Folk Art (Fall 2005)

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P.O. Box 718, New Hope, PA 18938-0718

By Appointment 215-297-0200 fax: 215-297-0300 e-mail: info@oldehope.com www.oldehope.com

the finest American country antiques and folk art

A rare double-sided flat cigar store trade figure.

American, c.1870.

Carved and painted pine.

Ht. 56.5 inches.

HILL GALLERY

MAJORETTES OHIO C. 1940 20X7X6

407 W.BROWN ST. BIRMINGHAM MICH. 248.540.9288 hillgallery@yahoo.com

Hessian Soldier Whirligig • Wood with original polychrome paint • Mid-late 19th century New England • 18" high x 4" wide x 21/2" deep

DAVID WI- I-14A CROFT Antiques 26 West Main Street• Westborough, MA 01581 • Tel:(508) 366-1723 davidwheatcroft.com

Trotta-Bono

Photograph: Lui

Antique Native American Art Art of the Frontier and Colonial Periods

Burl Bowl and Effigy Ladle Eastern Woodlands Eighteenth century

By Appointment: (914) 528-6604 • P.O. Box 34 • Shrub Oak, NY 10588 • Email: tb788183@aol.com We are actively purchasing fine individual pieces and collections.

We specialize in collection formation and development.

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Antiques, L.L.C. George R. Allen â&#x20AC;˘ Gordon L W9c1<off Plione:(856) 22+-1282

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Rare American 19thi Centur9 Salt Glazed Stoneware witii Folk Art Images of the Human Figure.

Portrtiil oiâ&#x20AC;˘ David Shaman

Auction January 19-21

To be sold in the Important American Furniture and Folk Art sale, on January 19-21, 2006, at Christie's Rockefeller Center.

Viewing January 14-19

ABRAHAM DELANOY

Inquiries 212 636 2230 Catalogues 800 395 6300 New York 20 Rockefeller Plaza New York, NY 10020 christies.com

IMPORTANT AMERICAN FURNITURE AND FOLK ART NewYork,Jamiary 19-21 2oo6\

CHRISTIE'S

JOAN R. BROWNSTEIN ART Sk ANTIQUES

A rare intact family group of six water color on paper portraits from the Wright-Gleason family of Concord, MA. Contained within painted ovals are a young mother and five of her children. The images are still vividly colored and show the sitters holding fruit,flowers, toys, and pets. Two of the children are seated in yellow bow back windsor arm chairs, and a third is seated in a similar red chair. One child, who holds a bow and arrow and also a ball for his dog, is portrayed outside in a landscape scene that includes a house with a white picket fence.

The portraits show great charm and naivete and a highly decorative aspect, based on their simplified drawing technique, beautiful coloration, and highly detailed settings.

The family in which these pictures descended were once the owners of the Wright Tavern, a meeting place of the Minutemen.

Painted circa 1810-1815. In frames in the style of the period.

24 PARKER STREET NEWBURY, MA 01951 WWW.JOANRBROWNSTEIN.COM

(978) 465-1089

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Auction Brokering Collection Management Appraisals

Ventriloquist Puppet carved and painted wood fabric and leather American, circa 1900 2" / H381

J' 2005 Catalogue Available for Twenty-Five Dollars

amp i e tro 203.787.3851 2 Bradley Street / 1531 New Haven, CT 06511 fredgiampietr

FOLK ART VOLUME 30, NUMBER 3 / FALL 2005

FEATURES

Coming into Focus: Steve Harley (1863-1947)

38

Barbara R. Luck

A Stately Chest Befitting Its Owner:Jacob Kniskern's Schoharie County Chest

46

Andrew Albertson

Intuitive Eyes: Individualistic and Visionary,Jamaica's Legendary Self-Taught Artists Have Helped a Nation Find Its Soul

51

Edward M. Gomez

Outside In: The End of Outsider Art

60

Lyle Rexer

DEPARTMENTS

Cover: UNTITLED (detail) Donald Mitchell 1999 Courtesy Ricco/ Maresca Gallery, New York (see page 61)

Editor's Column

10

Quilt Connection

78

Director's Letter

15

Books ofInterest

80

Miniatures

20

Museum News

82

Conversation

30

Obituaries

90

The Collection: A Closer Look

34

Public Programs

70

Museum Information: Exhibition Schedule, Hours &Admissions

93

Folk Art Institute

72

Trustees/Donors

94

Museum Reproductions Program

74

Update:The Shirley K. Schlafer Library

76

Index to Advertisers

100

OM= Folk Art is published four times a year by the American Folk Art Museum.The museum's administrative office mailing address is 49 East 52nd Street,New York, NY 10022-5905,TeL 212/977-7170,Fax 212/977-8134. Prior to Fall 1992, Volume 17, Number 3,Folk Art was published as The Clarion. Annual subscription rate for members is included in membership dues.

Copies are mailed to all members. Single copy $8.00. Published and copyright 2005 by the American Folk Art Museum,45 West 53rd Street,New York, NY 10019.The cover and 0 Liâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; contents ofFolk 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 =Mg American Folk 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 ofaddress: Please send both old and new addresses to the museum's membership department at 49 East 52nd Street, New York,NY 10022-5905, and allow five weeks for change.

Advertising: Folk Art endeavors to accept advertisements only from advertisers whose reputation is recognized in the trade,but despite the care with which the advertising department screens photographs and texts submitted by its advertisers, it cannot guarantee the unquestionable authenticity 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 museum will not knowingly accept advertisements for Folk Art that 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.

FALL 2005

FOLK ART 9

EDITOR'S

COLUMN

TANYA HEINRICH

ntil recently, only three paintings by Steve Harley were known to exist.

Created in response to the exquisite beauty of the unsettled landscape he viewed during his travels throughout this country's westernmost states in the mid-1920s,each oil presents a soaring vista with meticulous detail. Barbara R. Luck has uncovered two additional paintings, some drawings, and important biographical information. Harley, who was raised on a farm in Michigan, abandoned that "boring, relentless, and confining" livelihood and charmed his way through life with a strong sense ofinvincibility "By ignoring society's dictates and others'judgments, he was able to mold an original life, one expressive of his deepest, most cherished convictions," writes Luck.

For a look at Harley's life and work,turn to page 38.

The painted dower chest in the museum's collection SIMON BOLIVAR made for Jacob Knislcem bears the date 1778,a year in Everald Brown which the homes and farms of Schoharie County,N.Y., (1917-2002) War. Revolutionary were ruined in several attacks during the St. Ann, Jamaica Kniskem,who had enlisted that year in the militia,fought 1983 Oil on canvas hard and was captured twice.That the chest survived may 201 / 2 x 371 / 2" be testimony to the prominent role the Kniskems held in American Folk Art extensive has conducted Andrew Albertson the region.

Museum, gift of Maurice C. research on the Kniskem family and the distinct painted and Patricia L. Thompson, 2003.20.8 furniture ofthe Schoharie Valley; please see page 46.

The self-taught artists ofJamaica,known as Intuitives, On view in 'Folk have long held the interest ofcontributor Edward M. Gomez,who served as a cultural affairs officer at the U.S. Art Revealed" Embassy in Kingston in the 1980s. Beginning on page 51, Gomez presents an intimate look at the resonant work of four artists—Ras Dizzy, Albert Artwell, Everald Brown,and Leonard Daley— who each work (or worked—Brown died in 2002)in a deeply personal way, "against a backdrop of a homogenized, mass-market culture."

Lyle Rexer, whose book How to Look at Outsider Art was published this spring, offers a compelling take on the evolving field. With "Outside In:The End of Outsider Art," beginning on page 60, Rexer brings modern and contemporary art into the dialogue, alongside examinations of works by Gayleen Aiken, Pearl Blauvelt,Josef Heinrich Grebing,Donald Mitchell, Heinrich Reisenbauer, Judith Scott, and Philip Travers. Stylistically, each ofthese artists resides comfortably among their trained counterparts, and "no work, whatever its origin, once it is engaged,can remain 'outside.'"

Ofthe many printed pieces the publications department produces each quarter, none gives us greater pleasure than Folk Art. I'd like to acknowledge with gratitude the hard work and singular talents of my exceptional staff Vanessa Davis, assistant editor and website manager; Lori Leonard,production editor and graphic designer; and Eleanor Garlow,advertising sales representative. Special thanks also go to our summer intern, Daniel Pietrzak. Have a wonderful fall season.

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AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM

PUBLICATIONS/FOLK ART Tanya Heinrich Director ofPublications/Editor and Publisher Vanessa Davis Assistant Editor Erilcka V. Haa Copy Editor Lori T. Leonard Production Editor Eleanor Garlow Advertising Sales Jeffrey Kibler, The Magazine Group,Inc. Design Cenveo Printers ADMINISTRATION Maria Ann Conelli Linda Dunne Gerard C.Wertkin Susan Conlon Robin A. Schlinger Madhukar Balsara Angela Lain Irene Kreny Robert J. Saracena Anthony Crawford Alexis Davis Richard Ho Daniel Rodriguez Beverly McCarthy Katya Ullman

Director Acting Director/ChiefAdministrative Officer Director Emeritus Assistant to the Director 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 ChiefRegistrar/Director ofExhibition Production Elizabeth V.Warren Consulting Curator EDUCATION Diana Schlesinger Lee Kogan

Director ofEducation Director ofthe Folk Art Institute/Curator ofSpecialProjects for The Contemporary Center Janet Lo Manager ofSchooland Docent Programs Jennifer Kalter Museum Educator and Coordinator Madelaine Gill Family Programs Coordinator

DEPARTMENTS Cathy Michelsen Christine Corcoran Pamela Gabourie Katie Hush Dana Clair Lara Allen Matthew Beaugrand Danelsi De La Cruz Wendy Barreto Susan Flamm Alice J. Hoffman Marie S. DiManno Sandy B.Yun Janey Fire James Mitchell Jane Lanes Caroline Kerrigan

Director ofDevelopment Manager ofIndividual Giving Manager ofInstitutional Giving Special Events Manager Membership Manager Development Coordinator Membership and Special Events Assistant Membership Assistant Membership Clerk Public Relations Director Director ofLicensing Director ofMuseum Shops Assistant to the Director ofMuseum Shops Director ofPhotographic Services Librarian Director of Volunteer Services Executive Director of The American Antiques Show

EVA AND MORRIS FELD GALLERY STAFF Weekend Gallery Manager:Ursula Morillo; Security: Kenneth R. Bing, Bienvenido Medina MUSEUM SHOPS STAFF Managers:Dorothy Gargiulo, Louise B. Sheets, Pierre Szczygiel, Marion Whitley; Book Buyer: Evelyn R. Gurney; Ste Matthew Beaugrand, Eugenie Boland, Joel Snyder, Ming Chee Tan, Ellen Walker 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 Administrative Offices 49 East 52nd Street, New York, NY 10022-5905 212/977-7170, FaX 212/977-8134, info@follcartmuseum.mg, wvvw.folkartmuseum.org

10 FALL 2005

FOLK ART

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ALLAN KATZ Americana

Dance Hall Whirligig Midwest. ca.1920. Carved and painted wood with fabric remnants, all mounted to a rotating industrial gearing mechanism.

11"h x 13 1/2" Ix 9"d.

Allan & Penny Katz

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

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Boro, Futon Cover Lining„ Japan, 20th C. Sashiko hand stitching on patched cotton, 62 x 60 in (157.5 x (52.4 cm)

Cavin-Morris Gallery 560 Broadway Suite 405B New York, NY 10012 Tel212

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CARL HAMMER GALLERY

Important Drawing by Bill Traylor Monumental in size, 71.25 x 35.5 inches, this Traylor drawing was executed on a piece of Beaverboard (patented wall covering material, stamped 1916) and has been in the possession of the same Alabama family since its creation, c. 1940. Extensive research conducted.

Complete provenance and other information available. This is the largest work known to currently exist by the artist's hand.

740 N. WELLS STREET, CHICAGO, IL 60610 PH: 312-266-8512 / FX: 312-266-8510 hammergall@aol.com

www.hammergallery.com

FLEISHER OLLMAN GALLERY 1616 Walnut Street suite 100/Philadelphia Pa 19103 215 545 7562/fax 545 6140/fleisher-ollmangallery.com

Cigarmaker,Creator

Felipe Jesus Consalvos

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debut catalogue and all works available exclusively from Fleisher/Oilman Gallery

DIRECTOR'S

LET

TER

MARIA ANN CONELLI

s you read this letter, the days ofsummer are just beginning to fade, but as I write it, it is the start ofJuly and I am concluding my first month as director ofthe American Folk Art Museum.It has been a period filled with warm welcomes, meetings,tours, unpacking,and settling in. Although it will take time to learn the many facets ofleading the museum,I especially look forward to working with the exceptional staff members who have given so generously oftheir time and expertise. In the months preceding my arrival, we met to discuss the issues and challenges that the museum faces and to plan for our future together. Conversations with curators Stacy C. Hollander and Brooke Davis Anderson have focused on future exhibitions that will highlight not only the museum's sterling collection, but also objects from other institutions and private collections that will further broaden one's experience and knowledge offolk and contemporary art.

Plans are also under way to expand the museum's educational programs.Through our website, teachers in New York and across the country will be able to access and integrate information about the museum and its collection into their curriculum, and into the lives oftheir students. I am delighted to report that the museum recently received an exciting grant from the William Randolph Hearst Foundations that will help us achieve our goals (see page 89). Working with our director ofeducation, Diana Schlesinger, and hearing her ideas about digitalization and a Web-based curriculum particularly resonate with me.I began my museum career 24 years ago at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Junior Museum,where there were far fewer opportuniDirector Maria Ann Conelli ties for sharing materials and resources with colleagues outside ofour own geographic locale.Today,the walls of museums no longer limit our reach, making this an exciting time to develop programs and to bring the American Folk Art Museum to a new audience.

As you can tell,I'm very excited about the museum's future, but these plans are possible only because ofthe strong foundation provided by my predecessor, Director Emeritus Gerard C.Werkin. Gerry spearheaded the construction ofthe new building and oversaw the move ofthe collection into this beautiful new space. He is owed a deep and sincere thank-you for this and all his other accomplishments.I know you join me in wishing him continued success as he begins a new chapter in a distinguished career.

On June 28, as one of my first official duties,I had the honor and privilege ofcutting the ribbon at the opening ceremony ofa new exhi-

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bition gallery at the League Treatment Center,in Brooklyn, at the invitation ofits director, Hannah ICinn.The League Treatment Center, which provides care for children and adults with severe emotional, neurological, and developmental disabilities, was founded in 1953 as the first day-treatment center and school in the nation to provide an alternative to institutionalization. It was wonderful to view the artwork ofthis community and share in the celebration.

One ofthe highlights ofthe season was the museum's annual Spring Benefit, which took place June 8.The evening began with an elegant cocktail party in the museum's galleries, during which guests could view the exhibition "Selfand Subject," which inspired the event's theme of portraiture.The party then moved next door for a delicious dinner and entertainment in a festive tent. For the full report, please turn to page 82.1 offer my appreciation to all ofthe guests who made the evening such a success, and to each staff member who helped produce the event.

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On a sad note, I would like to note the recent death of one of the museum's most devoted trustees, Cyril I. Nelson. Cy joined the board in 1974 and played an instrumental role in many of the museum's early publications. He had a particular interest in textiles and donated many stellar quilts, needleworks, and other 18th- and 19th-century objects to the museum's permanent collection. A memorial tribute to this special friend will appear in the winter issue of Folk Art. As I conclude,I would be remiss ifI didn't thank the devoted trustees who also give so generously of their time and experience and support the museum in countless ways.In addition, to the docents and volunteers who are energetic ambassadors and share their love for the museum with our visitors, you have my gratitude. And finally to my valued colleague Linda Dunne,chief administrative officer, who graciously assumed the role of acting director ofthe museum so that I could complete the spring term with my faculty and students at the Fashion Institute ofTechnology, where I served as dean, my heartfelt thanks. Given her many responsibilities, Linda was most generous in leading the museum over these past months, and I am most appreciative.

I look forward to the days ahead,to working with my colleagues here, and to coming to know the museum's members. I'll see you at the museum!*

FALL 2005

FOLK ART

15

Urban Country 218 Main St. Venice, CA 90291 www.urbancountryantiques.com 310. 315. 1927

Specializing in: -Folk Art -Industrial -Americana -Textiles African American Quilt, concentric squares or housetop variation. Made by Clementine Kennedy, Gees Bend, Alabama. Circa 1940's.

Extraordinary African American Quilt made by a man, improvisational bars and squares. Quilted by Mr. Clyde Patton from suiting materials and fabric from his brother's WWII uniform. Ragland, Alabama Circa 1940's.

African American Quilt, improvisational center medallion backed with U.S. Department of Welfa sacks. Attributed to Lucy Mooney, Gees Bend, Alabama. Circa 1940's.

AMERICAN AARNE

ANTON

594 BROADWAY #205

PRIMITIVE ART

NEW YORK, NY

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ANTIQUES 10012

(212) 966 1530

Articulated figure of a boy with old painted surface and glass eyes. Late 19th to early 20th century.

50 inches high. A related figure by the same maker is pictured on the cover of The Intuitive Eye: The Mendelsohn Collection, and in American Vernacular, pgs. 246 and 247.

The SOURCE for American Folk Art in NYC

Wonderful detail in full-bodied walking position. Made for the 1876 Centennial Exposition (World's Fair) in Philadelphia.

Excellent condition, great surface. Cast by Robert Wood and Co., Philadelphia, PA. Circa 1876.

Height: 68", Width: 52". Complete family history available.

Thurston Nichols American Antiques LLC 522 Twin Ponds Road, Bremigsville, PA 18031 phone: 610.972.4563 fax: 610.395.3679 www.antiques101.com

594 Broadway, Suite 205A New York, New York 10012 Tel: 212 219-9822

924 Paseo de Peralta, Suite 1, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 Tel: 505 983-6106

MINIATURES

MALLARD DUCK PAIR / Charles Shoenheider / c. 1880s / Peoria, Illinois / collection of Thomas K. Figqe

BY VANESSA DAVIS

LOOKING OUT "Art from the Inside: Pan° Dravvings by Chicano Prisoners," a traveling exhibition ofdrawings made on cotton handkerchiefs by inmates in the American Southwest,will be on display at the New England Center for Contemporary Art(860/7748899;www.museum-necca.org),in Brooklyn, Conn., Oct.21—Dec. 10.

Known as panos,these love letters, narratives of personal loss, and prayers for redemption carry messages to family and loved ones on the outside and to friends and associates within the prison system. Depicting bold montages of pre-Hispanic symbols, colonial religious images, Mexican historical figures, Aztec warriors, tattooed gang members, voluptuous pinup girls, clowns, teddy bears, and cartoon characters, the pan° makers'vivid iconography reflects a complex and idiosyncratic worldview.This exhibition seeks to help museumgoers discover the profound dualism that permeates the Chicano aesthetic consciousness and understand the cultural context that pane art illuminates. For SCORING / J. Luna / San Antonio, Texas / 1997 / ink on more information, see also cotton handkerchief / private collection page 76.

A WOODEN BIRD IN HAND ... The Ward Museum ofWildfowl Art(410/742-4988; www.ward museum.org) at Salisbury University, in Salisbury, Md.,presents "Masterworks ofthe Illinois River," Sept. 2—Nov. 13. Featuring the decoy carving and waterfowling traditions of the Illinois River watershed, the exhibition will display more than 70 works by the most prominent decoy makers of the region from the collection of Thomas K.Figge.

MEDIUM The Metropolitan Museum of Art(212/535-7710; www.met THE PER museum.org)in New York City hosts"The Perfect Medium: Photography and the Occult," organized with the Maison Europeene de la Photographie,in Paris,from Sept.27 to Dec.31. While photography has long been used as a tool to record the visible, material world with truth and accuracy, more than 60 works in this show strive to provide manifest proof ofthe immaterial: emanations and auras; thoughts, hallucinations, and dreams; and spirits ofthe deceased. Closer to the scientific revelations ofthe X-ray than to the double-exposure parlor tricks of 1850s "ghost photographs," these pictures attempt to reconcile the physical and spiritual worlds.

WOS UP MAN? / Sam Doyle / c.1979-1980 / collection of Joseph D. and Janet M. Shein, courtesy Palmer Museum of Art, University Park, Pennsylvania

20 FALL 2005

FOLK ART

FOLK ART AND OUTSIDER ART AT PENN STATE A new exhibition at the Palmer Museum of Art(814/865-7672; www.psu.edu/deptpalmermuseum), at Pennsylvania State University, University Park,explores the disintegration ofboundaries in the postmodern art world and how that relates to outsider art."Wos up,Man: Selections from the Joseph D. and Janet M.Shein Collection" features more than 75 works,including walking sticks, quilts, mixed-media sculpture, drawings, and paintings and will be on view Oct. 11,2005—Feb. 12,2006. Several well-known artists are represented in the collection, such as Thornton Dial Sr., Sam Doyle,Howard Finster, William Hawkins, and Clementine Hunter, as well as the less familiar George C.Briscoe, Chris Clark, C.W. Conner,and Chris Donnelly.

MAP IT OUT Established in 1898 as a separate collection ofthe New York Public Library's (212/8698089; www.nypl.org) main branch in Manhattan,the Map Division celebrates its reopening after months of renovation with "Treasured Maps: Celebrating the Map Division," on view in the Edna Barnes Solomon Room,Sept. 9,2005—April 8, 2006.The Map Room itself reopens this winter.

During the 17th-century reign ofthe Dutch as world leaders, notable mapmakers Blaeu,jansson, Ortelius, and Visscher produced some of the antiquarian maps presented in the show. Highlights include the nine-volume,vellum-bound, gold-stamped Willem Blaeu atlases, with engraved copperplate maps enhanced with hand-coloring, decorative cartouches, and mileage markers.In addition, Montresor and Ratzer maps of New York City and manuscript maps of 17th-century New York—area farms will be on view, none ofwhich have been exhibited previously.

A MAPP OF THE WORLD / John Seller / published in Atlas Maritimus, London, 1682 / color engraving / The New York Public Library, Map Division, Lawrence H. Slaughter Collection

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Works by contemporary, visionary, self-taught and outsider artists including AG. Rizzo'',Alex Maldonado,Jon Serl, Barry Simons and others.

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

DM167, Dwight Mackintosh, Untitled, 1982, Mixed Media on Paper, 24 x 35"

2661 Cedar Street, Berkeley, California 94708 phone 510/845-4949

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FALL 2005

FOLK ART

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NOW READ ON Artists Jesse Howard (1885-1983) and Roger Brown (1941-1997) existed in distinctly different cultural spheres but shared parallel ideas and conceptualjunctures.The expression oftheir deeply held perceptions oftension and irony in American social, political, and religious culture are explored in "Now Read On," at the Kansas City Art Institute (816/474-5224; www.kcai.edu),in Missouri, through Sept.

17, and the Art Institute of Chicago's (312/443-3600; www.artic.edu) Betty Rymer Gallery,from Oct. 14 to Nov. 18. A related symposium will take place Sept. 10 at the University of Missouri, Kansas City,campus.

Speakers Brooke Davis Anderson, Gregg Blasdell, Eleanor Heartney, and Karl Wirsum will discuss Howard's and Brown's artistic processes and the images depicted in the show's 10 tableaux, which juxtapose examples of the two artists' work. For more information,contact the Center for Creative Studies (816/235-6690, www.umkc.edu/creativestudies; see Programs).

UNTITLED /Jesse Howard / Fulton, Missouri / c. 1970/ paint on wood and metal / 18 841 / 4"/ Kansas City Art Institute, Missouri

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PURE VISION ARTS The Shield Institute, an 82-year-old New York City—based nonprofit agency that provides progressive educational and clinical services to children and adults with developmental disabilities, opened the newly renovated Pure Vision Arts Studio and Gallery Space(212/366-4263) on May 19.

Pure Vision Arts works with beginning, emerging, and established artists to assist them in developing, exhibiting, and selling their artwork.The work reflects a broad range of"neurodiversity." In addition to working directly with artists, Pure Vision Arts is a resource center for the exchange ofinformation between artists, art educators, art therapists, curators, collectors, and others who champion the movement ofinclusion for underrepresented people in the art world.

22 FALL 2005

FOLK ART

THE DREAMLAND ARTIST CLUB 1n2004, New York City—based public art organization Creative Time (212/206-6674; www.creativetime.org) and artist Steve Powers initiated their shared vision to revitalize the rich visual culture of Brooklyn's Coney Island via the contemporary reinvention ofthe tradition ofcolorful hand-painted signs and advertisements dating back more than a century.The next generation ofthis artistic and cultural endeavor, the Dreamland Artist Club 2005,revives and expands the project with a new group ofestablished and emerging gallery and street artists. These artists collaborated with local business owners to create painted signs, concession stands, storefronts, and murals throughout THEATER OF LIFE (detail)/ Os Gemeos / Coney Island in the Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York / 2005 form of graffiti, spray painting, oil painting, and traditional marquee painting.This year's crop of participating artists includes Tauba Auerback,Beatriz Barral, Crash, Ronnie Cutrone, Os Gemeos, Justin Green,Isca Greenfield-Sanders, Mimi Gross, Vandana Jain, Greg Lamarche, Paul Lindahl, Clive Murphy,Gary Panter, Kamau Patton, Bruno Peinado, Steve Powers, and Swoon.

LADY LIBERTY / Nicholas Herrera / Santa Fe, New Mexico / C. 1990s / carved and painted wood / 25% x 9Y2 x 4/ 1 2 "/ collection of Chuck and Jan Rosenak

SAINT MAKERS "The Saint Makers: A Living Tradition in American Folk Art," on view at the Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum (305/348-2890; www.frostart museum.org),in Miami,Fla., Sept. 23—Dec. 4, consists of more than 75 objects by a group of artists in the northern New Mexico and southern Colorado area who continue the tradition of saint making, which dates back to Spaniards settling in the southwestern United States in the early 18th century. The majority of the work on view is from the collection of Chuck and Jan Rosenak, with additional pieces selected from the Smithsonian American Art Museum collection.

Saint makers, or santeros, create figurative sculptures depicting narratives inspired by their spirituality. Over many generations, these depictions have obviously changed, and the bultos (sculptures) and retablos (two-dimensional images)in this exhibition reflect modern interpretations of old truths, through new materials and new iconography. The work of established masters such as Charlie Carillo, Victor Goler, Felix Lopez, and Marie Romero Cash, as well as new santeros Krissa Lopez and Archie Perea, are featured as important fixtures in the contemporary religious art of the American Southwest.

American Folk Art Sidney Gecker

JOHN REBER (1857-1938).

EXTREMELY RARE POLYCHROME PEACOCK CARVING. PENNSYLVANIA,LEHIGH COUNIY • LENGTH:11 INCHES;HEIGHE 5)1 INCHES • (MINOR RESTORATION TO FLAKING ON NECK) OTHER KNOWN EXAMPLES IN THE PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM,METROPOI1TAN MUSEUM,THE BARNES FOUNDATION,PRIVATE COLLECTION.

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FOLK ART

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LAURA FISHER New York City's largest and finest selection of antique quilts, hooked rugs, coverlets, paisleys, Navajos/Beacon blankets, home furnishings, American folk art, and more...

THE ANGEL OF THE LORD, U10,000 / Howard Finster / Summerville, Georgia /1987-1989 / paint on plywood cutout / High Museum of Art, Atlanta, T. Marshall Hahn Collection P50.35.7- WilUSWOADS THE WEL OF THE LORD ENCARETH AR004,,, ABOUT TR EEITHRT FEAR HUI AHD DEMMER ; En TO HAVE P FACE IN TIM WORLD IS 10 0111 , -YVAN gyE ;raw PEACEWITI:

HIGH TIMES The High Museum of Art(404/733-4444; vvww.high.org),in Atlanta, is currently undergoing a major renovation and will open its new doors on Nov. 12.The museum's folk art collection, previously housed in a satellite gallery, will join the rest of the permanent collection in the main building.The 177,000-square-foot expansion, doubling the size of the museum,is part ofa design for the Woodruff Arts Center,comprising the High,the Alliance Theatre,the Atlanta College of Art, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and the 14th Street Playhouse.

QUATREFOIL ROSES AND LEAVES HOOKED RUNNER Wool, late 19th century, New England, from our vast and varied inventory of antique hooked rugs.

CONTACT US ABOUT FROM THE ORIGINAL'OUR SERVICE TO ENLARGE OR ADAPT ANY HOOKED RUG DESIGN.

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laurafisherquilts.com E-mail: info@laurafisherquilts.com

24 FALL 2005

FOLK ART

SPANISH FOLK ART "Forms ofTradition in Contemporary Spain," a study ofcontemporary Spanish folk art and traditional artists, will be on view at the Natalie and James Thompson Art Gallery, School of Art and Design, San Jose State University, Calif.(408/9244328; http://ad.sjsu.edu/search/galler).html), Oct. 11—Nov. 11. Organized by curator Jo Farb Hernandez,the project was developed through case studies offour considerably different kinds of artists, who were chosen because each is emblematic of a particular tradition and represents a distinct relationship with a given community.The artists include a traditional potter; a couple who create huge papier-mâché figures for festival processions; a group of masked,costumed "devils" who enliven traditional street theater with modern pyrotechnics; and a builder ofa spectacular, idiosyncratic art environment.

Anna Sanchez, of performance troupe Les Gargoles de Foci Festa Major, Banyoles, Spain / 2003

Outsider Folk With nimensioil FROM THE VOGELE COLLECTION Felipe Archuleta Leroy Archuleta Linvel Barker Earnest Patton Denzil Goodpaster Leroy Almon

Edgar Tolson Elijah Pierce William Dawson Derek Webster Mr. Imagination Bessie Harvey

Brown Family E. J. Brown Lanier Meaders Georgia Blizzard And Others...

9 SEPTEMBER npening Reception: 8 September 5 to 8 PM

JUDY A SASLOW GALLERY Global Outsider & Contemporary Art 300 West Superior, Chicago, Illinois 60610 Phone 312 943 0530 Fax 312 943 3970 Tuesday - Saturday 10 to 6 Call or visit www.jsaslowgallery.com for additional information.

ipmeir LOST / Thornton Dial Sr. / Bessemer, Alabama / 2004 / wood, steel, fabric, and carpet with house paint / courtesy the artist and Tinwood Media, Atlanta

BLURRING BOUNDARIES The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (713/639-7300; www.mfah.org), in Texas,in light of a recent major gift of three works by Thornton Dial Sr., is opening a new show of the artist's work on Sept. 25,running through Jan. 8,2006."Thornton Dial in the 21st Century" includes paintings, assemblages, sculpture, and works on paper.

Dial"made things" as a young man and worked as a welder in the Bessemer, Ala., community known as Pipe Shop.

In the late 1980s he began to gain recognition for his challenging artworkâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;often inspired by social and political eventsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;which reflects the physical struggle between artist and materials, blurring the boundaries between sculpture and painting.

Though Dial is a self-taught artist, his decisive work and vision place him in the arena of contemporary artists who are forging new territories.

QUEBEC COUNTRY FURNITURE Recent scholarship has determined that the Shelburne Museum (802/985-3346; www.shelburne museum.org),in Shelburne, Vt., is home to the largest collection ARMOIRE DOORS / maker unidentified / Quebec, Canada / c. 1800 / paint on pine with iron in the United / Shelburne Museum, Shelburne, Vermont States of furniture from Quebec, distinctive for its colorful decorated surfaces, exuberant designs, and unusual forms."Quebec Country Furniture" showcases chairs, tables, beds,cupboards,and doors, dating from the 17th through the 19th centuries, until Oct. 31.

FALL 2005

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1884-1979

From 1949 to 1964,Joseph Garlock produced a large body of work of astonishing quality. This group of paintings,just released by the Garlock estate, clearly demonstrates the broad range of his imagery and influences.

LINDSAY GALLERY 986 North High St. Columbus, OH 43201 614-291-1973 www.lindsaygallery.com

Robert Cargo

FOLK ART GALLERY Self-taught, visionary, and outsider artists of the South African-American quilts • Haitian spirit flags

Born Here 1938(11-112 x 24)

Growing up Here 1943(22-112 x 24)

Cincinnati, Ohio (22-112 x 23-3/4)

Avery Pontiac Inc. 1965 (11-112 x 23-1/2) Schiffs Shoe Store 1960 (24 x 11-1/4)

Art (24 x 11-1/4)

Autobiographical works by Leroy Almon Six relief-carved, painted wood panels, 1987. To be sold as a group.

Caroline Cargo • 110 Darby Road • Paoli, PA 19301 www.cargofolkart.com

info@cargofolkart.com

By Appointment Only

610-240-9528

Main Line Philadelphia

THE HALLIDAY HOUSE ANTIQUES BARN AMERICAN COUNTRY FURNITURE AND FOLK ART

OLD GREEN PAINT COVERS MOST OF THIS FABULOUS FOLK ART WOODEN SQUIRREL WHIRLIGIG. BARN RED PAINT COVERS THE METAL NOSE PROPELLER AND TAIL FIN. CONSIDERABLE CARVING ON THE BACK AND SIDE GREATLY ENHANCES THE OVERALL APPEARANCE. CIRCA 1900. NEW YORK STATE ORIGIN. SEE OUR WEBSITE FOR MORE PHOTOS OF THIS AND OTHER TRULY UNIQUE PIECES OF AMERICAN FOLK ART.

WE ARE LOCATED IN THE HEART OF THE BEAUTIFUL NAPA VALLEY. WE WELCOME YOUR INQUIRIES AND INVITE YOU TO CONTACT US FOR AN APPOINTMENT ANYTIME YOU ARE GOING TO BE IN OUR AREA. PHONE:(707) 253-1092 EMAIL: GAIL@HALLIDAYHOUSEANTIQUES.COM SHOP US ON THE WEB AT WWW.HALLIDAYHOUSEANTIOUES.COM

African American 0u11t5

Strip construction with ribbed cotton fabric and flour sack back.

Circa 1940(66 x 84)

Corrine Riley (773) 772 - 6102

More selections of African American Quilts from the collection of Corrine Riley showing at the Intuit Show in Chicago, September 30 - October 2, 2005.

Previously presented selections shown at the 2005 Outsider Art Fair in New York.

CONVERSATION UNTITLED FIGURES / Herman Bridgers (1912-1990)/ Enfield, North Carolina / c. 1975 / paint on wood; cement bases / 21-29" high / collection of Jim Linderman

BY TANYA HEINRICH

Jim Linderman has been collecting art for more than 25 years. His interest in art is rivaled only by his interest in music, and one expression deeply informs the other. He pursues objects with thoroughness and an innate sense of curiosity, which is fitting, because he works as a research librarian at a top advertising agency in New York. Jim and I sat down in his apartment in May to discuss the genesis of his meandering collecting path.

TH You have clusters of mini collections installed in your apartment with care and precision but an utter lack of pretension.

African American furniture supports small carvings and effigies, and shelves are lined with Shaker smalls,fish decoys, and miniature plows. When did you start collecting? JL I've always collected something. As a kid,comic books,stamps,and baseball cards, but I was only interested in the ones that were the hardest to get.

Scarcity was always the attraction.

I think it had to do with feeling special. I wanted what others didn't have. But even then, the

hunt was more important to me than actually obtaining an object.

I like assembling groups of things.

And once I had "mastered" an area,I was on to the next.

TH Your musical tastes roam from early American folk recordings and traditional blues to punk and New Orleans funk. JL In high school,I was haunting the "bad" neighborhoods for early R&B and blues records. If it was hard to find,I wanted it. I also put together a large collection of Bob Dylan bootleg recordings in the early 1970sâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;hundreds of them.

I even had a little song he did on his answering machine.In the

Miniature handmade plows / collection of Jim Linderman

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FOLK ART

late 1970s and early '80s,I put together a collection ofindependently produced punk rock 45s: Collecting on the fringe was always more important to me

than what was available at my local retail outlets. TH What's the strangest grouping you've put together? JL I compiled a rare collection ofsmall-press and obscure books on"Who killed Kennedy."I would correspond with the oddballs who had the most unusual theories, and I knew ifthey were printing the book in their basement,they were far more interesting than what I could get at the library. TH You've never restricted yourselfto one art form; at various points you've focused on Native American material, such as vivid parfkche cases, or cigar-box guitars and handmade slingshots. Now I see vintage kimonos on the wall.

What led you to 20th-century American folk art? JL By the way, in the city those slingshots were toys, but in the country they were I weapons that put stew on the table. In the 1980s I was buying some contemporary artâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Lower

AMERICAN FOLK ART EXTENSIVE SELECTION FROM OVER 90 ARTISTS

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04

14.,0

Sister Gertrude Morgan "Modern Inventions" 14" x 11"

Bill Traylor "Blue Cat" 7" x 11"

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Mary T. Smith "Misbet Green" 20" x 15"

Including the following artists: Justin McCarthy Clementine Hunter Raymond Coins David Butler Charles Hutson Rev. Johnny Swearingen Popeye Reed Mose Tolliver Jimmie 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 & ALVINA HAVERKAMP (by appointment in New Orleans) 504-866-3505 Visit our website at: www.haverkampfolkart.com ahaverkamp@cox.net

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

FALL 2005

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31

CONVERSATION

OUTSIDER ART WEEK Join us for a weeklong series o presentations, panel discussions, field trips, tours, and receptions sponsored by the American Folk Art Museum beginning January 24.

Make sure to visit the museum's booth at the Outsider Art Fair! For more information, call the museum at 212. 265. 1040, ext. 102 or 104.

OUTSIDER ART FAIR BENEFIT PREVIEW THURSDAY, JANUARY 26, 2006 AMERICANFOLK ART MU OUTSIDER ART ANUARY 27-29, 2006

BLACK HORSE OF REV.(detail) / Bess4-, Harvey (1929-1994) / Alcoa, Tennessee / 1991 / painted wood with shells, wooden beads, and miscellany / 54 x 45 x 15" / American Folk Art Museum, gift of Avalie Saperstein in memory of Elyse Saperstein, 2004.23.1

32 FALL 2005

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East Side, Gracie Mansion,P.S. 1-type things. It was less expensive than SoHo,and the galleries were open on Sunday.I'd seen the Eric Fischl show at the Whitney Museum [1986] and it knocked me out,and for the first time I realized I could own art as well as collectibles. Around that time,I also sobered up, and because I liked the cover he did for the Talking Heads'record [Little Creatures, 1985],I telephoned Howard Finster and asked if he had any art to sell. He said,"Sure I do,send me a check," and I was off. I think many ofus owe Reverend Finster a debt. From Finster, it was an easyjump to Mose Tolliver and the African American artists from the show at the Corcoran Gallery of Art ["Black Folk Art in America, 1930-1980," 1981]. I hit the road and visited as many artists as I could.Jane Kallir, who runs Galerie St. Etienne, which has represented Grandma Moses for decades,thinks interest in folk artists rises and falls every 20 years or so.I took advantage of that and started buying everything left under the front porch.

Like everyone,I used the Herbert Waide Hemphill book [Twentieth Century American Folk Art and Artists, with Julia Weissman, 1974],the Rosenaks'book [Museum ofAmerican Folk Art Encyclopedia ofTwentieth-Century American Folk Art and Artists, 1990], and such to shape my eye.

I just applied my research skills to finding artists at the end ofthe road. It didn't take long to find Hemphill or collector Sterling Strauser either, and I began trading things around. TH What's drawn you to African American artists? JL They seemed part of a deeper well and had a consistency, and the work even shows a continuum from the 19th century

'44 PAPER DOLL / probably northeastern United States / late nineteenth century / ink on paper / 8" high / collection of Jim Linderman

to the 20th.I also found similarities with the blues music of my youth. After all, whether visual or musical,they are art forms coming from the same place. Many of the other artists seemed to belong by themselves. Peter Schjeldahl, the art critic ofthe Village Voice at the time, once wrote that many of the "outsiders" belonged in "communities ofone."That made sense to me. By their very definition, the outsider artists belonged to no group, and it didn't seem appropriate to put them in my own arbitrary group. After a while itjust seemed patronizing and odd.They created in isolationâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;who are we to decide they belong next to each other on the wall? TH You and I tend to disagree about this point! JL I have criticized the juxtapositioning of one self-taught artist next to another. At any rate, the scarce and less prolific artists were ofthe most interest. I formed a triumvirate ofthose I find the most interesting: Herman Bridgers, Leroy Person,and Dilmus Hall.

To me those three were the real dealâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the most profound, authentic, and not at all decorative. TH I've always loved your Herman Bridgers figures in particular. Your collection leans toward the sculptural. JL Hemphill told me it took a more sophisticated collector to see "in

VINYL MEMORIES BILL MILLER the round," and even when I do collect paintings, they tend to have surface, texture, and form.I love the rusty, crinlded tin paintings ofSam Doyle. Eventually, after I had exhausted all the channels for 20th-century material,I started going backward. Unlike the early collectors and dealers who came at this material from an interest in 19th-century folk art,I went the other way.The Ricco/Maresca book [American Primitive, 19881 shaped my eye, and I began seeking older—but no less adventurous—folk art. TH Your most recent fixation is with miniature homemade wood or tin plows,some of which are articulated. JL See, these were toys,of course, but they were also replicas a farmer might carve for his son.

We don't see too many people pushing plows anymore, but at one time,to every sodbuster a good plow could mean life or death. So,these little toys represent more than whimsy—for some boys they represented their immediate future. I started finding an authenticity in the "makedo" objects created both for utilitarian purposes and for fun, made for personal use or for one's child. I've always thought adversity, either economic or caused by a fevered brow,results in the most interesting art, and I find great value in homemade and handmade objects with an eccentric, almost sad construction. Not chip-carved tramp art as much as unusual,one-of-a-kind artistic solutions to a particular need.

When I see a handmade dollhouse,I can actually visualize the loving father taking time to make it for his child, and ifit is done out of an affection as much as for economic need,this is special.

Jimmy Allen, a southern picker who put together the recent book on lynching photographs[With-

out Sanctuary, 2000],calls objects like this "humbling," and I tend to agree. In some ofthe greatest folk art, there is a pathos I am sympathetic to, and I look for expressions with an extra ingredient oflove. It makes up for any lack oftechnical expertise. TH Which brings us to the incredible handmade paper-doll collection....

JL Well,when eBay came along,I was quick to realize this was a big opportunity. Every day, another person from the Midwest was learning how to use their computer and post what was in the attic online.I soon learned that what used to take hours was now possible in seconds. I was collecting vintage photographs ofpeople being baptized, and rather than flipping through literally hundreds ofphotographs at the flea market, I could now just search eBay once a week.In the early days,I found one every month or so—many homes had a photo ofa loved one being immersed,but no one had ever been able to put together a group. EBay created a platform that allowed me to locate in minutes what would have taken a lifetime.I tell everyone who asks to pick one thing and collect the hell out ifit on eBay. A friend has a collection ofcircus-giant photographs.

One day I found a handmade paper-doll set, and soon I added that to my regular stored searches. I had virtually no competition— everyone else seemed to want the commercially made pieces and after about seven years,I had put together 100 different sets.There must have been a limited number saved over the years, because they're becoming harder to find; same with the baptism photos.I guess the golden cyber days have already passed. ButI still think we all should have one thing to look for, preferably something rapidly disappearing, and buy them.*

WORK IN VINTAGE LINOLEUM

CURATED BY DUFF LINDSAY

The Circle Game, 20" x 16" 2005

OCTOBER 20 - NOVEMBER 17, 2005 2/20 GALLERY 220W. 16th St. NYC (212) 807-8348 HOURS Tuesday — Sunday 2-7pm ARTIST'S RECEPTION Friday. Oct 21 6-9pm

Info:(614) 578-1973 Iindsaygallery.com

billmillerart corn

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THE

COLLECTION:

A

CLOS

ER

LOOK

BY BROOKE DAVIS ANDERSON AND LEE KOGAN

BUST OF A MAN Gregorio Marzan (1906-1997) New York c.1986 Mixed media 14 9 4" American Folk Art Museum, gift of Dorothea and Leo Rabkin, 1998.2.3

x_voto is a Latin term meaning"from a vow." Ex-votos are a type of Catholic offering to saints in gratitude for the answered prayer ofa devotee. An ex-voto (also known as a milagro, or "miracle") conveys thanks for an answered prayer and operates as a type of payment for a fulfilled promise.

For example,a person who delivered a healthy child might offer an image ofa baby at the altar of a saint, or someone who survived a car crash might commission a carving of an automobile and place that visual prayer at the shrine of another particular saint. A long-standing and universal practice, the making ofexvotos can incorporate silver, gold, brass, wood,bone, plastic, clay, or even wax. Ex-votos come in all shapes and sizes and are crafted at all levels ofsimplicity or complexity.They are usually made by working artisans as a sideline practice, though many homemade examples also exist.

In Brazil, particularly in the northeast region, ex-votos are typically constructed of wax or wood. Brazilian ex-votos are additionally interesting because they illustrate the blending of African, native South American,and Catholic traditions common in the northeast; Afro-Brazilians believe that the object actually contains the affliction or the illness and operates as a magical amulet by embodying the affliction. Man with Facial Paralysis, which is quite distinctive in its painted details, probably was made for someone who survived a stroke.

—B.D.A

E

MAN WITH FACIAL PARALYSIS Jose F. Dos Santos Patos, Paraiba, Brazil c. 1977 Painted wood 4/ 1 2 • 23/4 21 / 2" American Folk Art Museum, gift of Roberto Emerson Camera Benjamin, Latin American Collection, 1991.4.71

ust ofa Man was probably influenced by the mask-making traditions ofPuerto Rico,especially the lifelike masks of Hatillo associated with festival parades and processions and based on traditions from the Canary Islands.The ethnic flavor ofthe carving speaks to the richness ofpopulation diversity in the United States, more specifically in New York City, where Gregorio Marzan settled in 1937 after emigrating from Vega Baja, near Hatillo,in north-central Puerto Rico.The economic pressures ofthe Great Depression brought him to New York prior to the mass migration ofPuerto Ricans to the city following World War II. At the time of his arrival, only small communities had been formed,in East Harlem and in Brooklyn. Marzan found employment through the Works Progress Administration,first as a sewer worker and shortly thereafter in a factory that manufactured toys.

Upon his retirement in 1971 after 30 years of work as a doll and toy maker, he created a whimsical body ofsculpture,including striking portrait busts,fanciful figures of birds and animals, wry interpretations ofthe Statue of Liberty, and models ofthe Empire State Building. Although Marzan originally created in obscurity, El Museo del Barrio, in New York City, helped bring Marzan's sculptures to the attention of a wider audience.

—L.K

B

Man with Facial Paralysis is on continuous view in "Folk Art Revealed"

Bust ofa Man is on view in "Selfand Subject,"which closes Sept. .1.1.

34 FALL 2005

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OPENING SEPTEMBER 14

OPENING SEPTEMBER 20

SURFACE ATTRACTION PAINTED FURNITURE FROM THE COLLECTION

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AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM 212. 265. 1040 FOLKARTMUSEUM.ORG

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Slotin Folk Art Auction 2 - Day Masterpiece Sale November 5 & 6, 2005 Buford, Georgia Saturday will include

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major collections from all over the United States featuring the very best in Self-taught Art, Southern Folk Pottery, African-American Quilts, Canes, Anonymous Works, Antique Treasures including furniture from Margaret Mitchell's House, Americana photos and important Fine Art Masterpieces. This sale will contain works by William Edmonson, Bill Traylor, Clementine Hunter, Sister Gertrude Morgan, Mattie Lou O'Kelley, Uncle Jack Dey, Peter Bochero, Josephus Farmer, Steve Ashby, Gustav Klumpp, Howard Finster, Mary T. Smith, and much more.

Sunday will feature a full day of amazing international folk art, including the life-time collection of important African Art, the Balinese Folk Art Collection from The Florida Folk Art Museum, Cuban, Haitian, and much more! ;

eMer o Pete

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770 932-1000 â&#x20AC;˘ Email: folkfest@bellsouth.net â&#x20AC;˘ Website: www.slotinfolkart.com

COMING INTO FOCUS: Steve

38 FALL 2005

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Harley (1863-1947)

By Barbara R. Luck

MOUNT HOOD AND MIRROR LAKE Steve Harley (1863-1947) Mount Hood, Oregon, and Grand Rapids, Michigan 1927 Oil on canvas 16/ 301 / 2" Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum, Williamsburg, Virginia, acquisition funded by Dr. and Mrs. T. Marshall Hahn Jr., 2004.102.1

In 1957, enlarging on the interest Abby Aldrich Rockefeller (1874-1948) had shown in the folk art of her own time, the museum named in her memory bought three landscapes executed in 1927 and 1928 by Michigan artist Steve Harley: Upper Reach ofthe Wind River, South End of Hood River Valley, and Wallowa Lake. These were the first twentieth-century paintings acquired by Colonial Williamsburg's Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum,thereby facilitating later additions of contemporary art.

Equally significantly, the scenes were created in Oregon and Washington states, so their purchase dramatically expanded the museum's geographical representation to the nation's West Coast. For an institution disproportionately blessed with material from New England and the MidAtlantic states, it was a momentous leapfrog of faith and commitment.

With a pen stroke, new vitality and concrete meaning were given to the museum's tacit goal of showcasing folk art from all of the United States.

Inscribed on the reverse: Mt. Hood & Mirror Lake Ore./From/ Hood Loop Highway Aug. 22, 1927./By S. W. Harley/Grand Rpids [sic] Mich./343, union Ave. 5.E.

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39

Scant atmospheric perspective dims the clarity and woman who had known Harley. He planned an interview. vibrancy of these ambitiously conceived, meticulously The museum's equally excited response went unanswered, detailed, and vividly colored paintings that so effectively however. Worse, no one investigated Teholiz's silence until capture natural grandeur. Thematically, their relevance 2002, when phone calls to his school revealed that Teholiz waxes steadily. Two of the scenes depict untouched wilder- had died two years earlier, leaving—to his widow's knowlness, a primal reality present-day Americans ideate only edge—no cache of Harley papers. Fortunately, clues in with increasing difficulty and distortion. The third scene Teholiz's last letter enabled museum staff to locate Arlene juxtaposes cultivated fields with Oregon's Mount Hood, ()luck (née Tonn), the daughter of close friends of the stimulating reflection on the evolving relationship between artist's, and arrangements were made to visit this sprightly man and nature. As human populations explode to the octogenarian, whose invaluable contributions shape this detriment and extinction of other species (and conceivably article.'

Harley's grave in the Center Riverton Cemetery in of life itself), could any issue be more critical? Yet few new discoveries about Harley's life and oeuvre have surfaced Mason County lay unmarked long after he was buried since these prescient paintings first gained public attention. there unattended by friends or relatives. Now, though, his (Until recently, they constituted the artist's only known final resting place boasts a headstone chiseled with his oils.) A 1950 essay by Robert Lowry presented some of the name, his dates, and the designation "Artist," surely the

UPPER REACH OF THE WIND RIVER Vicinity of Carson, Washington 1927 Oil on canvas 20.33%" Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum, Williamsburg, Virginia, 1957.102.3 Inscribed on the reverse: Uper Reache of Wind River Wash./14, M. N.E. of Carson,(NOTED TROUT STREAM,)/ Cascade Natl, Reserve./Taken July 3, 1927./Painted By S.W. Harley

more colorful aspects of Harley's life, including the result of pride in his widespread, if largely posthumous, painter's long-term alcoholism, his affair with his care- recognition as a painter.' Harley's remains lie beside those taker's wife, his aversion to farming, and his passion for of his parents.' The painter's father, William Harley nature.' The article's conversational tone and intimate (1843-1900), was born in Sandusky County, Ohio, the son details evince a personal relationship between author and of Jacob and Mary Powell Harley.' William served in the artist. They also provide insightful, firsthand impressions Ohio Infantry (the 21st and then the 55th) during the Civil War, attaining the rank of sergeant before his dislargely validated by subsequent research.

With its three Northwest scenes, the museum acquired charge in July 1865. Meanwhile, on September 21, 1862, an important group of related documentary materials.' he had married Anne Marie Lee (1845-1919), the daughOver the years, staff members strove to assess and augment ter of Stephen and Nancy Geer Lee, also of Sandusky these but undertook no thorough exploration. The year County.'The couple's first child, Stephen William Harley, 1980 brought gratifying news: a college art professor had the artist, was born in the county seat of Fremont on begun researching Harley's life and work in earnest. Leo December 19, 1863.9 After the war, William moved to Teholiz lived and worked in Mason County, Michigan, Steuben County, Indiana, remaining there until 1869, where Harley spent most of his life. Sporadically, he when he relocated to Ionia County, Michigan." By the reported on his progress over the next decade, in 1991 1870 census, however, he was working as a teamster in excitedly advising the museum that he had located a Branch County, Michigan. With him were Anne and their

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(left) HARLEY FAMILY HOME Photographer unidentified Riverton Township, Mason County, Michigan 1885-1890 Tinted tintype copy of a tintype 701,0 0 8M," overall Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum, Williamsburg, Virginia, 1985.510.3 The room reserved for Harley's belongings was on the second floor; its window is immediately above the small side-porch roof.

(right) HARLEY FAMILY HOMESTEAD Riverton Township, Mason County, Michigan Possibly 1920-1924 Oil on fiberboard in original frame 13% x 19" Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum, Williamsburg, Virginia, acquisition funded by Dr. and Mrs. T. Marshall Hahn Jr., 2003.102.1

(by then) three children: Steve, Della, and Percy, respec- Anne's death in 1919 absolved Steve of whatever responsitively aged 6,2,and 1." A decade later, the family was back bility he had assumed for her, but his disinterest in farming in Sandusky County, Ohio, where Steve helped his father grew and his financial fetters tightened. In 1922 he refarm; school occupied the younger children." By 1882 mortgaged the property. By 1924 his 120-acre homestead William was living and farming on 160 acres in Riverton had become a ball and chain."

Township, Mason County, Michigan. This "congenial, In 1924 or 1925, Harley reached an agreement with a affectionate, and kind" man who considered his family "the local blacksmith, Albert Tonn (1890-1971), who moved paradise of his life" apparently was a respected community into the Harley home with his wife, Ida Wagner Tonn member also,for he served in the House of Representatives (1889-1977), their daughter, Arlene (b. 1918), and their from 1891 to 1892 and fulfilled terms as county supervisor son, Donald (1923-2002)." Harley retained title and, posand county treasurer." William's nuclear family and their sibly, continued living in the house. If not, he dropped in house appear in a late 1880s photo (below, left) in which, and out of it sporadically thereafter, since Arlene Quick from left to right, the individuals almost certainly are recollected his frequent presence during her childhood.

Anne, Steve,William,Percy, and Della.

Harley stashed his belongings, most memorably his The home is also shown in a painting that Arlene Quick taxidermy specimens, in one room of the house. Quick inherited and affirmed as Harley's work. The vibrancy and recalled a raccoon, three whole deer, an owl, and a squirrel the saturation of the pigments of Harley Family Homestead on a branch stored there. Two unillustrated photos of the (below, right) correspond to those in the artist's western house confirm this interest, showing entire carcasses of views, but the farmscape's vast, scarcely differentiated fore- white-tailed deer and a wolf naturalistically posed in front ground creates a more detached frame ofreference. Surely it of the dwelling. Five deer dominate another photo, and was painted from,if not directly over, a photo. Its oval, con- Lowry mentioned a mounted bear, beaver, golden owl, and vex, pressed fiberboard support and original frame recall ducks. late-nineteenth-century photo mountings.

About the time the Tonns occupied his home, Harley By 1897 William and Anne Harley's land had been planned a trip to the far West. There was ample family subdivided, with Steve and Percy each holding a quarter of precedent for it. His maternal grandfather had mined in it." Della and Percy were both married, and Percy appar- California. His brother, Percy, had moved west in 1906, ently occupied his acreage, but Steve was recorded as still settling first in Port Angeles, Washington, and,from 1917, single and living at home with his parents in the 1900 fed- running a salmon cannery in Petersburg, Alaska." Several eral census, which also noted mortgages in his and his relatives occupied the Los Angeles area, and Harley's sisfather's names. A rare image of Steve, on crutches and with ter, Della, was living in Portland, Oregon,by 1910." a horse, is dated about this time based on his fortyish Nevertheless, Harley must have raised eyebrows by appearance (see page 44). decamping with a married woman more than twenty years No will for William has been found, but Steve appar- his junior. Margaret Kosten was the wife of his farm manently claimed the homestead when his father died in 1900. ager, John Kosten, whom Harley had hired between 1910 Mason County directories included Steve in 1904, 1910, and 1920." Harley's sparsely documented western travels and 1919 but did not identify his livelihood." Some post- make no allusion to Kosten, leaving the timing and duraLowry writers have called Steve's operation a "dairy farm," tion of her companionship in question, but oral family hisbut undoubtedly it corresponded to Quick's recollections tory indicates that Della refused to allow Harley into her and period farm profiles in supporting varied agricultural Oregon home because she objected to his traveling comendeavors. Lowry mentioned milk cowsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;but most likely panion (presumably Kosten)." Lowry claimed that the singled them out as symbols of everything about farming couple separated out West (but if they did, they reconthat Steve considered boring, relentless, and confining. vened later, at least briefly, back East).

With or without Kosten, Harley was in Redondo Beach, California, by February 18, 1925. A letter addressed to him in Harbor City, California, the following June 27 reached him, and on September 4, 1925, he was in Petersburg, Alaska.The year 1926 is a blank. In 1927 he camped in unsettled country on the Washington-Oregon border, exploring the Wind, Hood, and White Salmon rivers near Carson, Washington, and dating one painting July 3 before heading south to rendezvous with Mount Hood on August 22."

Photos from Harley's trip show a rugged, mustachioed man of wiry good looks that belie his 60-some years. A broad smile in one, in which he posed with his catch in

version's lower half. The closer view is a paean to nature, its mood and composition more closely allied with Wallowa Lake(at right). In both pictures, foregrounds of preternaturally still water reveal Harley's fascination with mirrorlike reflections and prompt us to question which image in each represents reality. Do we inhabit a beautiful, natural world?

Or do we live in only a tantalizing dream ofone?

During Harley's western idyll, matters in Michigan continued to spiral downward. The 1925 letter addressed to him in Harbor City, California, came from the State Savings Bank of Scottville. It summarized Harley's precarious finances, referencing two mortgages and a sizable tax bill and offering him a $500 quit claim deed to eradicate

SOUTH END OF HOOD RIVER VALLEY Vicinity of Mount Hood, Oregon 1927 Oil on canvas 3 4" 20 33/ Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum, Williamsburg, Virginia, 1957.102.2 Inscribed on the reverse: South end Hood River Valley, Ore./Mt Hood in distance, taken /Alto. 22,1927./ Painted By S.W. Harley

Redondo Beach (see p. 44), and inscriptions on several others show that he not only reveled in his new surroundings but also was awed by the wilderness areas he visited, his notes calling specific sites "beautiful" and "exquisitly [sic] beautiful." He camped, fished, and hunted. Finally, in a sudden effusion ofcolor and focus, he painted. Dismayed by the inadequacy of his attempts to record his surroundings photographically and drawing on basics acquired from a correspondence course, he now concentrated on painting as he never had on farmingâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;or almost anything."

Quick said that Harley kept "a trunk full of paintings" at their home, occasionally extracting a canvas to sell or trade for alcohol, but only one more oil has surfaced.

Recently, the museum bought a fourth Northwest landscape, Mount Hood and Mirror Lake (see pp. 38-39)." Like South End ofHood River Valley (above), the new acquisition depicts Mount Hood; more surprisingly, the two paintings bear the same August 22, 1927, date. Yet they are quite distinctive. The vantage point of the newer acquisition is nearer the mountain, deleting the fields that fill the first

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the headache." From January 7 to March 25, 1926, notices of the impending auction of Harley's farm appeared in the Mason County Enterprise. On April 5, 1926, the Scottville bank acquired the place for $6,237." Under an undocumented arrangement, the Tonns continued to live there, but on April 10, 1927, the house burned to the ground.'

Immediately afterward, the Tonns erected a new house on the site, and on July 23,1927, they purchased the parcel for "one dollar and other valuable consideration," a phrase presumably accounting for their enhancement of the property's worth."

A Grand Rapids address inscribed on the back of Mount Hood and Mirror Lake provides new insights,implying that Harley started this picture (and possibly others) out West but finished them later, back East. If so, he must have relied on photographs, as Lowry avowed (although no photographic antecedents for his paintings have been found). Biographically, the new address reveals Harley's reluctance to return home from the West, and it confirms his continuing relationship with Margaret Kosten.

In 1930 Kosten was using the Harley surname and the two were living at the "Mrs. Mamie Doyle-Simpson Sanitarium" located at the address on the painting." Neither was a patient. Kosten worked there as a nurse, and from April 18 to October 6, 1930, Harley labored at the city's Comstock Park Fish Hatchery,earning about $50 biweekly for general work on the ponds. City directories for 1931 failed to list the couple, but Kosten, alone, reappeared at the sanitarium address in 1932, again working as a nurse."

These spotty Grand Rapids references suggest that the pair separated there in the early 1930s. Although Lowry claimed that Kosten left Harley, the inscription on a newfound photo of her (see p. 45) casts doubt on who left

longed patience with him, one concludes that Harley was an intriguing person with many engaging qualities. Certainly he must have been an inveterate charmer.

His inherent resilience created bright spots in Harley's later life. He proudly called himself a "painter" when the Scottville city directory listed him at 206 N. Columbia Street in 1935." Humor was another ally. Inscriptions in a recently discovered sketchbook and on five accompanying loose drawings reveal a fondness for satire and absurdity.

His sketch of hawks is labeled "Methodist Birds who prey on [blank]," an allusion to that denomination's development of Epworth Heights, now a suburb of the Mason County seat of Ludington. By Quick's account, Harley

WALLOWA LAKE Oregon 1927-1928 Oil on canvas 243A.361 / 4" Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum, Williamsburg, Virginia, 1957.102.3 Inscribed on the reverse: Wallowa Lake in Wallowa Mts.,/Miriam Natl., For. Resv. N.E. Ore.,/Painted

By S.W. Harley/(The Invincible.)

whom. Perhaps their disillusionment was mutual. Accord- never attended church, but he probably harbored no ing to Quick, Kosten resettled in Oceana County, Michi- grudge against organized religion. More likely he intergan, where the Tonn family visited her. Harley ultimately preted the Methodists' proliferating summer cottages as an returned to Mason County, where he reattached himself to assault on the natural surroundings he cherished. More the Tonns, again coming and going unannounced and whimsically, he inscribed a drawing of a redheaded woodoccasionally staying with them,even though, by then, they pecker"Redy Maid"(the brand name of a canned whipped had moved to nearby Scottville. cream substitute). A sketch identified as "My Blue Ridge Quick recalled one occasion when Harley was to cross Mountain/Home" and "CUMBERLAND MNT,'S" hints Lake Michigan by boat. First, however, he went out drink- of travel there, but none is verified. Drawings inscribed ing, prompting foresighted Ida Tonn to dispatch her "compliments of S.W. Harley" must have been intended to daughter to comb the bars, collect Harley, and deposit him boost his artistic image and repay small favors. on board "before he drank all his money away." RemarkIn the latter half of the 1930s, the Tonns established ably, only once in Quick's recollection did Harley's uncon- Harley in a one-room apartment in Scottville, where he ventional behavior occasion any visible loss of composure received a communication from the State Welfare Departon her family's part: her father's tolerance crumbled after ment postmarked July 14, 1938. The letter remains unloHarley spent a night smoking, drinking, and sleeping in cated, but Harley's bitter response survives on the envelope: the Tonns' car. Given the Tonns' and other friends' pro- "Owing to advancing Age, God's Agents of adjustment

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have cut this Assistence [sic] from 20. to 18, with the assurence [sic] offurther Cut as We grow older [space] figuring Death from Starvation will reach zero mark? Mich.'

The artist's final years were difficult, not only for him but also for those who tried to help him. Assisted-care facilities, organized food drives, homeless shelters, and free medical clinics were missing from rural and small-town America in the 1930s and 1940s. Instead, local folk did what they could for their less fortunate neighbors, especially ifâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;as seems to have been Harley's caseâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;no family members were able or willing to lend a hand. The 1940 Scottville city directory places the artist at 106 Gay Street, property then occupied by Rolene and Art Wallager." Mrs. Wallager recalled that, initially, she and her husband allowed Harley to occupy a trailer on their plot; later, they brought him into their own home." Extraordinarily, at that point, Harley still possessed the three paintings that the museum was to acquire in 1957, as shown in four of the eight snapshots taken then. Two hang in a corner of his dwelling in one shot; in another, he displays Wallowa Lake outside. Repeatedly, his reduced circumstances must have raised the specter of parting with these personal treasures.

Their magical ability to transport him to happier times and places stiffened his resistance, however, presumably until the point when Lowry acquired them.

On Gay Street, Wallager did her best for Harley, but the monumental task of caring for her unpredictable, unkempt, sometimes contrary, and often drunk lodger finally overwhelmed her, and Harley was moved to a nursing home. Area directories for 1944 and 1946 omitted him. He was at a convalescent home at 313 North Robert Street in Ludington when he died,on November 24,1947, a few days short of 84 years old. The painter who once cockily called himself invincible was but a man after all, the vitality of his flesh and blood a momentary flare. Yet he was right, in a sense. By ignoring society's dictates and others'judgments, he was able to mold an original life, one expressive of his deepest, most cherished convictions. In pursuing that goal, he created a body of artwork whose modest size is more than compensated by its enduring power to inspire.*

Barbara R.Luck has worked at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation since 1970,serving as the curator ofthe Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museumfor more than a decade. She is currently thefoundation's curator ofpaintings, drawings, and sculpture.

Notes 1 Robert Lowry,"Steve Harley and the Lost Frontier," Flair 1, no.5(June 1950): 12-17.

2 The Harley material acquired in 1957 from the New York City firm of ICnoedler's consists ofthree oil landscapes; a copy of Lowry's article; a sketch of deer; three large photos; seven snapshots taken out West;eight snapshots ofHarley as an elderly man; a June 27, 1925,letter from the State Savings Bank of Scottville, Mich.; a May 8, 1944,letter from the State Social Welfare Commission; and an envelope from the State Welfare Department postmarked July 14, 1938.These items passed from Harley to Lowry to an unidentified dealer to Knoedler's.

3 Quick was interviewed September 14-17,2002.The author also thanks Bud Quick and Jane ICrolczyk for their assistance.

4 Now forgotten circumstances prevented Quick and her mother from witnessing Harley's burial. The funeral director told Quick that no one attended. Harley's obituary in the Ludington (Mich.)

Daily News 58, no. 19(November 25, 1947), p. 7,cites "no immediate survivors." Lowry,op. cit., p. 17,said Harley was buried by the state.The gravestone was in place by 1989, per Ludington Public Library Cemetery records updated then,but when and who laid it are unknown.It spells Harley's first name "Steven," but most historical data cite "Stephen," which thus stands in the museum's formal records. Per Dianne Harley Wintch (see n. 5), the W stands for "William."Throughout, names variously spelled and used in historical records have been made consistent here for clarity's sake.

5 The plot also contains the remains of a toddler, the artist's niece Beatrice Naomi Harley, a daughter ofPercy and Julia Ette Hovey Harley. An oil portrait ofthis child, privately owned by a descendant, may be Harley's work.The author is indebted to Dianne Harley Wintch,a descendant ofPercy's, for her considerable help with genealogical and biographical information throughout.

6 Record ofDeaths,Mason Co., Mich., Clerk's Office, Mason County Courthouse,Book 2, p. 134,line 212.

7 History ofMason County, Michigan, with Biographical Sketches of some ofIts Prominent Men and Pioneers(Chicago: H.R.Page & Co., 1882), p. 75,and Special Schedules ofthe 1890 census, Riverton Township,Mich.

Steve Harley and fish, Redondo Beach, California, probably 1925, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum, Williamsburg, Virginia, not accessioned Inscribed on the reverse: Jew Fish or deep Sea Bass caught at Redondo Beach Calif., Feb 18-25. length 6'4", girth 4'9", weight 321#. By S.W. Harley. Below this, in another hand, is, George: I mention this fish in article. /Bob Lowry.

Steve Harley and horse, probably Mason County, Michigan, c. 1900, courtesy Mason County Historical Society, Ludington, Michigan, P-1190 44 FALL 2005

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Margaret Kosten, possibly Michigan, c. 1935, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum, Williamsburg, Virginia, gift of Mrs. Arlene Quick In memory of her parents, Albert J. and Ida W. Tonn, 2005.510.3 Inscribed on the reverse: Do I look natural[71/I have lost 25 lbs/since Steve left[,] only/ weigh 167 lb now. In another hand is, Miss Koston [sic).

8 The marriage date is from History ofMason County, op. cit.

Anne's parents' names are from William Henry Van Benschoten, Bunschoten or Benschoten Family in America...(Baltimore: Gateway Press, 1907), pp. 454-455. Anne's father's name is incorrect and her mother's is missing in the Record ofDeaths,Mason Co., Mich., Clerk's Office, Mason County Courthouse,Book 3,p. 3, line 10.

9 See Harley's obituary, Ludington (Mich.)Daily News, op. cit., and death certificate, the latter in the Clerk's Office, Mason County Courthouse,Ludington,Mich.

10 History ofMason County, Michigan, op. cit.

11 1870 federal census for Coldwater, Branch Co., Mich.,p. 170.

The younger children's formal names were Mary Adella and Percy Frank 12 1880 federal census for Scott, Sandusky Co.,Ohio, p.24.

13 The quotes are from William's obituary filed at the Mason County Historical Society, Ludington,Mich.(The newspaper is unidentified.) For his help with this and other sources at the society, the author thanks Ron Wood. Other information about William is from his obituary and from History ofMason County, op. cit.

14 Sheriff's Deed Book 33, p. 469,Mason County Courthouse, Ludington,Mich.,and Map ofthe County ofMason, Michigan, compiled and published by J.A. Mitchell, Ludington,Mich.,1897 (map no. RMP-134),Mason County Historical Society, Ludington, Mich.

15 Mason County Directoryfor the Years 1904-1905, compiled and published by Oldt & Rinehart, Scottville, Mich.,1904;R.L. Polk & Co.'s Ludington City and Mason County Directoryfor 1910-1911 (R.L. Polk &Co.,1910), p. 277; and Polk's Ludington City and Mason County Directoryfor 1919-1920(R.L. Polk &Co.,1919), p.287.

16 Polk's Ludington City and Mason County Directory, 1924(R.L. Polk &Co., 1924), p. 260.The assessment on Harley's property was $7,425.

17 Arlene Quick reported that the family moved into the home when her brother was"one or two years old."

18 Dianne Harley Wintch,e-mail to the author, October 17, 2004.

19 1910 federal census records; Dianne Harley Wintch,e-mail to the author, May 9,2005.

20 Quick named Margaret Kosten. Other information about the Kostens is from the 1910 and 1920 federal censuses.The author thanks Colonial Williamsburg librarian Susan Shames for her help with these and other census data.

21 The story came from the artist's great-nephew, David W. Harley(1929-1997); Dianne Harley Wintch,e-mail to the author, May 6,2005.

22 Harley's wanderings are dated by inscriptions on photos and paintings and by the June 27,1925,letter from the State Savings Bank of Scottville, Mich.

23 Lowry,op. cit., p. 15.

24 The painting plus a sketchbook and some accompanying drawings were purchased from Donald Tonn's widow,Martha Cook Tonn.

25 On the back ofthe letter, in Harley's hand,is "Ofered [sic] to quit Claim all Personal and the Farm for $200 cash on Notice.

S.H." 26 A copy ofthe newspaper notice is pasted into the Sheriff's Deed Book 3, p. 259,Mason County Courthouse,Ludington, Mich.

27 Sheriff's Deed Book 3, p. 258.

28 Quick dated the fire by personal associations, but the date also appears on the back of a photo inscribed "Day ofthe fire / Tonn's"; collection ofthe Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum,2005.510.2.

29 Sheriff's Deed Book 3, p.259. By this time, the First National Bank of Ludington owned the title to the farm; this bank,in turn, sold it to the Tonns.

30 1930 federal census.The sanitarium street address was northeast, not southeast as Harley noted, but all else matches,and the 1930 city directory places him at the institution.

31 Grand Rapids city directories for 1930, 1931, and 1932 and federal census for 1930. Hatchery information is from the Michigan State Archives, Dept. of Conservation, Fisheries, Hatchery Diaries, Record Group 60-12, Box 57.The author is particularly grateful to Mark Hoffman for providing information from these sources and for pursuing other lines ofinquiry.

32 Scottville City Directoryfor 1935, p. 183.

33 The envelope is in the museum's collection. See n. 2.

34 Polk's Scottville City Directoryfor 1940(R.L.Polk & Co., 1940), p. 173.

35 The author appreciates Rolene Wallager's interview ofSeptember 14,2002.The snapshots ofHarley as an elderly man were taken on the Gay Street property, as verified by two landmarks shown in the backgrounds ofseveral: the town's twin water towers (since torn down)and Scottville High School (still standing in September 2002 and clearly visible from the Gay Street property).

Steve Harley and friend outside his Gay Street home, probably 1946-1947, courtesy Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum, Williamsburg, Virginia

Street home, Scottville, Michigan, probably 1946-1947, courtesy Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum, Williamsburg.

Virginia Inscribed on the reverse: Steve Harley, 84,/at Scottville, a/ couple of months before/he died/(in 1947)(NOTE PAINTINGS). The painting overhead, behind Harley, is Wallowa Lake; Upper Reach of the Wind River hangs to the right.

Wallowa Lake is propped on the ground. These two photographs were probably taken by Robert Lowry.

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'

Historv books had taught me the names of heroes and the principles of independence and representation. But the day-to-day work and settlement of this land had been in the hands of unknoâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;\ n soldiers and families, farmers and tradespeople. I had never been told their story. Tools, tableware, bedcovers, birth certificatesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;what survives today from those pioneers who laid the foundations for the society in which I live, for the civilization that is so special in human history?

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Ralph Esmerian

46 I AI

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DOWER CHEST Attributed to Johannes Kniskern (1746-7) Schoharie County, New York 1778 Painted pine with iron hasp, key, and hardware 193 / 4 47 21" American Folk Art Museum, promised gift of Ralph Esmerian, P1.2001.184

By Andrew Albertson

A STATELY CHEST BEFITTING ITS OWNER JACOB KNISKERN'S SCHOHARIE COUNTY CHEST

Dower Chest will be on view at the American Folk Art Museum in the exhibition "Surface Attraction: Painted Furniture from the Collection" (September 20, 2005March 26, 2006).

Ralph Esmerian,a celebrated American folk art collector, first asked himself the preceding question more than forty years ago when he stepped into the world ofcollecting "everyday" things that had survived centuries ofdomestic useâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;objects that often hid in the tall shadows ofwell-known works praised for their artistic merits and intrinsic values.' By the time he began collecting in the mid-1960s, however, there was already "substantial competition"in the folk art arena, with at least two generations of American folk art collectors leading the way.' But Esmerian's refined eye led to his eventual acquisition of more than three hundred objects that he promised in 2001 to the American Folk Art Museum on the occasion of its grand opening in a permanent home in New York City Among Esmerian's prized pieces is one that until its recent transfer to the museum sat in his New York City home with objects carefully stored inside and stacks ofbooks and catalogs neatly piled on its lid. For Esmerian, this chest, which was made in 1788 for Jacob Kniskern, of Schoharie, New York, is a treasure valued more for its beauty and craftsmanship than for its high monetary value. He enjoys it for its unpretentious yet stately decoration, and for its obvious utilitarian function. Yet a journey into the life ofits first owner,Jacob Kniskern, and the significance of the period in which it was created for the Schoharie native, impart the object with a heightened historical importance and a more personalized interpretation than perhaps previously supposed. Jacob Kniskern's extraordinary chest is a fitting reminder ofthe early Schoharie hero who was captured by and escaped from loyalist forces, served his congregation as a trustee, and built an agricultural empire on the banks of the Schoharie Creek after his property was pillaged during the Revolutionary War. FALL 2005

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Oral tradition holds that Schoharie resident Johannes Kniskern made the chest for his brother Jacob in 1788, about the same time he purportedly made two smaller chests for his daughters Margreda and Elisabet (see p. 50).3 After a thorough review of available sources, however, the original source of that claim remains obscured. While it seems plausible that Johannes Kniskern could have made the chest for his brotherâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;there were woodworking tools in his probate inventoryâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;it is also possible that a friend or neighbor of Jacob Kniskern may have been the craftsman of the chest.' Therefore, while it seems most likely that Johannes Kniskern created the chest for his brother Jacob, other possibilities should not be ruled out.

In his master's thesis on New York German chests, Cory Amsler points to Johannes Kniskem's inventory to suggest that Jacob's brother was the creator of his chest, but a closer look at other period inventories suggests that woodworking tools were not all that uncommon in the Schoharie region.'

Schoharie resident David Bouck's inventory for example, included planes, chisels, and punches, all tools essential to the construction of a chest.' Johannes Hutt, of Sharon, owned tools similar to Bouck's, in addition to handsaws, an adz, augers, squares, and a drawknife. Hutt's inventory also included two workbenches that would have proved useful of on New York chests but are fax more prevalent among for the manufacture ofchests and other furniture.' Abraham Pennsylvania forms," stated Amsler, who cited examples Lawyer, of Middleburgh, had an adz, screwdrivers, a com- from the latter group in his study."

Naturally, one may wonder why such a regal chest, pass saw, augers, and a variety of other tools associated with complete with its architectural elements and careful decothe construction ofchests.'

In looking for chests produced in the United States in ration, was made for Jacob Kniskern,and what the chest, as the German tradition, a host of scholarship on Pennsylva- a personal object, reveals about the man who owned it. nia German decorative arts emerges, but few scholars of While the chest itself suggests that Jacob Kniskern was an material culture have examined the goods produced by important figure in early Schoharie history official records Germans in New York State, specifically those of the early offer more definitive explanations for the creation and pioneers of Palatine settlements in and around Schoharie adornment ofsuch an important chest.

Born on November 21, 1753, Jacob Kniskern was the County. Mary Antoine de Julio, the former director of the Montgomery County Historical Society, in Amsterdam, child of Henrich and Elisabeth Schafer Kniskern, of New York, initiated formal interest in the subject in the Schoharie County, New York. Henrich's parents, Johannes 1980s with "German Folk Arts of New York State," an and Elisabeth Barbara Kniskern, were among the first exhibition organized at the Albany Institute of History and groups of Palatine Germans who sailed from Rotterdam to Art.' The show's accompanying catalog provides a crucial London in 1709,finally arriving in New York in mid-1710. glimpse into a culture previously thought to have Originally sent up the Hudson River to Germantown, New York, Johannes Peter Kniskern obtained two patents "vanish[ed] without leaving much behind.""

In her analysis of German goods produced in New York totaling three hundred acres of land for himself and others State, de Julio examined several chests, including those in the Schoharie Valley about 1730."

The Kniskern family's presence in Schoharie County is thought to have been made by Johannes Kniskern for his daughters Margreda and Elisabet, and suggested that the evident from its prominence in local churches, town govcirca 1778 pieces and other late-eighteenth-century exam- ernment positions, military appointments, and from the ples differ from later examples in their composition and significant land holdings acquired by family members." adornment. Indeed, Margreda's and Elisabet's chests have Jacob Kniskern was the eleventh of thirteen children and bracket bases with medial feet and have molding around was baptized a week after birth, sponsored by his mother's the edges of their lids, both characteristics of eighteenth- brother Jacob Schafer and his wife, Elisabeth. While most of his activities during his formative years are undocucentury pieces.

Jacob Kniskern's chest bears similar features. His exam- mented, church records indicate that he was confirmed in ple also has bracket bases and a medial foot, as well as 1771 and was selected as a trustee of his parish, the molding around the lid. But Jacob's chest stands out most Schoharie Lutheran Church, for three consecutive threefor its powerful combination of painted decoration and year terms (in 1798, 1801, and 1804).14 In February 1781, architectural elements. Jacob ICniskern's chest is the only Kniskern married Christina Enders, and they had two known New York German chest with architectural details, daughters, Christina and Elisabeth. His wife died before specifically applied ears and pilasters. "Such architectural 1792, the year in which he married Maria Schultes, who elements, even in the form of painted panels, are unheard bore him a daughter named Eva."

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While Kniskern's leadership in the Schoharie Lutheran Church suggests that he was a respected member of the congregation, his activities during the Revolutionary War in fighting loyalist forces also likely elevated him within the community of Schoharie and beyond. According to New York State militia records, Kniskern enlisted to serve with patriot forces about 1778. He served under captains Richtmyer and Miller as a soldier in the Albany County Militia, Fifteenth Regiment, along with his brother Johannes, but was captured the same year at Moak's Hollow in Turlach(known today as Dorloo). War records indicate that he escaped from "Rebel Island" in Canada, on a float constructed ofbrandy kegs,shortly after his imprisonment and made his way back to Schoharie, where he continued to fight against British forces and the Crown's Native American allies."

Revolutionary fighting first came to the Schoharie Valley in 1777, just one year after New York and the other colonies first declared their independence from Great Britain. The plan to "dismember" the province centered around the Schoharie Valley, a strategic location cited by British troops as the gateway for conquering Albany, their ultimate aspiration. A small number of troops moved into the Schoharie Valley in early August 1777 and pillaged the farms of Jacob Kniskern's neighbors, including the Vroomans."Ten months after the initial raid on the upper Schoharie Valley, a large force of Native Americans surprised Schoharie inhabitants with another raid, this time with a greater force of approximately 350. Fifteen Schoharie militiamen proved no match against the Native Americans, who outnumbered them by more than twenty to one. Several patriot troops, including Jacob Kniskern, were captured at Cobus Kill, which was reported by majors Thomas Cheson and Jost Becker as"DESTROYED."" The year 1778, the date on Jacob Kniskern's chest, was not only a pivotal year in its owner's life, it was also the year in which property belonging to his family and neighbors was laid to ruins. "The people of Cobus Kill, whose houses and Effects are burnt, only came off with what they

had upon their Backs," reported resident Abraham Wempel of the desperate situation in the Schoharie Valley.

"I have buried the dead at Cobus Kill, which was 14 in number; found five more burnt in the ruins ... they were butchered in the most inhuman manner; [the enemy] burnt 10 houses and barns, horses, cows, sheep &c. lay dead all over the fields."

"Destitute" barely begins to describe the situation in which Schoharie area residents found themselves in the wake of the loyalist sweep of 1778; and as if one raid wasn't enough, British forces plundered the Schoharie Valley twice more just two years later. In their subsequent campaigns, they destroyed the remainder of the Schoharie homes and farms left from 1778, among them the Kniskern family mill on the Schoharie Creek. In sum, 134 buildings were burned in Schoharie County during the Revolution, many of which were leveled during the 1780 expeditions. "Added to the great loss of grain, dwellings, stock, etc., was the great depreciation of the paper money of the country, large amounts of which were in the possession of the [Schoharie] farmers, having been taken in exchange for their farm products," wrote the Middleburgh Historical Publication Committee in an historical review.'

Jacob Kniskern eventually rebounded from the ills of the Revolutionary War, however, as historical records attest. By 1790 his family numbered five individuals, and he owned at least one slave.' In 1810 Kniskern owned three slaves, and he had at least five, valued at a total of $390, by the time he died in 1818." In sum, Kniskern's slaves accounted for more than 10 percent of his estate's total value upon his death."

In addition to his slave holdings, Kniskern's probate inventory lists four pages of textiles (including clothing), a page of books, several tools for blacksmithing, painting, and shoemaking, dozens of agricultural implements, extensive amounts of lumber, and scores of livestock. By all accounts, he was financially secure, with an estate worth almost $3,200, including all the components of a largescale, self-sufficient farm complex.'

Among the furniture listed in Kniskern's inventory are seven chestsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a "green" one, three of"pine," two with "rubbish" inside, and one simply described as a chest. Their assigned values range from $.50 to $5.62 for a pine chest with "3 pair of wollen stockings, 1 fox comforter, 2 linen shirts, and one old Hat, of coloured man"; the average value is $2.16. It is clear from the items listed before and after each chest in the inventory that six were in private bedroom areas and that the one valued at $5.62 (including its contents) may have been in use by a slave, as suggested by its contents. Although determining which of the seven chests might be the one bearing Jacob Kniskern's name remains problematic, one conclusion is certain: Jacob Kniskern's estate included more chests than the average Schoharie home.' In fact, if a testator's worth could be established by the number of chests in his inventory, Kniskern would be near the top.

Jacob Kniskern died on March 9, 1818, at 64 years of age. He was buried in Sloansville Village Cemetery, Sloansville, New York; his second wife, Maria, who died at the age of81 in 1849,is laid at his side. It is very likely that Jacob Kniskern's chest was sold or given to one of the

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couple's children upon Maria's death. And a rare but doubtful possibility is that the chest was used by one ofJacob Kniskern's slaves who bore his name. Indeed, a slave, simply listed as "coloured man Jake," did possess his own "Box . . . with Rubbish," valued at a mere $.50 in Kniskern's inventory at the time of his death."

While determining who inherited Jacob Kniskern's chest may never be possible, the uniqueness of the object's architectural features and the significance of the year 1778 to Jacob Kniskern, his family, neighbors, and fellow New Yorkers suggest that the chest may have been a powerful object for its owner and his family. As the year in which Jacob Kniskern was captured by British forces as well as the year in which the Schoharie Valley was first plundered by his captors, 1778 may very well have been the most memorable year in Jacob Kniskern's life. For this reason, Jacob Kniskern's chest is an extraordinarily important reminder of its ownerâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a man who, to borrow donor Ralph Esmerian's words, helped "[lay] the foundations for the society in which [we] live, for the civilization that is so special in human history"* Andrew Albertson received his master's degree this springfrom the Cooperstown Graduate Program in History Museum Studies, a unique institution cosponsored by the State University ofNew York College at Oneonta and the New York State HistoricalAssociation, in Cooperstown. While enrolled at Vassar College, where he earned his BA. in American culture in 2001, he served as an intern with the American Folk Art Museum, working on the catalogsfor the 2001/2002 exhibitions 'American Radiance:The Ralph Esmerian Gift to the American Folk Art Museum"and'American Anthem:Masterworksfrom the American Folk Art Museum."

Notes 1 Ralph Esmerian,"Journey," in Stacy C.Hollander,American Radiance: The Ralph Esmerian Gift to the American Folk Art Museum(New York: Harry N. Abrams,2001),p. 10.

2 Ibid.

3 See Mary Antoine de Julio, German Folk Arts ofNewYork State (Albany, N.Y.: Albany Institute of History and Art, 1985), p.4, and de Julio,"New York German Painted Chests," The Magazine Antiques 127, no.5(May 1985): 1156-58.

4 Where the oral tradition stating that Johannes Kniskem made the chest for his brother Jacob originated is unknown.In examining documents ofownership,the earliest owner recorded is Rockwell Gardiner, a renowned mid-nineteenth-century Connecticut antiques dealer who sold the chest to Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch,of New York,in the 1940s. While it is possible that Gardiner knew something ofthe chest's creator, his scholarship on the piece has not passed through the various owners' hands. Files belonging to individuals and institutions through which the chest passed in the last seventy years are devoid of information on its origin, but all claim with certainty that Johannes Kniskern was the craftsman ofthe chest.

5 Cory M.Amsler,"New York German Chests: A Study in Craft Influences"(MA.thesis, State University of New York College at Oneonta, 1987), p. 65.

6 Inventory of David D.Bouck,1826. Schoharie County Surrogate's Office, Schoharie, N.Y., File 1826-003.

7 Inventory ofJohannes Hutt, 1819. Schoharie County Surrogate's Office, Schoharie, N.Y., File 1819-018.

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8 Inventory ofAbraham Lawyer, 1839. Schoharie County Surrogate's Office, Schoharie, N.Y., File 1839-019.

9 De Julio, German Folk Arts, op. cit.

10 Roderic H.Blackburn,"Foreword," in de Julio, German Folk Arts, p. i.

11 Amsler, p. 34.

12 Genealogical information on Jacob Kniskern in Walter Hamlin Kniskern, Some ofthe Descendants ofJohann Peter Kniskern of Schoharie County, New York (Petersburg, Va.: Plummer,1960), pp. 7-10.

13 In researching Jacob Kniskern, his family's prevalence was evident in myriad probate inventories, wills, deeds,records ofland holdings, and other vital documents kept by the Schoharie County Surrogate's Office.The Kniskern family was large enough to warrant its own page in the Surrogate's Office index to Schoharie County records.

14 Arthur C.M. Kelly, Schoharie County NewYork Early Records: Family Lists, Marriages, Deaths, 1730-1904(Rhinebeck,N.Y.: Kinship,2001), pp. 71-72.

15 Kniskern, p.298.

16 See George H.Warner,Military Records ofSchoharie County Veterans ofFour Wars(Albany, N.Y.: Weed,Parsons & Co.,1891), p. 23. Although this record lists the year of Kniskern's capture as 1780,it must have been 1778,because the battle in which he was taken prisoner was fought in 1778, not 1780.

17 Edward A. Hagan, War in Schohary, 1777-1783(Middleburgh, N.Y.: Middleburgh New Press for the author, 1980), PP. 18 Thomas Cheson and Jost Becker,letter to General Starke, May 30,1778;ibid., p. 11.

19 Abraham Wempel,letter to General Starke,June 6,1778; ibid., p. 11.

20 B. Wesley Andrew et al., eds., Bridging the Years, 1712-1962 (Middleburgh,N.Y.: 250th Anniversary Historical Publication Committee,1962), p. 15.

21 Heads ofFamilies at the First Census ofthe United States,1790, New York(Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1908), p. 45.

22 U.S. Census Office, 1810(microfilm). Schoharie, Schoharie County,N.Y.(Washington,D.C.: National Archives, 1958), p. 38.

23 Inventory ofthe Estate ofJacob Kniskern, May 13,1818, Schoharie County Surrogate's Office, Schoharie, N.Y., File 1818007, p. 68.

24 Ibid.

25 See Amsler, p. 10,in which the author states that"23 of100 [Schoharie inventories] had two or more chests, 10 had three or more,and 6 listed four and up.The largest number of chests in a single household was eight."

26 See Inventory ofthe Estate ofJacob Kniskern,P. 55.

CHESTS FOR ELISABET AND MARGREDA KNISKERN Attributed to Johannes Kniskern (1746-?)

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Individualistic and isionary, Jamaica's egendary Self-Taught rtists Have Hel e ecia a i n,Fin e he vitality for which the music and art of Cuba,Jamaica, and Haiti are known, and the popularity they have enjoyed far beyond their borders, may seem disproportionately grand, considering each Caribbean nation's tiny size. These distinctive art forms—Cuba's mambo, Jamaica's reggae, Haiti's brightly sequined Vodun flags—like those of parts of nearby Mexico and Latin America, are the products of generations of blending of different cultural sources—indigenous, African, and European.

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ow more than ever, art forms like these have become emblems of the respective countries in which they have developed. As such, some have been scooped up by the shifting tides of an increasingly global popular culture in which traditional lines between the so-called fine arts and mass art-and-entertainment products have blurred. For the multinational corporations that mass-produce such goods, any culture's music, art, or clothing may become fodder for the trend factory. For postmodern,"appropriationist" artists on the prowl for source material, everything is up for grabs,too.

Against this backdrop of homogenized, mass-market culture, to those who appreciate it, the work ofJamaica's indigenous, non-academically trained Intuitives, as they are known locally, is something refreshingly original and complex. The creations of these artists who live and work outside the commercial mainstream are deeply personal and defy easy labels; much of their art is spiritually resonant, too—unmistakably and emphatically so. It has always stood apart from the standard histories ofthe best-known art movements ofits time.

For the moment, at least, the moneyed powers of the AmericanEuropean art market and international media are not descending on these artists to exploit their work or to stir up new trends. At the same time, though, the Intuitives' art and the creative current they represent, despite their inherent strengths, are in some ways vulnerable; often it is unconventional art forms like theirs, created beyond the mainstream of fashion and style, that definitively enrich the culture and ambience of a small, more isolated place. Often, too, since such art forms cannot—or do not seek to— compete with the mass, commercial culture, if they are to thrive efforts must be made to nurture them. With this in mind, the art of Jamaica's Intuitives could still stand to benefit from greater attention at home and abroad.

This is because, in recent years, key memRas Dizzy, 2004 bers of a definitive generation of these artists have been dying off. Among them: Mallica Reynolds (also known as Kapo, 1911-1989), Alan "Zion" Johnson (1930-2001), and Everald "Brother" Brown (1917-2002). In addition, in Jamaica government-funded cultural institutions—the National Gallery of Jamaica,in Kingston, the capital, being the most important among them in the visual arts—are so chronically under-staffed and operate on such limited budgets that, after meeting the costs ofbasic exhibition-making and education programs,they have little left over for extensive research about or documentation ofthe work ofeven the most deserving local artists.

Nevertheless, the Intuitives gradually have come to occupy a special place in Jamaica's cultural history. Both in the decades leading up to and after the former colony's independence from Britain in 1962, as they became known the paintings, carvings, and sculptures of these highly individualistic, self-taught artists have helped impart a sense of national identity to their countrymen. The people and places, folk festivals, and national heroes that their work portrayed vividly reflected the African cultural heritage, sense of creativity and survival, and proud, free spirit that many Jamaicans shared.

During their lifetimes, though, these artists' multifaceted bodies of work and their ideas have been only cursorily documented, if they were documented at all. As a result, the conundrum that Jamaica's Intuitives— and those who care about their art—face today is both familiar to followers ofthe international outsider art scene and,in some ways,unique.

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To some degree, for example, concerns about whether or not media or institutional attention to or "commercial exploitation" of these artists will make their art less "pure" are sometimes heard (concerns, that is, about the effects of selling their work through galleries or dealers, which, in fact, many do not seem to mind; some even sell their works themselves). "More urgent," observed Annabella Proudlock, a cofounder of Harmony Hall, in Ocho Rios,"is the question: Where is the next generation ofIntuitives going to come from?"'(Since its opening in 1981, Harmony Hall, on Jamaica's north coast, has been the island's premier showcase for local self-taught artists' works. It presents an annual Intuitives group show in January.)

"In the past, some of the best, now legendary Intuitives were discovered by chance, working away, mostly for themselves, in remote villages deep in the bush," Proudlock said. "Nowadays, self-taught painters or carvers sometimes approach us dealers, but their work is not always of the highest quality. Where is the next Kapo, the next Everald Brown?

How and where will we find them?"

Some of the pressing issues related to the Intuitives and their work find a locus—and a symbol—in the life, packed with uncertainties, ofthe itinerant artist Ras Dizzy. One ofJamaica's most intriguing and elusive art-makers, Ras Dizzy was born Birth Livingstone around 1932, although no one is sure exactly where. He has claimed that he spent time as a child in Kingston, on the island's south coast, but he might have been born and brought up away from the capital. Mystery surrounds him,and the artist, appearing absent-minded, lives up to his name.

As an adult, Livingstone, who wears his hair in the dreadlock style associated with Jamaica's homegrown Rastafarianism sect, took or was given the name "Ras Dizzy" ("Ras" is a Rastafarian honorific term).2 Some of his associates say it stuck because it accurately described his personality. Ras Dizzy is known for telling tall-sounding tales about his travels and experiences; professional psychologists listening to his stories might categorize his behavior as somewhat schizophrenic. His friends and associates eschew such labels, however, and point out just how lucidly he expresses himself. They prefer to take his pronouncements at face value.

Although he has been a presence on the margins ofJamaica's visual arts scene for several decades,little is known about Ras Dizzy's personal history. A frail-looking wisp of a man who lives from day to day and from sale to sale of his drawings and paintings, he travels regularly by bus between Kingston and small towns on Jamaica's north coast with nothing more than his paper, paints, and brushes; a portfolio of drawings; and a small bag of clothes. Ras Dizzy has no home or studio.

Instead, he depends on the kindness of strangers and the help of a network of associates to whom he offers his artwork for sale. In Jamaica, various galleries sell his work, too, providing the roving artist a vital, if unpredictable,source ofincome.

Since the 1970s, he has turned up regularly on the campus of the University of the West Indies, on the outskirts of Kingston, to display and sell his art."It's impossible to pin him down," noted Joe Pereira, the university's deputy principal, a longtime fan and collector of Ras Dizzy's more abstract paintings. Pereira considers himself one of the vagabond artist's good friends."When I was a student here many years ago, he used to distribute his poetic writings, and he had opinions about everything—history, politics, social trends," Pereira recalled. "Over time, he began to draw and paint."

EDWARD

EMAGON HOW VERY SWEET THA LILI GROWS Ras Dizzy (b. c. 1932) Jamaica 2004 Poster paint on poster board 14 x 18" Collection of Joe Pereira

THE TEMPLE OF THE HOLY BRETHREN IS MINISTER BY A HIGH PRIES Ras Dizzy (b. c. 1932) Jamaica 2003 Poster paint on poster board 14 x 18" Collection of Harmony Hall, Ocho Rios, Jamaica

ARTIST WORK HAS A ' CORNER Ras Dizzy (b. c. 1932) Jamaica 2003 Poster paint on poster board 14 18" Collection of Harmony Hall, Ocho Rios, Jamaica

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David Boxer, the director emeritus and chief curator of the National Gallery ofJamaica, described Ras Dizzy as "a brilliant colorist and a very spontaneous artist." Boxer, an art historian, art collector, and working artist himself, has championed paintings and carvings of the Intuitives since he first began working at the National Gallery in the mid1970s, when it was founded. Boxer has amassed an extensive personal collection of Jamaican art, both by academically trained or self-styled modernists and by selftaught artists. It includes a large selection of Ras Dizzy's works. Among them are early ballpoint-pen drawings, fine examples of his brightly colored paintings on poster board, and oddities like paintings on panels from chests of drawers. The works in Boxer's collection highlight the artist's recurring main themes, including cowboys, racehorses, birds, ships, coconut palms, and prizefighters.

"Dizzy has been prolific," Boxer noted, "but what's remarkable is that so many of his pictures are consistently very good—well composed, with a strong sense of design and color." With their bold palettes, economical lines, and basic geometric forms, they suggest affinities with some kinds of 1960s pop art. Although Ras Dizzy may abstract the forms of houses or animals in some paintings, he makes some wholly abstract images, too. During an interview with the artist in Ocho Rios, he said,"They are pictures of my dreams."

At that time, he described his art's subject matter and mentioned that he was or had been the legendary United States president Abraham Lincoln's son, a cowboy who knew John Wayne and Tex Ritter, a former top administrator ofPrinceton University, and a former heavyweight box-

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LAMED

ing champ (he was, he said, once in the ring with Cassius Clay). His travels, he recalled, had included adventures in China,Africa, and Latin America.

"Dizzy is eccentric," one of his contacts observed, carefully avoiding any clinical labels to describe the artist's pronouncements and unpredictable ways. "Sometimes great art flows from unexpected sources," he added. Boxer recognizes that an enormous amount of challenging research remains to be done on Ras Dizzy and his art—and that, given the elderly artist's fragile health and precarious existence, time may be running out for scholars who might wish to try to track him down and document his life and work while he is still alive.

Like Ras Dizzy, Albert Artwell (b. 1942), another of the Intuitives' living legends, is still going strong. Artwell lives and works in the remote village of Catadupa in the hills of northwestern Jamaica. There, in a tiny wooden shack in the shadow of his prized fruit trees, he gives tangible form to a similarly unique but distinctly different vision. For many years, in his boldly colored paintings made with ordinary house paint on board, Artwell has illustrated classic Bible stories in a novel way, placing them in familiar Jamaican settings. (In recent years, he has used acrylic paint on canvas.) Typically, he paints trees, buildings, and people in a flat style and in processional compositions that recall ancient Egyptian art.

Artwell, who won the 2003 Bronze Musgrave Medal, one ofJamaica's top national and cultural honors, embraces certain aspects of Rastafarian philosophy, but his art rarely refers overtly to Rasta teachings. A deeply spiritual man, he regards himself as a teacher and an artist with a mission

UNTITLED Albert Artwell (b. 1942) Catadupa, Jamaica c. 1970 Oil-based house paint on board Approximately 18.36" Private collection

to make "God's word" known to the world through his art and through the example of his personal conduct.

Thus, conflating past and present, and biblical settings with Jamaica here and now,Artwell's Jesus Christ and other Christian holy figures are black, not white. At the same time that Jamaica, a land of natural beauty, is a source of his people's strength, identity, and pride, his art suggests it is still part of a material world that the Rastafarians disparage as "Babylon." Artwell's pictures remind viewers that a longed-for, more soulful place awaits those who honor an almighty power that is manifested in the wonders of nature and in biblical tales of the miraculous; that paradise beyond their current island home looks a lot like Africa.

While art may be beautiful in appearance or in spirit, Artwell explained during an interview at his home that it can be purposeful, too, as his own work strives to be (as a teaching tool to visually narrate Bible tales and convey their moral lessons). Art, like his Creator's goodwill, Artwell suggested, is—or should be—something everyone may enjoy.

Acknowledging his god's benevolence, he quipped,"When the sun comes up, it shines for the rich man and for the poor man."

The late Everald "Brother" Brown, who died in 2002 at the age of 84, produced one of the most complex bodies of work ever to have emerged from the "yards"(as their combined homes and workshops are known) of Albert Artwell, 2004 the Jamaican Intuitives. The scholarly consideration that the National Gallery of Jamaica's small curatorial team has shown Brown's oeuvre has been thorough and exemplary, setting standards not only locally, but within the region, too, and even within the broader international field of outsider art.

In late 2004, the National Gallery's attention to Brown culminated in the presentation of"The Rainbow Valley," a career-spanning retrospective exhibition of his work. Curated by the Belgian-born art historian and longtime Jamaica resident Veerle Poupeye, a specialist in Caribbean art, the show featured more than one hundred of the artist's paintings, carvings, and handmade musical instruments. It examined the full scope and richness of Brown's artistic imagination, and paid tribute to his charismatic personality and reputation as a family man and as a community and spiritual leader.

Like Artwell, Brown saw his artmaking as an expression of his spiritual beliefs.

Brown, who was born in the northern Jamaican parish of St. Ann and whose mother was a Baptist, gravitated toward Rastafarianism and, around 1960, in the poorer, western part of Kingston, founded the Assembly of the Living, a self-styled mission of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Later, he and his wife, "Sister Jenny," joined the EOC after that African sect became established in Jamaica.

At the time of the Brown exhibition, Poupeye noted that, despite its evident Afro-Christian trappings,

the artist's spiritual message, conveyed through his ministry and his art, was ecumenical. His art, she observed, had evoked "the farmer-mystic theme" (in paintings like Lord ofthe Harvest, c. 1969) and celebrated "Jamaica's God-given natural bounty"(as in Heavenly Waters, c. 1971).3 In 1973, Brown and his family moved to Murray Mountain, in Jamaica's north-coast parish of St. Ann, to escape growing politicalsocial turmoil in West Kingston. They also wanted to work the land and become self-sufficient.

There, Brown's art and spiritual life flourished. He made elaborately decorated drums and stringed instruments for his family members to play when they worshipped together, as well as such emblematic paintings as Bush Have Ears (1976) and Mysteries ofthe Stones (1984).'

Brown's painted images often evoke divine natural spirits, as in the untitled work in the American Folk Art Museum's collection (see p. 57) that features Lions of Judah (a symbolic reference to former Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie, the Rastafarians' revered man-god; see n. 2) and mountain animals that appear to emerge,like phantoms, out of irregular rock formations.

With their passages of intricate, abstract brushwork, paintings like these could easily hang alongside modernist European works of the surrealist and abstractionist movements of the twentieth century(see also p. 10).

Brown's mature works "reflect a vision of nature and the land in which everything is imbued with spiritual meaning and ancient truths," Poupeye wrote in the catalog that accompanied the 2004 exhibition.' Brown himself once stated that he saw "visions of the mysteries of God"that he felt compelled to "impart to the world."'

Leonard Daley's work is similarly multifaceted, offering a rich stew of allusions to the power of natural forces, humankind's relationship to the animal world, primeval spirits, and the irrepressible fecundity of the earth. These themes are evident in another representative painting in the American Folk Art Museum's collection (see p. 58).

Daley was born in 1930 in the parish of St. Catherine, in the southeastern part of Jamaica, where he still lives today. Although he began painting around 1962, the works he made before 1979 are unknown and have essentially disappeared. Perhaps in a way most closely similar to that ofEverald Brown's visionary work, Daley's semi-abstract image-making taps into and evokes a sense ofJamaica's collective cultural consciousness—and collective memory or sense of history.(The veteran New York—based art collector and dealer Randall Morris has written, with passion, about how he regards such artists as bearers or carriers of, or as "gatekeepers" for, the collective cultural F, consciousness of a specific people or place, and, implicitly, too, of an awareness of that collective consciousness to which their Artwell's source material art and pronouncements call attention.)7

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nized place in Jamaican culture and society for its most accomplished selftaught artists.' Since then, the Intuitives have gained more recognition and respect for their accomplishments at home and overseas, and several high-profile exhibitions in the United States and Britain, and related publications, have helped publicize their art. However, middle-class Jamaicans, if they pay serious attention to the visual arts at all, still often do not know what to make of the Intuitives' creations or status, Boxer has observed.

The lack offormal education,limited material means, highly individualistic religious/spiritual orientations, and the perceived lower social status

of these mostly rural art-makers— even though most are or were respected figures or even leaders in their home communities—has made some good Jamaican burghers feel uncomfortable, Boxer noted. The veteran museum administrator should know; over the years, he has had to court such middle-class merchants and professionals as he has encouraged them to become patrons of the National Gallery, but some have not understood how or why work by selftaught artists should be honored by inclusion in the nation's premier art institution.

By contrast,Jamaican artists of the generations that came after that of Ras Dizzy, Artwell, Brown, and Daley have been more likely to embrace the

MARIA LAYACONA, COURTESY NATIONAL OA

Although Daley also has been influenced by Rastafarianism, it is a powerful sense of primordial forces that percolates through and animates his dense compositions, which churn with strong, internal rhythms. Morris has compared the way Daley's messages seem to gently emanate and, at the same time, sometimes surge forward from his symbol-laden compositions with the pulsing, stripped-down, bass-heavy sound of dub reggae. This moody form of Jamaica's most wellknown popular music drops melody lines in favor of the hypnotic, nearly intoxicating throb of pure, unadulterated rhythm.'

Technically, Daley's paintings on canvas (which are often mounted on board) bring to mind the play of energies between foreground and background that characterized the surrealism-influenced tableaux of such American modernists as Jackson Pollock, Adolph Gottlieb, and Mark Tobey in the 1940s before more overtly gestural or off-the-easel modes of abstract expressionism emerged. Daley's work also recalls those modernist experimenters' fascination with myth, mysticism, and Carl Jung's notion of common, fundamental archetypes rooted deep in the human psyche, an understanding of which, the Swiss psychiatrist's followers believed, could help explain what makes us tick.

Like the Australian aborigines' pictures of their "dreamings," another big subject of Daley's work is ineffable, endless, all-encompassing time. For their sheer sense of raw, urgent, creative energy and inventiveness, his painted images also bring to mind the large, mixed-media "paintings" of the self-taught black Alabaman artist Thornton Dial Sr. In the work of both of these artists, a sense of the art-maker's imagination as an unstoppable force is evident— and, for some viewers, it may be irresistible.

"These artists paint or sculpt intuitively. They are not guided by fashion," David Boxer wrote in the catalog of a historic 1979 exhibition at the National Gallery of Jamaica ("The Intuitive Eye") that began to seek a more central, institutionally recog-

Everald Brown, 1996

Musical instruments designed, constructed, and decorated by Everald Brown

UNTITLED Everald Brown (1917-2002) 1984 St. Ann, Jamaica Oil on canvas 33 33/ 1 2" American Folk Art Museum, gift of Maurice C. and Patricia L. Thompson, 2003.20.9

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Intuitives' impulsive, deeply personal reflected in their own dogged survival styles, their celebration of their and remarkable accomplishments in African heritage, and their unshakable the face of hardship, that has helped commitment to art. Their successors make their work feel so compelling to regard the Intuitives, respectfully, as those who have come to know and artists who make art because they have treasure it. For a little country to proto, not because they want to. To their duce a slice of cultural history so admirers, their approach to their craft intriguing and unexpected is nothing if represents a heroic way of living that not grand.* creates, for these singular artists, a place in the heart and in the mind that Edward M. Gomez, the US.contributing may allow them to transcend the editor ofRaw Vision, the London-based flawed, troubled "Babylon" of this outsider art magazine, is an author, artsjourworld, and to do so on their own nalist, and critic who began hisprofessional career as a culturalaffairs officer in the US. poetic, mystical terms.

Foreign Service at the US.Embassy in "The images and cosmologies that Kingston,Jamaica. Since hisposting there in Intuitives like Everald Brown or Ras the 1980s, he has returned regularly to the Dizzy have imagined and given us island, where he has conducted research on the are amazingly sophisticated and Jamaican Intuitives. intelligent, and, for many people, Notes 1 All quotes in this article obtained from interviews conducted by the author in Jamaica in August 2004 and January 2005.

2 Rastafarianism is a beliefsystem rooted in the teachings ofthe Jamaican-born black nationalist Marcus Garvey(1887-1940). Garvey preached a back-to-Africa message ofempowerment,and many of his followers believed that his prophecy that a black king would be crowned came true when Haile Selassie became the emperor of Ethiopia in 1930.They honored Selassie, whose Amharic name, Ras Tafari, means'fearsome," as the new Messiah (the Second Coming of Jesus Christ), nurturing a cult that has become a dominant cultural force in Jamaica.

3 Lord ofthe Harvest, private collection;Heavenly Waters, see The Rainbow Valley;Everald Brown:A Retrospective (Kingston,Jamaica: National Gallery of Jamaica,2003), p. 7.

4 Bush Have Ears, collection ofthe National Gallery ofJamaica, Kingston; Mysteries ofthe Stones, see ibid, p. 12.

5 Veerle Poupeye,"Revisiting Everald Brown,"ibid.

6 Timothy Callender,"Perspectives on Everald Brown," ibid, p. 17.

7 Randall Morris,"Redemption Songs: The Self-taught Artists ofJamaica," Redemption Songs: The Self-taughtArtists of Jamaica(Winston-Salem, N.C.: Diggs Gallery at Winston-Salem State University, 1997), p. 12.

8 Ibid, p. 46.

9 David Boxer,director-curator's untitled introduction, The Intuitive Eye(Kingston, Jamaica: National Gallery ofJamaica, 1979), p.2.

WAYNE COX, COURTESY CAVIN-MORRIS GALLERY, NEW YORK

UNTITLED Leonard Daley (b. c.1930) St. Catherine, Jamaica C. 1990s Mixed media on board 241 / 2 < 253/4" American Folk Art Museum, gift of Maurice C. and Patricia L. Thompson, 2003.20.11

Leonard Daley, C. mid-1990s

they instinctively touch a nerve," Dawn Scott, a well-known Jamaican batik painter, mixed-media artist, and architectural designer, said during a visit to the National Gallery's 2004 National Biennial Exhibition earlier this year. A selection of the Intuitives' paintings and sculptures was included in that islandwide survey of up-andcoming and recognized talents. "It's not just that their work is so uniquely inspired," Scott added."Like the best, most popular Jamaican art formsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; just think of Bob Marley's classic reggae songs about redemption and overcoming hardshipâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the Intuitives' work is aspirational, too."

Perhaps it is the Intuitives' essential message of hope and humanity,

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, n her fascinating chronicle of material exchange during the Renaissance, historian Lisa Jardine describes a spectacular gem-encrusted, multitiered helmet made for the Turkish emperor Suleiman the Magnificent in 1532 by Venetian goldsmiths. It incorporated a variety of motifs and styles, from the Papal tiara and antique Byzantine medals to the ceremonial turbans of the Turkish court. It was delivered to Suleiman in anticipation of a great battle he intended to launch against Christian forces at Vienna.'

Artists, especially those on commission, are inveterate borrowers, and they do not respect categories of outsiderness, or even categories of friend or foe. They scavenge visual ideas, suggestions, knowledge, tricks, wherever they are to be found. Like the Venetian goldsmiths, they can make a helmet for a sultan that can also impress a pope or a parliament. Western artists have continuously borrowed from groups, cultures, or individuals considered "other," inferior, primitive, or anonymous, even when those cultures threatened their world. And most other cultures in the

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history of human civilization have done the same. Every potential creative source, no matter how remote, is always in danger of being appropriated, drawn into the current of someone else's mainstream.

But "outsiders" are also scavengers.

The most important self-taught artistsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Adolf Wolfli (1864-1930), Henry Darger (1892-1973), Martin Ramirez (1895-1963)â&#x20AC;&#x201D;used collage in complex ways and developed styles that in some way reflected currents of mainstream visual culture that surrounded them. Looking at Wolfli's art, with its snatches of music posters, postcards, and advertisements, often feels like viewing Swiss-German culture of the time, especially its kitsch and sentimentality, through a distorting glass. In the case of Darger, the adoption of a cartoon style is total, complete, and fully comprehended.

For him, the reductive contours of the cartoon are the only visual style appropriate to the apocalyptic events he depicts, to their combination of innocence and depredation, calm and catastrophe. Even autistic artists are borrowers, of a sort, for the world presents itself to them first and foremost as visual models to be interpreted and recapitulated. The so-called outsider is often nearer to us

Donald Mitchell, who is autistic, undermines the notion of a drawing as a discrete formal object by piling the same figure on, over, and around itself in a series of discontinuous actions. Frequently he draws the same human figure, resembling the stackable 1950s wooden toy called Bill Ding. He repeats the figures in rows and stacks them on top of each other, overlapping them until he runs out of space, yet it is not clear that the figures are meant to relate to each other. We call the art obsessive because it contradicts our notions of selfawareness and artistic progression. At any point, the work seems to express the same preoccupations in the same forms as when the artist began, as if the entire career were completed within an unbreakable circle.

Art-making seems as much a trap as a liberation.

By Lyle Rexer

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UNTITLED Donald Mitchell (b. 1951) Oakland, California 1999 Ink on paper 22 33" Courtesy Ricco/Maresca Gallery, New York

el nd of Outsider Art

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than we wish to acknowledge and at the same time farther away than we choose to admit.

Has outsider art come completely inside, not just in the way it is bought and sold but in the way we understand it? If so, what does that mean for contemporary ideas about what art is and does, especially if Western art has depended so heavily for its impetus and even its formal languages on what it defined as "outside"? I do not believe outsider and self-taught artists can ever be comfortably folded into our historicized (so-and-so begat soand-so) narratives about art, nor will time naturalize all their anomalous forms, that is, make them accessible or meaningful the way cubist works, for example, now seem "normal" and Pablo Picasso's (1881-1973) distortions no longer shock. At the same time, it seems clear that the broad acceptance of outsider art signals the end of our history-obsessed view of art, a view that spawned the idea of the avant-garde and first legitimized the outsider. The whole complex of ideas involving progress in art and consciousness belongs now to what critic Robert Hughes referred to as "the future that was."' Yet insofar as they stubbornly retain an "otherness," outsider and self-taught artists do have a vital role to play in the art of our time. That role is to summon us back, like the tolling of a bell, to the existential roots of art-making, where apprehensions of being are transmuted into form.

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Newman believed that primitive artists and by extension, we can suppose, untutored and outsider artistsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; shared with contemporary artists a solipsistic, spiritual urge to make sculpture and other objects as a response to the primal confrontation with natural forces unconstrained by human will.' For Newman, creativity existed prior to any imagery or myths, prior even to the urge to communicate or acknowledge social others. Instead, creativity acknowledged first and foremost the otherness of existence.

Above all, the art impulse was utterly non-utilitarian and, hence,free.

Insiders as Outsiders as Newman leaned toward the idea Insiders First things first: Are outsiders and that the essence of art was abstract, insiders really different? By the mid- that it was not fundamentally con1950s, Western "insider" artists had cerned with making pictures or forms ransacked virtually every alternative or of anything, but he offered no ortho"primitive" visual source in support of doxy of abstraction. Yet in stripping various avant-garde positions. From away so much from art, indeed, its the early modern period onward, each entire symbolic language, in banishing subsequent generation of artists felt self-expression, and in seeming to more oppressed by the artistic past, reduce the variety of possible forms, more committed to making a break minimalist artists actually furthered a with it, and more troubled by the broad trend inaugurated by surrealism world around them.They used the art toward the acceptance of unclassifiof the insane, the untutored, and the able works of art, sui generis producethnically other to help make their tions whose paradoxes are front and breaks. A deeper affinity, however, center and whose impact is beyond was suggested by Barnett Newman explication.

Yet this is a matter of audience (1905-1970), regarded as one of the pioneers of so-called minimalist art. reception. What about Newman's

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Looking at Gayleen Aiken's work is like opening Grandma's beaded purse and finding a Vodou doll inside. The Vermont native drew and painted memory pictures centering on her rural childhood, but the roots of her art lie deeper in her imagination. Aiken is a superb colorist, but her best work arose from the dark, which nourished ritual and creativity. This picture, done in crayon and pen, shows the white-haired Gayleen and the young Gawleen Raimbilli, one of a family of imaginary cousins, all with the same last name, disappearing around the corner of a porch. The scene is lit by the glow of a huge octagonal wall clock, sitting in the window of Gayleen's childhood house. The entire picture is rendered in three colorsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;green, blue, and blackâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;except for the red line of the clock's second hand.

Everything about the drawing is inordinate, from its segmented composition, which has the figures fleeing the dominating clock and loudspeaker and literally disappearing in front of us, to the use of green to bathe the image in artificial light. Judging from the caption, the image pretends to be a memory. But the event it depicts is an imagined ritual, a secretive dance before a source of light whose association with order and sequence is subverted by its Dionysian summons. The characters are doubles of each other. In many of Aiken's works, Gawleen acts out the disorderly pranks Gayleen never would, but in this image, the two are united in their night escapade. The ritual is shameful and joyous, the energy it taps is life-affirming and transgressive. Any sense of community, the anchor of folk art, is obscured by darkness and lost in a moment of abandon.

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Philip Travers has created an ongoing narrative in drawings about the adventures of King Tut, Mistaire Travair (the artist's alter ego), and Alice in Wonderland. The pastiche epic, inspired by science-fiction novels and unified

by Travers's cartoon style, includes everything from amateur Egyptology to Humpty Dumpty's horoscope. Travers had some formal training as an artist but did not begin drawing in earnest until late in life and in a totally different vein, as he became a sampler of images and texts from popular culture a la Andy Warhol (c. 1928-1987).

WE KNOW YOU'RE HERE, ALICE, BUT WHAT'S GOING ON? Philip Travers (b.1914) New York 1993-2003 Colored pencil and marker on paper 24 16" Courtesy K.S. Art, New York

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sense of commonality? Putting aside his existentialism for a moment, we might say that the deeper affinity of outsider art with contemporary art, at least, lies in the idea of a conceptual art. We think of conceptual art, such as Matthew Ritchie's (b. 1964) Proposition Player, an "omnivorous visualization system," or the elaborate Cremaster cycle of Matthew Barney (b. 1967) as art created according to a program or scheme known only to the artist and not, perhaps, directly intelligible to any audience. That is to say, it is an allegory. So Barney provides elaborate explanatory documentation to the Cremaster cycle's mĂŠlange of video, environments, Vaseline sculpture, and photographs, just as Wall or self-taught artist Josef Heinrich Grebing (1879-1940) "explained" their systematic preoccupations. In other words, both contemporary art and outsider art have significant nonvisual components that force us to think and imagine beyond what we see.The crucial difference may be that the explanations offered by outsiders can be understood only within the context of their systems and dovetail only at tantalizing moments with wider, commonly shared frames of reference. Symbols may shift meaning and even contradict themselves. Their systems are like snakes swallowing their tails. Barney's glosses, on the other hand, unrewarding as they might be, in some sense open out onto the contemporary and familiar milieu of art and popular culture. I would add that allegory may be the least satisfying aspect of outsider art and the most likely to lead down interpretive blind alleys.

Nevertheless, these contemporary artists epitomize a new time of orphaned, unplaceable art, a time when the frightening privacy of outsider art and the deviations of autodidacts take their place among the fragmentary, self-sanctioning productions of artists everywhere. Call it pluralism or the end of art history as we know it, the paths from the outside in are many.

So, too, are the paths from inside out, the paths by which historically engaged artists cast off their affiliations and "decontextualize" themselves and their work. The pursuit of spiritual enlightenment is the most com-

64 FALL 2005

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mon occasion. Many modern and contemporary artists have taken this highway to the artistic Twilight Zone as a consequence of their search for self-transcendence. One of the most important examples is Alfred Jensen (1903-1981). A conventionally exhibiting artist and acquaintance of Mark Rothko (1903-1970), among others, he was also absorbed in studying the color theory of poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), Pythagorean geometry, electromagnetism, and the Mayan calendar and pantheon of gods. This knowledge he attempted to synthesize in a series of highly schematic paintings combining geometric abstraction and number and color symbolism. This work bears the obsessional repetitiveness, hermeticism, and prophetic insistence of outsider art, as well as the totalizing tendency to assimilate the most disparate elements of knowledge and experience to an elaborate system, much like the healing machines of self-taught artist Emery Blagdon (1907-1986). In terms of the art world, Jensen's work simply leapt out of any contemporary context or discussion. Jensen has been called a visionary, a mystagogue, and a modernist. But in spirit his work resembles more the calendars and color charts of Grebing than it does, for instance, the

Heinrich Reisenbauer is one of the residents of the Artists' House at the Gugging Psychiatric Clinic, near Vienna, an art colony founded by the late Dr. Leo Navratil. His work is less well known than that of many of his fellow Gugging artists, but since 1986 he has produced a body of work that is instantly recognizable and among the most compelling, both in its simplicity and its accessibility. Reisenbauer renders objects-chairs, umbrellas, cups, cherries-in a precise graphic style, in a single color. He repeats the image over and over in rows, until he feels the sheet is complete. He never varies from this format, and yet each of his drawings is distinct and memorable.

A familiarity with contemporary art helps us appreciate this unusual work. Andy Warhol introduced the notion of the multiple, the idea of a repeated (and reproducible) image that undermines the putative originality and uniqueness of a work of art. Which Marilyn came first? Which yellow umbrella?

Yet for all his repetitions, Reisenbauer follows a different path. He clings to his objects with impossible affection. In this drawing, each of his umbrellas is slightly different, the handles longer or shorter, the bodies wider or narrower. They offer variations on a theme, all of them versions, perhaps, of some ideal type that can never be seen, only embodied in its diverse forms. Reisenbauer seems to take the most interest in rendering nuances and minute alterations. It is an interest inherent in much minimalist art, such as the white paintings of Robert Ryman (b.1930). The dominant impression is not so much one of obsession as of joy, the joy of discovering in one thing the comforting consistency of the type and the infinite multiplicity of the whole world.

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ALL SIZES—BOTH SILK—AND COTTON Pearl Blauvelt (1893-1987) Northeastern Pennsylvania c. 1940 Pencil and colored pencil on paper 8 10" Private collection

UNTITLED (Yellow Umbrellas) Heinrich Reisenbauer (b. 1938) Artists' House, Guqqing Psychiatric Clinic, vicinity of Vienna, Austria 2000 Pencil and colored pencil on paper 81 / 4 11%" Private collection

When is restriction a form of liberation? For Pearl Blauvelt, the very narrowness of her world, limited to the shop where she worked, the house where she lived in northeastern Pennsylvania, and a handful of scenes from her immediate purview, apparently gave her all she needed to inspire a detailed, painstaking, and faithful inventory of the contents of daily life.

The mystery of drawings like these is that they seem to arise out of two simultaneous and diametrically opposed impulses: a tentativeness in the face of life, which encourages one to make the bond with reality a bit more secure and intimate, and the small pleasure of simply being here and showing it—drawing as a kind of existential tinkering. Yet Blauvelt has something else: a draftsman's determination to get the picture right, complete, and precise.

In drawing after drawing, she works out spatial relationships with a restricted compositional geometry as she tries to force a threedimensional world into two dimensions. She seems to have taken her cue from her materials, often using lined paper, which helped her order her compositions. She lacks spontaneity, but we can almost feel her satisfaction at putting things in their exact relation.

Blauvelt's rendering of stockings for sale, copied from a Sears and Roebuck or Montgomery Ward catalog, possesses the charm of bygone times, but her eye for pattern and repetition, for purely abstract qualities that she carefully reinforces, gives her work an appeal beyond nostalgia—and perhaps a slight chill. She celebrates unpopulated spaces and serendipitous order. Above all, she offers glimpses of a perfection that seems to lie outside of time and circumstance, although it captures them exactly. Blauvelt lets us know right where we are: in that place, among those things, at that time, and for eternity.

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When the Nazis instituted their policy of eliminating the mentally ill, they deprived the world of a voracious and complex creative intellect. Josef Heinrich Grebing, a learned and devout businessman from Magdeburg, Germany, declined into madness and was institutionalized before the Nazi takeover. In his art he seems to have grasped desperately at the remnants of a life that had slipped awayâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a life of calendars, times, dates, organizations, receipts. In his notebooks, Grebing devised elaborate business certificates laden with official seals and medals that resemble the parodies of cartoonist Saul Steinberg (1914-1999). He calculated a hundred-year calendar down to the last detail, and developed a precise, beautifully abstract color chart as well as an inventory of small graphic symbols, much like computer dingbats. More ominously, he also drew up a "Murderer's Chronological Calendarâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Headsman's Calendar." The attempts to impose order, even negative order, poured out of him.

One of his most grandiose and delicate images is this map of the world. It is topped by a detailed smaller map of what he labeled the Grebing domain in Germany and bordered by his versions of what appear to be hemispheric and planetary maps. The world map itself is crisscrossed by various diagonal lines that tie the continents together in some geometric scheme relating to longitude lines. Following antique conventions of the mappa mundi, Grebinq's vision elaborates a cosmology in dimension after dimension of organizing framesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;local geography, beginning with his own name, the landmasses and their connecting schema, the globe, the heavens. At the bottom of the map is a staff of music and the words Dies lrae (Wrath of God), indicating a religious chorus. In a band just above the notes and below the map are what appear to be flames.

As in so many of Grebing's pages, stunning as they are, a force seems either to sabotage the order directly or to suggest its ultimate destruction, and that threat generates an ever-more-frantic and elaborate attempt to bring every last element of time and circumstance into line.

This article has been adapted from Lyle Rexer, How to Look at Outsider Art(New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2005). The book, in softcover with one hundred illustrations in full color, t r OUTSIDER ART is available at the American Folk Art Museum Book and Gift Shop for $22.95. Museum members receive a 10 percent discount on all shop items.

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UNTITLED (World Map) Josef Heinrich Grebing (1879-1940) Magdeburg, Germany c. 1920s Mixed media on artists' board 4" / 4 x 111 / 163 Collection Prinzhorn, Heidelberg, Germany

UNTITLED Judith Scott (1943-2005) Oakland, California 1996 Mixed media 16 16 61 2" / Collection of Paul and Dana Caan

Judith Scott's work presents the most profound challenge to aesthetic interpretation. Born with Down's syndrome and institutionalized for twenty years, Scott created pieces by wrapping twine and yarn around a core object or objects, such as plates, shovels, sticks, and even toasters. As her constructions grew, she sometimes incorporated other objects, which were gradually wrapped in. The textures of the pieces range from tightly wrapped and carefully shaped to ragged and porous.

The artist's process appears to have been far more important to her than the formal outcome. The real challenge to interpretation is whether the works were for Scott substitutes for living beings. The process of swaddling or hiding an object suggests the need to protect something living, and the incorporation of other objects as she worked implies an organic process of growth and ingestion. Likewise, the spectacular and variegated colors of the yarn seem to signify something changeable and alive.

Or, perhaps,just the opposite. These objects also resemble mummy bundles, protecting a secret from the other end of life, the residue of spirit. In any case, they clearly suggest responses to primal processes. The roughest pieces, especially, whose core objects-often sticks-are poorly wrapped, possess a disturbing sense of near-life/near-death that lies beyond the capacity of art qua art to evoke. One of the few comparisons possible is with the work of Eva Hesse (1936-1970), so strongly oriented to the physical body without ever imaging it. Scott's objects seem to be struggling to come to life, or to avoid being smothered. It is as if we were watching a butterfly emerging from a cocoon or attempting to escape a spider's web. These works evoke the uncertainty and fear we feel at the borders of our fundamental categories of experience of animate/inanimate, made/found, self/not self, and, inevitably, birth/death. Scott's wrapped bundles grew steadily more elaborate in the objects they incorporated and in the references they appear to have made to the human body-in the case of the untitled work illustrated here, perhaps, the breast.

chromatic geometries created by contemporary artist Kenneth Noland (b.

1924), to which his paintings have sometimes been compared.

No Such Place as Outside Admittedly, cultural institutions and mainstream artists are always selectively enfranchising of outsiders. That is, the ticket of acceptance is always punched by the insiders. Yet among the best artists, it seems to me the embrace of outsider styles goes beyond appropriation. It is a form of recognition, not self-validation, an acceptance of kinship. There will always be people who, without formal training, often in dire psychic or physical straits, and with no hope of recognition or reward, give visual form to their inner apprehensions. We call these people artists, and it scarcely matters what other labels we affix. At the same time, it is crucial to recall that the meaning of any work of any art does not inhere within its forms. It is made by audiences in an endlessly shifting transaction with the object.

The making of meaning and the conferring of value are bound up with our personal histories and the culture we inhabit, and no work, whatever its origin, once it is engaged, can remain "outside." In naming artists as outsiders or naive or primitive or selftaught, even in an effort to champion the cause of their wider appreciation, we reinforce dubious categories that qualify the status of the art while saying little about the actual content and circumstances of the work. Indeed, the categories almost inevitably mislead. As writer and dealer Randall Morris has put it, they are like cutting off every limb that doesn't fit in the coffin.'

It is impossible to approach outsider and most self-taught artists via the accepted canons of art history, to situate them within familiar movements and influences. Their works tell us also that situating any work of art in history and theory is problematic. To recall Barnett Newman again, it shifts emphasis away from the existential experience of the thing toward a "reading" of it, a set of interpretations that can, over time, displace the work or

obscure it. The opposite of an orphaned work is one with too many relatives, so many that we cannot see it except in familial terms. With the best-known artists, it can begin to seem as if history itself created their art. Works by artists from Piet Mondrian (1872-1944) and Henri Matisse (1869-1954) to Blinky Palermo (b.

1943) all become chapters in a vast textbook of the evolution of artistic consciousness or, in postmodern terms, fields of play for impersonal cultural signifiers. This sense of impersonality grows with every representation of a work of art, every digital and printed image. In this allencompassing system of secondhand experience, the works become icons, canceling our direct perception of them as performances, foreclosing all but the narrowest visual participation.

We lose, for instance, the sense of urgency and finicky obsessiveness of Picasso's so-called analytic cubism, the contradictory tactile qualities of Mondrian's grids, and the strange loquacity of Ad Reinhardt's (1913-1967) black paintings. Outsider artâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;those works that resolutely resist such occlusion by confounding our conceptual categoriesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;can act as a spur to aesthetic conscience. "Look again," they seem to say. "Look directly and assume nothing."*

Lyle Rexer is the author ofmany books and catalog essays on art andphotography, including several that concentrate on outsider art and artists. He haspublished numerous essays focusing on contemporary artists and collections and has contributedfeature-length articles to publications such as the New York Times,Art in America, Art on Paper, and Aperture. He lives in Brooklyn.

Notes 1 Lisa Jardine, Worldly Goods(London: Macmillan, 1996), pp. 379-383.

2 Robert Hughes, The Shock ofthe New (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1980), p. 365.

3 Barnett Newman,"The First Man Was an Artist," The Tiger's Eye 1 (October 1947): 47-50.

4 Randall Morris,"The One and the Many: Manifest Destiny and the Internal Landscape,"in Charles Russell,ed., SelfTaughtArt: The Culture andAesthetics of American Vernacular Art(Jackson, Miss.: University Press of Mississippi,2001), p. 120.

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www.nrm.org

NORMAN ROCK-K- WELL MUSEUM

What do fascinating folk art portraits, exciting early films, notable New Yorker covers and prized parade flags have in common? They're ALL AMERICAN,and now through fall they're ALL waiting for you in the Berkshires,America's Premier Cultural Resort.

AMER It TRADITIONS in the Berkshires

In addition, the "Not-So-Fast Food Festival:A New American Tradition," offers countywide American-themed dining opportunities, and specially-priced American Traditions lodging packages that combine food and cultural tickets with terrific places to stay.

For a complete listing of events visit www.berkshiresarts.org. To receive a free Berkshire Visitors' Guide, call the Berkshire Visitors Bureau toll free, 866-444-4021.

Photos: Detail of Girl in Yellow Dress wtth Doll attributed to Erastus Salisbury Field, circa 1838. Fenimore Art Museum; Flag, courtesy of J. Richard Pierce; Moving Pictures, Edison Mfg. Co., Sandow. 1894. camera William Heise, Library of Congress; Cover for The New Yorker by Maira Kalman, copyright 01996 The New Yorker" and Maira Kalman

866-444-4021

www.berkshiresarts.org

WILTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY CELEBRATES AMERICAN CRAFTSMANSHIP Nov. 12 & 13 2005

Wilton High School Field House - Route 7, Wilton, Connecticut TRADITIONAL CRAFTS,FOLK ART,FINE FURNITURE EARLY BUYING: Saturday 8-10 $25 includes Continental breakfast GENERAL ADMISSION: Sat. & Sun. 10-5 $10 per person,$9 with ad Call for information about accommodations and directions.

150 of America's finest makers of furniture in the style of the 18th and 19th centuries; exciting folk art, both traditional and contemporary; useful and stylish objects to furnish traditional or modern homes; wonderful holiday Santa's and figures, whimsies and gifts.

PRODUCED BY MARILYN GOULD

Wilton Historical Society, 224 Danbury Road, Wilton, Connecticut 06897 Phone 203 762-7257 • Fax 203 762-3297 • info@wiltonhistoricalorg • www.wiltonhistorical.org

PROGRAMS

PUBLIC

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; 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.To purchase tickets, please call 212/265-1040, ext. 160.

FALL PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS

PRESENTATIONS

SYMPOSIUM

Broad Strokes:Looking to Three Regional Styles of Paint-Decorated Furniture Wednesday,Sept.28 7:00 PM $15;$10 members,seniors, students Pennsylvania German Decorated Chests,Peter S. Seibert, Painted Furniture ofNew England,Edwin A. Churchill; NewYork's Painted Furniture, 1650-1825,Peter M.Kenny

Paint-Decorated Furniture: Collectors and Dealers Talk It Over Saturday, Nov.12 9:30 Am-5:30 Pm $130;$115 members,seniors, students Well-known dealers, collectors, and experts will reflect on issues of quality, identification,regional style, and value in painted furniture.

Organized with the American Folk Art Society

PANEL DISCUSSION

Drawing on Obsession:A Conversation About Creativity and Markmaking Wednesday, Oct. 19 7:00 PM $15;$10 members,seniors, students A panel ofart critics, historians, and experts in the fields ofdrawing and psychiatry will explore issues raised by the theme ofthe exhibition "Obsessive Drawing."

ARTISTS TALK

Obsessive Drawing Wednesday, Nov.9 7:00 PM $15;$10 members,seniors, students Charles Benefiel, Hiroyuki Doi, and Chris Hiplciss, three artists whose work is represented in "Obsessive Drawing," will speak with exhibition curator Brooke Davis Anderson about their personal motivations for producing their artwork

STUDY DAY

Material Messages:Textile Voicesfrom America Friday, Dec.9 12:30-5:30 PM (three venues) $100;$75 members,seniors, students American textile makers as purveyors ofcontemporary sentiment and opinion will be examined. At Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts,Design, and Culture,guest curator Jacqueline M.Atkins will lead a tour through "Wearing Propaganda: Textiles on the Home Front in Japan,Britain, and the United States, 1931-1945." At the American Folk Art Museum,Stacy C. Hollander,senior curator,will show message quilts from the museum's permanent collection.

The day will conclude with a visit to a local textile manufacturer.

Organized with the Bard Graduate Center

IN HONOR SHALL WAVE SPREAD / artist unidentified / Yonkers, New York /1902 / cotton with Turkey red cotton embroidery / 86 73"/ American Folk Art Museum, gift of Elaine Sloan Hart, Quilts of America, 1989.20.1

FAMILY ART WORKSHOPS

Sundays,2:00-4:00 Pm $5 per family;free for member families For reservations, please e-mail grouptours@folkartmuseum.org or call 212/265-1040,ext. 160. You will receive a reply only ifthe workshop is full.

Department of Education may receive three P credits for participating. For more information, please contact Janet Lo,manager ofschool and docent programs,at 212/265-1040,ext. 119,or at jlo@follcartmuseum.org.

SCHOOL AND ADULT GROUP TOURS

Sept. 11, NYC Collage; Sept. 25, Spot the Dots;Oct.9, Gaze& Glaze;Oct.23, Oodles of Doodles;Nov.6,Stencils& Pencils; Nov.20, GivingThanks Quilt Collages;Dec.4,Focus on Frames;Dec. 18,HolidayDecorated Boxes EDUCATORS' WORKSHOP

Finding Folk Art Thursdays, Nov. 3â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Feb.2 (no sessions during school vacation week) 4:00-6:30 PM $150 The museum's accredited professional-development courses teach educators about the permanent collection and how to integrate folk art into the school curriculum. Educators from the

Tuesdaysâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Saturdays This fall the museum begins a new year ofschool and adult group tours ofthe museum's exhibitions and architecture. Adult groups enjoy tours reflecting highlights from the museum's current exhibitions and tailored to their interests.Thematic tours for school groups,such as"A World of Quilts" and "Extraordinary Everyday Objects," meet Department of Education standards and connect meaningfully to school curricula. For more information or to make a reservation, please call 212/2651040,ext. 381,or e-mail group tours@folkartmuseum.org.

Majorsupportfor education isprovided by the William Randolph Hearst Foundations. Evening events at the museum are madepossible through the generous support ofNancy and Dana Mead. Family art workshops are sponsored by D'Arty and Dana G. MeadJr. and Susan and Mark C. Mead.Additionalfunding for education isprovided by Ray Simon in honor ofLinda Simon, Consolidated Edison Company, the New York Times Company Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the New York City Department ofCulturalAffairs.

70 FALL 2005

FOLK ART

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The Early American -r

ANTKU6 61-10W Produced by Goodrich & Co. Promotions, Inc.

SEPTEMBER 23, 24 & 25, 2005 Valley Forge Convention Center. King of Prussia, Pennsylvania

Friday: 6pm-9pm

— I he Early American

COLLECTORS EARLY BUYING EVENT: $20.00 per person '441 ' #•••.• ........

Saturday: 10am-5pm • Sunday: 11am-4pm GENERAL ADMISSION: $12.00 per person (52.00 offgeneral admission with this ad. One pc; ivr,on. Not sand 1,

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TWO GREAT SHOWS FOR THE PRICE OF ONE! Held concurrently with The Early American Artisans Shots'

Phone: 717-796-2380 • Web site: www.goodrichpromotions.com

Artisans Show The Early American Artisans Show will showcase over 75 of the most prestigious artisans in the nation.

LECTURE AND BOOK SIGNING BY SUMPTER PRIDDY III, AUTHOR OF AMERICAN FANCY: EXUBERANCE IN THE ARTS, 1790-1840, ON SATURDAY,SEPTEMBER 24'h AT 2:00 PM.

FOLK

ART

INSTITUTE

JOIN US FOR

QUILT WEEKEND SEPTEMBER 30 & OCTOBER 1, 2005 Friday, September 30 WORKSHOP

Scrap Quilt Susie Andersen,10Am-4pm

All classes are held at the American Folk Art Museum,45 West 53rd Street, New York City Classes are open to the public.Those who wish to take courses to sharpen their perception as connoisseurs and collectors—but not for credit—may attend classes as auditors at a reduced fee.Tuition for the certificate program: $175 a credit. Auditors(no grades, no credits):5-session course, $115; 10-session course, $175; 15-session course, $230. A $5 discount is offered to museum members.

To register, contact Lee Kogan,director ofthe Folk Art Institute, at 212/265-1040,ext. 105.

Saturday, October 1 FALL COURSE SCHEDULE WORKSHOP

Make It Simpler Paper Piecing

FOLK ART STUDIES

Anita Grossman Solomon, 9Am-nnon

MONDAY The Camino Real and the Santa Fe Trail(FA72) 6:00-8:00 PM Instructor: Deborah Dwyer 5 sessions; 1 credit Starts Sept. 19

LECTURE

Quilts: Cyril I. Nelson's Gifts to the Collection Elizabeth V. Warren,12:15pm TOUR

Textiles on View at the Museum Lee Kogan and Deborah Ash, 3pm DEMONSTRATIONS Metropolitan-Area 12:30-4:30pm

Quilt Guilds

For more information or to make reservations, please contact Lee Kogan at 212. 265. 1040, ext. 105, or e-mail lkogan@folkartmuseum.org.

TUESDAY American Artfrom the 1950s to the Present(FA75) 11:00 Am-1:00 PM Instructor: Herbert Hartel 15 sessions;3 credits Starts Sept. 13 American Textiles:Plain and Fancy(FA26A) 6:00-8:00 PM Instructor: Mimi Sherman 15 sessions;3 credits Starts Sept. 13 WEDNESDAY Collectors and Collecting (FA90) 11:00 Am-1:00 Pm Instructor: Lee Kogan 15 sessions;3 credits Starts Sept. 14 American Folk Sculpture(FA12) 6:00-8:00 Pm In tractor.William C. Ketchum Jr. 15 sessions;3 credits Starts Sept. 14

NECKTIE QUILT / Anita Grossman Solomon / courtesy CST Publishing, Concord, Georgia AMERICAN

AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM TEL: 212. 265.1040 WWW.FOLKARTMUSEUM.ORG

45 W. 53RD ST, NEW YORK CITY

72 FALL 2005

FOLK ART

0 IME111021

THURSDAY The Painted Surface(FA74) 11:00 AM-1:00 PM Instructors: Deborah Ash and Lee Kogan 5 sessions; 1 credit Starts Sept.8

Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican Art:Olmec to Aztec(FA76) 11:00 Am-1:00 PM Instructor: Keith Jordan 5 sessions; 1 credit Starts Oct.20 Artists with Disabilities and Their Studios(FA73) 11:00 AM-1:00 PM Instructor: Cheryl Rivers 5 sessions; 1 credit Starts Dec.1 HANDS-ON CRAFT & HERITAGE COURSES

THURSDAY FIVE-SESSION COURSE The Art ofEmbellishment: Furniture Decorating Techniques/Scene Painting (WS500E) 6:00-8:00 PM

Instructor: Rubens Teles Course fee: $155 (no materials fee) Starts Oct.20 FRIDAY SINGLE-DAY SESSIONS 10:00 Am-4:00 PM Sept.30 Scrap Quilt(WS636) Instructor: Susie Andersen Course fee: $95 Materials fee: $20 Oct. 14 Painted Canvas Floorcloth (WS525) Instructor: Sarah Hilton Course fee: $95 Materials fee: $35

Oct. 21 Traditional Rug Hooking (WS526) Instructor: Marilyn Bottjer Course fee: $95 Materials fee: $40

Nov. 18 Etched Gold Leafon Glass (WS583) Instructor: Frances Phillips Course fee: $95 Materials fee: $85

Oct.28 Japanese Four-Hole Bookbinding(WS631) Instructor: Celene Ryan Course fee: $95 Materials fee: $20

Dec.2 Crazy Quit(WS601) Instructor: Susie Andersen Course fee: $95 Materials fee: $20

Master Furniture Maker

QUILT WEEKEND WORKSHOPS Nov.4 Folk Portraiture(WS624) Instructor: Dorothy Fillmore Course fee: $95 Materials fee: $20

Friday, Sept. 30 Scrap Quilt(WS636) See listing opposite page

Nov. 11 Scene Painting(WS506) Instructor: Rubens Teles Course fee: $95 (no materials fee)

Saturday, Oct. 1 A Quilt Workshop with Anita Grossman Solomon (WS637) 9:00 Am窶馬oon Course fee: $45 Materials fee: $15

A hen originals are not available History and artistry in wood 17th and 18th century American furniture Reproductions

DRESSING TABLE / artist unidentified / Worcester, Massachusetts /1820-1835 / paint on maple and pine / 37% x 33 x 20"/ American Folk Art Museum, promised gift of Ralph Esmerlan, P1.2001.74

240 Lewis Creek Drive Ferrisburgh, VT 05456

Please call 802-425-6070

On view in "Surface Attraction"

FALL 2005

FOLK ART

73

MUSEUM

REPRODUCTIONS

PROGR

AM

BY ALICE J. HOFFMAN

FOLK ART

Representing more than 300years ofAmerican design,from the late 1600s to thepresent, the American Folk Art Museum Collection TM brings within reach ofthepublic the very best ofthepast to be enjoyedforgenerations to come.

COLLECTION

New Directions * Waterford Wedgwood USA Hark! Waterford Wedgwood USA,the U.S. subsidiary of Dublin,Ireland—based Waterford Wedgwood,is heralding a new beginning this year. Inspired by the extensive angel imagery in the museum's collection,Waterford Wedgwood USA created the first of a series of angels for the museum's Heirloom Angel Collection. Included in this series are an angel tree topper, candle stand, wall plaque, and bookend. Each limited-edition,signed, and numbered angel is wrapped in specially designed boxes,and is itself a keepsake.To reflect and illuminate the spirit ofthe holiday season,Waterford Wedgwood USA also created a series oftrumpeting angels, each with a heartfelt message, 12 in all: Peace,Hope,Love, Joy, Dream,Care,Pray,Thanks, Faith,Home,Sing,and Friend.

To create your own glorious celebration, start your angel collection this year. For more information, contact Waterford Wedgwood USA at 800/955-1550.

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. * Andover Fabrics Home Sweet Home!Andover Fabrics designer Kathy Hall drew inspira-

74 FALL 2005

FOLK ART

tion from the museum's Appliqued Carpet, a c. 1860 room-size appliquéd and embroidered textile, to create Penny Rugs,the third series ofHome Sweet Home printed fabrics for home sewing projects."Penny rug" refers to a type of appliqué traditionally made from felted wool, popular in the mid-19th century and the early part ofthe 20th century, and to the round shapes used as templates for the circle designs that were laid one on top ofthe other and stitched down through the center. Flower and animal shapes,layered within the circles and appliqued on the rug with embroidery stitches, were often features ofthese textiles as well. Penny Rugs features many ofthe whimsical pictorial and floral elements masterfully executed on the museum's piece,including a central medallion with a tapestry-inspired scene oftwo trees, with birds in the branches,tall grasses, and a blue rabbit.To view the entire Home Sweet Home III: Penny Rugs collection, visit Andover at www.Andoverfabrics .com.For information about where to purchase this series, contact Andover at info@Andover fabrics.com or at 800/223-5678. * FUNQuilts Contemporary Heirlooms! FUNQuilts recently added Nightfall, a new design,to the museum's series oflimitededition quilts. Nightfall's artful composition embodies the use of geometric patterns adapted from

Nightfall by FUNQuilts

Amish quilts in the museum's collection. FUNQuilts makes each quilt separately, one at a time,on a hand-guided quilting machine in its Oak Park,Ill., studio. FUNQuilts uses this technique to create dense patterns for a rich texture and added durability All quilts are made from 100 percent cotton fabrics and batting and can be machine-washed and dried.

Nightfall measures 38 x 38", perfect dimensions for a wall hanging,lap quilt, or tabletop accessory Visit www.FUN Quilts.com to view their entire collection of museum-inspired limited-edition quilts.

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

Family of Licensees Andover Fabrics(800/223-5678) printed fabric by the yard and prepackaged fabric craft kits. Chronicle Books(800/722-6657) note cards.* Fotofolio (212/226-0923) art postcard books and boxed note cards.* FUNQuilts(708/445-1817)limited-edition quilt collection.* Gsdison (212/354-8840) portfolio and boxed note cards and jigsaw puzzle.* LEAVES Pure Teas(877/532-8378)loose tea in decorative tins.* MANI-G'Raps (800/510-7277)decorative gift wrap and coordinating accessories.* Museum Store Products(800/966-7040) magnets.* Mary Myers Studio (757/481-1760) wooden nutcrackers, tree ornaments,and table toppers.•On the Wall Productions,Inc.(800/7884044)Magic Cubes.* Ozone Design,Inc.(212/563-2990)socks. Pfaltzgraff (800/999-2811) By Request•The America Collectionm dinnerware. Taloashimaya Company,Ltd.(212/350-0550) home furnishings and decorative accessories (available only in Japan). Waterford Wedgwood USA (800/955-1550) holiday decor.* *Available in the American Folk Art Museum Book and Gift Shop. Members receive a 10 percent discount on all shop items.

Penny Rugs â&#x20AC;˘

4W.

Andover Fabrics and the American Folk Art Museum's newestflannel collection designed by Kathy Hall.

=MID -J

2-1

'ndover `Fabrics-

a

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Offering thefinest heirloomquality custom hand-hooked rugs made in America today.* Working with leading architects, designers and collectorsfor over 20 years.

BY APPOINTMENT STEPHEN T. ANDERSON LTD. 1071 FIRST AVE. NEW YORK, NY 10022' 212.319.0815 FAX 212.980.5453 standerson21@earthlink.net www.customhookedrugs.com

PHONE

FALL 2005

FOLK ART

75

UPDATE:

THE

SHIRLEY

K .

SCHL

A

FER

LIBRARY

BY JAMES MITCHELL

he museum's Shirley K. Schlafer Library has recently acquired a number of new items exploring the visual folk traditions of prisoners.

Artfrom the Inside:Pano Drawings

by Chicano Prisoners is the catalog ofan exhibition organized by the New England Center for Contemporary Art,in Brooklyn, Conn.The curators, Martha V. Henry and Peter David Joralemon,have made a close study of recent drawings made in San Antonio.Though limited in its scope,the book has some interesting revelations about the iconographical significance ofsuch banal imagery as sad downs and unicorns. What would look familiar, and saccharine, on a pediatridan's office wall can be quite poignant in the context ofincarceration, especially when tempered with depictions ofviolence, drug abuse, and sexuality. Patio drawings are done mostly with ballpoint pens or markers on white handkerchiefs,convenient and licit materials available in prison commissaries.Though obviously closely related to tattooing, the composition ofthe works in the exhibition also makes clear certain connections to mural art and graffiti. The artists often use a similar collage style, with related vignettes and symbols tightly mixed to illustrate their lives. In the more ambitious works,the inner and outer life—physical,temporal, and psychological—are often combined.

T

Don't mrss the Wednesday, Oct. 19 10:30 AM-5:30 PM Shirley K. Schlafer Library American Folk Art Museu 45 West 53rd Street, New York City

76 FALL 2005

FOLK ART

DEATH AT THE CANTINA / J. Luna / San Antonio, Texas /1997 / ink on cotton handkerchief / Henry

private collection, courtesy Martha

At one venue,the Suite Museum ofArt at the University of Notre Dame,the exhibition was accompanied by an additional pamphlet with a long essay by Victor Alejandro Sorell,"Illuminated Handkerchiefs,Tattooed Bodies,and Prison Scribes: Meditations on the Aesthetic, Religious, and Social Sensibilities of Chicano Pintos."Professor Sorell ranges widely with his background discussion of Hispanic culture, showing the waypaiios mediate between life "inside" and out of prison, as commodities,communications, and memorials.

The library has also acquired a videotape ofa recent documentary on the subject,Paiio Arte:Images from Inside, directed by Evangeline E.Griego(About Time Productions, 1996). Filmed mostly at prisons in New Mexico,and featuring extensive interviews with the artists, it examines the work more directly in the context of incarceration. It is especially valuable for allowing the artists to speak directly about their work.

A view ofa related type of subcultural expression has been published in the Russian Criminal

rate emblems expressing the wearer's criminal history, group identity, and anti-authoritarian values.Though many use crudely explicit sexual imagery,there are occasional witty political caricatures, satirizing contemporary state slogans and propaganda.

On the same subject,the library has also acquired another videotape,the documentary The Mark ofCain, by producer Lalou Dammond and director Alix Lambert(Pink Ghetto Productions,2000). Like Patio Arte, this film allows a closer view ofthe prisoners'world.The extreme vulgarity oftheir tattoos becomes much more understandable after seeing the harsh living conditions and treatment that they receive.*

Tattoo Encyclopaedia(Gottingen, Germany: Steidl/Fuel,2003).The book features drawings and photographs oftattooed prisoners from Russian criminal tattoo / Leningrad, Russia / Soviet labor camps and gulags. recorded by Danzig Baldaev in 1989 Most ofthe tattoos were recorded Inscriptions (translation of Russian): But in

by Danzig Baldaev beginning in the graveyard everything is peaceful, 1948,when he worked as a wareverything is proper, absolute bliss! and den in Leningrad,and include Glory to the Agricultural State Camp many examples dating back to the Administration! early Soviet period. More recent examples, photographed by Sergei Vasiliev from 1989 to 1992, show how these traditions have incorporated contemporary pop-culture imagery while retaining their original functions.

Since most of the prisoners expected to serve life terms,fullbody coverage of the most lurid sort was common—marking themselves as permanently estranged ArO, from society.The tiff symbolism is even more 4,4) (2 101 0 ,V highly coded than in the pan° drawings,with elabo-

e-

NOW AVAILABLE ON DVD IN THE BOOK AND GIFT SHOP

, . ;e4;;•.° elpf,

IN THE REALMS OF THE UNREAL: THE MYSTERY OF HENRY DARGER Directed by Jessica Yu / $25.00 This innovative feature-length documentary, directed by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Jessica Yu and produced by Susan West, explores the parallel lives of legendary self-taught artist Henry Darger. His 15,000-page novel details the exploits of the Vivian Girls, seven angelic sisters who lead a rebellion against godless, child-enslaving men. Featuring the voices of Dakota Fanning and Larry Pine, the music of Emmy-winning composer Jeff Beal, and the work of a team of animators, this film tells the story of a hidden universe.

AMERICAN

AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM

BOOK AND GIFT SHOP 0 MUSEUM

45 W. 53rd St., New York City 212. 265.1040, ext.124 giftshop@folkartmuseum.org

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AMERICUS contemporaries AMERICUS CONTEMPORARIES of the American Folk Art Museum brings together young folk art enthusiasts for a variety of engaging activities and events. This dynamic group of art patrons receives special access to the museum's resources, and participates in exclusive curatorial tours, visits to artists' studios, and tours of private collections. All patron members under age 45 are invited to join.

To learn more about the AMERICUS CONTEMPORARIES and its upcoming schedule, please contact Dana Clair, membership coordinator, at 212. 977. 7170, ext. 346, or dclair@folkartmuseum.org.

UNTITLED (Marie with Flowers in Hair, Cropped at Bust)/ Eugene Von Bruenchenhein 1910-1983)/ Milwaukee / n.d. / hand-colored gelatin silver print / 7 x 5" / American Folk Art Museum, gift of Lewis and Jean Greenblatt, 2001.23.5

FALL 2005

0

FOLK ART

77

CONNECTION

QUILT

BY LEE KOGAN

BIRD OF PARADISE QUILT TOP / artist unidentified / vicinity of Albany, New York / 1858-1863 / cotton, wool, silk, and ink with silk embroidery / 84% x 69%"/ American Folk Art Museum, gift of the trustees, 1979.7.1

ird ofParadise Quilt Top is replete with appliquĂŠd birds,familiar and exotic animals, and people in a colorful floral setting. The intriguing image of an elephant, with gold embroidered lettering forming the name "HAN/I/BLE" on his red blanket, and the elephant's apparent keeper, invited a closer look. New findings provide an additional context that confirms the dating ofthe quilt top and the attribution of the quilt's geographical origins. This new information once again proves that folk art is often a significant document of American social history.

The fanciful beast, named after the famed Carthaginian general, was more than just an embellishment in the quiltmaker's colorful composition; research reveals that this pachyderm had a significant history For more than 30 years, Hannibal performed with an animal menagerie and later was a circus entertainer.

B

"Hannibal," photographed in Newport.

Vermont, in August 1860 / collection of Richard W. Flint Inscription (front): Van Amburg[sic] & Co.'s Mammoth Elephant, HANNIBAL. Largest in the world. August 1860;(back): Imported by George Vaughn NY 1833. Became the property James Raymond. Died 1865 with Van Amburgh Menagerie & Thayer & Noyes Circus at Center1 2ft. Skeleton mounted in ville, Pa. Height 9/ [illegible] Veterinary College in Chicago.

Henry Barnum with stove pipe hat. Jack Parks lying down. Frank Thomas keeper all that I recognize. Taken August 18th 1860 Newport Vermont. To Frank Hyatt from Frank Townsend, Brewster, NY.

78 FALL 2005

FOLK ART

Imported in 1831 and advertised as the "Great Hunting Elephant, Timour the Tartar," he was renamed in 1833 by Raymond, Weeks & Co. and billed as"War Elephant Hannibal."In the mid1850s he was part of the Great Broadway Menagerie, Signor Chiarini's Italian Circus, Raymond & Co.'s Menagerie, Herr

Dreisbach & Co.'s Menagerie, and Stickney & Co.'s Circus. For many years, through 1863, he traveled with Van Amburgh & Co., which advertised in local newspapers. Hannibal performed mostly in the Midwest, but from 1860 to 1862 local ads advertised Hannibal as appearing in the Van Amburgh traveling circuses in

Quilt and Textile Events and Exhibitions COMPILED BY ELEANOR BERMAN

New York City and throughout the Hudson Valley, including Kingston,Poughkeepsie, Newburgh,Hudson,Red Hook, Rhinebeck,Beekmanville,Troy, Albany, and Kinderhook.These locations place the animal in the exact area in which the quilt is thought to have been created. A paper template for one ofthe related images on the quilt was cut from the Poughkeepsie Weekly Eagle, suggesting that the creator was from that area.

There was a report that,during his lifetime, Hannibal killed several people, but there is little information to corroborate the assertion. Hannibal died in 1865,and was so popular that, years later, in 1871, his bones were exhumed with the purpose of placing the skeleton in a museum at the Chicago Medical School. At this time,the whereabouts of Hannibal's skeleton are unknown,but there is evidence in the archives at Northwestern Medical School (formerly Chicago Medical School)that a Dr. Boyd,who led the Hannibal project, was a professor ofanatomy at the hospital.

Further research revealed that Hannibal's keeper for 12 years, between 1851 and 1863,was an I. or B. Frank Thomas (1819-1898),during the very years that Hannibal performed in New York. It is likely Thomas who is depicted in the quilt as the figure feeding Hannibal.

Traveling menageries were popular in the middle ofthe 19th century in the Hudson River Valley.Text ofthe newspaper used as a template for the quilt is concerned with northern and southern economic interests in cotton, consistent with problems facing the nation in the years just prior to the Civil War,further verifying the present dating ofthe quilt.* Much ofthis biographicaland historical information camefrom stualks gelate-18th-andearly19th-century show elephants, animal menagerie and circus history, contemporaneous newspaper ads, andfrom the research ofand interviews with circus historian Stuart Thayer. Specialthanks also goes to Terryilriano, curator, Somers Historical Society, Somers, NY and Richard W Flint, Baltimore.

Auburn, Ala. Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art

New Albany,Ind. Carnegie Center for Art and History

Quilts of Gee's Bend

Rhapsody in Rugs: Rags to Rugs

Sept. 11—Dec.4 334/844-1484; www.julecollinssmith museum.com San Jose, Calif.

San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles

Uncommon Threads: Traditions in Transition Through Jan. 1,2006 408/971-0323; www.sjquilt museum.org

and

Hopi Quilting Traditions

Sleep in Beauty: Bed Coverings from Around the World

Sept. 7—Nov. 12 Through Oct. 23 812/944-7336; 314/721-0072; www.carnegiecenter.org www.slam.org Spencer,Iowa Arts on Grand

Oct. 31,2005— Jan. 7,2006 303/277-0377; www.rmqm.org

Great Plains Women: Harrisonburg, Va. Patchwork Lives Virginia Quilt Museum Through April 2,2006 Feedsack Quilts from 402/471-4754; the VQM Collection

Paducah, Ky. Museum of the American Qtilter's Society

www.nebraska history.org

and

Paper Doll Quilts by Rebekka Seigal

Boone, N.C. Turchin Center for the Visual Arts

Contemporary

Quilt National 2005 Winners

Nov. 5,2005— Jan. 8,2006 270/442-8856; www.quiltmuseum.org

Dec. 2,2005— Jan. 15,2006 828/262-3017; www.turchincenter.org

Lowell, Mass.

New England (Ilia Museum

Tillamook, Ore. Latimer Quilt and Textile Center

World War!!Era Quilts

Valerie Webb:Wheat Weavings

Oct. 7-9,2005 402/472-5361; www.h-net.org/-aqsg

St. Charles, Mo. Foundry Art Centre

Washington, D.C. The Textile Museum

Through Nov.6 636/255-0270; www.foundryart centre.org

Quilt National 2005 Winners

Through Oct.3 540/433-3818; www.vaquilt museum.org Shelburne, Vt. Shelburne Museum

25 American Quilts and the Women Who Made Them Through Oct. 31 802/985-3346; www.shelburne museum.org

Sept. 28—Nov.20 503/842-8622; www.oregoncoast.com /latimertextile

"DearJane"

Intercourse, Pa. People's Place Quilt Museum

Sept. 21—Dec. 31 360/466-4288; www.laconner quilts.com

Group Seminar

Through Jan. 8,2006 202/667-0441; wvvw.textilemuseum.org

Through Dec. 31 717/299-6440; www.quiltandtextile museum.com

Sept. 22—Oct.22 712/262-4307; www.spenceria.cont/aog

Through Oct. 30 978/452-4207; Lakewood, Colo. www.nequilt American Quilt Study museum.org

Huari Ceremonial Textiles

Textiles Are My Paint: Portrait Hooked Rugs

by Linda Friedman Schmidt

Mystery Quilts

Through Oct. 29

Men ofthe Cloth: Quilts by Men

Lancaster, Pa. Lancaster ()Ink and Textile Museum

Lincoln, Neb. Museum of Nebraska History

Golden, Colo.

Rocky Mountain Quilt Trapunto/Stuffed Museum Work,Antique and

Historic Beauties in Red and Green

St. Louis, Mo. St. Louis Art Museum

La Conner,Wash.

La Conner Quilt Museum

A Showplace of Quilts:Dazzling Contemporary Creations Ongoing 800/828-8218; www.ppquilt museum.com

Eleanor Berman is a volunteer at the American Folk Art Museum.

FALL 2005

FOLK ART

79

BOOKS

REVISITING

OF

INTEREST

COMPILED BY EVELYN R. GURNEY

AMMI PHILLIPS he following 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 212/265-1040. Museum members receive a 10 percent discount.(* New titles)

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American Anthem: Masterworksfrom the American Folk Art Museum, Stacy C. Hollander, Brooke Davis Anderson,and Gerard C. Werticin, American Folk Art Museum in association with Harry N.Abrams,2001, 432 pages, $65 American Fancy:Exuberance in the Arts, 1790-1840, Sumpter T Priddy III, Chipstone Foundation, 2004,250 pages, $75

GET YOUR COPY TODAY! This handsome, limited-edition publication celebrating the work of 19th-century portrait painter Ammi Phillips is a must-have for serious collectors. Only 200 copies were originally produced. A small quantity of hand-numbered copies, in perfect condition, are now available at the museum shop for $200 each.

Revisiting Ammi Phillips: Fifty Years of American Portraiture

By Stacy C. Hollander and Howard P. Fertig American Folk Art Museum, 1994 80 pages, 50 color plates, clothbound with dust jacket, 9 x 11" Includes an extensive chronology of the artist's life and an annotated checklist of 633 attributed paintings

AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM

BOOK AND GIFT SHOP 45 W. 53rd St., New York City 212. 265. 1040, ext. 124 giftshop(Aolkartmuseum.org

80 FALL 2005

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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 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 American Self-TaughtArt:An Illustrated Analysis of20th-Century Artists and Trends with 1,319 Capsule Biographies, Florence Laffal and Julius Laffal, McFarland & Company,2003,322 pages,$45 ArchitecturefiffArt,American Art Museums 1938-2008, Scott J. Tilden,ed., Harry N.Abrams, 2004,238 pages,$60 The Art ofAdoifWayIi:St. AdolfGiant-Creation, Daniel Baumann and Elka Spoerri, American Folk Art Museum in association with Princeton University Press, 2003, 112 pages,$29.95

*Bill Traylor, William Edmondson, and the ModernistImpulse, Josef Helfenstein and Roxanne Stanulis, eds., ICrannert Art Museum,2005,208 pages,$40 * Christine Sefizlosha:Phantom, Art&Fiction Press,2005,80 pages,$30 Collecting American Folk Art, Helaine Fendelman and Susan Kleckner, House of Collectibles, 2004,196 pages,$12.95 Coming Home:Self-TaughtArtists, the Bible, and the American South, Carol Crown,ed., University Press ofMississippi 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 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 *Donald Mitchell: Right Here, Right Now,Cheryl Rivers, ed., Creative Growth Arts Center,2005,92 pages,$24.95

*Forms ofTradition in Contemporary Spain,Jo Farb Hernandez, University Press of Mississippi, 2005,256 pages,$65 (hardcover), $35 (softcover) Howard Finster(1916-2001), Norman Girardot,Diane LaBelle, and Ricardo Viera, Lehigh University Art Galleries,2004,90 pages,$32

One Is Adam, One Is Superman:The Outsider Artists ofCreative Growth, Leon Borenzstein, Chronicle Books,2004,131 pages, $40 The Perfect Game:America Looks at Baseball, Elizabeth V. Warren,American Folk Art Museum in association with Harry N.Abrams,2003,150 pages,$29.95

2006

0 NJSELINI

AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM *How to Look at Outsider Art, Lyle Rexer, Harry N.Abrams,2005, 176 pages, $22.95 James Castle:His Life andArt, Tom Trusky,Idaho Center for the Book,2004,190 pages,$29.95 (hardcover),$19.95 (softcover) *JustAbove the Water:Florida Folk Art, Kristin G. Congdon and Tina Bucuvalas, University Press of Mississippi,2005, 368 pages, $65 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 *Miracles ofthe Spirit:Folk, Art, and Stories ofWisconsin, Don Krug and Ann Parker, University Press ofMississippi, 2005,336 pages,$65 * New Museums, Raul A. Barreneche, Phaidon Press,2005, 207 pages,$69.95 North Carolina Pottery:The Collection ofthe Mint Museums, Barbara Stone Perry,ed., University of North Carolina Press, 2004,210 pages,$24.95

* The Potter's Eye:Art and Tradition in North Carolina, Mark Hewitt and Nancy Sweezy,University of North Carolina Press, 2005,336 pages, $39.95

2006 WALL CALENDAR

Radiant Spaces:Private Domain, Doug Harvey,ed., Smart Art Press,2004,128 pages,$20 Quilts: California Bound, Califirnia Made,1840-1940, Sandi Fox, FIDM Museum &Library,2002, 207 pages, $40 Mi KC H

Raw Vision OutsiderArt Sourcebook, John Maizels, Raw Vision,2002,228 pages,$29.95 * The Shipcarvers' Art:Figureheads and Cigar-Store Indians in Nineteenth-Century America, Ralph Sessions, Princeton University Press,2005,240 pages,$75

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IMAGES FROM THE PERMANENT COLLECTION LIMITED QUANTITY

$12.95(members $11.50)

* Silk Stocking Mats:Hooked Rugs ofthe Grenfill Mission, Paula Laverty, McGill Queen's University Press,2005,192 pages,$44.95

SHOPS

45 West 53rd Street, NYC 10019 2 Lincoln Square, NYC 10023 E-MAIL

giftshop@folkartmuseum.org

Tools ofHer Ministry: TheArt of Sister Gertrude Morgan, William A.Fagaly,American Folk Art Museum in association with Rizzoli, 2004,120 pages,$35

PHONE ORDER

212. 265. 1040 ext.100

ANIERICAN

VISIT

www.folkartmuseum.org

0 MUSEUM

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81

MUSEUM

NEWS

BY VANESSA DAVIS

SPRING BENEFIT much to the museum through he beautiful faces ofthe their leadership and generosity.

American Folk Art John Wilkerson has served as a Museum's supporters filled the tent at the annual Spring Ben- trustee ofthe museum since 1994, first as board treasurer, then as efit, held on June 8.This year's president from 1999 to 2004. As theme,"Get Folk.ist," inspired by president,John successfully led the museum's exhibition ofportraits,"Selfand Subject," honored the museum through a challenging period ofvigorous growth, the spirit ofthe individual, which including the completion ofits infuses folk art. It was a celebration of people, especially esteemed celebrated new home. Barbara has guests and the evening's honorees, hosted many special events for the museum,helping to forge lasting John and Barbara Wilkerson.

Guests arrived at the museum relationships.

Cheering the artists, the for cocktails and hors d'oeuvres museum,and the museum's and explored the exhibitions on friends, the party was a great sucview while listening to musicians cess. With such a bright future, from the Manhattan School of there was a lot to celebrate!

Music. A delicious and elegant dinner followed in a tent adjacent to the museum,on land lent by the neighboring Museum of The museum thanks Modern Art.The festive atmosthe following artists phere included music by the and donors for their Howard Fishman Quartet. Other contribution of artworks entertainment included renowned psychic and palm reader Maxine Stephen Warde Anderson, Albert, master illusionist J.B. arah Britt, Susan Brown, Benn,silhouette artists Deborah Fabien Buckley, Rex Clawson, O'Connor and Andrea Peitsch, Harold Crowell, Jimmy Crys and a photo booth in which Corso de Palenzuela, Tom guests could pose as portrait subDuncan, Willie Leroy Elliott jects by 20th-century self-taught Dolores Furnari, Johann painter Ralph Fasanella or 19thGarber, Keith Goodhart, Anne century portraitists Sheldon Peck Grgich, Ken Grimes, Chris and Amini Phillips, provided by Hipkiss, Historical Society for Alan Kipnis of Silver Screen Early American Decoration, Media.In the spirit ofthe Mr. Imagination, Levent lsik, evening's theme,58 mirrors and Barbara Knickerbocker, Linda other objects embellished and Carter Lefko, Dan Lufkin, Leonk generously donated by 36 artists McCutcheon, Laura Craig were up for silent auction.

McNellis, Buxton Midyette, Laura Parsons, president of Daniel Monrose, Margie Patti, the board oftrustees, and DirecKevin Sampson, Andrea tor Maria Ann Conelli welcomed Schlieder, Linda Friedman everyone with opening remarks, Schmidt, Rubens Teles, Nancy and honorary chair Robert N. Toombs, Gregory Van Maanen,:: Wilson presented a token of Myrtice West, Brooks appreciation and recognition to Yeomans, Malcah Zeldis the Wilkersons.The Wilkersons, consummate folk art and Americana aficionados, have dedicated

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Trustee L. John Wilkerson and Barbara Wilkerson with Bob Wilson (right)

From left: Richard Chief Administrative Linda Dunne, and Bob

Laura Parsons, president of the board of trustees

From left: Angela Sacks, Liz Stern, and Margo Rosenberg

Kendra and Allan Daniel

Edgar Cullman Sr.(left), David Nichols, and Trustee Lucy Danziger

George N'Namdi

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Barbara (rashes (left) and Trustee Joyce B. Cowin

PHOTOGRAPHY BY MATT FLYNN

Director Maria Ann ConeIli and Trustee Nancy Mead

From left: Trustee David L. Davies, Chris Wilkerson, and Tatiana Nikitina

he GERARD C. WERTKIN EXHIBITION FUND was established by the American Folk Art Museum's Board of Trustees to honor Director Emeritus Gerard C. Wertkin for the transforming role he has played in the life of the museum.

Dana Mead (left) with Trustee Robert L. Hirschhorn and Marjorie Hirschhorn

Contributions to the fund will directly support the development and installation of new exhibitions. For information, please contact Christine Corcoran, manager of individual giving, at 212. 977. 7170, ext. 328, or ccorcoran@folkartmuseum.org.

From left: Trustee Edward V. Blanchard Jr., Lydia Blanchard, and Cordelia Blanchard

AMERICAN FOLK ART

Jerry Lauren and Trustee Lucy Cullman Danziger

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MUSEUM 45 W. 53RD ST NEW YORK CITY

Pamela Gabourie, manager of institutional giving (left), and Janet Lo, manager of school and docent programs

Sandra Jaffe FALL 2005

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MUSEUM

HAVE YOU

NEWS

The Enfield Shaker Singers performing in the museum's Cullman/Danziger Family Atrium

REMEMBERED THE AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM

IN YOUR WILL? is

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Through a bequest, you can provide enduring support for the American Folk Art Museum. To make an unrestricted bequest to the museum, the following language is suggested: percentage or all of I give dollars/ the residue of my estate to the American Folk Art Museum,45 West 53rd Street, New York, NY 10019, for its general purposes.

I AM FILLED WITH HEAVENLY TREASURES songs make important contribuwenty-five members ofthe tions to the sacred folk song Enfield Shaker Singers of repertoire of the United States.

Enfield, N.H., performed Under the direction of Mary Ann glorious music in the museum's Haagen and clothed in ShakerCullman/Danziger Family inspired garb, the ensemble's Atrium on May 14.The a capchild and adult vocalists sang pella vocalists, while not Shakers hymns, danced, and read statethemselves, believe that the richments from prominent Shakers. ness and originality of Shaker

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The bequest may be funded with cash, bonds, marketable securities, or property. The museum is a not-for-profit tax-exempt 501(c)(3) entity.

The museum's CLARION SOCIETY recognizes individuals who have remembered the museum in their wills and through other planned gifts.

To join the CLARION SOCIETY or to make a specific bequest, please contact Christine Corcoran at 212. 977. 7170, ext. 328, or ccorcoran@folkartmuseum.org.

Teen docents from Talent Unlimited AMERICAN

0 LL_ MUSEUM ELEPHANT WEATHERVANE (detail) / artist unidentified / probably Bridgeport, Connecticut / late nineteenth century / paint on pine with iron /19 1/2 x 48 1/4 x 1" / American Folk Art Museum, promised gift of Ralph Esmerian, P1.2001.335

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TALENT UNLIMITED n April 19,10 students from Talent Unlimited, a performing arts high school in Manhattan, completed their training to become teen docents and led their peers on tours of the museum.To celebrate the teen docents' accomplishments,the tours were followed by a reception in the Esmerian-King Family Auditorium for their families and

0

friends that showcased the art the students had made from found objects inspired by the collection.

Museum docents Tania Batley, Carol Gruber, and Roberta Krakoff, under the supervision of Janet Lo, manager ofschool and docent programs,worked with the students to help shape their tours over the 18-week course, and hosted the festivities.

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Ofeze Yerove./

6aetzire

, dA 7 exe4/(Ov e

Affordable, museum-quality reproductions of American antiques & contemporary folk art... a spectacular array of traditional home furnishings & decorative accessories!

ROYAL PLAZA TRADE CENTER Marlborough, Massachusetts

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Rte. 20, 1 mile west of 1-495

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FRIDAY, October 28, 6 p.m. -10 p.m.

SATURDAY, October 29, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.

SUNDAY, October 30, 11 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Admission — Friday Evening & Saturday $8. Sunday $6 Lunch & dinner available.

Travel & Lodging — (888) 543-9500

Country Folk Art Festival "Celebrating a 22-Year Tradition ofExcellence!"

630 858-1568• www.folkartfest.com

NAME... and inspire others to do the same. With a gift of $2,500 to $25,000, you can sponsor the display of an object in the American Folk Art Museum or underwrite an exhibition or an issue of Folk Art magazine. Join the FOLK ART CIRCLE and see your name in the museum's

cuiiman/Danziger Family Atrium and in Folk Art. To join the museum's quickly expanding circle of friends, please contact Christine Corcoran, manager of individual giving, at 212. 977. 7170, ext. 328, or ccorcoran@folkartmuseum.org.

AMERICAN

7.3 MEM

LIEBESBRIEF (detail)/ Christian Strenge / East Petersburg, Pennsylvania / c.1790 / watercolor and ink on cut paper / American Folk Art Museum, promised gift of Ralph Esmerian, P1.2001.209 / Photo: Schecter Lee, New York

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MUSEUM

NEWS

FOLK ART INSTITUTE GRADUATION he Folk Art Institute commencement took place on June 6. Lee Kogan,director ofthe Folk Art Institute, organized the event and introduced the speakers during the ceremony.

Following opening remarks by the museum's director, Maria Conch, Tania Batley was awarded a certificate and the title ofFellow of the American Folk Art Museum, having completed a 36-credit course in folk art studies as a matriculated student. Museum trustee Frances Sirota Martinson presented the certificate to the graduate.

Diana Schlesinger, director of education,issued awards to 5-year docents Lenore Blank, Sherril Kraus,and Krystyna Pitula, and to Bella Kranz, a 10-year docent.

The annual Esther Stevens Brazer Memorial Lecture,given on this occasion, was delivered

by Linda Eaton,curator oftextiles at the Winterthur Museum, in Winterthur, Delaware. Her

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James Mitchell, librarian, handling the Darger manuscript with white gloves

Diana Schlesinger, director of education

DARGER: ON SCREEN, IN PRINT, AND ONSTAGE son, director and curator ofthe he museum's education Contemporary Center and the department and Contemporary Center collaborated with Henry Darger Study Center, welcomed everyone to the event with the Dance Theatre Workshop,in New York City, to create three a reading from the artist's weather journal. For the next two hours, exciting evenings celebrating selfthe fans ofthe artist did so with taught artist Henry Darger both drama and humor. Being (1982-1973). On March 17 the able to read directly from the fifth Nathan Lerner Annual Lecoriginal text was a meaningful ture was presented in the form of a film screening ofIn the Realms of experience for those participating and listening. Darger's saga the Unreal: The Mystery ofHenry Darger, with filmmaker Jessica Yu (started in the middle) was revving up by the time the proon hand to discuss the documengram ended and everyone reluctary afterward. tantly left to go home.

To celebrate what would have On May 4 the Pat Graney been Darger's 113th birthday, on Company,from Seattle, perApril 12, a full house of enthusiasts came to participate in reading formed their new piece, The aloud from his voluminous manu- Vivian Girls, a modern dance script,In the Realms ofthe Unreal, inspired by the work of Henry Darger,at the Dance Theatre which is in the permanent Workshop.The three events collection.The museum's Cullman/Danziger Family came together to explore and commemorate the important Atrium was staged festively with work of Henry Darger, and his cafĂŠ tables, hot-pink tablecloths, influence on a wide spectrum colorful balloons, and frosted ofcontemporary artists. cupcakes. Brooke Davis Ander-

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talk,"19th-Century Textiles: Dispelling the Myths," covered such topics as the continuation of hand-weaving into the age of mechanized weaving and the continued use of natural dyestuffs after the invention of synthetic dyes, demonstrating that the history oftextiles in the 19th century is more complex than a simple linear progression ofinventions.

A festive tea organized by Deborah Ash,Joan Bloom,and a team ofvolunteers preceded the ceremonious event.

Folk Art Institute graduate Tania Batley with her daughters

PUT 'EM TO WORK he museum celebrated its first Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day on April 28 by inviting children and parents of neighborhood corporate partners to attend a lunchtime tour and craft session. Docents Dena Bock and Arlene Kreisler led a short tour ofthe exhibition "Selfand Subject,"followed by a

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craft workshop led by Janet Lo, manager ofschool and docent programs. Using the exhibition for inspiration, the young participants drew their own self-portraits, resulting in some wonderful creations. This important national event will occur again next year on a day designated by the Ms. Foundation.

RECOGNIZING VOLUNTEERS joyful volunteer-recognition party was held on April 28 at the wonderful, art-filled, New York home ofTrustee Lucy Cullman Danziger and Mike Danziger.The party is an annual way ofthanking all the museum's volunteers for their loyal, commit-

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ted service.The Danzigers warmly welcomed all the volunteers, while other speakers at the party included museum director Maria Ann Conelli, who spoke about her own experience as a volunteer, and Jane Lattes, director of volunteer services.

SYMPOSIUM COLLECTORS AND DEALERS TALK IT OVER A full-day seminar on 19th-century American paint-decorated furniture Participants include Ronald Bourgeault, Peter Deen, Samuel Herrup, Stacy C. Hollander, Charles Hummel, Joan M. Johnson, Jeff Pressman, Sumpter Priddy III, Cynthia V.A. Schaffner, Elliot Snyder, Rubens Teles, Dean Van Dusen Saturday, November 12, 2005 9:30Am-5:30pm $130 / $115 members includes lunch and wine and cheese party Co-sponsored by the American Folk Art Society Contact: 212. 265.1040, ext.105, or lkogan@folkartmuseum.org

AMERICAN

CHEST OVER DRAWERS / artist unidentified, possibly Solomon Garfield / New England, possibly Tyringham, Massachusetts / 1825-1840 / paint on wood, including basswood / 40 x 42 1/4 x 18 1/4" / American Folk Art Museum, gift of Jean Lipman in honor of Cyril I. Nelson, 1994.5.1

_J AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM 0 212. 265. 1040 FOLKARTMUSEUM.ORG 45 WEST 53RD ST., NEW YORK CITY

Li

MUSEUM

THE AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM PRESENTS

THE AMERICAN ANTIQUES SHOW JANUARY 19-22, 2006 A BENEFIT AT THE METROPOLITAN PAVILION Featuring 45 of the country's preeminent Americana and folk art dealers

GALA BENEFIT PREVIEW Wednesday, January 18 For more information or to reserve tickets: taas@folkartmuseum.org or call 212.977. 7170, ext. 319

THE AMERICAN ANTIQUES SHOW

LOCATION Metropolitan Pavilion 125 West 18th Street, NYC

SHOW HOURS Thursday I noon-7pm Friday I noon-7pm Saturday I n000-7pm Sunday I noon-5pm Daily admission $15, includes show catalog Group rates available Managed by Karen DiSaia

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NEWS

MUSEUM

DIALOGUES: SEMINARS ON CONTEMPORARY INTERSECTIONS IN ART nspired by the exhibition "Bill Traylor and William Edmondson: African American Art and the Modernist Impulse," which was on view at the Studio Museum in Harlem from April 27 to July 3, the museum collaborated with the Studio Museum on a series of two seminars, one at each institution, exploring contemporary intersections in art. Initiated by this museum's board president Laura Parsons and Gayle Perkins Atkins, a trustee of the Studio Museum,the programs were shaped by Studio Museum director Lowery Stokes Sims with the involvement ofthe education departments ofboth museums as well as the American Folk Art Museum's Contemporary Center.

The result was two extraordinary evenings of conversation about William

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Edmondson and Bill Traylor, and how contemporary African American artists have been impacted by the work of African American self-taught artists. Speakers included Brooke Davis Anderson, Rusty Freeman, Eugenia Shannon, Lowery Stokes Sims, and contemporary artists Kerry James Marshall, Alison Saar, and Faith Ringgold.

The most crucial part of the program was the audience, patrons of both institutions, who asked questions about whose work is more "authentic"â&#x20AC;&#x201D;that of trained or self-taught artistsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and wondered whether the academy promotes or stifles creativity These are art world conversations that the museum continues to cultivate through such public dialogues.

FIGURES AND CONSTRUCTION WITH BLUE BORDER / Bill Traylor (1854-1947)/ Montgomery, Alabama / c. 1939-1942 / poster paint on cardboard / 15%.8"/ American Folk Art Museum, gift of Charles and Eugenia Shannon,1991.34.1

EVENTS PRIVATE 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 250 guests o Seated dinners for up to 100 guests o Auditorium with full range of audio/visual technology for meetings and conferences AMERICAN

For more information and to arrange a site visit, please contact Katie Hush at 212. 977. 7170, ext. 308, or khush@folkartmuseum.org.

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EDUCATION GRANT he museum recently received a $100,000 contribution from the William Randolph Hearst Foundations.This extraordinary gift will provide critical funding for education and outreach initiatives that reach children and youth.

Philanthropist William Randolph Hearst founded the Hearst Foundation,Inc., and the William Randolph Hearst Foundation in 1945 and 1948,respectively.The charitable goals of the two foundations are essentially the same and reflect the philanthropic interests oftheir founder within

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the fields ofeducation, health, culture, and social service. Both foundations are national,independent, private philanthropies operating separately from the Hearst Corporation.

As its education programs expand and flourish, the museum offers sincere gratitude for the support and commitment ofthe William Randolph Hearst Foundations. It is thanks to the generosity ofdonors such as these that the museum continues to be a valuable cultural resource for our community's young people.

Church Street Art Gallery 34 Church Street Lenox, MA 01240 â&#x20AC;˘ 413-637-9600

AMERICAN PORTRAITS SYMPOSIUM n April 8 the education tour ofselected portraits in the departments of both the exhibitions "Selfand Subject" and American Folk Art "Folk Art Revealed" with curators Museum and the Bard Graduate Lee Kogan and Stacy C.HollanCenter for Studies in the Decora- der. At the end ofthe day, an tive Arts, Design,and Culture intimate visit with commissioned (BGC),in New York City, preportrait painter Philip Pearlstein sented a full day oflectures, exhi- revealed the artist's love ofAmeribition tours, and a visit to the can folk art, which fills his studio studio ofPhilip Pearlstein, all in and often inspires his paintings. celebration ofAmerican portraits.The day began with a talk by noted art historian Richard Brilliant, who discussed the aesthetic, social, and philosophical foundations ofportraiture in America over the past 200 years.

His enthusiasm for the subject carried the day as participants toured the exhibition "Cherished Possessions: A New England Legacy" at BGC and then traveled to the American Folk Art Museum,where the Dr. Joseph M.Winston Memorial Lecture heightPORTRAIT OF FRANK PETERS / Joseph P. Aulisio ened the visual impact of (1910-1974)/ Old Forge, Pennsylvania / 1965 toil on the day,in the form of a Masonite / 27/ 1 2 x 191 / 2"/ American Folk Art Museum,

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Lewis Smith "Kroger Female" drawing on shopping bag inverso â&#x20AC;˘ "Two Posing Females"

Church Street Art Gallery specializes in outsider and folk art. www.churchstreetart.com ulick@churchstreetart.com

gift of Arnold B. Fuchs, 1978.8.1

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BY LEE

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GAYLEEN AIKEN (1934-2005)

WILLEM VAN GENK (1927-2005) illem Van Genic, a noted Dutch artist, died on May 12 in a nursing home in The Hague, Netherlands. He stopped making art in 1997 following a series ofsmall strokes that left him in poor health. Nico van der Endt,the founding director ofthe Galerie Hamer in Amsterdam and a trusted friend ofthe artist's since 1975,said,"His death marked the end ofan era." Having experienced a complex and turbulent life, Van Genk became "a triumphant participant in .2 the great political and personal power game of history" r„ through his artistic expression.

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E i The artist's oeuvre consists ofdrawings, paintings, collages, about 70 model trolleybuses, and an installation of a trolleybus station in his small apartment. He also had a huge collection of plastic raincoats with altered fastenings. Densely conceived with an intricate,tangled proliferation oflines and text, many of Van Genk's subjects focus on train and air travel, architecture, and many forms ofpower—personal, political, sexual.

Rendered in broad, minutely detailed panoramas, many scenes are presented in a bird's-eye view.The complex themes are not easily accessible, and the material lends itself to multiple meanings and interpretations.

Van Genk's works are in the Collection de l'Art Brut, Lausanne, Switzerland.

everly"Gayleen" Aiken, a creator ofsculptures, cartoonlike drawings, and books that combine fantasy, music, memory, and reality, died March 29 at her home in Barre, Vt.The recipient ofa 1987 fellowship by the Vermont Council on the Arts, Aiken was a leading member of Grassroots Art and Community Effort (GRACE),a not-for-profit workshop program,founded by artist Don Sunseri, that supports underrecognized artists, many at community centers, nursing homes,and psychiatric facilities throughout Vermont. She was the subject ofJay Craven's award-winning film, Gayleen (1987).

Twenty-four imaginary cousins, the "Raimbillis," inhabited the curious world that Aiken invented when she was 9 years old. She created eternally youthful lifetime companions in the form oflife-size cardboard cutouts of the Raimbillis. The granite manufacturing plant outside of Barre and the nickelodeon inside her home are also featured in many of her drawings, which are generously sprinkled with text. In 1997,Aiken published a book with Rachel Klein, Moonlight and Music: The

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MARIO SANCHEZ (1908-2005) cerned with historical accuracy, ario Sanchez,a celebrated virtually all of Sanchez's subjects Floridian woodcarver, died were based on actual people, on April 28 at his home in places, and remembered events.

Key West. Sanchez's painted basAs he once explained,"You can't reliefs depict life in El Barrio de invent history."

Gato,an enclave ofCubanEach of Sanchez's carvings American cigar makers in Key was preceded by a preliminary West.The visual narratives that sketch on a paper grocery bag he carved and painted show that he transferred to wood using changes within his community carbon paper.The artist began over more than 50 years, and preworking with discarded tobacco serve images of street vendors, musicians, working-class men and crates, then moved on to northern white pine, cypress, or cedar women at the shoeshine stand, a boards. His tools included wood cigar-making factory, and local chisels, a wooden mallet, a broken dairy and fish markets. Con-

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piece of glass, a single-edged razor blade to sharpen outlines, inexpensive brushes, and, mainly,

Enchanted World ofGayleen Aiken (Harry N.Abrams).

Aiken had been drawing since the age of2,encouraged by her parents, and continued to create until the week of her death. She left school when she was 9, after being taunted by classmates for being "different." Highly intelligent,she was homeschooled and,as

an adult, was sensitive to labels of any kind.

Aiken,who lived alone, has no immediate survivors. She was buried at Eaton Cemetery in Marshfield, Vt.

oil paint thinned with castor oil.

On average, his carvings took three to four months to complete.

In March 2005 the Key West Museum of Art and History mounted a one-person exhibition, "Listening to Our Ancestors," featuring approximately 80 of Sanchez's works,which are on display through the rest ofthe year. A feature article on the artist appeared in the fall 1996 issue of Folk Art(vol.21, no. 3).

Sanchez is survived by his sister and three generations of nieces and nephews.

I.

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•

• •

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PICTURES FROM A PHOTOGRAPH 'AND RELATED WORKS September 8— October 8

JANET SOBEL IN HER

• IN ASSOCIATION WITH GARY SNYDER FINE ART

DCMOORE

BRIGHTON BEACH HOME. DETAIL OF PHOTOGRAPH

BY BEN SCHNALL, 1944.

GALLERY

724 FIFTH AVENUE (57TH STREET) NEW YORK 10019 • 212 247-2111 • WWW.DCMOOREGALLERY.COM

INTUIT SHOW

September 30 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; October 2, 2005 847 West Jackson Blvd.

Chicago, Illinois Dealers from around the country feature a wide variety of folk, outsider, and ethnographic art in addition to Americana and antiques.

For more information call: Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art 312-243-9088 or visit our web site at www.art.org

AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM

FI40 ED RUG

CONTEST ICONS OF AMERICA ENTRIES MUST BE POSTMARKED BY

DECEMBER 1, 2005 Sponsored by the museum's Folk Art Institute

AMERICAN >

ANTON HAARDT GALLERY MONTGOMERY, AL (334) 263.5494 II NEW ORLEANS ANNEX (504) 897.1172 www.antonart.com

92 FALL 2005

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For official rules and eligibility requirements, please contact the Folk Art Institute at 212. 265. 1040, ext. 105, or e-mail lkogan@folkartmuseum.org

0

MUSEUM

MUSEUM

INFOR MATION

ovvtem c,

Berenberg Gallery

HOURS AND ADMISSIONS * Nr AMERICAN

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American Folk Art Museum 45 West 53rd Street (between 5th and 6th Avenues) New York, NY 10019 212/265-1040 www.folkartmuseum.org

4 Clarendon Street

Boston, MA 02116

self:Tall0‘

T 617536.0800

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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 B,D,F, V to 47-50 Streets, Rockefeller Center Bus: Ml,M2,M3,M4, M5,M6,or M7

Nancy Suthe land

www.berenberggallery.com

Free to all

EXHIBITION SCHEDULE

Folk Art Revealed Atrium and Floors 4 and 5 On continuous view

Ancestry and Innovation: African American Artfrom the Collection Floor 2 Through Sept. 4, 2005

Selfand Subject Floor 3 Through Sept. 11,2005

Obsessive Drawing Floor 2 Sept. 14, 2005—March 19, 2006

Surface Attraction: Painted Furniture from the Collection Floor 3 Sept. 20, 2005—March 26,2006

WWW.ARTBRUT.COM new works on-line and at the gallery

UNTITLED! Hiroyuki Doi (b. 1946)!Tokyo, Japan / 2003/ ink on paper / 55 x 27"! courtesy the artist and Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York

BEVERLY KAYE 15 LORRAINE DRIVE WOODBRIDGE, CT

203.387.5700

FOLK ART by appointment

On view in "Obsessive Drawing"

FALL 2005 FOLK ART 93

TRUSTEES/DONOR

S

AMERICAN

FOLK

ART

MUSEUM

BOARD OF TRUSTEES Executive Committee Ralph 0.Esmerian, Chairman Laura Parsons,President Frances Sirota Martinson, Esq., Vice President Lucy Cullman Danziger, Vice President Barry D.Briskin, Treasurer Taryn Gottlieb Leavitt, Secretary Didi Barrett Edward V.Blanchard Jr.

Richard H.Walker,Esq. L.John Wilkerson

Members Akosua Barthwell Evans Barbara Cate David L.Davies Laurence D.Fmk

Jacqueline Fowler Susan Gutfreund Robert L. Hirschhorn ICristina Johnson,Esq. Michelle L.Lamer Nancy Mad J. Randall Plummer Margaret Z.Robson Bonnie Strauss Nathaniel]. Sutton

Trustees Emeriti Joseph F. Cullman 3rd (1912-2004) Cordelia Hamilton Cyril I. Nelson (1927-2005) George F. Shaskan Jr.

Fred &Theresa Buchanan in memory of Sybil Gibson Charles&Deborah Burgess Jim Burk Antique Shows The Burnett Group Joyce A. Burns Marcy L. Burns,American Indian Arts Paul &Dana Caen Lewis P. Cabot Elinor B.Cahn Mr.&Mrs.Donald Campbell Bliss & Brigitte Camochan John W.Castello in memory of Adele Earnest Caterpillar Foundation Donald N.Cavanaugh &Edward G.Blue Edward Lee Cave Virginia G.Cave Shari Cavin &Randall Morris Peter P. Cecere Sharon S.Cheeseman Christie's Richard &Teresa Ciccotelli Barbara L Claster Lori Cohen Alexis & George Contos Judy Angelo Cowen Foundation Mrs. Daniel Cowin in memory of Daniel Cowin Jeanne D.Creps Mr.&Mrs.Edgar M.Cullman Elissa F.&Edgar M.Cullman Jr. Joe &Joan Cullman Susan R.Culhnan 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 & Arnold Dunn Ray 8c 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 Heila D. Everard Sam &Betsey Farber Nancy Farmer & Everette James Mike &Doris Feinsilber Bequest of Eva & Morris Feld Elizabeth C.Feldmann M.Finkel &Daughter Fireman's Fund Insurance Company Deborah Fishbein Alexander & Enid Fisher Laura Fisher, Antique Quilts 8c Americana Jacqueline Fowler

Beverly Frank Gretchen Freeman &Alan Silverman Mrs. Albert D.Freiberg Susan 0.Friedman Alvin E.Friedman-Kien, M.D. Furthermore,the publication program of the J.M. Kaplan Fund Galerie St. Etienne,Inc. Gallery ofGraphic Arts, Ltd. Rebecca & Michael Gamzon Judy &Jules Garel Rich &Pat Garthoeffner Garth's Auctions,Inc. Sidney 8c Sandra Gecker Nancy Gerber Morad Ghadamian Sima Ghadamian Merle & Barry Ginsburg James & Nancy Glazer Mr.8c Mrs. Merle H.Glick Carla T. Goers Edith H.Goldberg Russ & Karen Goldberger Mrs.Toni L. Goldfarb Tracy Goodnow Art &Antiques Ellin &Baron Gordon â&#x20AC;˘ Howard Graff Jonathan Green Nancy M.&Ben S. Greenberg Greene & Mays American Antiques Marion E.Greene Blanche Greenstein &Thomas Woodard William 8c Shirley E.Greenwald Peg &Judd Gregory Audrey Ellcinson Griff Bonnie Grossman,The Ames Gallery Path Gutlunan Alan 8c Elaine Haid Robert& Linda Hall Cordelia Hamilton Ken 8c Debra Hamlett Nancy B. Hanson Jeanne 8c Herbert Hansel Deborah Harding Marion Harris &Jerry Rosenfeld Harvey Art&Antiques Audrey Heckler Donald Heller, Heller/VVasham Nina Hellman Jeffrey Henkel Mr.& Mrs. George Henry Mr.& Mrs.Samuel Herrup Ann Hickerson &Martha Hickerson Antonio Hidalgo The High Five Foundation Frederick D.Hill Pamela 8cTimothy Hill Kit Hinrichs Robert &.Marjorie Hirschhorn & Carolyn Hirschhorn Schenker, The Hirschhorn Foundation Historical Society of Early American Decoration Arlene &Leonard Hochman Mr.8c Mrs.Joseph C.Hoopes Jr. Carter G.Houck Sr. Evelyn Houlroyd Ellen E.Howe

Mr.& Mrs.Philip Howlett Allen 8c Barry Huffman Peter D.Hyn.son Antiques Paul Ingersoll In the Beginning Fabrics Thomas Isenberg In memory ofLaura N.Israel Thomas &Barbara Israel Martin & Kitty Jacobs,The Splendid Peasant Johnson &Johnson Joan 8c Victor Johnson ICrisfina Johnson,Esq. Louise 8c George ICaminow Julie &Sandy Palley and Samuel 8c Rebecca Kardon Foundation Allan 8c Penny Katz Edwin U. Keates, M.D. Steven 8c Helen Kellogg Jolie Kelter 8c Michael Melee Richard Kemble &George Korn, Forager House Collection Mrs. David J. ICend Leigh Keno Amy Keys Phyllis Kind Joe K. ICindig Jacqueline &Jonathan King Susan &Robert E. Klein Nancy Knudsen Nancy ICollisch &Jeffrey Pressman Greg K. Kramer David &Barbara Krashes Dr. Robert& Arlene Kreisler Sherry 8c Mark Kronenfeld Robert A.Landau Bruno &Lindsey LaRocca Michelle &.Lawrence Lasser William 8c Karen Lauder Jerry &Susan Lauren Wendy &Mel Lavitt Mark 8cTaryn Leavitt The Edith and Herbert Lehman Foundation,Inc. In memory ofHenry J. 8c Erna D.Lair 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 8c Erwin Maddrey Anne 8c Vincent Mai Maine Antique Digest The Jane Marcher Foundation Paul Martinson,Frances Martinson & Howard Graffin memory ofBurt Martinson Mr.& Mrs. Christopher Mayer Mrs. Myron Mayer in honor of Nancy Mayer ICerry McCarthy Milly McGehee Nancy and Dana Mead Mary 0.Mecagni Robert &Meryl Meltzer

Joyce B.Cowin Samuel Farber Joan M.Johnson Selig D.Sacks, Esq.

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 8c Gordon L.Wyckoff, Raccoon Creek Antiques American Capital Access The American Folk Art Society Barbara Anderson Ingrid 8c Richard Anderson Mama Anderson Marie T. Annoual Aame Anton Barbara Ardizone Marion Armstrong R.R. Atkins Foundation Lois S.&Gad Avigad Joan 8c Darwin Bahm Marcia Bain Lori Ann Baker, Baker &Co.Designs Ltd. Marianne E.Balazs 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 &Barry Bell in honor of Alice &Ron Hoffman Philip &Leah Bell Laurine 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 Bodman Foundation Booth Ferris Foundation Robert, Katharine &Courtney Booth Catherine &Chris Botta Marilyn W.Bottjer Ronald Bourgeault, Northeast Auctions Edith S. 8c Barry D.Briskin,The Shirley K. Schlafer Foundation Susan Brodish Florence Brody Sheila &Auron Brog R. Scott Bromley The Brown Foundation,Inc. Curtis F. Brown,Hayden Goldberg Mr.& Mrs.Edward James Brown Gail Brown Marc Brown 8c Laurene Krasny Brown J. Bruce Antiques

94 FALL 2005

FOLK ART

JACK FISCHER GALLERY OUTSIDER

Sarah Barr Snook Elliott &Grace Snyder Mr.& Mrs.Peter J. Solomon Sotheby's Maxine Spiegel Nancy T.& Gary]. Stass Frederick Stecicer Stella Show Mgmt.Co. Su-Ellyn Stern Tamar Stone 8c Robert Eckstein Ellen Stone-Belic Rachel&Donald Strauber Bonnie &Tom Strauss The R.David Sudarsky Charitable Foundation NathanielJ. Sutton Leslie Sweedler John 8c 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 & Kathleen Ullmann Lee 8c Cynthia Vance Jacob 8c Ray Van Gelder Bob &Ellie Vermillion Joan & Clifford Vemick Joseph &Mel.* Viener Robert E.Voellde IN.& Birgitta XL von Zelowitz David &Jane Walentas Jennifer Walker Clifford A.Wallach Irene N.Walsh Don Walters & Mary Benisek Warburg Pincus The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Elizabeth 8c 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 8c Meryl Weiss Ed Weissman Julia Weissman Mr.& Mrs.Peter Wells Ben Wertkin David Wheatcroft Harry Wicks Donald K.Wilkerson,M.D. Barbara &John 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 &Becky Zoler 27 anonymous donors

CONTEMPORARY

Vi6 Irris'up

VICTOR CRISTESCU

55'

JACK FISCHER GALLERY 49 GEARY, SUITE 440 SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108

415.474.5411 www.jackfischergallery.com

THE GALLERY AT HAI 548 Broadway, NYC, NY 212-575-7696

ART and TEXT October - December, 2005 Monday - Saturday, Noon - 6PM Reception, November 17, 6PM - 8PM

Z@leZUOD WeIIIIM

Charles W.Merrels Evelyn S. Meyer George H.Meyer Jim 8c Enid Michelman Mrs. E.J. Milano Mr.&Mrs.Samuel C. Miller Judith &James Milne Jean Mitchell Sandra Moers JP Morgan Chase 8c Co.,Inc. Keith 8c 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.8c Mrs. Frank N. Norris Jr. Susan Nova Sally W.O'Day Odd Fellows Antiques Bequest of Manic 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 8c Karin Perez Jan Petry Philip Morris Companies Inc. Elizabeth A. Pile Harriet Marple Plehn Trust Carolinn Pother &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. Rebollo 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 E Russack Antiques 8c Books,Inc. Selig D.Sacks Judith Sagan Mary Sams,Ballyhack Antiques Jack 8c Mary-Lou Savor Peter L Schaffer Carol Peden Schatt Shirley K.Schlafer Memorial Fund In memory of Esther &Sam Schwartz Marilyn &Joseph Schwartz The Schwartz Gallery, Philadelphia Phyllis &Al Selnick Jean S.&Frederic A. Sharf The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation In honor ofGeorge Shaslcan The George and Myra Shaskan Foundation,Inc. Roz 8c Steve Shaw Arthur 8c Suzanne Shawe Harvey S. Shipley Miller &J. Randall Plummer Elie 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

SELF TAUGHT

FALL 2005

FOLK ART

95

DONORS WORKS BY

SUSAN SLYMAN DONORS FOR EXHIBITIONS AND OPERATIONS 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, 2004-May 31, 2005: $50,000 & up Edith S.&Barry D.Briskin The Hearst Foundations Leir Charitable Trusts Nancy 8c Dana G.Mead Laura & Richard Parsons Peter Jay Sharp Foundation Bonnie &Thomas W.Strauss

CAN BE SEEN

AT

FRANK J. MIELE CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN FOLK ART 10E36 MADISON AVENUE NEW YORK, N.Y. 10028 212.249.7250

GALLERIE JE REVIENS 991 POST ROAD EAST WESTPORT CT. 06E3E30 203.227.7716

Mary Michael Shelley 607-272-5700 S

v1

E' â&#x20AC;˘ Demonstration carving summer Saturdays at the Ithaca Farmers'Market

96 FALL 2005

FOLK ART

520,000-$49,999 Didi 8c David Barrett Edward V. Blanchard Jr. Bloomberg LP. The Brown Foundation Citigroup Lucy&Frederick M.Danziger David L. Davies &John Weeden Vivian &Strachan Donnelley Betsey&Samuel Farber Susan &John H.Gutfreund Marjorie & Robert Hirschhorn JP Morgan Chase &Co.,Inc. Joan & Victor L.Johnson Just Folk/Susan Baerwald & Marcy Carsey Latham &Watkins Frances Sirota Martinson National Jewelry Institute New York State Council on the Arts J. Randall Plummer Margaret Z. Robson Barbara &John Wilkerson $10,000-$19,999 Angelo, Gordon 8c Co. Credit Suisse First Boston Louise &Edgar M.Cullman Davis Polk &Wardwell Debevoise &Plimpton The Dyson Foundation Fried, Frank,Harris, Shriver &Jacobson Johnson &Johnson Penny &Allan Katz LEF Foundation Cynthia &Dan W.Lufkin Pfizer,Inc. Dorothea &Leo Rablcin Kate Stettner &Carl Lobell Wachtell,Lipton, Rosen 8c Katz White &Case $5,000-$9.999 Altria Group Lois S.&Gad Avigad Akosua Barthwell Evans Bristol-Myers Squibb Company John R.8c Dorothy D.Caples Fund The Bonnie Cashin Fund Juqueline Fowler Mark Goldman Nancy &Tim Grumbuher J.M. Kaplan Foundation Luise & Robert Kleinberg Barbara 8c David !Crashes

Lehman Brothers Robert Lehman Foundation,Inc. Betty &John Levin Beverly &Peter Lipman Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Kay & George H.Meyer Emily Anne Nixon Angela & Selig Sacks Marvin 8c Donna Schwartz Mr.&Mrs.Peter L. Sheldon Smith Richardson Foundation Sin von Reis Elizabeth &Irwin H.Warren Tod Williams 8c Billie Tsien Anne 8c Robert N.Wilson $2,000-$4,999 Becky & Bob Alexander Molly F. Ashby &,Gerald M.Lodge Bachner 8c Warren Deborah Bergman Ron 8c Cheryl Black Jill & Sheldon Bonovitz Katharine & Robert E.Booth Lois 8c Marvin Broder Dana Buchman Ellie &Edgar Cullman Jr. Kendra Krienke Daniel 8c Allan Daniel Peggy & Richard Danziger Ed &Pat DeSear Claire 8c Alfred C.Eckert III Andrew Edlin Ralph 0.Esmerian Helaine 8c Burton Fendelman Maxine 8c Stuart Frankel Foundation James Friedlander 8c Elizabeth Irwin The Galerie St. Etienne Merle 8c Barry Ginsburg Audrey B. Heckler Catherine &Richard Herbst Stephen Hessler 8c Mary Ellen Vehlow Sandra Jaffe ICristina Johnson Helen & Steven Kellogg Mary Kettaneh Lesley &John B. Koegel Phyllis ICossoff Jo Carole & Ronald S. Lauder Taryn & Mark Leavitt Stephanie &Sam Lebowitz Deanne D.Levison William M.Lewis Richard Lukins Linda 8c Christopher Mayer D'Arcy &Dana G.Mead Jr. Susan &Mark C.Mead Merrill Lynch 8c Co.,Inc. Anne &J.Jefferson Miller New York City Department of Cultural Affairs Ralph E.Ogden Foundation,Inc. Olde Hope Antiques Harold Pote &Linda E.Johnson Jeffrey Pressman & Nancy Kollisch Paige Rense Lois & Richard Rosenthal Robert A. Roth Shelley &Donald Rubin Myra Sc.George F. Shaskan Jr. Smart Design

51,000-U999 Dana &A.Marshall Acuff Deborah &James Ash James Asselstine &Bette J. Davis Gayle Perkins Atkins 8c Charles N.Atkins ;Celia 8c Glenn Bailey Jeremy L.Banta Anne H.Bass Jill 8c Mickey Baten Robin Bell Lawrence A.8c Claire B.Benenson Helen Bing Virginia &William D.Birch Adele &Leonard Block Barbara &James A.Block Judy&Bernard Briskin Marjorie B. Buckley Barbara Bundy Carl Hammer Gallery Sharon Casdin Thomas Cholnoky Angela &James Clair Joyce B. Cowin Cullman & Kravis,Inc. Susan R.Cullman &John Kirby Judy& Aaron Daniels Abbie Darer Deborah Davenport 8c Stewart Stender Gary Davenport Diamond Baratta Design Drysdale Inc. Charles P. Durkin Douglas Durst The Echo Design Group,Inc. Essie 8c Sherman K. Edmiston Anne &Joel Ehrenlcranz Gloria Einbender Eva 8c Morris Feld Fund Lori &Laurence Fink Marilyn Friedman &Thomas Block Jill Gallagher Bruce Geismar Mildred &William L. Gladstone Susan &Arthur Goldstone EI1M 8c Baron J. Gordon VVilliam R Grant Susan Green Lewis Greenblatt Irwin &Janet Gusman Cordelia Hamilton Ann &James Harithas Seamus Henchy Stephen M.Hill Sandra &John C.Horvitz Stephen 8c Carol Huber Thomas Isenberg Theodore Israel &Laurel Cutler Israel Ned Jalbert Vera &JosefJelinek William Mitchell Jennings Bodil Joergensen Gwen 8c Eckart Kade

Phyllis Kind Mr.&Mrs.Abraham Krasnoff Cheryl Krongard Susan &Mark Laracy Lindsey &Bruno LaRocca Susan &Jerry Lauren Alexander Lee Dinah &Stephen Lefkowitz Petra 8c Stephen Levin Barbara S. Levinson Ammirati Puns Lintas Stephen Loewentheil Phyllis &William Louis-Dreyfus Luise Ross Gallery Mary's East Frank Maresca Michael T Martin Mary Shaw Love May Family Mrs. Myron L.Mayer Michael Rosenfeld Gallery Virginia B. Michel Angie Mills Richard Mishaan Design Randall Morris 8c Shari Cavin Barbara Mulch David Muniz Cynthia 8c Donald B. Murphy Judy &Bud Newman Margaret&David Nichols David T. Owsley Elbert H.Parsons Rolando Perez& Karin Eriksen Perez Anthony J. Petullo Peter Pollak Roberta &Jack Rabin Jackie &Howard Radwin Bunny &Milton S. Rattner Alyce & Roger Rose Janet Ruttenberg Riccardo Salmona Betty&Paul Schaffer Cipora 0.&Philip C.Schwartz Phyllis &Al Selnick Mary Ann &Arthur Siskind Susan 8c Peter J. Solomon Jennifer &Jonathan Allan Soros Nancy &VVilliam W.Stahl Ellen &David Stein Elizabeth A. Stern Alan Stillman Donald & Rachel Strauber Frank Tosto Dorothy C.Treisman Judith &Bennett Weinstock Leon & Angela Weiss Barbara & Gerard C.WertIcin Janis 8c VVIlliam Wetsman Janet VVinston Lisa &David Wolfe Rosalie Wood Woodard &Greenstein Michelle 8c Robert Wyles Rebecca &Jon N.Zoler Jan &Barry L. Zubrow

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98 FALL 2005

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DONORS $500-5999 A La Vieille Russie,Inc. Ethel &Philip Adelman Charitable Foundation Peg Alston Anthony Annese Lucy &Joel L Banker John Barker June &Frank Barsalona Serena &David Bechtel Judi 8c Barry Bell Lee &Paul Belsky Mr.&Mrs.Thomas L.Bennett Tamara &Bradford Bernstein Priscilla Bijur Georgina M.Bissell Leslie &Andrew Blauner Dena L.Bock Sandra & Ronald Brady Linda &James H.Brandi Sally &Thatcher M.Brown III Jack Burwell Miriam Cahn Judith E & Bill Campbell Barbara &Tracy Cate Virginia G.Cave Christie's Richard &Teresa Cicotelli Marina & George-Anthony Colettis Phyllis Collins Stephen H.Cooper &Karen Gross Courcier &Wilkins Catherine G. Curran John It Curtis Terry L.Dale &Richard Barry Alex Daniels Sheena&David Danziger Joseph &Jackie Del Galdo Valerie &Charles Diker Drake Design Associates,Inc. Nancy Druclunan Larry E. Dumont Deborah & Arnold Dunn Edward Lowe Industries Ray Egan Sharon &Theodore Eisenstat Robert A.Ellison Margot &John L.Ernst Tania &Thomas M.Evans Maxi Fagan Robert &Bobbie Falk Thomas K.Fine Gail Furman Richard Gac.hot Rebecca & Michael S. Gamzon Daniel&Lianna Gantt Judy &Jules Garel Barbara Gimbel Helen &Peter Strom Goldstein Gomez Associates,Inc. Barbara L Gordon Gail &John Greenberger Eva 8c Leon Greenhill Peter Greenwald & Nancy Hoffman Albert Hadley,Inc. Duane Hampton John Hathaway Donald Hayes Inge Heckel Hiram &Mary Jane Lederach Hershey Betty & Rodger Hess Arlene &Leonard Hochman Lesley &Joseph C.Hoopes Katie Danziger Horowitz 8c Steven Horowitz

Carter Houck Elizabeth &Richard R. Howe Jerry Jeanmard Mitch Jennings Virginia Joffe Penny Johnston Isobel & Harvey Kahn Jaclyn &Gerald Kaminsky ICandell Fund Karin Blake Interiors Helen &Martin Katz Emily 8c Leslie Keno Leigh Keno Marcy & Michael Klein Lee Kogan Betty &Arthur Kowaloff Stuart ICrinsly Addie &Theodore A. Kurz Richard Thompson Lammert Stephen Lash Audrey & Henry Levin Nadine &Peter Levy Robert A. Lewis Frances &James Lieu Julie &Carl M.Lindberg Joyce &Edward Linde Shirley 8c Sherwin Lindenbaum Bruce Lisman Robert Lue &Alain Viel IC Luzak Janet Lyons-Berger Mary P. Mackenzie Eric Maffei & Steven Trombetti Anne &Vincent Mai Juliet Mattila & Robin Magowan Chriss Mattsson Basile Mavroleon Barbie &John A.Mayer Jr. Anne McPherson Dianne &James Meltzer Metaxas, Norman &Pidgeon Barry &Wendy Meyer Judith &James Milne Jean Mitchell Keith 8c Alix Morgan Judy Mulligan &William Blaine Joshua Nash 8c Beth Goldberg Nash Ann &Walter Nathan David Nazarian Cyril I. Nelson Ronnie Newman Kenneth R.Page Pat Parsons Ruth & Leonard Perfido James Pesando Janet Petry Barbara Pollack Wayne Pratt &Mary Beth Keene Mrs.John S. Price Catherine 8c F.F. Randolph Irene Reichert PaulJ. Reiferson &Julie E.Spivack Julia T. Richie Joanna 8c Daniel Rose Marshall Rose Joseph B. Rosenblatt Wolfe Rudman Francis Russo Raymond Saroff Allison Saxe Nancy&Henry B. Schacht Linda &Donald Schapiro Elizabeth R. Schloss

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DONORS

Anne 8c Alan Schnitzer Paola &Michael Schulhof Tess &Thomas F. Schutte Dr.8c Mrs. David C.Schwartz Jean &Frederic A. Sharf Alexis Shein J. Edward Shugrue Linda &Raymond Simon Susan &Joel Simon Leslie &Scott Singer Skinner Dolores & Stephen Smith Stephanie Smither Matthew Patrick Smyth & Rachel Err Henry R. Sreck Harvey M.Stone Carol Millsom Studer Rubens Teles &James Adams Barbara &Donald Tober Leonia Van den Heuvel Leslie 8c Peter S. Warwick Jane 8c Philip Waterman Jr. Pat 8c Donald Weeden Sue Ann &John L.Weinberg Pastor Frederick S. Weiser Mark 8c Mary Westra Sandra 8cWalter J. Wilkie Evelyn &John Yoder Zankel Fund Susan &Louis Zinterhofer Linda Zukas Stuart Zweibel & Rene Purse

RECENT DONORS TO THE COLLECTION Judith Alexander Mr.& Mrs. Darwin Bahm Mr.&Mrs. Henry Buchbindcr Bliss Camochan Joseph Bailey Cole Marcella Deysher Judy Doenias Ralph Esmerian Betsey &Sam Farber Jane Ferrara Mr.&Mrs.James Goodman Ray Kass&Dr.Jerrie Pike Chapman Kelly Mrs.Jean B. ICrolik Carl Lobell&Kate Stettner Leszek 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 Kathyanne White Vicki &Larry Winters Reverend Nancy Zala

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AMERICAN

Li MUSEUM

FALL 2005

FOLK ART

99

EPSTEIN/POWELL 66 Grand St., New York, N.Y. 10013 by appointment: 212-226-7316 email: art.folks@verizon.net web: http://allamuchyman.tripod.com •Justin McCarthy

• Mose Tolliver

(oils and drawings)

• Victor Joseph Gatto (estate)

•Jesse Aaron

• Rex Clawson

• Max Romai_n

(representing)

• S.L. Jones ('81-'83 drawings)

• and many other folk/outsider artists

• Old Ironsides Pry Rex Clawson, "Painted Horse".

20"h x 22I, oil on plastic, 2005

INDEX

TO

ADVERTISERS

2/20 Gallery Allan Katz Americana American Primitive Gallery The Ames Gallery Andover Fabrics/Makower UK Antique Associates Anton Haardt Gallery Authentic Designs Berenberg Gallery Berkshire Visitors Bureau Beverly Kaye Carl Hammer Gallery Cavin-Morris Gallery Christie's Chronicle Books Church Street Art Gallery Corrine Riley Country Folk Art Festival Craig Farrow David Wheatcroft Antiques DC Moore Gallery/Gary Snyder Fine Art Epstein/Powell Fleisher Oilman Gallery Forbes &Turner Antiques Shows The Gallery at HAI Garde Rail Gallery Giampietro Goodrich & Co.Promotions,Inc. The Halliday House Antiques Barn

100 FALL 2005

FOLK ART

33 11 17 21 75 23 92 97 93 68 93 13 12 6 97 89 29 85 73 3 91 100 14 98 95 99 8 71 28

Hill Gallery 2 Indigo Arts 99 Intuit:The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art 92 Jack Fischer Gallery 95 Jackie Radwin Back Cover J Crist Gallery 21 Joan R.Brownstein Art & Antiques 7 Judy A.Saslow Gallery 25 Kentucky Folk Art Center 31 Laura Fisher 24 Lindsay Gallery 26 Mary Michael Shelley 96 Molloy-Blitz Tribal/The Spanish 8c Indian Trading Company 19 Northeast Auctions Inside Back Cover Olde Hope Antiques,Inc. 1 Paul &Alvina Haverlcamp 31 Raccoon Creek Antiques 5 Raw Vision 36 Ricco/Maresca Gallery Inside Front Cover Robert Cargo Folk Art Gallery 27 Sidney Gecker American Folk Art 23 Slotin Folk Art Auction 37 Stella Show Mgmt.Co 98 Stephen T. Anderson Ltd. 75 Susan Slyman 96 Thurston Nichols American Antiques 18 Trotta-Bono 4 Urban Country 16 Wilton Historical Society 69

AN AMERICAN AUCTION HOUSE THE MONAHAN COM('I ION

Northeast Auctions

July 12, 2001,

LIVINGSTON FAMILY HEIRLOOMS FROM THE HUDSON RIVER VALLEY

NORTHEAST AUCTIONS 7

MANCHESTER, NEW FiAht1,11.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 12'"

THE CONTENTS OF 111E CAPTAIN HENRY LAY CHANWLIN HOUSE PROPERTY FROM THO COLLECTION OF GEOFFREY PAUL

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kt -GusT 4th, 2082

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NORTHEAST AUCTIONS by RONALD BOURGEAULT, LLC 93 Pleasant Street Ports (603)433-8400 , ,

•uth, New Hampshire 03801 northeastauctions.com •

JACKIE RADWIN

'44

41

PP4

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

ONE HAPPY HORSE Hooked rug with infinite charm. Many homespun cottons. Late 19th century. 32" x 52".

III IS

ANIL