February 12, 1827. It contains watercolor and ink drawings, including one in which he describes himself as a "professor of penmanship." The
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49
Adult Half-Length Portraits
GAVIN ASHWORTH
In these portraits, the faces are in profile, as are the men's bodies. A few earlier women's portraits have frontal bodies, but most women's portraits also have profile bodies.
NATHANIEL AND MARY CROCKER Da Lee family Cambridge, New York C. 1835-1840 Watercolor, ink, and pencil on paper 31 / 4 21 / 2"(sight, each) Private collection
REV. JOEL BYINGTON AND HIS WIFE, MRS. DELIA BYINGTON Amon G.J. Da Lee Pittsford, New York 1843 Watercolor, ink, and pencil on paper 3 . 21 / 2"(sight, each) Collection of Sally B. Louis
Inscribed, on the backboard, "Rev. Joel Byington and his wife Mrs. Delia Byington taken August 8, 1843 in the 60th year of his age; & the 43rd of hers / by A.G.J. Da Lee, Pittsford, N.Y."
50 WINTER 2004/2005
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and two hogs. As Amon would later reminisce,"[My] father, in the latter part of his life, devoted himself to miniature painting?' During these years, Justus also taught Amon to paint portraits, as "the son naturally and from taste fell into the following of the same profession."' A December 17, 1837,letter from Justus to Richard (with a postscript to Amon) states that painting had become a family business, as both Amon and Richard were also actively taking portraits. "We have been at Troy for 2 months and I have taken only 60 [portraits] & lettered 2 records. ... Amon assisted me greatly by painting the dresses ... have on hand a constant supply of family records (I now have 200 unpainted)."22 The postscript, to Amon, reads "As for Richard &.I and you, we must all
GAVIN ASHWORTH
sketchbook contains both original compositions and drawings copied from the Oxford Drawing Book, a popular art instruction manual.'s Justus would be remembered as 'remarkable as a penman ... to demonstrate his capacities of imitation he once made a bill on the Troy Bank... so completely simulated to the original that the bank officers examined it and pronounced it genuine. He wrote the Lord's prayer in a space less than the tenth part of the old fashioned American copper cent, every letter distinct."m In 1827 Justus served as the clerk of the Baptist church.17 He and his family traveled at some point to Franklin, Ohio, probably to visit one of his brothers, and a sixth child, Harriet L., was born there on April 18, 1829. In 1830 the Da Lees returned to Cambridge, after living
UNIDENTIFIED COUPLE Da Lee family c. 1840-1848 Watercolor, ink, and pencil on paper 2"(sight, each) / 3 21 Collection of Suzanne and Michael Payne
for a short while at 107 North Second Street in Troy,just outside of Albany. The birth of a seventh child, William S., is recorded in Cambridge in October 1830.' In 1833 Justus posted a bond in Cambridge to become the legal guardian for two of his cousins, Caleb and Isaac Twiss.' The mid-1830s marked the beginning ofJustus's painting career, when he was in his early forties. He had a family record printed that he then further embellished with figures, flowers, and decorative elements (see the Rising Family Record), and he also began painting the distinctive small profile portraits about this time. He was no longer farming, as his home described in the 1835 census consisted of one acre or less ofland, a cow, one horse, a sheep,
attend to the profiles & recordsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;And if we can only all earn a little we shall get along." In 1839 Justus traveled west to Utica, New York, in search of portrait commissions. A letter dated May 11 describes his method of advertising, prices, and the time it took to produce the portraits. Without knowing anyone in Utica, he started by distributing forty advertising cards to homes along a single street. The next day, he returned to the homes showing samples,and "3 houses tookâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;one man engaged 5 another 2& another 2... my price is 3 dol. for a single one, set [framed]â&#x20AC;&#x201D;or 5 dol. for husband & wife, set," and a price of $2.50 each if a whole family was painted."No one finds any fault with the price, but all con-
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51
sider it very low—The husband of the couple I delivered has his portrait (cost $30) his wife told me and others, that the profile I took of him, was much more natural than his portrait—She jumped right up & down as quick as she sat her eyes on it, and exclaimed 0! how near it looks like him!! Exactly!!!" Justus preferred to take his time while doing the portraits. "I detained some of them from 1 or 2 hours," he wrote, and he would usually deliver the portraits in several days, so he could further work on them,"being determined to give the very best satisfaction." This need to identify the portraits for later delivery is the reason why a significant number of Da Lee portraits have the sitter's name inscribed on the reverse. The name was usually written in very light pencil, but occasionally it was in ink.Justus hoped to do well in Utica and "make enough to pay off all I owe." Both the census and his mother's will describe Justus as a resident of Cambridge in 1840. However, during this year, Justus and his family moved west to Rochester, New York. The King's Rochester Directory and Register for 1841 lists them as living at 17 Adams Street. His occupation is appropriately described as a "side portrait painter." A November 30, 1841,letter from Richard to his wife, Hannah Maria, describes his portrait painting itinerancy with Amon. Together, they had traveled from Richard's home in western New York to Meadville, Pennsylvania, in Crawford County, and went from house to house leaving advertising cards, later returning with samples. Richard was helping Amon with his portraits, noting,"We have taken 30 miniatures... Amon and I have drawn equal as to numbers. . .. We have made about $50 between us while here—We have been here about 4 weeks, so that you can see that we have not done very well." They then continued south to Pittsburgh and, as their letter ends, were in Cincinnati,"the best built up city that I was ever in," where they ordered forty-eight portrait frames. Based on the few examples that have a known sitter's name or location, portraits that were produced from 1841 to 1843 present a confusing diversity oflocations. Portraits during 1842 were taken in Berea, Ohio; Cabotsville (Chicopee), Massachusetts; Trenton, New Jersey; and New York City. In 1843 a portrait was produced in Philadelphia and another in Rochester. The varied locations during these years were a result of multiple artists working. Letters written by Justus between 1843 and 1846 are addressed from Pittsford, New York, which is six miles from Rochester. Amon was also living in Pittsford, as evidenced by his signature, with location noted, on the back of the portraits of the Reverend and Mrs. Byington (see page 50). On May 8, 1843,Justus wrote to Richard that he could not pay $100 to his brother John and that he "visited Palmyra a second time: made from 50 to 60 dol's more, but instead of money it was mostly trade." Another unsigned pair of portraits was inscribed as taken at Penn Yan, some fifty miles from Rochester, on October 25, 1844.23 On March 22, 1845, Justus wrote to Richard and described himself as "one ofthe most celebrated Side portrait Painters in Western N.Yk." He had returned to Pittsford from Geneva, forty-three miles by railroad, and was there with Amon."I was in Geneva about 14 weeks; took 93 ports [portraits] made about $110 Cash—A New Dress Coat
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$15—Trade at store & Tin shop $15—Candy ... $6 . . . Rather moderate doings Rich'd but I can't work at it as I used to do—The infirmities of age are coming fast upon me. . . ." A particularly large number of portraits are inscribed "Taken at Geneva," and we have located one pair that is signed "J. Dalee."24 In 1845 Amon was married in Walworth, New York, near Rochester, to Clarinda E. Findley. Their marriage announcement in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle described him as a professor living in Pittsford.25 On December 7, 1845, Justus wrote to Richard that "Amon and I were at Ithaca ... we took miniatures to the Amt. of $80 in all, while there, for which we rec'd Cash $50, Shoes $5.50—Webster's large dictionary $4—A N.Y. State Atlas ... $12 ... other things $8.50.... I have paid up all I owe, and have some $20 To buy necessaries with, which will last some time.... Amon ... has given up going out to take ports anymore, it does not agree with him at all ... this portrait business is calculated to kill us all." Justus discusses his plans "to go to R. [Rochester] in the spring and open a grocery, and so occasionally take a face." From Pittsford on May 17, 1846, Justus wrote that he had twice traveled southwest to Attica, New York, to take portraits, and of one sitter "giving me one dar extra on account of writing on them considerable." Most of the letter concerns plans that he, Richard, and Amon had of beginning a medicine business using a root extract and the task of getting sufficient bottles. The end ofJustus Da Lee's portrait career appears to have occurred sometime within the next few years, while he was living in Buffalo. The Commercial Advertiser directory of 1847 lists Justus as a portrait painter living on Carolina Street near Tupper. Richard is also listed as a portrait painter at the same address.The 1848 CommercialAdvertiser directory first lists Justus as a portrait painter with a home address on Carolina Street at the corner of Seventh (a new address), and Richard as a portrait painter on Carolina near Tenth. It also lists the business address of Justus and Amon as grocers. It appears that portrait painting was no longer their full-time occupation. In 1848 the competing Buffalo City Directory listed Justus and three of his sons as living at a boarding house at Carolina and Seventh, with Justus's and Amon's occupations described as grocers.'After this date, no member of the Da Lee family would again be described as a portrait painter. The 1850 census lists Justus as a teacher living in Portland, New York, where his parents and several siblings had
BOY IN STRIPED SHIRT Da Lee family c. I835-1845 Watercolor, ink, and pencil on paper 3 21 / 2 " Present location unknown Courtesy Frank and Barbara Pollack, American Antiques and Art, Highland Park, Illinois
YOUNG WOMAN HOLDING BOOK Da Lee family c. 1835-1845 Watercolor, ink, and pencil on paper 3. 21 / 2"(sight) Private collection Jait Th,, it shows a hand and book in front of the spandrel.
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Standing Children's Portraits
YOUNG CHILD IN A RED POLKA DOT DRESS Da Lee family c. 1835-1845 Watercolor, ink, and pencil on paper 5/ 1 4 3/ 1 2 " Collection of Raymond and Susan Egan
VAN BUREN DA LEE AGED YRS. 4 Attributed to Richard Da Lee Probably Chautauqua County, New York 1841 Watercolor, ink, and pencil on paper 4/ 1 2 3" Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Williamsburg, Virginia
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YOUNG GIRL IN BLACK DRESS AND RED SHOES Da Lee family c. 1835-1845 Watercolor, ink, and pencil on paper 5/ 3 4 4/ 1 4" Collection of Raymond and Susan Egan
moved more than twenty-five years earlier. Unfortunately, he was in Buffalo during a cholera epidemic that swept through the city in 1852. His wife, Mary,their son Almanzon J., and Almanzon's son William A. all died from cholera between August 27 and September 1. By 1856 Justus was recorded as being both blind and penniless.27 The Bounty Land Act of 1855, which opened up federal lands in the Midwest to homesteading, included a provision that military veterans were to be given the standard 160 acres if they were poor. In April 1856,Justus submitted an application for this land, from Aurora, Illinois. His deceased son Almanzon J. had left a farm nearby, and several relatives had settled in the area. Included in his application was an affidavit from the local justice of the peace stating that he was "perfectly blind and poor." His
cemetery in Eden, Wisconsin.29 Anion, after leaving Buffalo in 1848, farmed in Hillsdale County, Michigan, along with Richard until 1851. He next spent four years in California, first mining and then learning the daguerreotype business in San Francisco in 1855.Three years later he settled in Lawrence, Kansas,on the land awarded to his father, again marrying, and prospering as a daguerreotypist and farmer until his death in 1879.3° By 1852 Richard had moved to Harvard,Illinois, where he taught school,farmed, owned a store, and served as the postmaster during the Civil War.He died in 1868.33 The Paintings We now understand that the Da Lees considered portrait painting to be a family business. According to their letters
Portraits in Pendant Frames
CELIA BRADFORD Da Lee family c. 1840-1848 Watercolor, ink, and pencil on bristol board with foil and paper appliquĂŠ in brass pendant frame 2/."(sight) Collection of Suzanne and Michael Payne HELEN ARMITAGE Da Lee family c. 1840-1848 Watercolor, ink, and pencil on paper in original embossed leather case with gold mat 3 21 / 2"(sight) Collection of Sue and Dexter Pond
twenty days of military service during the War of 1812 just exceeded the fifteen-day minimum enlistment required. The land awarded to him was in Lawrence, Kansas, and would later be homesteaded by Ainon.28 In the 1870 census, Justus was listed as living with his daughter Harriet in Fond du Lac County,Wisconsin. Harriet, who first married Josiah Odekirk, was by then widowed and remarried to Bemsley Williams. Justus was listed as a member of the Williams household and described simply as being blind. Justus scribbled a letter on August 1, 1871, stating,"My sight you know is entirely gone, my hearing is partly gone so that I cannot tell what they are talking about in the room.I have two teeth only and one of them is very loose." On January 5,1878,Justus Da Lee died at age eighty-four and was buried in the Odekirk family
FREDERICK H. WASTE Da Lee family c. 1840 Watercolor, ink, and pencil on bristol board in brass pendant frame 2 y Pk"(sight) Private collection Inscribed, on the reverse, "Frederick H. Waste / Born Feb.15,1834 / Nov. 4, 1841"
and writings, both Justus and Richard taught Amon to paint these distinctive portraits.32 They traveled together as itinerants, producing them in large numbers. It appears that Justus was the major artist of this group, as all of the signed family records and almost all of the rarely signed portraits are by Justus. Yet the portraits of the Byingtons, signed by Anion, are confusingly similar to Justus's work.33 A signed example by Richard has not been located, but a probable attribution is the portrait of his son Van Buren, painted in 1841, when Richard and Justus were living in different areas of New York.' The previously cited 1841 letter from Richard to his wife describes his travels with Anion on a long itinerancy in search of portrait commissions. Justus wrote in 1839 that Amon was painting the dresses and he was doing the rest of the portrait. Knowl-
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edge that some portraits are the work of both hands, and that they invite examination with a magnifying glass. The the similarity of these few signed examples, suggests that portraits have an unusual delicacy and quality of detail. we should not distinguish between the portraits by the varSitters are depicted based on their age. Adults are usuious family members at this time. Unless a portrait is ally presented half-length, while older children are often signed, it should be attributed to the Da Lee family. When portrayed as three-quarter seated figures, sometimes holdwe locate more signed examples,we hope to be able to bet- ing a familiar object or pet. Young children's portraits are of ter recognize the characteristics ofeach individual artist. a larger size, with full-length bodies. Several groups offamThere are four general categories of Da Lee paintings: ily portraits that have remained together show examples of the family memorial gifted to the American Folk Art all three methods of representation. For example, the seven Museum,printed family records, small profile portraits, and portraits ofthe Hart family of Canandaigua, New York (see portraits in brass pendant frames. As noted earlier, during page 45), include the parents and the three oldest children the mid-1830s Justus's attention was directed toward paint- in half-length, one younger child seated in three-quarter ing. The family records and small profile portraits were first pose, and a full-length view of the youngest child, who is produced about the same time. The earliest dated printed standing. The profile portraits are generally about three by family record is that of the Isaac Peckham family of Cam- two and a half inches, except for those ofthe larger standing bridge, and it is inscribed "made the 26 Sep. 1834.'5 These children, which vary in size. family records, as seen in the Rising Family Record, feature, The face in adult portraits is always presented in profile, next to the births, a man with an anchor, symbolizing hope, as are men's bodies. For most women,the body is presented and a cradle. Next to the deaths, a downcast woman in front in profile, similar to the men,but, in a few (such as the one of a stylized willow tree and a coffin represents mourning. on page 50, top), the body is presented in a frontal Most family records are signed "J. Dalee," with a location of view. Both frontal and profile women's bodies were done at either Cambridge or nearby West Troy the same time, as a few of the large family (now Watervliet). In Justus's characteristic groups that survive intact today have penmanship, names are recorded in block both types. It appears that these frontal lettering, while the details of birth, marwomen's bodies were done only in the riage, and death are entered with a meticuearlier pot haits. lous cursive script. These printed family The majority of portraits are contained records were embellished to create a diswithin solid-black painted oval spandrels, tinctive artistic statement as well as a funcand many have a blue wash along the inside tional family history document. edges of the spandrel. It has been suggested Some clients were supplied with both that these black spandrels were a concession the family record and individual portraits of to the popularity of the daguerreotype, each family member. Several such combinawhich was usually framed in a spandrel brass tions are still together today. Along with the case However,the painted black spandrels Isaac C. Gunnison family record, which is are undoubtedly derived from stylistic conGravestone of Justus signed "Made and sold by J. Dalee, West siderations, as they are found on portraits Da Lee, Eden, Troy," there are individual portraits of six from the mid-1830s, well before the introWisconsin family members. Mrs. Gunnison's portrait duction of photography. For example, it was is inscribed "J. Dalee 1835. 36 This is the not until 1841 that the first advertisements earliest dated portrait that we have located. for daguerreotype studios appeared in the The Henry Burch family record is signed by Justus and is Rochester newspapers. Some portraits do not have the accompanied by twelve adult portraits with the name and black painted spandrels. Others that were painted with or age of each sitter written above the head (see p. 48). All without spandrels were originally framed in brass twelve portraits are mounted on a single sheet that is daguerreotype cases or elaborate velvet-trimmed leather inscribed at the bottom, in Justus's distinctive block-letter cases with oval mats, as seen in the portrait of Helen calligraphy,"PROFILES of Henry Burch's Family Delin- Armitage (page 55). The Da Lees produced portraits until eated in 1838." A history of Washington County notes that at least 1847, the year of the last known dated example that "The profile portraits [of the Burch family] are such skilled we have located. However, Justus and Richard were still likenesses that anyone familiar with present descendants listed as portrait painters in Buffalo during 1848. can pick out several of the direct ancestors without reading There also exists a small group of portraits in miniature the names which appear at the top ofeach."37 oval brass pendant frames designed to be worn as jewelry, These small profile portraits were executed in water- such as the portraits of Celia Bradford and Frederick H. color, pencil, and ink with meticulous detail and delicacy Waste (page 55). Similarly done on bristol board using ink, using minute brushwork. A few portraits were painted on pencil, and watercolor, these portraits were meant to be paper, but the vast majority was done on stiff bristol board, placed in such frames, as several have a watercolor-and-ink as it was called when the portraits were made.Ink and pen- border drawn around the edge of the oval. While a signed cil were used to delineate the facial features and hair, and example among this group has not been found, we attribute then watercolor was used to render flesh tones, hair, and them to the Da Lee family. These are the only portraits clothing. Gum-arabic glazed highlights were used to fur- with paper and foil appliquĂŠ earrings and jewelry. ther define the details of the clothing. Small details, such as Unique in Justus Da Lee's artistic accomplishment is the jewelry and hair ornaments, were always so finely rendered memorial produced for his own family.This ambitious work
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is the only memorial that we have seen that was not done on the preprinted form." This touching and personal documentation of Justus Da Lee's family enhances the American Folk Art Museum's collection. It is an unusual example of a family record done by an American folk painter for his own family that also includes a rare selfportrait ofthe artist. Acknowledgements
It would not be possible to adequately thank the dozens of people who helped in our research. However,we must particularly thank Martha Da Lee Haidek and applaud her interest in her family history. It was quite a treat for us when we showed her the portrait of Van Buren Da Lee from 1841 and had her improbably respond,"Hey, this is my very own grandfather!" To aid future researchers, copies ofthe several hundred pages ofdocumentation that we have gathered concerning the Da Lee family and their portraits will be deposited in the Shirley K. Schlafer Library at the American Folk Art Museum and at the Washington County Historical Society,Fort Edward,New York.* Suzanne Rudnick Payne, Ph.D., and MichaelR.Payne, Ph.D., are avid collectors and researchers ofAmericanfolkpaintings and are members ofthe American Folk Art Society. Their recent article on Abiah S. Warren appeared in Folk Art 28, no.4(winter 2003/2004). The Paynes wouldgreatly welcome correspondence concerning Da Lee portraits that are signed, have a known sitter, or arefrom a specified location, so they canfurther research thisfamily ofartists. To contact the authors, e-mail them at mpayne@biodesignofny.com. Notes 1 While Justus often signed his surname as "Dalee"in small block letters on the family records and portraits, he signed documents as Da Lee. 2 See Beatrix Rumford,ed.,American Folk Portraits:Paintings and Drawingsfrom the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center(Boston: Little, Brown,in association with Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1981), pp. 77-79; Paul S. D'Ambrosio and Charlotte M. Emans,Folk Art's Many Faces:Portraits in the New York State HistoricalAssociation(Cooperstown: New York State Historical Association, 1987), pp. 56-57; and Stacy C. Hollander,American Radiance: The Ralph Esmerian Gift to the American Folk Art Museum (New York: Harry N.Abrams in association with the American Folk Art Museum,2001), pp.403-404. 3 A copy ofthis letter is in the possession of Martha Da Lee Haidek 4 History ofWashington Co.,NY (Philadelphia-4.B. Lippincott,1878). 5 Advertisement from (Salem, NY)Northern Post, September 1, 1814. 6 Bounty Land Files, 1856 application ofJustus Da Lee,filed in Aurora,Ill.(National Archives, Washington,D.C.). 7 Washington Co., op. cit. 8 James D.Fobs,History ofthe University ofthe State ofNewYork and the State Education System (Albany: New York State Education Department,1996). 9 The first edition is in the manuscript collection and the second edition is in the microfiche collection ofthe New York State Library,Albany. We believe that the English School stood on English Road and was common school number 27 in Washington County. 10 Washington Co., op. cit. 11 Ibid. 12 Federal and New York State Census,1820 through 1870.
13 "Amon GJ.Da Lee," The United States BiographicalDictionary (Chicago: S. Lewis &Co., 1879),Kansas Volume,pp.622-623. 14 Collection ofthe Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 15 Nathaniel VVIlittock, The Word Drawing Book (London: Edward Lacey, 1825). 16 BiographicalDictionary, op. cit. 17 Washington Co., op. cit. 18 Census,1820 through 1870,op. cit. 19 Laura P. Hulslander,Letters ofGuardianship, 1830-19, Washington County, NY(Mililani, Hawaii: Sleeper Co.,1994), p. 10. 20 BiographicalDictionary, op. cit. 21 Ibid. 22 Collection ofthe American Folk Art Museum,gift ofMary Benisek and Don Walters in honor of Gerard C.Wertkin.The gift includes eight letters and the Da Lee portraits of Richard Da Lee, his wife, Hannah Maria Da Lee, and his sister-in-law Mehetable Deming Da Lee.They were sold at Skinner Sale 2242, June 6,2004,1ot 100.There are several major discrepancies between the catalog description and the actual content ofthese letters. Unless otherwise specified, all letters quoted in this article are part ofthis gift. 23 Frank and Barbara Pollack advertisement, Maine Antique Digest(July 1980), p. 30-D. 24 Skinner Sale 1691,Jan. 14, 1996,1ot 15. 25 Amon was not a professor at the nearby college but may have been a teacher at one ofseveral local academies. 26 CommercialAdvertiser Directoryfor the City ofBuffalo (Buffalo: Jewett,Thomas and Co.,1847, 1848) and Buffalo City Directory (Buffalo:Thomas S. Cutting, 1848). 27 Bounty Land Files, 1856,op. cit. 28 Biographical Dictionary, op.cit. 29 Justus shares a gravestone with his daughter Mary Ann Vosburgh. 30 BiographicalDictionary, op. cit. Amon and his first wife were divorced,date unknown. 31 Letters written between Richard's wife,Hannah Maria, and her sister; see Cullman papers, collection ofthe Chicago Historical Society. 32 There are very brief descriptions in Justus's letters stating that Mary and their daughter Mary Ann were also painting portraits. In an 1837 letter, twenty-year-old Mary Ann wrote,"I am trying to learn to paint profiles and [family] records."In an 1843 letter, Justus mentions visiting Richard, but"Mary says ifshe goes,she is not going to draw portraits [along the way],but go straight there." 33 The portraits ofthe Byingtons have twice been sold as the work ofJustus,even though they are signed "A.G.J.Da Lee."This is an understandable error, as it was previously unknown that Amon was a portrait painter.These portraits have the sitters' names inscribed on their reverse and a signed backboard. An 1838 watercolor drawing of two birds on branches signed by Amon has also been seen (collection ofAllan and Kendra Daniel). 34 Van Buren's portrait descended with a group that included a portrait of Richard's sister-in-law Emily Caroline Minton. Richard and Justus both wrote letters with the addresses delightfully enhanced with calligraphy. 35 Collection ofthe Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, N.Y.,60.263. 36 Collection of Allan and Kendra Daniel; see D'Ambrosio and Emans,Folk Art's Many Faces,op. cit. 37 Jane B.Welling, They Were Here Too(New York Washington County Historical Society, 1971), p. 449. 38 Rumford,American Folk Portraits, op. cit. 39 The Stover family record is a watercolor copy ofthe Da Lee printed family record and is not filled in with Justus's distinctive let'', tering;see the Catalogue cfAntiques &FineArt(winter 2002): 108.
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C
at\5
The (L) Flowers
N of
PASSION By Terezie Zemankova Translated from the Czech by Jan Travniek
UNTITLED Anna Zemankoya (1908-1986) Prague, Czech Republic 1962-1964 Pastel, gouache, and India ink on paper 2x 33" 1 23/ Collection of the Zeminkoya family
The work of Czech artist Anna Zemankova is, paradoxically, better known in the United States than in her native Europe.' The work of some art brut artists tends not to change a lot over time. Yet Zernankova's work went through several evolutionary stages. If we want to understand what is hidden in the artist's amphibious flowers, in thousands of filaments gathered into independent organisms, or diamonds stuck into a rough clutter of artificial fibers, we need to know something about the creator's life and be able to understand her feelings.
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Anna Zemankova (nee Veseld) was born on August 23, 1908, the second offour children in a Catholic family in the small Moravian village of Stare Hodolany, in the Czech Republic near Olomouc,the sumptuous cultural center of the region. From childhood, she responded strongly to the aesthetics of her environment. Her mother, Adolfa, ruled strictly over the family, whereas her father, Antonin, a hairdresser and popular musician, brought a free, bohemian spirit into the household. Both of their influences contributed to the development of Anna's personality She was also influenced by the social and political climate of her childhood, which was characterized by a strong patriotism that became even more powerful after the fall of the AustroHungarian Empire and the birth of an independent Czechoslovakia in 1918. This patriotic revival included a passionate preservation of traditions, including processions in folk costumes, folk songs, and fairy tales, as well as classes in ornamental drawing influenced by folk art. All of this was a natural part of the life of young Anna Vesela. She made her first attempts to paint during her adolescence. She based her realistic landscapes on postcards and showed a great sense for color. Even though she wished to study fine art, she never received any education of this kind. Her parents were strictly opposed to an artistic career for their daughter. She respected their wishes and studied to become a dentist instead. In 1931 she opened her own small practice, in Olomouc.Two years later she married Bohumir Zemanek,a lieutenant in the armed forces, and soon after that she set her work, and even her painting, aside, dedicating the next few decades of her life to her children. Maternity became for her a source of both happiness and deep desperation. Her firstborn, a son, died of cancer at the age of four, and the loss traumatized her for the rest of her life. She also had difficulty coping with several failed pregnancies. The world of children was the place where Anna found sanctuary. With great talent as a fabulist, she made up fairy tales; created toys (she even installed a talking gadget into a plush stork); crocheted pillows (embedded with music boxes); tailored fancy clothes; and decorated her children's rooms. For her, the role of
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ELECTRIC FRUIT 1967-1968 Pastel and ballpoint ink on paper 363 / 4 27" Collection of the Zemankova family
UNTITLED 1963-1965 Pastel and oil on paper 33 x 23/ 1 2" Collection of the Zemankova family
ELECTRIC BLOSSOM 1964-1966 Gouache and India ink on paper 231 / 2 33" Collection of the Zemankova family
mother made it possible to flee from Anna's difficult menopause. Her frus- from the beginning her works conthe unjust world of adultsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the world trations were intensified by the fact tained fantastical elements. Zemankova always started drawher romantic soul could not accept. that her growing children were driftYet she demanded absolute submis- ing away from her and establishing ing at dawn, while her family was still sion and respect from her children. independence. This all led to over- asleep and before she had fully She was building a cult of the "Big whelming feelings of disgruntlement, emerged from her dreams. In this state, she could be more spontaneous disillusionment, and sadness. Mother"in her family.' Although some theorists have spec- and allow her imagination to roam In 1948 Bohumir Zemanek was promoted to major and sent to ulated about Zemankova's psychiatric free. Excitedly, she would wait to see Prague. The whole family, which by diagnosis, she did not have any. Her which image, coming from her now included three children, declining social and physiological role dreams, impressions, and feelings of a Slavomir, Bohumil, and Annynka, as a woman and mother, however, previous day, would gather concrete moved to a spacious apartment in a caused her great insecurity. Her prob- forms: "It is like when a composer leafy and prestigious residential dis- lems lived on in her heart, and grew hears the first tone, for example a trict of the capital city. This idyllic monstrous. In 1960, when she was casserole falls on the ground, he hears existence did not last for long, how- fifty-two years old,her sons encouraged the sound and catches its tone, which ever. In the mid-1950s, Anna's dream her to resume painting after they found then carries on. It's like catching a key world slowly started to break down. a suitcase full of her youthful drawings to something, and that is what I feel Her husband, an introverted and dis- in the cellar. Creating art allowed her to when I draw.' She would return to the drawings ciplined soldier, never had much of an find a way out ofher joyless mood.This understanding of the dramatic mani- became a channel that allowed her sup- later in the day when her husband and festations of his romantic wife. Their pressed desires to come to the surface, children were out, filling in details. conflicts slowly developed into a liberating her. She started to draw flow- Sometimes she spent up to eight major crisis, further worsened by ers, which she had always loved. And hours a day at the drawing table.
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Generally sketched forms began to acquire more concrete details, which mostly resembled those of the floral world. They would grow, branch out, bloom, and bear fruit. Initially, real flowers inspired Zemankova's early period. At the same time, she resuscitated basic elements of decorative ornaments of Moravian folk design (mostly fabric patterns and embroideries), art nouveau, art deco, and elements of Czech baroque.4 All these served only as holding points, however. Her vast imagination transferred the decorative elements into distinctive floral configurations. Soon the external reality was absorbed by her imaginative world.
the true feelings of the artist. Using the language of psychoanalysis, Zemankova needed to relive her trauma. In the sense of French philosopher Gaston Bachelard's conception, Zemankova's imagination would be called "material."' Her creative dreaming obeys the rules of symbolism and the poetics of matter. A personal cosmogony—the connecting of essential elements inspired by a theory of the origin of the universe—reoccurs in her creations. In the world's mythology cosmogony is symbolized by a combination of four elements.' The mixing of soil and water represents conception,
or acts of creation and conception. They evoke the moisture of sexuality. Aggressive masculine shapes penetrate fleshy volumes. They envelope, swallow, and expel one another. (There are several similarities to Georgia O'Keeffe's symbolic blossoms, which also use the language of the freed libido.)The miracle of conception and nativity and the ability to raise new beings from the deepness of the body remained highly mystical acts for the artist. "Rising from deepness"—the fragment of a poem by Czech symbolist poet Otokar Boezina that Zemankova used for one of her pictures—could become the motto of her entire body ofwork.
UNTITLED 1965 Pastel and India ink on paper 33/ 1 2 x 241 / 2" Collection of the Zemankoya family
UNTITLED 1964-1965 Pastel and ballpoint ink on paper 24/ 1 2 34/ 1 2" Collection of the Zemankoya family
She descended to the kingdom of her subconscious. Her suppressed desires and passions were the spawn of her creativity; but her feelings were never explicitly rendered. Her floral designs worked as a mask for real content. Zernankova attempted to endow her flowers with human qualities, experiences, and feelings. They are—especially in her early period—upholders of internal dramas. Many of them show aggressive arrangements of blossoms, which are contradictory to each other in shape and color. The contrast between a beautiful flower and its spitefully colored and deformed and repellent form recalls the eternal conflict of good and evil. It also reflects
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because the blending of solid material into liquid creates a new plastic, soft, and sensual matter.' The Materia Prima, which is symbolically connected with the cult of Big Mother, is being born. This combination is particularly characteristic of Zemankova's early period. Her pictures show dynamic, boiling shapes that swell like dough. It seems to us they have a life of their own. We can see in her work heavy nutrient, amniotic water. Pulpy, juicy flowers are tumbling at the bottom of still waters. They are floating unchained, as a fetus in a mother's womb.' Her images could be interpreted as a kind of intrauterine memory They resemble the body's organs,
The desire to reach transcendence, liberate the spirit, and free it from the chaos of ordinary existence is obvious in much of the drawings. They indicate a tendency to drift upward toward light. Symbolic pictures of births combine organic shapes, resembling mucus and organs, with fragile details and gushes ofrising light. Sigmoids, spirals, and ovoid shapes that absorb, expel, and overgrow one another are the typical outcome of the automatic movements of her unblocked hand. Zemankova's "creative automatism" is one of the modes she had in common with drawing mediums, though she never took part in this spiritualist movement.'
UNTITLED 1960s Oil pastel and mixed media on paper 34% x 241 / 2" American Folk Art Museum, gift of Jacqueline Loewe Fowler, 2003.5.1
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As did the drawing mediums, Zemankova worked in some kind of creative trance, freed of intellectual/conscious actions. She used music as a device to help her remain in this state, listening to Bach, Beethoven,Janacek, and jazz musician Charles Lloyd, among others, from the moment her day began. With the help of tones, she interpreted the pictures in her mind. It is possible to say that Zemankova was setting her feelings to music: Once, when I came back from a Bach concert, his Great Mass, I was so excited and touched by the music, I sat down at the table and began to paint. I painted for the whole week until I finished the painting. I hung it up on the wall and thought to myself: Good God, will there be anyone able to understand what I felt, what I wanted to express . . . ? After
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some time we had a visitor coming around. This man was a well-known musician. He stopped in front of that picture. And then he told me: I can feel the organ and the singing. It was one of my nicest days?' Zemankova's work shows principles similar to those of music. A central motif unwinds into narrow details, which often repeat and create altogether independent motifs. The automatic motion of her hand, which generated endless miniature details, was nourished by the music she listened to, as if she had been vibrating on its waves.' The artist had to feel electrified, as if she had been charged by an energy whose origin and activities were unknown in the normal world. Eventually she titled some drawings created through this method Electric Blossom. The contrast of loosely sketched forms with diminutive details, creat-
ing vibrant tension, is very characteristic of Zemankova's work. In one period, obsessively repeated motifs, such as thousands oftiny dots or lines, flood the entire surface. Microcosmos became representative of macrocosmos.12 Big, simply shaped leaves covered by tiny pistils, stigmas, and veins were transformed by the artist into a stylized visual language. It almost seems as if she were looking at her floral creations under a kaleidoscope, if not a microscope.The compositions resemble a section of cell tissue, the detail of a fly's eye, or an insect's wing. It appears that the artist penetrated into the inner structure of flowers and freed their hidden beauty Zemankova easily proceeded from drawing to manipulating the paper surface to further articulate her visions. She began to make indentations or pierce the paper, sometimes encircling the tiny holes with pencil. This method led to two new and essential factors in her work: luminous
UNTITLED 1965-1967 Pastel on paper 23/ 1 2 33" Collection of the Zemankove family
lampshades and very tactile mixedmedia appliqué, using crocheting, embroidery, and collages of paper and fabrics, most often satin. These new materials and techniques infused the artist with a new vigor. She started painting on plywood boards and discs found in her basement, and with these she constructed a double-sided screen divider for her home. The appliqués, embroideries, and satin collages— often embellished with beads, sequins, and glass gems—appear in her later work frequently. In 1964 Zemankova organized a private exhibition, her first, in her apartment, calling it "The Open House Day." Two years later, her work was displayed in the foyer of Prague's Na Zabradli theater. Her work subsequently appeared in several exhibitions of naive and folk art. The definition of art brut, however, did not fit into the cultural politics of the communist government of the time. The quality of Zemankova's life was drastically limited by obesity and serious diabetes toward the end of the 1970s. She could not leave her apartment and became dependent on her children. Only her creative activities fulfilled her days. Artmaking became an obsession, a necessity: "Creation
gives me a direction. I never felt like I feel these days. I used to be aggressive and unstable. Now, I'm calm, composed. I never get angry anymore ...I have to draw a lot!"13 Even while living in a rest home, where she moved after her left leg had to be amputated in 1984, Zemankova continued working on miniature satin collages. It gave her great satisfaction to learn that her work was accepted into the Collection de l'art brut in Lausanne, Switzerland. She died on January 15,1986.* Terezie Zeminkovd is the granddaughter ofAnna Zemankovd. She graduatedfrom Charles University in Prague, where she studied the theory ofculture. She is currently working on her thesis, on art brut,for both her homefaculty and the Faculte des Sciences Humaines et Sociales at the Sorbonne, in Paris. She is the chair ofthe Prague office of the Paris-based association ABCD:ArtBrut Connaissance &Diffusion, which she cofounded in 2002. She is also the author of Anna Zernankova (Prague:ABCD,2003).
Notes 1 Recently, all the phases ofZemankova's works were represented in "Vernacular Visionaries:International Outsider Art," at the Museum ofInternational Folk Art, Santa Fe,N.Mex.(Oct.31,2003-Aug.29, 2004). See Annie Carlano,"Five Vernacular Visionaries:International Outsider Art
in Context," FolkArt 28, no. 3(fall 2003): 30-37,and Carlano,ed., Vernacular Visionaries:International Outsider Art(New Haven,Conn.: Yale University Press in association with the Museum ofInternational Folk Art,2003). 2 See Terezie Zemankova,Anna Zemankovd(Prague: ABCD,2003), p. 10. 3 Anna Zeminkova,interview by Pavel Konen,1980 (audio). 4 See Jo Farb Hernandez,"The Dawn Drawings ofAnna Zemankova," Raw Vision 14(spring 1996):43:"It is tempting to suggest that these intriguing parallels might have been the result of an internalized communal design sense." 5 Gaston Bachelard,L'eau et les rives (Paris:Jose Corti, 1942). 6 Ibid. 7 Gilbert Durand,Les structures anthropologiques de l'imaginaire(Paris: Dunod, 1992), p. 261. 8 Zemankova,op. cit., p. 12. 9 Alena Nadvomikova,L'art brut, uminiv pavodnim:surovem stavu(art brut: raw art) (Prague: GHNIP,1998). Although spiritualism was an important cultural phenomenon in Bohemia and Moravia at the beginning ofthe twentieth century,it almost disappeared after the communist putsch in 1948. 10 Koneeny interview, op. cit. 11 Jiri Vyicoukal,PantZemdnkovd(Cheb, Czech Republic: GVU,1990), p. 7. 12 Arsen Pohribny, Oiniricke vize Anny Zemdnkove(Olomouc,Czech Republic: Muzeum Umeni,1998). 13 Konen);interview,op. cit.
UNTITLED 1962-1964 Gouache, pastel, and India ink on paper " 2 / 33 231 Collection of the Zemankova family
UNTITLED 1970s Mixed media and embroidery thread on paper
24%x 17,3 4w. / Collection of the Zemankoya family
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A Newly Discovered Needlework School in New York State q?'
HELEN CRAWFORD NEEDLEWORK Helen Crawford (1826-1892) Montgomery Academy, Montgomery, New York 1835 Silk on linen 11 161 4" / Collection of Leslie and Peter Warwick
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.0 recent discovery has revealed the existence of a previously unknown school of pictorial needlework, solidly stitched in silk on linen,centered around the towns ofCrawford and Montgomery in Orange County,New York. Three examples from this school have been discovered so far, and it is hoped that additional examples will come to light as a result of this article. We purchased the Helen Crawford Needlework from M. Finkel and Daughter in 2000 at The American Antiques Show, produced by the American Folk Art Museum,in New York City. The needlework depicts two large, palmlike trees in front of a large pond, with four adult birds in black and white plumage and two adult birds in red and black plumage (perhaps meant to indicate scarlet tanagers) feeding four chicks in a nest. Under the right tree, at the center of the composition, two young girls exchange a bouquet of flowers, while a two-story building with ten windows behind closed shutters and two front doors with fanlights occupies the right side of the needlework A profusion of flowers in baskets fills the foreground. On the back of the needlework is stitched "Wrought by Hellen Crawford aged nine years January 2,1835. Elizabeth Shorter Instructress." The needlework was attributed at the time of our purchase to "Hellen"(Helen) Crawford, daughter of Willard Crawford of Union, Connecticut, and Clara Ann Hosmer, daughter of Judge Hosmer of Newberg, Ohio. Willard Crawford moved to Ohio,where he was a millwright,in about 1828.1 We were uncomfortable with this attribution because the needlework seemed far more elaborate than any sampler so far identified by Sue Studebaker in her work on Ohio samplers.2 Studebaker also did not feel comfortable with the attribution, as she found that the Crawfords were married in Ohio in 1828,implying that their daughter,if she was the nine-year-old maker, was born out of wedlock! Our discomfort grew to a certainty that this was not the correct Helen Crawford when we obtained her death certificate from Cleveland, Ohio,and found that she was listed as sixty years of age at the time of her death in 1900.This means she was born in 1840,five years after the date on the needlework Searches on Internet databases turned up no other Helen Crawfords or Elizabeth Shorters living in New England at the appropriate time. However, we found a Helen Crawford in the 1870 and 1880 U.S. census living with her brother, Frank, and his wife, Catherine, in Crawford, Orange County, New York We also found an Elizabeth Shorter, born in 1811 in Hopeville, in Orange County, New York A search in a guide to early New York communities revealed that Hopeville was a hamlet in Crawford. There seemed to be a Helen Crawford possibility that this was the Helen Crawford and Elizabeth Shorter we were looking for. We tombstone, Crawford decided to visit Crawford to see whether we could find Helen Crawford's grave and therefore Township, New York her exact date of birth. Driving along the road to Pine Bush, New York,from Bullville, in present-day Thompson's Ridge,Crawford Township,we found a road sign for Hopewell Farm indicating that the farmstead was originally established in about 1780 by the Crawford family, for whom the town is named. One of the current inhabitants, Hal Gorta, pointed out that Helen Crawford's grave was in the family cemetery on the road and that the family Bible record had been preserved. The tombstone and Bible record showed that Helen was born on January 2, 1826, to Col. James I. Crawford and his wife, Letty, making her exactly nine years old on January 2, 1835, as recorded on the needlework. Helen never married,and she died on September 27,1892, at age
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sixty-six. Helen's great-grandfather, James Crawford, emigrated from England in about 1731 at the age of twelve. Both his parents died on the voyage, leaving him an orphan. He was bound to a James McNeal of Montgomery until he was twenty-one, and he acquired a farm in Crawford by the age of thirty. He and his wife had ten children, including Jonathan (1757-1837), who fought in the American Revolution alongside his father. Jonathan's son,James I. Crawford, was Helen's father.4 This area of Orange County is rich farmland, which in the 1830s was mainly devoted to dairy products, such as cheese and butter for the New York City market. Colonel Crawford had one of the largest cow barns in New York State; the barn is still standing. The 1860 census indicates that he was among the wealthiest men in the township. He could thus readily afford the lavish use of silk for his daughter's needlework picture, which is very unusual in New York needlework. We then explored the nearby town of Montgomery, where Montgomery Academy was located. The building is still preserved, now as a museum. The academy was founded in 1787 and incorporated in 1791 as the fourth-oldest chartered academy in New York State. The present building was completed in 1820. Across the street is the Mead-Tooker House, built about 1800 and purchased in 1828 by the academy's leading principal, Jacob Tooker, who brought the academy to its highest eminence. Jacob Tooker lived in only half of the house and used the second story as a girl's dormitory, supervised by his wife.s Robert L. Williams, a local architectural historian, suggested that this was the building shown in Helen Crawford's needlework picture.' There are a few minor later changes, such as the bow window on the left and the additional panes around the left-side door. However, other features compare well. We feel confident that this is the building portrayed in the needlework. Helen even made an attempt to depict the building's gambrel roof. The MeadTooker House is only a block from the Walkill River, where a large millpond was present in the nineteenth century, and this is probably the pond in her needlework. Elizabeth Shorter, Helen's needlework instructress, is not as firmly identified.There are no records ofstudents or teachers at Montgomery Academy.There are several Elizabeth Shorters in Crawford, but only one of the right age taught at Montgomery Academy after 1828. The tombstone of an Elizabeth Shorter in the Bullville United Methodist Church cemetery reads "Elizabeth Shorter, wife of Stephen Greatsinger, died November 19, 1885, aged 74." Shorter married Greatsinger after 1860, and she is buried with the other Shorters in the Bullville cemetery, rather than with her husband. She would have used her given name at the time she was teaching. Based on the
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death date recorded on her tombstone, she likely was born in 1811, agreeing with the record on an Internet database. She would have been about twenty-three in late 1834, when she could have instructed Helen Crawford at the academy. A second needlework from this school was discovered in the fall of2003 by Amy Finkel.Julia Ann Niver, the daughter of Ephraim and Elizabeth (Rumsay) Niver of Crawford, made the needlework While not as large or complex as Helen Crawford's needlework, and perhaps created under the guidance of a different teacher, the Julia Ann Niver Needlework contains another palmlike tree and birds and a gambrel-roofed house with four chimneys and closed green shutters. The size of this needlework is somewhat smaller than the Helen Crawford needlework. Ephraim Niver was considerably less prosperous than James I. Crawford in the 1860 census, possibly a factor in the size of the needlework.Julia Ann Niver was born on July 26,1822, and was thus four years older than Helen. It is therefore likely that Julia Ann's needlework picture was done first. Julia Ann married David Smith and they remained in Crawford, where their son was born in 1854. Julia died in 1885 and is buried in the Bullville United Methodist Church cemetery, where Elizabeth Shorter was interred in the same year. We discovered a third needlework I from the school on view at the David Crawford House, headquarters of the ILI Historical Society of Newburgh Bay and the Highlands in Newburgh, New York. This needlework is done in the same manner but is not by the same teacher. We discussed it with Anne Coon of the historical society, and a couple of months later she called us to say that while conserving the object, the maker's name, Emma Clinton, had been discovered on the back Emma L. Clinton (1803-1822) was the daughter of Gen.James Clinton of Little Britain, Orange County, and his second wife, Mary Little Gray. General Clinton fought with distinction at the Battle ofFrontenac in Quebec in the French and Indian War and with Gen. James Montgomery in the invasion of Canada in 1775. Promoted to brigadier general, he and his brother, George Clinton, commanded key forts in the Hudson Valley. George Clinton later became the first governor of New York State, serving six successive terms. Emma Clinton's half brother, DeWitt Clintonâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;ten-term mayor of New York City, U.S. senator, governor of New York for eight years, and principal supporter of the Erie Canalâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;was the son of James Clinton and his first wife, Mary DeWitt. James Clinton was a surveyor by profession, and he surveyed the town of Montgomery, where the Montgomery Academy is located on Clinton Street.' The Emma Clinton Needlework predates the Crawford and Niver needlework pictures by at least twenty years and
Village Hall (formerly Montgomery Academy), Montgomery, New York
Mead-Tooker House, Montgomery, New York
Goodwill Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Montgomery, New York
JULIA ANN NIVER NEEDLEWORK / Julia Ann Niver (1822-1885)/ Montgomery Academy, Montgomery, New York / early to mid-1830s / / 2"/ private silk on linen / 8/ 1 4 101 collection
is far smaller, but it has a similar house with dosed shutters and somewhat similar palmlike trees, on a solid silk background. Only single flowers are present in the foreground, and a church is depicted on the left. This building resembles the Goodwill Evangelical Presbyterian Church located just outside of Montgomery, built in 1765 and updated in the Gothic style after a fire in 1871.8 The residents of Little Britain were very active in the Goodwill Church, and the Clinton family may have been congregants.9 This essay documents the discovery of a major new school of New York State needlework, originating at the Montgomery Academy in Montgomery, New York. This school is characterized by solid-silk needlework pictures of a house and palmlike trees, and differs from other New York State needlework that follow the more traditional sampler format and often contain religious scenes or texts. These silk needlework pictures are an attractive and significant addition to the folk art of New York State.* EMMA CLINTON NEEDLEWORK / Emma L. Clinton (1803-1822)/ Montgomery Academy, Montgomery, / 2 81 / 4"/ New York / n.d. / silk on linen / 61 David Crawford House, Newburgh, Orange County, New York
Leslie and Peter Warwick are members ofthe American Folk Art Society;Peter served as president ofthe societyfrom 1996 to 2000. They live in a two-hundred-year-old New Jersey farmhouse and have collected antique American furniture,folk portraits, and textilesfro thepast forty years.
Notes 1 Rev. Harvey M.Lawson, The History of Union, Conn.(New Haven,Conn.: Price, Lee &Adkins, 1893), p. 327. 2 Sue Studebaker, Ohio Samplers, Schoolgirl Embroideries, 1803-1850(Lebanon,Ohio: Warren County Historical Society Museum, 1988). 3 Sue Studebaker,letter to the authors, Dec.3,2000. 4 Robert L.Williams,"James I. Crawford Farmstead," unpublished document, private collection. 5 Mildred Parker Seese, Old Orange Houses, vol. II(Middletown, N.Y.: Whitlock Press, 1943), p.51. 6 Robert L. Williams,interview by the authors, August 2003. 7 Marion Wild,Montgomery Village historian, interviews by the authors,2003 and 2004. 8 Robert C. Eurich and Robert L.Williams, Old Houses ofHanover, Historic Sites ofthe Town ofMontgomery, Orange County, New York(Town ofMontgomery,1994), p. 34. 9 Marion Wild,op. cit.
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OLD WORLD NEW COUNTRY BRIGHT WORLD c. 1950 Pencil, colored pencil, and paint on paper 16 x 12" Courtesy Lindsay Gallery, Columbus, Ohio
The Life and Art of Joseph Garlock By Martha Watterson
motto was "Everything in moderation," but Joseph Garlock's prolific artistic output was an exuberant and rich expression of his two cultures. When he retired from a lifetime of hard work in 1948, he turned to artmaking in earnest, creating nearly one thousand paintings and sculptures over a period of fifteen years. Garlock experimented with a variety of styles, techniques, and media. He was not afraid of anything. His subject matter, an extension of his life, reflects a special bridge between turn-of-thecentury Russia and postâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;World War II America. While his two countries were locked in cold war, Garlock was passionately melding his contrasting cultural experiences together. There is an overriding sense of loneliness and solitude in his paintings, which feature empty highways, vast landscapes, quiet still-lifes, portraits and self-portraits, memory scenes of his native country, and depictions ofJewish culture. Although he spent his life in crowded circumstances, both in Russia and with his growing family in America, Garlock maintained a solitary disposition and communicated on canvas a calm, serene world.
S
REDWOODS Joseph Garlock (1884-1979) Bloomfield, New Jersey, or Woodstock, New York 1958 Paint on cardboard 23½>< 27/ 1 2 " Collection of Thomas Wagner
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DREAMLIKE OLD WORLD SCENE 1956 Oil on canvas 20, 24" Collection of Patrick and Judith Blackburn
His Life of Poland, the couple made their way Born in 1884 in the Jewish rural ghetto to Germany and boarded a ship from of Schedrin, Russia, Joseph Garlock Hamburg to New York. They arrived, grew up during a period of social like millions of immigrants, through upheaval. As a young man of about Ellis Island. Garlock began his life in nineteen, on his first trip away from the United States in 1904 at the age home, to the nearby city of Minsk, he oftwenty. was sitting in a public park when a Joseph and Anna settled on Ludpretty girl stopped and invited him to low Street on the Lower East Side of a party.The gathering ended up being a Manhattan, where many Jewish Socialist meeting instead, and it was immigrants lived. He began working raided by the authorities; Garlock was as a shoe repairman, presumably his jailed for six months. If he and his fel- vocation in Russia, and Anna gave low prisoners were not Socialists at the birth to the first two of their five time they were incarcerated, they children. But Joseph disliked city became so by the time they left, because life, and when he had saved enough the ideology was the focus of discussion money, in 1908, he moved with his inside.' When he was released, he real- family to Bloomfield, New Jersey, on ized that he would imminently be Myrtle Street. Bloomfield is close to drafted into the czar's army in the the large city of Newark, where there Russo-Japanese War of 1904, and he existed a sizable Jewish community. knew he had to leave Russia. The Garlocks, however, were suburAlthough Garlock was in love ban pioneers, as there were few Jewish with a young woman, he chose to families in Bloomfield at the time. marry another, Anna Wolfson, When he was financially able, he because Anna could help him escape moved his family out of their rented his army service. Anna had been home and into a three-story building working as a domestic and had saved he purchased nearby on Olive Street. enough money for the passage to (Because of prevalent anti-Semitism America. After sneaking to the border at the time, he was required to have a
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Christian friend endorse his loan.) There the Garlocks raised their five childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Rose, Ida, Bess, Herman, and Evelyn. They had peach trees in the yard, and they kept chickens. The entire family spoke Yiddish at home, but Joseph and Anna would speak Russian if they wanted to communicate privately. Although Joseph was a good father, he was not especially warm,and he didn't speak a lot. He acquired a bus and began driving his own route, between Bloomfield and Newark. When the New Jersey Transportation Authority took over privately owned bus lines, Joseph and Anna opened a market in Bloomfield selling fruits and vegetables, in 1913. Anna managed the business affairs and greeted customers; Joseph exhibited less interest in the store and was remembered to occasionally be found sketching on paper grocery bags. The Garlocks' marriage had always been based on practicality, and therefore it was not an especially happy union. Joseph was known to sojourn by himself to the Jewish vacation communities in the Catskills, in
STORM 1956 Gouache and enamel on board 13 131 / 2" Courtesy Ricco/Maresca Gallery, New York
upstate New York. When confronted by his wife, he'd say,"Too bad, I'm going." Their discord naturally caused some distress in the family, and the marriage ended when Anna died of leukemia on June 30, 1938. Garlock's youngest daughter, Evelyn, experienced a broken engagement as a young woman, and so continued to live with her father throughout her twenties. When she did marry, in the mid-1940s, her older siblings pressured her to continue taking care of their father, so she and her husband, Albert Sirotof, stayed with him in the Bloomfield house, where they raised their family of five children until 1955. The house was crowded with eight people, and Garlock and his son-in-law, a drinker, would sometimes fight. To escape the clamor and chaos of the home, Garlock found refuge in his small room, off the kitchen, and at the local diner, where he would have lunch most days. Garlock began to make art after he closed the grocery, in 1948, when he was sixty-four. He soon covered the walls of his room with his paintings and stacked them on the floor as well. He liked to listen to opera or classical music while he worked, and he was deeply inspired by what he heard. Although the Sirotof children could visit with their grandfather in his room,they weren't encouraged to stay.
He would give them treats and then dow to the world. The role of the send them to the dining room with magazine in many Americans' lives paper and colored pencils, to draw. If during that time was significant. Pubthey dawdled in his room too long, he lished as a weekly from 1936 to 1972 might blurt impatiently,"Go,go,go!" (and as a monthly from 1978 to When the Sirotofs moved out in 2000), Life presented photo essays 1955, Garlock lived alone in the and high-quality reproductions in an house for another ten years. Evelyn oversize format, with more than two and her sister Bess looked in on him hundred illustrations per issue and an frequently, and he went to the abundance of enticing advertising.' The magazine provided a substanSirotofs' house regularly for Sunday dinner, but this time alone was a tial survey of art history for its readperiod of intense artistic productivity ers; in addition to profiles of major artists, Garlock would have found for him. regular feature stories about "amateurs" such as himself(with titles like The Influence of Life It is unlikely that Garlock owned any "Grand Rapids businessman paints art history books, and it is believed for pleasure," "Retired Mexican cook that his replications and interpreta- paints primitive childhood scenes at tions of modern masterworks, such as Denver Museum," and "Modern Mona Lisa, Rousseau's Sleeping Gypsy, sculpture made of'cast-off' auto parts and works by Modigliani and Van and other machine-age junk," for Gogh, derive from reproductions in example).4 Garlock responded to both the magazines, such as the copies of LO that he collected.2 Life was his win- editorial and advertising illustrations. GRACE KELLY 1956 Gouache on board 13/ 3 4 7%," Collection of Kim and Rick Scupsky
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The booming economy of the postwar years encouraged a new kind of consumerism, and the ads promoted innovation and products for better living. Bright World, a pencil drawing with colored wash, appears to be traced from an ad for a household cleanser or furniture polish. But the artwork belies its commercial roots with its spare geometry and blocks of color, creating the solitary feeling present in much of his work.
ever, such as depictions of Moses, recur in his art. Many of his Old World compositionsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;portraits, synagogue scenesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;convey a heavy spiritual feeling and are rendered mostly in stark black and white paint. Although these and other highcontrast paintings drew upon blackand-white magazine illustrations, Garlock was also a proficient and highly intuitive colorist and used many different media, including oil, watercolor, gouache, and colored penThe Artwork cils. He would paint on canvas and Garlock frequently painted scenes of Masonite, as well as on common vehicles driving on empty highways, household materials such as cardpossibly inspired by the multitude of board, wallpaper, oilcloth, and tableautomobile advertisements in maga- cloths. He made his own frames or zines at the time. These are perhaps salvaged them from discarded picthe most solitary of his compositions, tures. He experimented with many as they often contain a lone car styles, such as impressionism, abstracdwarfed by a soaring landscape. Most tion, and realism, and pursued more of his outdoor scenes feature this kind individualized techniques, such as carof format, with a small figure over- tooning, a "stained glass" format, and whelmed by the scale ofthe landscape. a device of vivid rainbow patterning In Storm, two swimmers are emanating from figures and objects. merged so tightly they could be the Garlock's grandchildren remember same man,as though photographed in him tracing images from magazines to a time-lapse sequence.5 The water is lay down the basic outline of a comdepicted differently in the upper and position. He would then fill in the lower halves of the painting, creating a details himself, often using colored vast sense of depth, and the inclusion pencils that he would lick to create a of a large ship and another vessel give painterly medium. He didn't excluthe feeling that the swimmers are sively begin by tracing, however; he helpless in the middle of the ocean, also drew freehand, often working on far from shore. several paintings at a time. Although Garlock was culturally Jewish, he never fully embraced Judaism religiously, as his wife, Anna, had. In Russia, Garlock was raised in a deeply religious family; his father was a rabbi. His family was poor, and as the youngest son he slept on a platform on top of the family's stove. One time, when he asked his mother for something to eat, she told him to go to the synagogue and ask his father why they had no food. This critical moment in young Garlock's life made him question why God was not giving them more material objects even though they were devout. He realized that his family's Judaism did not translate into food or the prosperity that he saw his neighbors enjoying. In America, Garlock and his own family celebrated Jewish holidays, but he always considered himself an atheist or agnostic. He simply believed that one should do the best to be a good person. Religious images, how-
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Rose The story of Garlock's art cannot be told without stressing the impact and influence of his oldest daughter, Rose. She encouraged his artmaking activities and preserved his body of work. An intellectual, she lived in Greenwich Village and served as director of recreation for a Newark public school. She also studied and practiced psychology at the Adler Institute in New York, where she used art as therapy. At family gatherings, she would often pull out paper when her nieces and nephews began to fight and encouraged them to draw their feelings. Once when her father expressed boredom, the family story goes, she handed him a metal pie plate and a drawing pencil and told him to draw; thus began his artistic output. It was Rose who gave him art materials and encouraged him to spend time at her cabin in Woodstock, in upstate New York. He loved the rural setting, and it clearly had an impact on his work. He also created sculptural works and polychromed woodcarvings and reliefs in Woodstock, many of them incorporating tree branches, rocks, and found objects.' Rose was protective of her father's artworks, and she donated them to community auctions and family members sparingly. She became incensed when she discovered a relative had
SCOUTS 1956 Paint on canvas 11 16" Collection of Russell Howard
BLACK MOUNTAIN U.S. 70 1957 Gouache on board 29 37" Collection of Frank Maresca
given one of the paintings away; Garlock, however, was not upset at all. Curiously, a group of his sculptural works were found in a public library in Highland Park, New Jersey; how they wound up there is unknown. Just a few years after he started painting, Garlock was recognized in April 1950 with a one-man show at the Albert Van Loen Gallery in New York City (perhaps Rose played a role in arranging the exhibition).7 He was also featured in an article in the Newark Star Ledger in the 1950s and in other local newspaper articles but received no major public recognition after this exposure. He sometimes participated in hobby and craft shows in the New Jersey area and always received a ribbon, including one from a show at Bamberger's Department Store, in Newark. Despite this attention, Garlock considered himself simply a hobbyist and always balked when people called him an artist. The Discovery In 1964, after being diagnosed with pleurisy, Garlock moved to the Workman's Circle Home, a Jewish nursing facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Either his deteriorating physical condition or the change of environment brought about the end of his artmaking career. He died in 1979, and is buried in Clifton, New Jersey.' And yet, a major discovery of his legacy was still to come. For years, Garlock's descendants believed nearly all the work was accounted for in their homes and in
the Woodstock cabin, which contained numerous paintings and sculptures. Four years after Rose's death, however, in the spring of 1999, a shed on the Woodstock property was pried open and found to be packed with hundreds of Garlock's sculptures and paintings. Rose had inexplicably covered the entryway with firewood to hide the contents from view. Perhaps, in her elderly years,she had forgotten that the work was there.The discovery brought to light a trove of treasures that illuminate one man's individual immigrant experience. Even though he believed in moderation, Garlock's prolific artistic output over the course of fifteen years was anything but moderate. And although he believed himselfa hobbyist, he transcended this modest role with his intense persistence and innate talent. His works range from the compositionally complex to the superbly simple, from color to black and white, from abstract to representational, from natural themes to everyday subjects. After a lifetime of work, he found a way to present the beauty of his dual worlds—Old and New—as he wished to experience them,in a solitary way.*
Martha Watterson is the associate director of Intuit: The Centerfor Intuitive and Outsider Art, in Chicago, and is currently working toward her master's degree in modern art history, theory, and criticism at the Schoolof the ArtInstitute ofChicago. She is the curator ofthe exhibition 'Old World, New Country: The Art ofJoseph Garlock," which will be on view atIntuit through January 15,2005. Notes 1 The biographical information in this article comes from Garlock's grandchildren—Gregor Sirotof, Stefana Paskoff, and Ann Frazier-Winfield—and James Cox, director,James Cox Gallery,Woodstock, N.Y.;interviews by the author, August and September 2004. 2 Nannette V. Maciejunes,"Self-Taught Artists and the Old Masters,"in Joseph Garlock:Paintings and Sculpture(St. Louis: Cecille R. Hunt Gallery,Webster University, 2003), p.5. 3 Erika Doss,ed.,Looking at Life Magazine(Washington,D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press,2001),p.4. 4 May 18, 1954: 154; Oct. 19,1953: 163; and Nov.24,1961:60. 5 Garlock's use of a time-lapse technique was first suggested in reference to a painting ofskiers; see John Foster,"Artifacts from a Creative Life: The Art ofJoseph Garlock,1884-1980," Folk Art Messenger 16, no.3(winter 2004): 5. 6 A carved wood self-portrait,c. 1957,is in the collection ofthe American Folk Art Museum,gift of Suzanne M.Richie, 2003.18.1. 7 See Jim Cox,"The Art ofJoseph Garlock," in Joseph Garlock, op. cit., p. 10. 8 Death records confirm his death date is 1979, not 1980,as has been published.
ON VIEW through January 15, 2005 "Old World, New Country: The Art of Joseph Garlock" Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art 756 North Milwaukee Ave., Chicago 312/243-9088; www.art.org SCHOOL BUS ON MOUNTAIN ROAD /1954 / paint on canvas /12 . 16"/ courtesy Ricco/Maresca Gallery, New York
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15
INTRODUCING OUTSIDER
111)e SCOUthern
INTUITIVE VISIONARY SELF-TAUGHT ART BRUT
May 6th-8th, 2005 Morganton, NC in the heart of the Appalachian Mountains
FOR MORE INFORMATION: PO Box 1472
OkitSIdtR /444
\--ExPo
Morganton, NC 28680 828.438.5252 downtownmorganton@compascable.net www.downtownmorganton.com/expo.html
INTRODUCING OUTSIDER ART WEEK TUESDAY-SUNDAY, JANUARY 25-30, 2005 Join us for a weeklong series of panel discussions, field trips, tours, and receptions sponsored by the American Folk Art Museum. Make sure to visit the Museum's new booth at the Outsider Art Fair in the Puck Building (January 28-30). For more information, call the Museum at 212. 265. 1040, ext. 102 or 104. UNCOMMON ARTISTS XIII: A SERIES OF CAMEO TALKS SATURDAY, JANUARY 29 Jane Livingston on Thornton Dial Sr. Susan C. Larsen on Louis Monza Edward M. Gomez on Domenico Zindato John Turner on collage and photo-based artworks ENCYCLOPEDIC PALACE OF THE WORLD / Marino Auriti (C. 1890s-1980)/ c. 1950s / Kennett Square, Pennsylvania / wood, plastic, glass, metal, haircombs, and model kit parts /11x 7 x 7 / American Folk Art Museum, gift of Colette Auriti Firmani in memory of Marino Auriti, 2002.35.1
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t fair 2005
ou
thirteenth annual
friday noon - 8pm saturday 11am - 8pm sunday 11am - 7pm
opening night preview thursday,'anuary 27 6 - 9p admission $100 includes catalog & one readmission
visionary
the puck buildin lafayette & houston streets soho, new york city
intuitive common artists XIII symposium
self-taught
sa. rd
nuar
information & reservation
outsider
212.265.1040
art brut sanford I. smith & associates 212.777.5218 fax: 212A77.6490 info@sanfordsmith.com www.sanfordsmith.com
josef karl raciller, courtesy gallery st-etienne justin mccarthy, courtesy galerie bonheur
UPDATE:
THE
HENRY
DARGER
STUDY
CENTER
BY BROOKE DAVIS ANDERSON
The complete writings of Henry Darner, American Folk Art Museum,PD-06
ne ofthe busiest areas in the museum's permanent collection, the Henry Darger Study Center is proving to be a rich resource for art historians, poets,filmmakers,literary scholars, playwrights, curators, and even a choreographer. Many ofthese visiting scholars and people from the creative community are based in the United States, but the center is also working with people from Asia and Europe. Below are descriptions from four ofthese scholars about their research on Henry Darger.
Jim Elledge I've been writing a series of prose poems based on Henry Darger's life, and my chief sources ofinformation have been his autobiography (specifically its first 206 pages), his journals, and other nonfiction texts that he wrote.In fact,I think of my prose poems as a fictionalized biography of Darger. While he gives us bits of information in the autobiography and journals, most of it is incomplete because he rarely fully discusses the events he chronicles. Instead, for example, he often mentions an event, surrounds it with innuendo, making it both mysterious and suspicious, then immediately ignores it, leaving the reader to wonder why he even brought it up. At the same time, I interpret those experiences,I incorporate those settings, I include those individuals in my prose poems in an attempt to find their significance to Darger and, thereby, to achieve a larger picture of him.While I rely on fact to some degree, my work is far more focused on metaphor. Jim El/edge is apoet and Chair of the Department ofEnglish & Humanities atPrattInstitute. Michael Merino I am currently working on a fulllength play about Henry Darger, his life, and work.Interspersed throughout the text are moments from the artist's life drawn from many sources,including scholarly
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works;interviews with people who knew Darger; and the artist's own diary accounts, letters, and personal ephemera.The play illustrates the blurred intersection of his real and fantasy worlds, while investigating the question: Is Darger's creative output art or pathological artifact?
GAVIN ASHWORTH
0
MichaelMerino is a member of PlayGround Playwrights Group, associated with the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington, D.C.
of adventure narrative. I am especially interested in the ways in which Darger's work often draws on conflicting traditions of religious writing and belief
Michael Moon Henry Darger was a voracious and retentive reader. I am exploring how he drew on a lifetime's reading to produce such work as In the Realms ofthe Unreal, which in some ways seems quite familiar and in other ways remarkably original. Familiar because it draws on some of the most well-worn furniture of the American mind, such as popular memories of the Civil War and L. Frank Baum's Wizard of Oz series. Original because, well, who else has given us a vast, illustrated narrative about seven heroic little girls leading an ultimately successful childslave rebellion on a nearby planet? I'm interested in the ways in which very different modes and styles of writing combine and collide in Darger's work. He often channels the Heidi books and socalled shopgirl-romance novels right alongside military memoirs and other hypermasculine forms
Michael Moon is aprofessor ofEnglish atJohns Hopkins University. Leisa Rundgulst Fire, theorist Gaston Bachelard reminds us, remains an excessive, poetic image replete with inflamed speech,"beyond all decorative intent, at times even aggressive in its beauty." Henry Darger's fire, a grand conflagration, evokes Bachelard's words as it consumes the seemingly endless panorama ofIn the Realms of the Unreal. This mythic firestorm spews flames and toxic smoke, leaps across forest canopies, pursues children, and slyly waits, lying latent as smoldering smudge underfoot. Darger's fire is an animated convergence of natural element, atmospheric phenomena, and supernatural apparitionâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; wildly unexplainable, shapeshifting, regenerative, hungry. Centering fire as a persistent leitmotif and force within Henry
Darger's art, my research explores fire's varied manifestations, significance, and role in the artist's mediation of the "real" and unreal in his work. Burning within this fire,I argue,is a nexus of personal memory,desire, and historic connotation that fuels this blaze to mythic proportions.The archives of the Henry Darger Study Center yielded new literary sources for my inquiry,in particular a book ofeyewitness accounts from the Great Chicago Fire that interestingly parallel Darger's metaphoric descriptions offire, and his insistence on attempting to articulate the "indescribable."* Leisa Rundquist is a Ph.D. candidate at the University ofNorth Carolina at ChapelHill.
Don't miss In the Realms ofthe Unreal: The Mystery ofHenry Darger Written and directed byJessica Yu Dec.22,2004-Jan.4,2005 Film Forum 209W.Houston St., New York City 212/727-8110;www.filmforum.org, www.realmsoftheunreal.com
the world's only international magazine of Outsider Art and Contemporary Folk Art
RAWVISION ART â&#x20AC;˘ ART BRUT ACONTEMPORARY FOIlia C6.95 13. 48 Autumn ,i1W100118 $'13.
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QUILT
CONNECTION
COMPILED BY CHRISTINE CORCORAN AND DANA CLAIR, WITH TEXT BY STACY C. HOLLANDER AND ELIZABETH V. WARREN
ince its quilt collection was launched in the 1970s, the American Folk Art Museum has become one of the nation's primary repositories of historic American quilts. Quilt exhibitions are a regular occurrence at the museum,and a special Quilt Day offering workshops and lectures is an annual event.The museum's collection of more than 400 quilts includes examples of all the major American quiltmaking traditions. It is not defined by location, nor is it restricted by time period: The quilts have been made all over the country and range in date from the late 18th to the late 20th century.
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uring the 19th century, occasions for members of a community to come together were as varied as the nature oftheir living circumstances, and were different still for men and for women.The depth of relationships within the social network in cities, where the population was dense and transient, was not the same as that in established rural communities in New England or widely scattered homesteads in the West or plantations in the South. Quilting afforded a traditional opportunity for women to gather in a communal act; this was enhanced when the quilt was a participatory project intended for presentation to a friend or neighbor. Friendship quilts were often made upon the occasion of an engagement or marriage, or as a gift when a beloved member of a community moved away. The particular reason for the making of the friendship quilt illustrated here is not known.
D
80 WINTER 2004/2005
â&#x20AC;˘
11+4 11111INF 111111911111, 11111M1111P7111 AtiNtis t riist e SURPRISE QUILT PRESENTED TO MARY A. GROW Various quiltmakers Plymouth, Wayne County, Michigan 1856 Cotton with inked and embroidered signatures 87 x 821 / 2 " American Folk Art Museum, gift in memory of Margaret Trautwein Stoddard and her daughter, Eleanor Stoddard Seibold, 2003.2.1
This quilt is on view in "Folk Art Revealed"
FOLK ART Mary A. Grow
Quilt and Textile Events and Exhibitions
Each block bears the name of a friend who contributed to this "surprise" for Mary A. Grow,as the quilt is inscribed in ink on the back. Mary Ann Hackett (1817-1896) was born in England and moved with her family to New York State, where she married William B. Grow,a minister. They moved to Plymouth, Mich.,with Mary's younger sister Caroline, who married a native of the town,Eli Hendrick,in 1853, and subsequently moved to Pennsylvania. In 1865,Mary and her husband left Plymouth to join Caroline and her family.The Surprise Quilt traveled with her and descended in the family. •••
he following quilts from the museum's collection are currently on view in "Blue" and "Folk Art Revealed."
T
Bird ofParadise Quilt Top Calimanco Quilt Calimanco Quilt with Border Chinese Coins Quilt Copperplate-Printed Whole-Cloth Quilt CrewelBedcover Diamond in the Square Quilt Double Inside Border Quilt ECB Feathered Stars Quilt Freedom Quilt Indigo Calimanco Quilt Ocean Waves Variation Quilt Reflection Star ofBethlehem with Star Border Quilt Surprise Quilt Presented to Mary A. Grow Beginning in mid-February 2005, a selection from the museum's collection ofcontemporary southern African American quilts will also be on view.*
Symposium Collectors, Collecting, and Collections International Quilt Study Center University of Nebraska-Lincoln Lincoln, Nebr. Feb.24-26,2005 402/472-6549 www.quiltstudy.org Call for Entries Uncoverings 2006: Research Papers ofthe American Quilt Study Group,vol. 26 Submission deadline,July 1,2005 American Quilt Study Group P.O. Box 4737 Lincoln, NE 68504-0737 402/472-5361 www.h-net.org/-aqsg Denver,Colo. Denver Art Museum Kaleidoscope ofColor: Amish Quilts March 19—June 19,2005 720/865-5000 www.denverartmuseum.org Golden, Colo. Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum Lula Evans Quilts: Life on the Plains Through Dec. 31,2004 Proverbial Challenge Jan. 3—March 5,2005 303/277-0377; www.rmqm.org Washington,D.C. Smithsonian American Art Museum High Fiber March 11—July 10,2005 202/357-2020;vvww.si.edu Washington,D.C. The Textile Museum A Garden ofShawls: The Buta and Its Seeds Through March 6,2005 202/667-0441 www.textilemuseum.org
Tampa,Fla. Tampa Museum of Art African American Quilt Show Jan. 9—April 3,2005 813/274-8130 vvvvw.tampagov.net/dept_museum Macon,Ga. Museum of Arts 8r.. Sciences Quilts:A Georgia Perspective Jan. 7—March 13,2005 478/477-3232 www.masmacon.com Spencer,Iowa Arts on Grand Monkey Wrench Quilts:New Quilts from an Old Favorite Jan.25—March 5,2005 712/262-4307 www.spencer-ia.com Bowling Green,Ky. The Kentucky Library and Museum,Western Kentucky University In Stitches: Quilts and Needlework from the Kentucky Museum Through Dec. 17,2004 270/745-5083 www.wku.edu/Library/kylm Paducah, Ky. Museum ofthe American Qpilter's Society Antique Doll Quilts from the Collection ofMary Ghormley Dec.4,2004—Feb.25,2005 270/442-8856 vvvvw.quiltmuseum.org
Lincoln, Nebr. Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery The Collector's Eye:Amish Quilts from the International Quilt Study Center Collections Feb.26—Aug.7,2005 402/472-2461 www.sheldonartgallery.org Morristown, NJ. Morris Museum The Art ofthe Quilt Through March 20,2005 973/971-3700 www.morrismuseum.org New York City Museum of Arts &Design FiberArt International 2004: Eighteenth Biennial Exhibition Through Jan.2,2005 212/956-3535 wvvw.madmuseum.org Asheville, N.C. Southern Highland Craft Guild Layers ofTradition:150Years of North Carolina Quilts Through Jan. 9,2005 828/298-7928 www.southernhighlandguild.org Wilmington, N.C. Louise Wells Cameron Art Museum Layers ofTradition:150Years of North Carolina Quilts Feb. 10—May 15,2005 910/395-5999 www.cameronartmuseum.com
Lowell, Mass. New England Quilt Museum Quilted Cuisine Through Jan. 15,2005 978/452-4207 www.nequiltmuseum.org
Greensburg,Pa. Westmoreland Museum of American Art Man Made:An Invitational Juried Exhibition Feb. 27—April 17, 2005 724/837-1500 www.wmuseumaa.org
Lincoln, Nebr. Museum of Nebraska History Great Plains Women: Patchwork Lives Through April 2005 402/471-4754 www.nebraskahistory.org
Norfolk, Va. Chrysler Museum ofArt The Quilts ofGee's Bend Through Jan. 2,2005 757/664-6200; www.chrysler.org
WINTER 2004/2005
FOLK ART
81
;.;.;
FOLK ART COLLECTIDN
HOME SWEET HOME II
Morefabulous "Home Sweet Home"
hooked wool rug reproductionflannels from Andover Fabrics' designer Kathy Hall, and the American Folk Art Museum.
462 Seventh Avenue New York, NY iooi8 1.800.223.5678
www.andoverfabrics.com www.makoweruk.com
makower uk P
PRI VAT E EVE NTS AT THE AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM Host a private event in the museum's awardwinning building at 45 West 53rd Street in midtown Manhattan. o
Cocktail receptions for up to 300 guests
c Seated dinners for up to 120 guests Auditorium with full range of audio/visual technology for meetings and conferences AMERICAN
0 Li
For more information and to arrange a site visit, please contact Katie Hush at 212. 977. 7170, ext. 308, or khushfolkartmuseum.org.
MUSEUM
82 WINTER 2004/2005
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Celebrating a decade with the finest artisans in the country, this juried, invitational show features the highest quality in American craftsmanship today.
Valley Forge Convention Center, King of Prussia, PA
Friday, 6:00pm-9:00pm OPENING NIGHT ADMISSION:
$35.00 per person Saturday, 10:00am-5:00pm Sunday, 11:00am-4:00pm SATURDAY AND SUNDAY ADMISSION: $12.00 per person ($10.00 with this ad) (One per person. Not valid with any other offer.) Admission is valid for all show days. Children 15 and under are free. Strollers and cameras are not permitted on the showroom floor.
This show focuses on the restoration and renovation of 18th, 19th and 20th century structures. In addition, offering informative workshops as well as educational seminars presented by The Institute ofClassical Architecture with each seminar qualipingfor AIA/CES credits.
Both shows sponsored by OLD-HOUSE INTERIORS www.oldhouseinteriors.com
Produced by Goodrich &. Company Promotions, Inc., P.O. Box 1577, Mechanicsburg, PA 17055,(717) 796-2380 Web Sites: www.goodrichpromotions.com, www.historichomeshow.com For travel accommodations, call Priority Travel toll-free at 1-888-796-9991 or e-mail priotrvl@epix.net FA
MUSEUM
REPRODUCTIONS
PROGRAM
BY ALICE J. HOFFMAN
FOLK ART
Representing more than 300years ofAmerican design, from the late 1600s to thepresent, the American Folk Art Museum Collection Thf brings within reach ofthe Public the very best ofthepast to be enjoyedfor generations to come.
COLLECTION
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. *Galison Paradise! Send a heartfelt message to family and friends. Galison has designed a beautiful, colorful portfolio of note cards,featuring nesting birds from the American Folk Art Museum's textile masterpiece,the Bird ofParadise Quilt Top. As symbols oflife and fertility, each ofthe nesting birds featured on the textile adds weight to the possibility that the quilt top, which inspired this portfolio, was originally intended to be a gift for, or made by, a bride-to-be. The Galison Portfolio Notes features four distinct designs, 12 note cards, and 12 envelopes.The portfolio is available nationwide and in the museum's Book and Gift Shops. Contact Galison for a store near you. *Pfaltzgraff Serve It Up! Pfaltzgraff has added several decorative hostess pieces,including a cake plate, coasters, and a cookie jar, as well as cereal, soup,and serving bowls,to the American Folk Art Museum's yellowware America Collection-.Inspiration for the sponge and stencil motifs that appear throughout this limitededition series comes from four quilts in the museum's permanent
84 WINTER 2004/2005
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collection,the Bird ofParadise Quilt Top, SchoolHouse Quilt, Ohio Star Crib Quilt, and the Centennial Quilt. Available exclusively through Pfaltzgraff's "By Request" mail order program, please visit Pfaltzgraff's website at www.pfz.com to view the collection and for instructions on how to order, or contact Pfaltzgraff at 800/999-2811.
* MANI-G'Raps Star Wrap! MANI-G'Raps continues to add new designs to its American Folk Art Museum series of coordinated gift-wrap products.Just in time for the holiday season, MANI-G'Raps features the Feathered Star quilt pattern in two cheerful, colorful ways: Red/Green/White and Blue/White. MANI-G'Raps pays tribute to the skill ofthe unidentified quiltmaker who expertly pieced the blue-and-white quilt ECB Feathered Stars, in the museum's permanent collection, which provided the inspiration for this addition to the gift-wrap series. Holiday wrap with coordinating paper totes and sticker sheet is currently available nationwide and in the museum's Book
and Gift Shops. Contact MANIG'Raps for a store near you. 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. Family of Licensees Andover Fabrics(212/760-0300) printed fabric by the yard and prepackaged fabric craft kits. Chronicle Books(800/722-6657) note cards.* 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 eye pillows. Fotofolio(212/226-0923) art postcard books and boxed note cards. * FUNQuilts(708/445-1817)limited-edition quilt collection.* Galison (212/354-8840) portfolio and boxed note cards and jigsaw puzzle.* Henredon (800/444-3682) wood and upholstered furniture. LEAVES Pure Teas(877/532-8378)loose tea in decorative tins.* MANI-G'Raps (800/510-7277) decorative gift wrap and coordinating accessories.* Mary Myers Studio (757/481-1760) wooden nutcrackers, tree ornaments, and table toppers.* 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.* Pfaltzgraff(800/999-2811) By Requestâ&#x20AC;˘The America Collectioni'm dinnerware. Takashimaya Company,Ltd.(212/350-0550) home furnishings and decorative accessories (available only in Japan). 'Available in the American Folk Art Museum Book and Gift Shop.
MANI-G'Raps Traylor sampler
Historic Pfaltzgraff Patterns "By Request"
COLLECTION
These and sixteen other vintage Pfaltzgraff patterns are available through Pfaltzgraff's unique "By Request" program. To find out how you can order a special collection of items, made to order, visit
pfaltzgraff.com\byrequest or call 1-800-999-2811.
Pfaltzgraff
BOOKS
OF
INTEREST
COMPILED BY EVELYN R. GURNEY
T he following publications are great gift-giving ideas. All titles are available at the American Folk Art Museum's Book and Gift Shop at 45 West 53rd Street, New York City To order, please call 212/2651040. Museum members receive a 10 percent discount.* New titles American Anthem: Masterworksfrom the American Folk Art Museum, Stacy C. Hollander, Brooke Davis Anderson, and Gerard C. Wertkin,American Folk Art Museum in association with Harry N.Abrams,2001, 432 pages, $65 *American Fang:Exuberance in the Arts, 1790-1840, Sumpter T. Priddy III, Chipstone Foundation,2004,250 pages,$75 *American Folk Artfor Kids, Richard Panchyk,Chicago Review Press,2004,118 pages,$16.95 *American Painted Tinware:A Guide to Its Identification: Volume III, Gina Martin and Lois Tucker, Historical Society of Early American Decoration,Inc., 2004,140 pages,$48.50 The American Quilt:A History of Cloth and Comfort,1750-1950, Roderick ICiracofe with Elizabeth Johnson, Clarkson Potter Publishers, 1993,290 pages,$65 (hardcover), $27.50 (softcover) 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, 2001,572 pages,$75 *Anna Zemdnkovd,Terezie Zemankova,ABCD,2004,75 pages,$30
86 WINTER 2004/2005
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*ArtAgainst the Odds:From Slave Quilts to Prison Paintings, Susan Goldman Rubin,Crown Publishers,2004,50 pages, $19.95 The Art ofAdo(f Wealth: St. AdolfGiant-Creation, Daniel Baumann and Elka Spoerri, American Folk Art Museum in association with Princeton University Press,2003, 112 pages,$29.95 Art ofthe Needle: One Hundred Masterpiece Quiltsfrom the Shelburne Museum, Henry Joyce, Shelburne Museum,2003,140 pages,$24.95 Baseballfor Everyone:Stories from the Great Game,Janet Wyman Coleman with Elizabeth V.Warren,American Folk Art Museum in association with Harry N.Abrams,2003,48 pages,$16.95 Blue: The History ofa Color, Michael Pastoureau,Princeton University Press,2001,216 pages, $39.95 * Coming Home:Self-Taught Artists, the Bible, and the American South, Carol Crown,ed., University Press of Mississippi in association with the Art Museum of the University of Memphis,2004, 304 pages,$65 (hardcover),$30 (softcover)
* Create and Be Recognized:Photography on the Edge,John Turner and Deborah Klochko,Chronicle Books,2004,156 pages,$40 Critters A to Z, Barbara Lovenheim,ed., American Folk Art Museum in association with BIL Charitable Trust,2003,80 pages, $12.95 Darger:The Henry Darger Collection at the American Folk Art Museum,Brooke Davis Anderson, American Folk Art Museum in association with Harry N. Abrams,2001,128 pages, $29.95 *A DeafArtist in Early America: The Worlds ofJohn BrewsterJr., Harlan Lane,Beacon Press,2004, 208 pages,$35 * Henry Darger:Disasters of War, Henry Darger, Kiyoko Lerner, and Klaus Biesenbach, KW Institute for Contemporary Art,2004, 213 pages,$29.95
* Masterpieces ofAmericanJewelry,Judith Price, Running Press, 2004,128 pages,$29.95 * North Carolina Pottery: The Collection ofthe Mint Museum, Barbara Stone Perry ed., University of North Carolina Press, 2004,210 pages,$24.95 The Perfect Game: America Looks at Baseâ&#x20AC;˘PERFECT GAME ball, Elizabeth V. Warren,American Folk Art Museum in association with Harry N.Abrams,2003,150 pages, $29.95 *Phaidon Atlas ofContemporary World Architecture, Phaidon Press, 2004,842 pages,$160 * Tools ofHer Ministry: The Art ofSister Gertrude Morgan, William A.Fagaly, American Folk Art Museum in association with Rizzoli,2004,120 pages, $35
Henry Darger:Art and Selected Writings, Michael Bonesteel, Rizzoli, 2000,254 pages, $85
Vernacular Visionaries:International OutsiderArt, Annie Carlano,Museum ofInternational Folk Art in association with Yale University Press,2003, 156 pages,$45
*James Castle:Art and Existence, Chris Schnoor,J. Crist Gallery, 2004,52 pages,$15
Work Life, Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, Monacelli Press, 2000,270 pages,$60
*James Castle:His Life andArt, Tom Truslcy,Idaho Center for the Book,2004,190 pages,$29.95 (hardcover),$19.95 (softcover)
* You Are Here:Personal Geographies and Other Maps ofthe Imagination, Katharine Harmon, Princeton Architectural Press, 2004,192 pages,$19.95
*Lonnie Holley:Do We Think Too Much?IDon't Think We Can Ever Stop, David Moos and Michael Stanley, eds., Holzwarth Publications,2004,78 pages,$20
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2005 \ew York Ci-y Thursday, February 3 — Sunday, February 6, 2005 Charity Preview, Wednesday, February 2, 2005 Hosted by Susan L. Taylor, Editorial Director, Essence The Puck Building 295 Lafayette at Houston St, SoHo, New York City All Artwork is for Sale •Paintings•Sculpture•Photography• Mixed Media• Outsider Art •Tribal Art•Textiles• Limited Edition Prints• Works on Paper
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www.blackfineartshow.com •212.925.5257 Produced by Keeling Wainwright Associates, Inc. Artwork credits from top left clockwise: Sande Webster Gallery, Dolan/Maxwell, New Providence Art &Antiques, Sragow Gallery, Sragow Gallery and Sande Webster Gallery.
2005 Exhibitors 70th Art Gallery, Ltd., NY Aaron Galleries, IL Peg Alston Fine Arts, NY Art Jaz, PA Avisca Fine Art, GA Batista Gallery, MI Carter Studio, NY Colours Fine Art, CA Dolan/Maxwell, PA Galerie Bourbon-Lally, Canada Galerie Intemporel, France M. Hanks Gallery, CA Thelma Harris Art Gallery, CA Hatch-Billops Collection, NY Hearne Fine Art, AR Martha Henry Fine Art, NY Bill Hodges Gallery, NY In The Gallery, TN Jamira Gallery. PA Stella Jones Gallery, LA Joysmith Gallery, TN Jubilee Fine Art, CT Just Lookin' Gallery, MD Kenkeleba Gallery, NY Mojo Portfolio, NJ Nicole Gallery, IL G. R. N'Namdi Gallery, IL Noel Gallery, NC New Providence Art & Antiques, Bahamas Dell Pryor Gallery. MI Revolution Gallery, MI Savacou Gallery, NY Merton D. Simpson Gallery, NY Sragow Gallery, NY Vargas Fine Art, MD Sande Webster Gallery, PA
PUBLIC
PROGRAMS
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. Program tickets include museum admission. For more information, please call the education department at 212/265-1040, ext. 102, or pick up the museum's public programs brochure. For reservations, please call 212/265-1040, ext. 160.
PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS
CURATOR-GUIDED TOUR Masterpieces ofAmerican Jewelry Ralph Esmerian,guest curator Tuesday, Dec. 14 6:30 PM; reception to follow Limit 15 persons per tour $25; $20 members, seniors, and students Ralph Esmerian,guest curator, will give an intimate after-hours tour highlighting the creativity and design excellence of American jewelry from the late 18th century to the 1980s.
Feeling Blue? Stacy C. Hollander, senior curator Tuesday, Dec. 14 12:30 Pm Free with museum admission Contemplate dimensions of the color blue through the museum's permanent collection. Dyes, pigments, and glazes ofindigo, Prussian blue, and cobalt were among the primary blues used in creating quilts, portraits, pottery, drawings, and other expressions. These works—at the crossroads of art, science, and industry— reflect the depths of symbolic and cultural meaning acquired by one color over time.
AFTERNOON PROGRAMS
LET'S TALK FOLK ART This slide-talk series takes place at the Donnell Library Center, 20 West 53rd Street; admission is free
GALLERY TOURS TAKE A BREAK FOR FOLK ART Informal lunchtime talks with museum curators Thursdays, noon-1:00 PM
Tangled Up in "Blue" Jan. 6 Stacy C. Hollander,senior curator Contemporary Objects Represented in "Folk Art Revealed" Dec.9 and Jan. 13 Brooke Davis Anderson, director and curator, The Contemporary Center Viewing "Masterpieces of American Jewelry" Jan. 20 Ralph Esmerian,guest curator FAMILY ART WORKSHOPS FOLK ART FUN FOR FAMILIES Madelaine Gill,family programs coordinator Sundays,2:00-4:00 PM $10 family; $8 member family Holiday Decorated Boxes Dec.5 In the 19th century, boxes of all sizes were decorated with colorful patterns and images. Decorate a treasure box ofyour own,inside and out, using a variety of materials. Reception sponsored by the museum's Americus Group.
WIDE-MOUTHED JAR Frey Family Pottery (act. 1810-1846) Freytown, Washington Township, Pennsylvania 1810-1846 Cobalt-glazed redware 11 9 6%" American Folk Art Museum, promised gift of Maryann and Raymond Warakomski with special thanks to their parents, Chester and Emily Warakomski, and Joseph and Helen Sharkey, P1.1997.1
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Folk Art Angels Dec. 19 Find the museum's Archangel Gabriel blowing his trumpet. Do you know any special angels? At the museum you'll meet some, and make one of your own.
Blue's Clues Family Day Sunday, Feb. 6 10:00 Am-4:00 Pm Free with museum admission Celebrate our exhibition "Blue" with "Joe" and co-creator Traci Paige Johnson,from Nick Jr.'s Blue's Clues. For more details, see opposite page. DROP-IN EXHIBITION TOURS Tuesday—Friday, noon and 2:00 PM Tours are facilitated by experienced and knowledgeable Folk Art Institute fellows and docents. Please call the museum for more information, or check times upon visiting the museum. SCHOOL AND ADULT GROUP TOURS For information about booking school and other group tours, please call the education department at 212/265-1040, ext. 119. The museum is fully accessible and offers tours for groups with special needs. Additional leadtime may be necessary to arrange these tours. Evening events at the museum are made possible through the generous support ofNancy and Dana Mead. Family art workshops are sponsored by D'Arcy and Dana G. MeadJr. and Susan and Mark C. Mead. Additionalfundingfor public programs is provided by Consolidated Edison Company, Citigroup Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the New York Go,Department ofCultural Affairs.
• Hear "Joe" read a story • Pictures and autographs with "Joe"! • Sit in the Thinking Chair and see the original notebook used on the show! • Watch a behind-the-scenes making of Blue's Clues and a sneak preview of a new "Blue's Room" episode! • Find Blue's Clues in the exhibition "Blue"! • Make a surprise craft with Traci Paige Johnson, the creator of Blue's Clues! For more information, call 212. 265.1040, ext.102 The American Folk Art Museum gratefully acknowledges the support of the following funders for its family programs: Consolidated Edison Company, Citigroup Foundation, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and New York State Council on the Arts.
Glues AMERICAN
_J 0 LL MUSEUM
BLUE'S CLUES FAMILY DAY at the
AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM!
AMERICAN FOLK ART
February 6, 2005 /10:00Am-4:00pm
MUSEUM
APPEARANCES BY 'JOE' AND TRACI PAIGE JOHNSON,
45 W. 53RD ST NEW YORK CITY
CO-CREATOR OF THE T.V. SHOW BLUE'S CLUES THE MUSEUM EXHIBITION "BLUE" IS ON VIEW THROUGH MARCH 6, 2005
THE AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM PRESENTS
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THE AMERICAN ANTIQUES SHOW A BENEFIT FOR THE AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM JANUARY 20-JANUARY 23, 2005 I NEW YORK CITY
GALA BENEFIT PREVIEW Wednesday, January 19, 2005 Limited tickets available
THE AMERICAN ANTIQUES SHOW Thursday, January 20— Sunday, January 23, 2005 Show opens daily at noon Admission $15, includes catalog Group rates available
NEW SHOW LOCATION Time Warner Center, North Tower 7th Floor (Jazz at Lincoln Center Entrance, West 60th at Columbus Circle) ID REQUIRED FOR SHOW ENTRY For more information, e-mail taas@folkartmuseum.org or call 212. 977. 7170, ext. 319 Managed by Keeling Wainwright Associates
Featuring a "who's who" of Americana and folk art dealers!
WWW.FOLKARTMUSEUM.ORG
TAAS 2005 SPECIAL EVENTS Reservations suggested BOOTH TALKS: MEET TAAS EXHIBITORS Thursday, January 20 & Friday, January 21 5:00-6:30pm at TAAS Free with TAAS admission Meet a select group of TAAS exhibitors, who will lecture about their material and answer questions. TOUR OF MUSEUM EXHIBITION AND TAAS Friday, January 21 10:30Am at AFAM $50 general, $45 members, seniors, and students Tour "Folk Art Revealed" at the American Folk Art Museum with the museum curators. The tour will be followed by a visit and tour of TAAS. Light refreshments will be served. IN THE COMPANY OF EXPERTS Saturday, January 22 10:30Am-noon at TAAS $45 general, $40 members, seniors, and students Visit TAAS with an expert! This curator-guided _ walking tour will enhance your knowledge of the field. Continental breakfast will be served.
APPRAISALS DAY IN THE COMPANY OF OBJECTS: WHAT'S IT WORTH & FABULOUS FAKES Saturday, January 22 10:30Am at TAAS $45 general, $40 members, seniors, and students Experts in the field will tell you what your objects are worth! Continental breakfast will be served. All educational events tickets include program, admission to TAAS 2005, and a show catalog. Groups are welcome, with special rates available for 10 or more persons. To make reservations for TAAS 2005 educational events, please call 212.9777170, ext. 319, or e-mail taas@folkartmuseum.org. AMERICAN re.•Ri MIJSEUI4
FAME WEATHERVANE / attributed to E.G Washburne & Company / New York / c.1890 / copper and zinc with gold leaf /39 x 35 3/4 x 23 1/2" / American Folk Art Museum, promised gift of Ralph Esmenan, P1.2001.372 / photo by Gavin Ashworth
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THE AMERICAN ANTIQUES SHOW
MUSEUM
NEWS
BY VAN ESSA DAVIS
Carl Hammer, Liz Stern, Trustee Selig Sacks, Jessica Yu, Frank Maresca, and Angela Sacks
AN UN -REEL EVENING he museum presented the New York premiere ofJessica Yu's feature-length documentary In the Realms ofthe Unreal:The Mystery ofHenry Darger on Sept.22 at the Time Warner Center. The event was a benefit for the Contemporary Center and honored longtime museum trustee and Darger champion Sam Farber.Trustee Didi Barrett and museum supporters Robert A.Roth,Tom Slaughter, and Liz Stern chaired the premiere and benefit. The evening began with the screening ofthe film. Oscar winner Yu's interest in Henry Darger dates back more than 15 years. Her film explores the relationship between Darger's waking life and the fantastic, dreamlike world he created in his stories and artwork, and it includes clever original animation and interviews with the few people who knew the artist. After the film, audience members were treated to a spirited and insightful discussion between Yu and the museum's director, Gerard C.Wertkin. With his wife, Betsey, honoree Sam Farber has been an avid collector of European art brut and the work ofself-taught artists. He has been a museum trustee since 1996 and was a driving force behind the creation ofthe museum's Contemporary Center. In addition, as head ofthe Building Committee, he oversaw honoree and the design, construction, and Betsey father Farber completion ofthe museum's new Sam home,which opened in 2001. Farber is the founder ofthree housewaresmanufacturing companies,Copco,OXO,and Wovo,all of which have received numerous design and business awards. After the screening, a special dinner honoring Farber was also held at the Time Warner Center, with guests enjoying breathtaking views of Central Park and Midtown Manhattan.The event raised more than $40,000 for The Contemporary Center. The evening was a thrilling success,showcasing the intriguing life of Henry Darger and celebrating Sam Farber and the work the museum accomplishes in bringing deserved attention to selftaught artists.
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Andrew Edlin, Jane Kallir, Robert A. Roth, Sandra Jaffe, Thomas Devine, and Emily Nixon
Annie Farber, Jim Friedlander, Sam Farber, Alex Lee, Liz Irwin, and Tom Farber
Linda Dunne, chief administrative officer
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Filmmaker Jessica Yu and Directop Gerard Wertkin
Trustees Laura Parsons and France Sirota Martinson
Trustee Didi Barrett and David Barrett
Trustees Bonnie Strauss and Ralph Esmerian with Virginia Cave, right
Trustee Selig Sacks, Carl Hammer, and Robert A. Roth
Jessica Yu, second from right, with trustees Michelle Lasser, Lucy Danziger, and Taryn Leavitt
Brooke Davis Anderson (left), director and curator of The Contemporary Center, with architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien
Audrey Heckler, Sam Farber, and Shari Cavin
IN THE WORKS ook for coverage of the Patrons' Opening of"Blue," the Folk Art Explorers trip to Bucks County,Pa., and the Members'Opening of"Blue" and "Folk Art Revealed"in the spring 2005 issue ofFolk Art.
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MUSEUM
NEWS
CULTUREFEST 2004 n Oct.2 and 3, the museum made its third appearance at CultureFest, a two-day event held in Battery Park,in Lower Manhattan. Organized by NYC & Company, CultureFest is a free,familyfriendly celebration of the city's diverse cultural offerings. About 100 arts and cultural institutions participated in the lively fair, distributing material and hosting activities for children and adults. The various institutions, which included museums,theaters, botanical gardens, and zoos, each decorated a booth to attract visitors.The American Folk Art Museum's booth featured fun items from the Book and Gift Shop and promoted current and future exhibitions. Silhouette artist Deborah O'Connor cut
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he Board of Trustees of the American Folk Art Museum is pleased to announce the establishment of the
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to honor its retiring director and the transforming role he has played in the life of the museum. Contributions to the fund will directly support the development and installation of new exhibitions. For further information, please contact Christine Corcoran, manager of individual giving, at 212. 977. 7170, ext. 328, or ccorcoran@folkartmuseum.org.
AMERICAN
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94 WINTER 2004/2005
AMERICAN FOLK ART
MUSEUM 45 W. 53RD ST NEW YORK CITY
FOLK ART
exquisite freehand silhouettes of booth visitors, attracting a crowd that was amazed by her accuracy with this traditional craft. Large freestanding blowups of museum icons with head-size cutouts were on display, providing the opportunity for children to be photographed as Ammi Phillips's Girl in Red Dress with Cat and Dog or the Sea Captain, attributed to Sturtevant J. Hamblin. A coloring activity at the booth ensured that children of all ages had plenty to do while their parents learned more about the museum's wide variety offamily-oriented public programs. Once again, the weekend of CultureFest was an enormous success for the museum.Many thanks go to the volunteers who generously gave oftheir time.
CRAIG FARROW Master Furniture Maker IT'S BETTER TO GIVE ... he American Folk Art Museum gratefully acknowledges the generous support ofthe Folk Art Circle: Becky and Bob Alexander,Peggy and Richard Danziger, Claire and Fred Eckert, Merle and Barry Ginsburg,Mary Ellen Vehlow and Stephen Hessler,the Manoogian Simone Foundation,Linda and Christopher Mayer,D'Arcy and Dana G.Mead Jr., Nancy and Dana G.Mead,Susan and Mark C. Mead,Loree and Richard Meyer, Anne and Jeff Miller,JoEllen and David Osicin, Dorothea and Leo Rabkin,Myra and George Shasican, Carol P. Schatt, and Jan Whitlock and Robert N.Wilson.Through their generous annual giving, members ofthe Folk Art Circle ensure that the museum and its programs will continue to thrive. The Folk Art Circle's menu of naming opportunities encourages
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donors to personalize their commitment to the museum with gifts of$2,500 to $25,000 for special projects that range from sponsoring the display ofan object from the collection to underwriting an issue ofFolkArt. The museum is also pleased to recognize the generosity of the following Clarion Society members who have included the American Folk Art Museum in their estate plans: Arlene Kreisler, Barbara and David Krashes, Marilyn G.Schwartz and Joseph B. Schwartz, Dorothea and Leo Rablcin, Buddy B. Radisch,and Pastor Frederick S. Weiser. For more information about these and other giving opportunities, please contact Christine Corcoran, manager ofindividual giving, at 212/977-7170,ext. 328, or ccorcoran@folkartmuseum.org.
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NOW OPEN TUESDAYS
When originals are not available History and artistry in wood 17th and 18th century American furniture Reproductions
P.O. Box 828 Woodbury, CT 06798
Please call 20 3 - 266 - 0 2 76
WINTER 2004/2005
FOLK ART
95
Trustee Ralph Esmerian (right) and Americus Group members MUSEUM
NEWS
QUILT DAY XI uilt Day XL organized by Lee Kogan, director ofthe Folk Art Institute, was held on Saturday, Oct.2.This year's event honored quilt historian, author, and curator Cuesta Benberry,who for more than 40 years has dedicated her life to quilt scholarship and research. Benberry recently made a significant and generous contribution to the museum's Shirley K. Schlafer Library by donating her vast collection ofresearch and reference materials, an unparalleled resource. For more about this remarkable woman,turn to page 38. Folk Art Institute instructor Tracy Jamar held an informative class on quilt care and restoration. The museum's CullmanDanziger Family Atrium was abuzz with activity all day, with area quilt guilds performing ongoing quilting demonstrations in the afternoon and an overflowing audience of quilt and textile enthusiasts from more than a dozen states. Participants included quiltmakers from the Empire Quilt Guild, Long Island Quil-
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ters Society,Northern Star Quilters, Quilters of Color Network of New York, Quilters Guild of Brooklyn, Quilt-n-Queens, Smithtown Quilters,Women of Color Quilters Network, and many others. At a roundtable discussion on Saturday,curators, scholars, and artists gathered to reflect on Cuesta Benberry's influence on their lives and work. Speakers included Amelia Peck, Merikay Waldvogel, Michael Cummings,and Kyra Hicks. Quilt Day is an annual celebration of quilts and quiltmakers, but the Folk Art Institute offers quilt-related classes each semester. For more information, contact Lee Kogan at 212/265-1040,ext. 105,or at lkogan@folkartmuseum.org. Cuesta Benberry (left) with Quilt Day participants
FOLK ART
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he museum's youngmembers circle, the Amen Group,began the fall season on Sept. 9 with a reception and special tour of the National Jewelry Institute exhibition "Masterpieces of American Jewelry," led by exhibition curator Ralph 0.Esmerian, who is vice chairman of the National Jewelry Institute and chairman of the museum's Board of Trustees. Esmerian, a jeweler, collector, and connoisseur, provided humor,history, and insight into the precision and delicate artistry that make these pieces
spectacular works of art. The Americus Group brings together folk art enthusiasts under the age of45 for exclusive educational and social events. Past events have included private tours ofthe American Antiques Show and the Outsider Art Fair, visits to prominent private collections,family artmaking programs, and special receptions following museum events. If you are interested in joining the Americus Group,please contact Radhika Natarajan, development associate, at 212/977-7170,ext. 318,or at matarajan@folkartmuseum.org.
HOLIDAY SEASON 2004 AT THE BOOK AND GIFT SHOP he museum is proud to are jewel-toned fleece scarves announce that the Book and and hats, brightly colored Gift Shop is one of72 venwooden salad bowls, and beautidors(and the only museum repful drawing kits(with colored resented) chosen to display pencils), as well as a wide selecholiday fare at the 2004 Grand tion ofbooks and postcards. Central Holiday Market.The The Book and Gift Shop's 12,000-square-foot market occu- two locations, at 45 West 53rd pies Vanderbilt Hall at Grand Street and Two Lincoln Square, Central Station, between the have a variety of whimsical cos42nd Street entrance and the tume jewelry(including popular Main Concourse, and runs from flashing rings and tiaras) and Nov. 23 through Dec.24(closed gem-themed accessories for poson Thanksgiving Day). Hours are sible stocking stuffers and holiday Monday to Saturday,10:00 Am to gifts. As always, both shops are 8:00 PM,and Sundays from noon filled at this time of year with a to 6:00 PM.This year the museum wide selection of handmade and shop's theme is "intense color," distinctive tree ornaments,standin keeping with the exhibitions ing hits with collectors and "Blue" and "Masterpieces of everyday appreciators alike! American Jewelry."To be featured
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Cuesta Benberry (front) with Amelia Peck, Kyra Hicks, Michael Cummings, and Doris Bowman
96 WINTER 2004/2005
AMERICUS GROUP DAZZLED BY "MASTERPIECES OF AMERICAN JEWELRY"
GARY SNYDER FINE ART
WORKS OF ART BY JANET SOBEL
PO Box 1945 Murray Hill Station, New York
LET'S MAKE A RECORD Performed by Sister Gertrude Morgan 14 songs recorded at her Prayer Room in 1971 L RErsi'myr,r,
ri n 2004 by PRESERW,
TOOLS OF HER MINISTRY:THE ART OF SISTER GERTRUDE MORGAN
Members receive a 10% discount on all shop items
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FEBRUARY 11 - MAY 28, 2005 INTUIT: THE CENTER FOR INTUITIVE AND OUTSIDER ART 756 N. Milwaukee Avenue 0 Chicago, II. 60622 312 243 9088 a intuit@art.org
cicuuk_e,' Etnuidation TOOLS OF HER MINISTRY THE ART OF SISTER GERTRUDE MORGAN is organized by the American Folk Art Museum, New York. The exhibition hot been funded, in part, by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visuol Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, The Judith Rothschikl Foundotion, Robert A. Roth and Cleo F Wilson, and the LEF Foundation The Sara Lee Foundation is Lend Chicago Sponsor ot this exhibition
WINTER 2004/2005
FOLK ART
97
Cara and Sacha Kodjovi (from left) and Mari Padilla (standing) MUSEUM
NEWS
A "MAGNIFICENT" MEETING wo impulsive decisions led to a wonderful chance encounter at the museum in late August.The "Magnificent" Montague,a famous R &B disc jockey in the 1950s,'60s, and '70s in Los Angeles and a friend of Sister Gertrude Morgan's, was visiting New York from Las Vegas with his wife, Rose Caslan. On a whim,they decided to see "Tools of Her Ministry:The Art of Sister Gertrude Morgan," which was on view through Oct. 10. Folk Art advertising sales manager Eleanor Garlow decided to take a closer look at the exhibition, also on a whim. While Montague was examining a case filled with Sister Morgan's correspondence and personal effects, he exclaimed, "That's my letter!"Indeed, included in the group was a letter he had written to the artist after
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their first meeting. Garlow was standing nearby and,piqued with curiosity, introduced herself and invited her colleague Lee Kogan, director of the Folk Art Institute, to join them. Montague recalled that Sister Morgan used to speak French with his wife.They had invited Morgan to visit them in Los Angeles,but she had told them,"If God had wanted me to fly, he would have given me wings." Montague also mentioned that he had tried to locate Sister Morgan's brothers and sisters by visiting their hometown in Alabama. As he shared his memories, a tour group came through, and it was a thrill for Garlow to be able to say,"Here is the man who wrote that letter!" For those present that day, Montague's stories further put flesh on the bones ofan extraordinary woman and American artist.
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98 WINTER 2004/2005
FOLK ART
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FOLK ART FUN FOR FAMILIES he family art workshop Friendship Bracelets and Heart-and-Hand Pins, on Sept. 12,kicked offthe fall season of Folk Art Fun for Families. The workshop was a terrific success, with beading enthusiasts of all ages stringing together a variety of beads to make fun,colorful, glittering bracelets.
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Participants also made pins by decorating little squares with drawings of traditional folk art motifs or other symbols,such as Superman's S, made by one six-year-old boy. Esther Esses, a New York City beader and the first president of the Bead Society of Greater New York,led the workshop.
BESSIE NICKENS, 1906-2004 essie Nickens, a narrative painter, illustrator, and author ofthe children's book Walking the Log:Memories of a Southern Childhood(1994), died on Aug. 1 of heart failure. Born in Sligo, La., Nickens spent her early years moving several times throughout the South as her father sought work in the cotton and oil fields and sawmills ofLouisiana and Arkansas. She, too, worked at picking cotton during her teen years and thus attended school sporadically because ofher family's frequent moves. Nickens vividly recalled her disrupted education to be the most difficult part of her childhood. She valued education and was proud to receive her high school diploma from Booker T Washington in Dallas when she was 21. After moving to Houston, Texas, with her husband,Willie Cohens, and daughter Barbara in 1932,she worked as a domestic for a dry cleaner and learned the business after she was offered employment there as a finisher. In 1945,seeking better opportunities, she and Barbara moved to Los Angeles,where for 35 years Bessie owned and ran her own dry-cleaning establishment. There she married Dalfin
Nickens,who died in 1975. In 1980 she retired and moved to New York City to live with her daughter, and was able to devote herselfto painting full time. With a professional attitude, Nickens painted daily until only two days before she died. Her vibrant,evocative paintings are social and historic documents and memories of her rural southern childhood. Among her many subjects are the Underground Railroad, workers in the cotton fields, Sunday morning church services, hair combing at home (using Madame Walker products), and her mother's quilting. Nickens achieved recognition during her lifetime with solo exhibitions of her paintings at the Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, Ga.(2003); the Van Vechten Gallery of Fine Arts, Fisk University, Nashville (1999); and the Sidney Mishkin Gallery, Baruch College, New York City(1997). Surviving Nickens are daughter Barbara Cohens and nephew Alfonso L. Harris. —Lee Kogan
ATTEND OUR THIRD ANNUAL
RUG DAY SATURDAY MARCH 12,2005 LECTURES DEMONSTRATIONS WORKSHOPS 10:00Am-4:30pm For info: 212. 265. 1040, ext. 105
Tel: 410.752.2090 • 410.664.8350 P.O.Box 1942• Baltimore, MD 21203
AMERICAN
0 MUSEUM
AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM TEL: 212. 265. 1040 WWW.FOLKARTMUSEUM.ORG
45 W. 53RD ST, NEW YORK CITY
LEAVE A LEGACY you can provide enduring support for the American Folk Art Museum. Throu recognizes individuals who have remembered the museum in their The wills and through other planned gifts. Members of the Clarion Society will be listed annually in Folk Art magazine and receive invitations to exclusive events throughout the year. If you have made a bequest to the American Folk Art Museum or would like to do so, please contact Christine Corcoran at 212. 977. 7170, ext. 328, or ccorcoran@folkartmuseum.org. AMERICAN
MUSEUM MEMORIAL: GATE OF HEAVEN / artist unidentified / mid-19th century / possibly Maine! paint on wood /12 5/8 x 29 1/2)( ' American Folk Art Museum, promised gift of Ralph Esmerian, P1.2001.342 / photo 0 2000 John Bigelow Taylor, New York
WINTER 2004/2005
FOLK ART 99
sA ,0\„\,„.,‘ ntiques "'Center
formerly Philadelphia's Navy Pier Antiques Show
Friday, April 8 Saturday, April 9 Sunday, April 10 2005 This newly designed, upscale event will present 85 renowned Americana and Folk Art Exhibitors with Select European Dealers ---- • — Located at the PA Convention Center, Hall D 1101 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA Call: (845) 876-0616 NANgilth! r HOW www.barnstar.com (im:
MUSEUM
INFORMATIO
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HOURS AND ADMISSIONS
American Folk Art Museum 45 West 53rd Street (between 5th and 6th Avenues) New York, NY 10019 212/265-1040 www.folkartmuseum.org
AMERICAN
— MUSEUM MUSEUM HOURS Tuesday—Sunday Friday Monday
10:30Am-5:30Pm 10:30Am-7:30pm Closed
SHOP HOURS Saturday—Thursday Friday
10:00Am-6:00Pm 10:00Am-8:00Pm
ADMISSION Adults Students/Seniors Children under 12 Members
$9 $7 Free Free
Friday evening 5:30-7:30pm
Group tours available, call for information: 212/265-1040 Public Transportation Subway: E or V to 5 Avenue/53 Street F to 47-50 Streets, Rockefeller Center Bus: Ml,M2,M3,M4, M5,M6,or M7
Free to all
Barn Star Productions, Frank Gaglio, manager
EXHIBITION SCHEDULE
America's Outstanding Show of Original American Antiques
the32nd Connecticutjpring cAntiques Show cOlarch 12-13,2005 cliartford CT Expo Center* 265 Rev. Robert Moody Overpass;1-91,Exit 33 (one exit north ofwhere 1-84& 1-91 meet)
Saturday, 10-5 •$10• Sunday,10-4
On view at the American Folk Art Museum Masterpieces ofAmerican Jewelry Floor 2 Through Jan. 23,2005 Blue Floor 3 Through March 6,2005 Folk Art Revealed Floors 4 and 5 On continuous view African American Quilts from the Collection Floor 2 Feb. 15—Sept. 4,2005
• Cafe • Free Parking • Shipper • "The Connecticut Spring Antiques Show remains one of the great venues for New England furniture; impressive in its quality and variety, admirable in its integrity. Despite the proximity to other venues,there is nothing remotely like it." Antiques and The Arts Weekly
A benefitfor The Haddam Historical Society
A Forbes & Turner Show 207-767-3967 www.forbesandturnencom
100 WINTER 2004/2005
FOLK ART
Selfand Subject Floor 3 March 22—Sept. 11,2005
Traveling Exhibitions Tools ofHer Ministry:The Art ofSister Gertrude Morgan New Orleans Museum of Art 504/488-2631; www.noma.org Through Jan. 16, 2005 Intuit:The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, Chicago 312/243-9088; www.art.org Feb. 11—May 28,2005 American Anthem:Masterworks from the American Folk Art Museum Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville 615/244-3340; www.fristcenter.org Jan. 20—May 1,2005
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THE PHILADELPHIA - -..4 1)) ANTIQUES SHOW 44th Annual Benefit for the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
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—
/2, 2006
33rd Street Armory, Philadelphia PHOTO ID REQUIRED TO ENTER ARMORY.
56 of the nation's leading dealers in American antiques and decorative arts Daily guided show tours and special events Group rates and hotel packages available For more information: Visit www.PhilaAntiques.com or call 215-387-3500. Email: contact@PhilaAntiques.com PRESENTING SPONSOR
The Haverford Trust Company Investment Management
Show managed by Keeling Wainwright Associates
TRUSTEES/DONORS
AMERICAN
FOLK
ART
MUSEUM
BOARD OF TRUSTEES Executive Committee Ralph 0.Esmerian Chairman ofthe Board Laura Parsons 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. Brislcin Treasurer Jacqueline Fowler Secretary Joyce B. Cowin
Samuel Farber Robert L Hirschhorn Members Didi Barrett Akosua Barthwell Evans Edward V. Blanchard Jr. Paul W.Caan Barbara Cate David L. Davies
Laurence D.Fink Susan Gutfreund ICristina Johnson, Esq. Michelle L. Lasser Taryn Gottlieb Leavitt Nancy Mead Cyril I. Nelson J. Randall Plummer Margaret Z. Robson Selig D. Sacks, Esq.
Bonnie Strauss Nathaniel J. Sutton Richard H.Walker,Esq. L John Wilkerson Trustees Emeriti Joseph F. Cullman 3rd (1912-2004) Cordelia Hamilton George F. Shaskan Jr.
CAPITAL CAMPAIGN DONORS The American Folk Art Museum Is grateful to the following donors who have contributed a combined total of more than $33.8 million toward the construction and endowment of its new home at 45 West 53rd Street: 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 The American Folk Art Society Barbara Anderson Ingrid & Richard Anderson Marna Anderson Marie T. Annoual Aarne 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. Balaxs Bankers Trust Company Barn Star Productions,Inc. Didi & David Barrett Jimi Barton, Rhinebeck Antiques Fair Joyce &Ron Bassin,Bird In Hand Denny Beach Patricia Beatty Mary F. Beck Judy 8c Barry Beil in honor of Alice & Ron Hoffman Philip & Leah Bell Latrine Hawkins Ben-Dov Mrs. Arthur M.Berger Julie M.Bemson Big Apple Wrecking 8c Construction Corporation Mrs. George P. Bissell Jr. Diana H.Bittel Edward V. Blanchard Jr. &M.Anne Hill Lenore & Stephen Blank Bloomberg LP The Badman Foundation Booth Ferris Foundation Robert, Katharine 8c Courtney Booth Catherine 8c Chris Botta Marilyn W.Bottjer Ronald Bourgeault, Northeast Auctions Edith S.&Barry D.Briskin,The Shirley K. Schlafer Foundation Susan Brodish Florence Brody Sheila & Avron Brog R. Scott Bromley The Brown Foundation,Inc. Curtis E Brown,Hayden Goldberg Mr.&Mrs.Edward James Brown Gail Brown Marc Brown &Laurent Krasny Brown
102 WINTER 2004/2005
FOLK ART
J. Bruce Antiques Fred 8cTheresa Buchanan in memory of Sybil Gibson Charles &Deborah Burgess Jim Burk Antique Shows The Burnett Group Joyce A.Bums Marcy L.Burns, American Indian Arts Paul 8c Dana Caan Lewis P. Cabot Elinor B.Cahn Mr.&Mrs.Donald Campbell Bliss & Brigitte Carnochan John W.Castello in memory of Adele Earnest Caterpillar Foundation Donald N. Cavanaugh 8c 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 Lori Cohen Alexis 8c George Contos Judy Angelo Cowen Foundation Mrs. Daniel Cowin In memory of Daniel Cowin Jeanne D.Creps Mr.&Mrs.Edgar M.Cullman Elissa K &Edgar M.Cullman Jr. Joe &Joan Cullman Susan R.Cullman Catherine G.Curran Kendra 8c Allan Daniel David & Sheena Danziger Lucy &Mike Danziger Peggy 8c Richard M.Danziger David L.Davies Joseph Del Valle Vincent& Stephanie DiCicco H.Richard Dietrich Jr. Mr.&Mrs.Charles M.Diker Patricia McFadden Dombal Colette &Jim Donovan Kathleen M.Doyle,Doyle New York Deborah &Amold Dunn Ray & Susan Egan Gloria Einbender Sharon &Ted Eisenstat Elitzer Family Fund in honor of Anne Hill& Monty Blanchard David 8c Doris Walton Epner Joyce 8c Klaus Eppler Ralph 0.Esmerian Susan H.Evans In memory of Heih D. Everard Sam 8c Betsey Farber Nancy Farmer 8c Everette James Mike &Doris Feinsilber Bequest of Eva & Morris Feld Elizabeth C. Feldmann M.Finkel&Daughter Fireman's Fund Insurance Company Deborah Fishbein
Alexander 8c 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 ofthe J.M. Kaplan Fund Galerie St. Etienne,Inc. Gallery of Graphic Arts, Ltd. Rebecca 8c Michael Gamzon Judy &Jules Garel Rich &Pat Garthoeffner Garth's Auctions,Inc. Sidney 8c Sandra Gecker Nancy Gerber Morad Gha.damian Sima Gha.damian Merle &Barry Ginsburg James 8c Nancy Glazer Mr.8c Mrs. Merle H.Glick Carla T. Goers Edith H.Goldberg Russ 84 Karen Goldberger Mrs.Toni L Goldfarb Tracy Goodnow Art &Antiques Ellin 8c 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 8c Linda Hall Cordelia Hamilton Ken 8c Debra Hamlett Nancy B.Hamon Jeanne & Herbert Hansel Deborah Harding Marion Harris &Jerry Rosenfeld Harvey Art & Antiques Audrey Heckler Donald Heller, Heller/Vgasham Nina Hellman Jeffrey Henkel Mr.& Mrs. George Henry Mr.8c Mrs. Samuel Herrup Ann Hickerson 8c Martha Hickerson Antonio Hidalgo The High Five Foundation Frederick D. Hill Pamela &Timothy Hill Kit Hinrichs Robert & Marjorie Hirschhorn 8c Carolyn Hirschhorn Schenker, The Hirschhorn Foundation 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 8c Barbara Israel Martin & KittyJacobs,The Splendid Peasant Johnson &Johnson Joan &Victor Johnson ICristina Johnson,Esq. Louise 8c George Karninow Julie &Sandy Palley and Samuel & Rebecca Kardon Foundation Allan &Penny Katz Edwin U Keates, M.D. Steven & Helen Kellogg Jolie Kelter &Michael Make Richard Kemble & George Korn,Forager House Collection Mrs. David J. ICend Leigh Keno Amy Keys Phyllis Kind Joe K. ICindig III Jacqueline &Jonathan King Susan & Robert E. Klein Nancy Knudsen Nancy ICollisch &Jeffrey Pressman Greg K. Kramer David &Barbara ICrashes Dr. Robert &Arlene Kreisler Sherry &.Mark ICronenfeld 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.&Erna D.Leir John A. Levin &Co.,Inc. Morris Levinson Foundation,Inc. Bertram Levinston, M.D. Levy Charitable Trust Judy Lewis The Liman Foundation Lipman Family Foundation The 2000 Lipman Fellows Bruce Lisman In memory ofZeke Liverant Nancy MacKay Nancy&Erwin Maddrey Anne 8c Vincent Mai MaineAntique Digest The Jane Marcher Foundation Paul Martinson, Frances Martinson & Howard Graffin memory of Burt Martinson Mr.&Mrs.Christopher Mayer Mrs.Myron Mayer
In honor of Nancy Mayer Kerry McCarthy NliIly McGehee Nancy and Dana Mead Mary 0. Mecagni Robert &Meryl Meltzer Charles W.Merrels Evelyn S. Meyer George H.Meyer Jim &Enid Michelman Mrs. EJ. Milano Mr.8c Mrs. Samuel C. Miller Judith &James Milne Jean Mitchell Sandra Moers JP Morgan Chase 8c Co.,Inc. Keith & Lauren Morgan 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. Susan Nova Sally W.O'Day Odd Fellows Antiques Bequest of Mottle Lou O'Kelley Olde Hope Antiques Cheryl Oppenheim &John Waters The Overbrook Foundation Patsy Palmer &Talbot D'Alemberte Virginia Parks Paternostro Investments Eloise Paula Rolando & Karin Perez Jan Petry Philip Morris Companies Inc. Elizabeth A. Pile Harriet Marple Plehn Trust Carolinn Pocher &William Woody,Darwin Frank 8c Barbara Pollack Lucile & Maurice Pollak Fund Ronald &Debra Pook,Pook & Pook Inc. Wayne Pratt,Inc. Fran Puccinelli Jackie Radwin Teresa Ranellone Christopher T. Rebell° Antiques Ricco/Maresca Gallery Julia &Leroy Richie Jeanne Riger Marguerite Riordan John & Margaret Robson Foundation Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Fund 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. Sehlafer Memorial Fund In memory of Esther &Sam Schwartz Marilyn &Joseph Schwartz The Schwarz Gallery, Philadelphia Phyllis &Al Selnick Jean S.& Frederic A. Sharf The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation In honor ofGeorge Shaskan The George and Myra Shaskan Foundation,Inc. Rim & Steve Shaw Arthur 8c Suzanne Shawe Harvey S. Shipley Miller &J. Randall Plummer 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 Nancy T.8c Gary J. Stass Frederick Stecker Stella Show Mgmt. Co. Su-Ellyn Stern Tamar Stone & Robert Eckstein Ellen Stone-Relic Rachel &Donald Strauber Bonnie &Tom Strauss The R.David Sudarsky Charitable Foundation Nathaniel J. Sutton Leslie Sweedler John & Catherine Sweeney William Swislow Talcashimaya Co., Ltd. Connie Tavel Richard & Maureen Taylor David Teiger Nancy Thomas Tiffany & Co. Jeffrey Tillou Antiques Peter Tillou Pamela P.Tisza Jean L.& Raymond S.Troubh Fund Tucker Station Antiques Karen Ulfers John 8c Kathleen Ullmann Lee &Cynthia Vance Jacob &Ray Van Gelder Bob &Ellie Vermillion Joan & Clifford Vemick Joseph 8c Meryle Viener Robert E. Voellde 1.H.& Birgitta X.L.von Zelowitz David &Jane Walentas Jennifer Walker Clifford A.Wallach Irene N.Walsh Don Walters 8c 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 Well,Gotshal &Manges LLP Frederick S. Weiser David M.Weiss Jay & Meryl Weiss Ed Weissman Julia Weissman Mr.&Mrs.Peter Wells Ben Wertkin David Wheatcroft Harry Wicks Donald K.Wilkerson,M.D. John &Barbara Wilkerson The Jamison Williams Foundation 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 Bernadette Mary Zemenick Steven J. Zick Jon 8c Becky Zoler 27 anonymous donors
"Old Car" on. 1988 by Jimmie Lee Sudduth
Classic 8e contemporary folk art
WWW.YARDDOG.COM YARD DOG FOLK ART 1510 S. CONGRESS AVE. AUSTIN,TX 78704 512.912.1613 FOLKART@SWBELL.NET
gees 13e/id Qat Collect/xi FINE RUGS
Classic Rug Collection,Inc.. 212.832.3338/888.334.0063 235 East 60th Street • New York, NY 10022 • www.classicrug.com
WINTER 2004/2005
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103
DONORS
CONTEMPORARY OUTSIDER ART:
SURVEY 2005
DONORS FOR EXHIBITIONS AND OPERATIONS
JANUARY 12, 2005 - MARCH 15, 2005 TUESDAY - SATURDAY ARTISTS RECEPTION
NOON - 6PM
JANUARY 26, 2005
6PM
- 9PM
The American Folk Art Museum is grateful to the following friends who provided generous support for museum programs and operating activities during the year July 1, 2003-September 1, 2004: $50,000 Si up Carnegie Corporation of New York Horace W.Goldsmith Foundation The Leir Charitable Trusts Major League Baseball Nancy &Dana G.Mead Margaret Z. Robson Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Fund
Mercedes Jamison
Liberty (detail)
THE GALLERY AT HAI 548 BROADWAY, 3RD FLOOR NEW YORK, NY 10012 212-575-7696 www.hospaud.org/outsider
Mary Michael Shelley Painted low
woodcarvings since 1973
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$20,000-$49,999 American Express Company Didi 8c David Barrett BIL Charitable Trust Edward V. Blanchard Jr. Bloomberg LP Edith S.&Burly D.Brislcin Dana &Paul S. Caan Cahill Gordon 8c Reindel Joyce B. Cowin Louise 8c Edgar M.Cullman Lucy & Frederick M.Danziger David L Davies &Jolui Weeden Deutsche Bank Vivian & Strachan Donnelley Ralph 0.Esmerian Betsey & Samuel Farber Lori& Laurence Fink Jacqueline Fowler Susan &John Gutfreund Marjorie 8c Robert Hirschhorn Joan 8c Victor L.Johnson Barbara 8c David Krashes Latham &Watkins Taryn &Mark Leavitt Frances Sirota Martinson Kay & George H.Meyer National Endowment for the Arts National Financial Partners New York State Council on the Arts Laura 8c Richard Parsons J. Randall Plummer Angela 8c Selig Sacks Shearman 8c Sterling Sidley Austin Brown &Wood LLP Bonnie &Thomas W.Strauss Nathaniel J. Sutton TimeWamer Utendahl Capital Partners Barbara &John Wilkerson $10,000-$19,999 Advent Capital Management LLC Bank of America Bank ofTokyo-Mitsubishi Trust Company Estate of Sylvia J. Berger Citigroup Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton Con Edison Cravath,Swaine &Moore Credit Suisse First Boston LLC Davis Polk Wardwell Debevoise & Plimpton Fried Frank Harris Goldman Sachs of New York HIP Health Plans of New York HSBC Securities Johnson &Johnson JP Morgan Chase 8c Co. Alma Lambert &Chauncey Parker LEF Foundation Lehman Brothers,Inc. Morgan Stanley &Co.,Inc. Pfizer, Inc. Dorothea 8c Leo Rabkin
SFX Sports Group The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation Kate Stettner 8c Carl Lobell TIAA-CREF TishmanSpeyer Properties Verizon Wachtell,Lipton, Rosen & Katz Weil Gotshal 8c Manges Joyce &George Wein White &Case Tod Williams & Billie Tsien $5,000-$9,999 Angelo, Gordon &Co. Barbara &James A.Block Bristol-Myers Squibb Company Barbara &Tracy Cate Dorothy&Lewis Cullman Peggy 8c Richard Danziger The Gladys ICrieble Delmas Foundation Mark Goldman Historical Society of Early American Decoration Robert Lehman Foundation Susan &Jerry Lauren Anne 8c Vincent Mai Manoogian Simone Foundation Linda &Christopher Mayer Raymond J. McGuire Merrill Lynch &Co.,Inc. Anne &J.Jefferson Miller Richard Miller Morgan,Lewis &Bockius,LLP Moses &Singer New York City Department ofCultural Affairs Pure Imaging Julia &Leroy Richie Robert A. Roth Myra &George Shaskan R.David Sudarksy John Tishman Anne 8c Robert N.Wilson Suzanne & Lester Wunderman $2,000-$4,999 Bob Alexander The American Folk Art Society Molly Ashby Gayle Perkins Atkins 8c Charles N. Atkins Deborah Bergman Virginia &William D. Birch Jill &Sheldon Bonovitz Katharine &Robert E. Booth Judy &Bernard Briskin Yolanda 8c Alvin Brown Marcy Carsey Simona &Jerome A.Chazen Churchill Family Ellie & Edgar Cullman Jr. Susan R.Cullman Kendra Krienke Daniel 8c Allan Daniel Sheena &David Danziger Gary Davenport Susan & Raymond C.Egan Gloria Einbender Epstein, Becker 8c Green Evelyn Frank Marilyn Friedman &Thomas Block Rebecca & Michael S. Gamzon Merle &Barry Ginsburg Kurt Gitter 8c Alice Yelen Anne &Eric Gleacher Bruce Gordon 8cTawana Tibbs Ann &James Harithas Halley K. Harrisburg & Michael Rosenfeld Audrey B. Heckler Catherine & Richard Herbst Stephen Hessler 8c. Mary Ellen Vehlow Ruth Horwich House & Garden Ling &Thomas Isenberg
GREGORY BLACKSTOCK Ned Jalbert Vera &Joseph Jelinek ICristina Johnson Penny &Allan Katz Helen &Steven Kellogg Luise 8c Robert Kleinberg Dorothy C. Krugman Jo Carole & Ronald S. Lauder Betty&John Levin Joyce &Edward Linde Estate of Ada Little Lower Hudson Conference Richard Lukins The Magazine Group Audrey 8c Danny Meyer Loree &Richard Meyer Cynthia &Donald B.Murphy Cyril I. Nelson JoEllen &David Oskin Anthony J. Petullo Jeffrey Pressman &Nancy Kollisch Audrey & Christopher T. Rebollo Ricca/Maresca Gallery The Grace Jones Richardson Trust The Ida 8c William Rosenthal Foundation Carol P Schatt Donna & Marvin Schwartz Janet &Joseph D.Shein Peter L. Sheldon Linda & Raymond Simon Smith Richardson Foundation Gary Snyder &Kristen Accola Karen &David Sobotka Judy &Michael Steinhardt Patricia A.8c Robert C.Stempel Steptoe &Johnson Elizabeth A. Stern Su-Ellyn Stern Donald 8c Rachel Strauber Claire Vanderbilt Sin von Reis Sue &Edgar Wachenheim III Jane &David Walentas Elizabeth &Irwin Warren Sue Ann &John L. Weinberg Sandra &Walter J. Wilkie Janet Winston The WRG Foundation $1,000-$1,999 A La Vieille Russie,Inc. Marshall Acuff Peg Alston Deborah &James Ash James Asselstine 8c Bette J. Davis The Atlantic Philanthropies Marie &John W.Baldante Jeremy L.Banta Anne H.Bass Jill 8c Mickey Baten Robin Bell Jose Solis Betancourt &Paul Sherrill Helen Bing Ira &Marilyn Birnbaum Lois P. Broder &Marvin Broder Sherry Bronfinan Marc &Laurene Krasny Brown Margaret &Edward J. Brown Valerie &Jay Brown Marjorie B. Buckley John R.&Dorothy D.Caples Fund Sharon 8cJeffrey Casdin Angela &James Clair George Colettis Judy 8c Aaron Daniels Deborah Davenport&Stewart Stender Jenny 8c Richard DeScherer The Echo Design Group,Inc. Barbara &Joseph H. Ellis Equity Resources,Inc. Judith &Anthony Evnin Helaine 8c Burton Fendelman
Lynne &Donald Flezner Forest Electric Corporation Frances J. Frawley Jill Gallagher Alice 8c Bruce Geismar Georgia Pacific Corporation Gomez Associates,Inc. Barbara &Peter Goodman Barbara L.Gordon & Steve Cannon Victoria Hagan Interiors Connie &John A.Hays Inge Heckel Donald M.Herr High Five Foundation Stephen M.Hill John Howard Ellen E.Howe Stephen Huber Kelly &Webber Hudson Sally Humphrey Barbara &Thomas C.Israel Sandra Jaffe Penny &Alistair Johnston Karen Keane 8c Stephen Fletcher Leigh Keno Mary Kettaneh Stephanie &Ron Kramer Abraham Krasnoff Robert A.Landau Lindsey 8c Bruno LaRocca Wendy &Stephen Lash Michelle 8c Lawrence J. Lasser Karen 8c William Lauder Eugenia A. Leemans Stephen A.Levin Barbara S. Levinson Lone Cowen Levy Ed Lewis Judy Lewis Julie &Carl M.Lindberg Stephan Loewentheil Ninah 8c Michael Lynne M (Group) Mary's East Ralph Mancini Michael Markbreiter Michael T.Martin Chriss Mattsson Mrs. Myron L Mayer Gad 8c Michael Mendelsohn Virginia B. Michel Richard Mishaan Barbara G. Mulch David Muni.&David Lesniak Joshua Nash &Beth Goldberg Natasi &Associates Olde Hope Antiques,Inc. David T. Owsley Pat Parsons Karin Eriksen Perez&Rolando Perez Deborah C.Quirk Roberta &Jack Rabin Jackie & Howard Radwin Richard Ravitch Lisa 8c Gregg Rechler Paige Rense John Roche Elihu Rose Margot Rosenberg Helene &Jim Rosenthal Alice Rosenwald Shelley 8c Donald Rubin Janet & Derald H.Ruttenberg Joan Salk Betty &Paul Schaffer Linda 8c Donald Schapiro Tess &Thomas F. Schutte Phyllis & Alfred Selnick Semlitz Glaser Foundation Harvey S. Shipley Miller Ruth &Jerome Siegel Mary Ann 8c Arthur Sislcind
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FROM THESE TREESATEARLY SPRINaTiMEAND BOILER DoWN INTO HUaE VATS,ETC,FOR SYRUP AND MAR.
GARDE RAIL GALLERY SELF•TAUGHT*OUTSIDER *FOLK ART 110 THIRD AVENUE SOUTH - SEATTLE, WA - TEL. 206.621.1055
WWW.GARDE•RAIL.COM
ALEXANDRA HUBER new works on-line and at the gallery BEVERLY KAYE 15 LORRAINE DRIVE WOODBRIDGE, CT
203.387.5700
artbrut.com by appointment
WINTER 2004/2005
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105
ArtCollector is an international sale / exchange market dedicated to art works, offering a set of services for individuals, curators and artists.
www.artcollector.ch
cote/2246o
Berenberg Gallery
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4 Clarendon Street
Boston, MA 02.116
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www.berenberggallery.com
106 WINTER 2004/2005
FOLK ART
DONORS Skinner Inc. Janine & Michael Smith Stephanie Smither Matthew Patrick Smyth & Rachel Eta Grace & Elliott Snyder Peter J. Solomon Jennifer Allan Soros Dorothy &John Sprague Craig Stapleton Ellen &David Stein Geraldine 8c Lionel Sterling Nonie &John Sullivan David Teiger Billie Tisch Dorothy C.Treisman Sandra &Howard Tytel Kristin E. Vickery Eve Weinstein Judith &Bennett Weinstock Suzanne 8c Stephen Weiss Barbara 8c Gerard C.Wertkin Janis &William Wetsman Jan Whitlock Lyn 8c E.T.Williams Woodard & Greenstein Michelle 8c Robert Wyles Nina &Tim Zagat Zanlcel Fund Rebecca &Jon N.Zoler Susan 8c Donald Zuckert $500-$999 Harvie & Charles Abney Ethel 8c Philip Adelman Charitable Foundation Mary Lou &Ira Alpert Peg Alston Linda Lee Alter Serena Altschul Jody&John Arnhold Ray Azoulay June 8c Frank Barsalona Serena 8c David Bechtel Judi &Barry Bell Lee 8c Paul Belsky Ralph Bermudes Joan & Robert Bernhard Mrs. George P. Bissell Constance Black Karin Blake Interiors Adele &Leonard Block Sam Blount Dena L.Bock Marilyn & Orren Bradley Nancy &James Braithwaite Linda &James H.Brandi Patty & Steve Brink Brenda Brody Mark Brossman &Roberta Holinko-Brossman Barbara Bundy Guy K.Bush Miriam Cahn Gabrielle 8c Frank Casson Virginia G. Cave Sharon S. Cheeseman Marjorie Chester Circuit City Foundation Stephen H.Cooper & Karen Gross Katie Danziger & Steven Horowitz Ed &Pat DeSear Mary A. Donovan Maureen D. Donovan Cynthia E.Dozier Deborah 8c Arnold Dunn Charles P. Durkin Shirley Durst Claire 8c Alfred C. Eckert Sharon &Theodore Eisenstat Robert Ellison Elsmere Foundation,Inc. Margot &John L.Erase Tania &Thomas M.Evans Bobbie Falk Pauline &Laurence Feldman Ron Feldman Thomas K.Figge
Susan & Henry Fradlcin Maxine &Stuart Frankel Foundation Margot &Norman Freedman James Friedlander & Elizabeth Irwin Richard Gachot Daniel&Lianna Gantt Judy &Jules Garel Barbara Gimbel Mildred &William L. Gladstone Edmund Glass Arthur Goldstone 8c Susan Goldstone Tracy Goodness Art 8c Antiques Barbara L Gordon Donald J. Gordon Ellin &Baron J. Gordon Nanette &Irvin GreifJr. Nancy &Tim Grumbacher Samuel L.Guillory Anton Haardt Gallery Margery Hadar David H. Haffenreffer Marion Harris &Jerry Rosenfeld Anne &John A. Hermann Jr. Sanford L. Herzfeld 8c Audrey I. Dursht Lisa W.Hess Walter Hess Jr. Frederick D.Hill Arlene 8c Leonard Hochman Nancy Hoffman &Peter N.Greenwald John Horvitz Michael T.Incantalupo Jill 8c Ken Iscol Theodore Israel Helen &Martin Katz Emily &Leslie Keno Phyllis Kind John J. Kirby Jr. Marcy &Michael Klein Barbara S. Klinger John Koegel,Esq. Phyllis Kossoff Betty &Arthur Kowaloff Peter &Jill Kraus Sue-Ellen 8c Mark Laracy Robert Larch Nadine &Peter Levy Robert A.Lewis Shirley & Sherwin Lindenbaum Randall Lou & Nancy McCall Nancy B.Maddrey Eric Maffei Esperanza G.Martinez Barbie &John A.Mayer Jr. Ray &Judy McCaskey Patricia & Samuel D. McCullough Dianne &James Meltzer Lisa &Buxton S. Midyette Jean Mitchell Bettina P. Murray Museum Association of New York Ann &Walter Nathan David Nichols Randy Nielsen Elm 8c Michael Nierenberg Cinnie &Stephen O'Brien Stephanie &Robert Olmsted Kenneth R.Page Elbert Parsons Jr. Paul V.Patemostro Betty Pecore Jeffrey Peek James Pesando Janet Petry &Angie Mills Campion A. Platt Harold Pote & Linda E.Johnson Rene Purse 8c Stuart Zweibel The Quilt Complex Raccoon Creek Antiques Catherine &EF.Randolph Irene Reichert Paul Reiferson 8cJulie Spivack Alyce &Roger Rose Stuart Rosen Lois & Richard Rosenthal Toni Ross
Amy & Richard Rubenstein Nancy &Frank E.Russell Jeanne &Robert Savitt Nancy 8c Henry Schacht Thomas Schloss Margaret Schmidt Sonia &Carl]. Schmitt Sue Schuck Cipora 0.8c Philip C.Schwartz Jean &Frederic Sharf Geri &J.Peter Slcirkanich Arle Sklar-Weinstein Stephanie & Richard L. Solar Ann & Richard Solomon The Splendid Peasant Nancy &William Stahl Stark Carpet Lisa &Stuart Sternberg Carol Millson Snider Eleanor &John M.Sullivan Jr. Milton S.Teicher
Thyssenlcrupp Elevator Corp. Joan &Barry Tucker Utility Electric Co. Cynthia Vance Alfred G. Vanderbilt Karel F. Wahrsager Mary J. Wallach Pat 8c Donald Weeden Brenda Weeks-Nerz Amy &John S.Weinberg David Wheatcroft Lisa &David Wolfe Rosalie Wood John &J.Evelyn Yoder Robert Young Makah Zeldis Susan & Louis Zinterhofer Marsha 8c Howard Zipser Jan 8c Barry L Zubrow Barbara &Benjamin Zucker
AMERICA'S OLDEST MAKERS OF COLONIAL AND EARLY AMERICAN LIGHTING FIXTURES
RECENT DONORS TO THE COLLECTIONS Judith Alexander Mr.8c Mrs. Darwin Bahm Mr.8c Mrs. Henry Buchbinder Bliss Carnochan Joseph Bailey Cole Marcella Deysher Judy Doenias Ralph Esmerian Betsey &Sam Farber Jane Ferrara Mr.8c Mrs.James Goodman Ray Kass &Dr.Jerrie Pike Chapman Kelly Mrs.Jean B. Krolik Carl Lobell & Kate Stertner
L,eszek Macak Kenneth & Cherie Mason Richard McDermott Miller Cyril Irwin Nelson David Owsley Francis Portzline Mr.8c Mrs. Francis Fritz Randolph Jr. Suzanne Richie Stephanie Smither Maurice C.&Patricia L Thompson Elizabeth,Irwin &Mark Warren ICathpurne White Vicki &Larry Winters Reverend Nancy Zola
AUTHENTIC DESIGNS www.authenticdesigns.com West Rupert, Vermont 05776 (802) 394-7713 • 800-844-9416 Catalogues $3.00 each
Celebrating Americana Week in New York • e-preview the shows @ stellashows.com
ANTIQUES @ THE PIERS OVER 300 ANTIQUES DEALERS ON TWO PIERS SELLING
JANUARY 21-22-23
FORMAL,AMERICAN & MODERN
FRIDAY & SATURDAY 11-8 • SUNDAY 11-5
FURNITURE, FOLK ART, SILVER, CERAMICS, FINE ART, TEXTILES, JEWELRY & OBJECTS
THE ARMORY ON LEXINGTON AVENUE @ 26TH STREET,NYC 100 EXHIBITORS SELLING EXCEPTIONAL & EXTRAORDINARY AMERICAN & EUROPEAN ANTIQUES,PERIOD FURNITURE, AMERICANA, FOLK ART, ARCHITECTURAL ARTIFACTS, TEXTILES, FINE ART & CERAMICS.
JANUARY 22-23 PASSENGER SHIP TERMINAL PIERS
12th Avenue @ 48th to 55th Streets, NYC Sat. & Sun. 10-5 • Show Admission $15
SHOW ADMISSION $12
e-preview-opens Thursday 1/20 @ 5 p.m.
e-preview-opens Friday 1/21 @ 7 p.m.
Stella Show Mgmt. Co. 212-255-0020 • www.stellashovvs.com
WINTER 2004/2005
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107
EPSTEIN/POWELL 66 Grand St., New York, N.Y. 10013 by appointment 212-226-7316 email: artfolks@verizon.net • Mose Tolliver
•Justin McCarthy (oils and drawings)
•Jesse Aaron •Victor Joseph Gatto (estate) • Max Romain • Rex Clawson (representing)
• and many other folk/outsider artists
•S.L. Jones ('81-'83 drawings) "Garden of Eden" Rex Clawson, 2004, 18x24, ink/marker on paper
•Old Ironsides Pry
INDEX
TO
ADVERTISLRS
Allan Katz Americana American Visionary Art Museum The Ames Gallery Andover Fabrics Anton Haardt Gallery Art Collector Arthur Kaplan Authentic Designs Barn Star Productions Beverly Kaye Carl Hammer Cats Cradle Antiques Cavin-Morris Gallery Charlton Bradsher Christie's Classic Rug Collection,Inc. Craig Farrow David Cook Fine American Art David Wheatcroft Antiques Epstein/Powell Fleisher Oilman Gallery Folk America
108 WINTER 2004/2005
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11 25 29 82 30 106 99 107 100 105 20 24 13 18 17 103 95 21 2 108 12 30
Forbes &Turner 100 The Gallery at HAI 104 Garde Rail Gallery 105 Gary Snyder 97 Gilley's Gallery and Framing 28 Goodrich &Company Promotions,Inc. 83 Hanninvestco@yahoo.com 35 Hill Gallery 19 Intuit:The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art 97 Jackie Radwin Back Cover Joan R.Brownstein Art 8c Antiques 45 Kentucky Folk Art Center 34 Laura Fisher 26 Lindsay Gallery 23 Lori Berenberg 106 Marcia Weber/Art Objects 31 Mary Michael Shelley 104 M.Finkel &Daughter 16 National Black Fine Art Show 87 Northeast Auctions Inside Back Cover Olde Hope Antiques,Inc. 1
Paul &Alvina Haverlcamp 28 Pfaltzgraff 85 The Philadelphia Antiques Show 101 Raccoon Creek Antiques,LLC 3 Raw Vision 79 Ricco/Maresca Gallery Inside Front Cover Sanford L.Smith and Associates 77 Sidney Gecker American Folk Art 44 Slotin Folk Auction 33 Sotheby's 6,7 The Southern Appalachian Outsider Art Expo 76 Stella Show Mgmt.Co. 107 Stephen O'Brien Jr. 44 Thomas Schwenke Inc. 5 Thurston Nichols American Antiques 27 Trotta-Bono 4 Walters-Benisek Art &Antiques 8 W.E. Channing &Co. 14 Yard Dog Folk Art 103
18 Years of Record Sales SO Years ofExperience
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NORTHEAST AUCTIONS
Folk Portrait of a New England Doctor Sold in 2004 for $464,500.00
Boston Chippendale Chest of Drawers 3old in 1995 for $992,500.00
The Schooner Charles Carroll by Thomas P. Moses Sold in 2004 for $662,500.00
Indian Weathervane Sold in 2003 for $365,500.00
Shaker Sewing Cabinet Sold in 2000 for $222,500.00
Queen Anne Tiger Maple Slant-Lid Desk Sold in 1996 for $217,000.00
RONALD P. BOURGEAULT, AUCTIONEER
Applauded By Consignors
Praised By Collectors
Respected By Curators
Ron's Pledge:I'll Do For You What I've Done For Clients Since 1986.
NORTH r A 93 Pleasant Street, Ports www.no
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CTIONS 801 Tel:(603) 433-8400 ns.corn
PAINTING FROM MAINE
JACKIE RADWIN
By appointment • San Antonio, Texas •(210) 824-7711 Visit us at our website www.iackieradwin.com
Oil on canvas. Artist unidentified. Wonderful presence. Circa 1926. Original gilt frame. 40" x 25 1/2" framed.
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