MOW'
PAIR OF GREAT DANES OHIO, CIRCA 1948-1952 CAST IRON WITH ORIGINAL PAINT 43 X 18 X 22"
AMERICAN FOLK ART
19TH AND 20TH CENTURY OBJECTS OF DESIGN AND MYSTERY
529 WEST 20TH STREET NEW YORK CITY 10011 212 627 4819
RICCOMARESCA.COM
MARESCA
4C)IL ED E fl
PE
ANTIQUES, INC_
Patrick Bell / Edwin Hild PO. Box 718, New Hope, PA 18938-0718 By Appointment 215-297-0200, Fax: 215-297-0300 Email: info@oldehope.com Visit us on line at www.OldeHope.com
Washington on Horseback Attributed to "Major Barton" of Illinois, c. 1900, carved and painted wood, leather, and metal. Height 9 1/2" Published: Bishop, American Folk Sculpture, fig. 193; Masterpieces of American Folk Art, Monmouth County Historical Association. Exhibited: "Masterpieces of American Folk Art", Monmouth Museum, Lincroft, NJ, 1975.
A FINE AND RARE American standing life-size cast-iron retriever, retaining old surface. Manufactured by Robert Wood & Co., Philadelphia. PA, USA. Circa 1875.
Thurston Nichols american
antiques
Thurston Nichols American Antiques LLC 522 Twin Ponds Road, Breinigsville, PA 18031 phone: 610.972.4563 fax: 610.395.3679 email: thurston@thurstonnichols.com www.antiques101.com
SHELDON PECK • Portrait ofa Young Man in a Shaped Frame • oil on canvas New York State • c. 1835 • 21'/s x 161/4
DAVID WHEATCROFT Antiques 26 West Main Street, Westborough, MA 01581 • Tel:(508) 366-1723
davidwheatcroft.com
Trotta-Bono
Photograph:Anna Bono
Antique Native American Art Art of the Frontier and Colonial Periods
Large North West Coast Bentwood Box Cedar with original opercula inlaid lid H. 28 1/2" x W. 20 1/2" x D. 19'- Mid 19th 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.
6iff)
OON REEK at Oley Forge
Antiques, L.L.C.
George K. Allen • Gordon L Wijcicoff Ptione: (856) 22+-1282 Email: raccooncreek@msn.com Welpsite: www.raccooncreekanticlues.com
.1.111111M
Mid 1941 Centur,9 quaker Delaware Valle!) Farrrujarcl Reverse Painted 291/4"w x 2+ I/+"1-1
S. Scott Powers Antiques / burlsnuff.com Steve Powers / S. Scott Powers Antiques 360 Court Street #28, Brooklyn, NY 11231 (p) 7180625.1715 1(e) steve@burlsnuff.com
EXTRAORDINARY
(L): Eastern Great Lakes (Seneca) Human Effigy Ladle Circa: 1720 (or earlier) (C): Abenaki Bentwood & Chip Carved Crooked Knife Circa: 1880 (R): Seneca Iroquois Elm/Ash(?) Wolf Effigy Scoop Circa: 1720-1740 (or earlier)
Great Lakes Effigy Belt Cup or Scoop Circa: 1800 Size: 8" OAL;(bowl) 5 1/4" W x 6" An important and striking object. Hewn from rock maple, the cup/scoop is masterfully carved—a thinly hewn bowl leads into a dramatic and powerfully rendered effigy. The reductive and stylized effigy depicts an eye of a manitou or Great Spirit.
WOOD
A Loving Likeness THE RAYMOND AND SUSAN EGAN AMERICAN FOLK ART COLLECTION AUGUST 5TH,2006
NORTHEAST AUCTIONS by RONALD BOURGEAULT,LLC 93 Pleasant Street Portsmouth, NH 03801 tel. (603)433-8400 www.northeastauctions.com NH license #2109.Buyer's Premium
AMERICAN FURNITURE AND FOLK ART AUCTION AUGUST 4-6, 2006
giampietro
Auction Brokering Collection Management Appraisals
American Beauty Morris Hirshfield oil on canvas dated 1942 H48;W40"
2006 Catalogue Available Twenty Dollars
Fred Giampietro 203.787.3851 1531/2 Bradley Street New Haven, CT 06511 fredgiampietro.com
FOLK ART VOLUME 31, NUMBERS 1-2 / SPRING/SUMMER 2006
FEATURES
32
White on White (and a little gray) Stacy C. Hollander
42
Concrete Kingdom: Sculptures by Nek Chand Brooke Davis Anderson
The Advent and Unlikely Reemergence of Mingering Mike
50
Tom Patterson
Hand and Heart Shall Never Part: A Study of Basket-Weave Scherenschnitte
58
Leslie S. May
Joseph Bohannon: Ship Portraitist of the Chesapeake
64
R. Lewis Wright
DEPARTMENTS
Cover: CORNUCOPIA AND DOTS WHITEWORK QUILT, American Folk Art Museum, gift of Cyril Irwin Nelson, 2005.11.1 (see page 35)
Museum Information
12
Update:The Shirley K. Schlafer Library
74
Editor's Column
12
Books ofInterest
76
Director's Letter
15
Museum Reproductions Program
78
Miniatures
16
Museum News
80
Conversation
22
Obituaries
92
The Collection: A Closer Look
30
Public Programs
94
Quilt Connection
72
Index to Advertisers
96
MIMI Folk Art is published three 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. 0 73 Copies are mailed to all members. Single copy $8.00. Published and copyright 2006 by the American Folk Art Museum,45 West 53rd Street, New York, NY 10019-5401.The cover and ouzo contents ofFolk Art are filly protected by copyright and may not be reproduced in any manner without written consent Opinions expressed by contributors are not necessarily those ofthe American Folk 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 of objects 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 Artthat illustrate or describe objects that have been exhibited at the museum within one year ofplacing an advertisement.The publisher reserves the right to exclude any advertisement.
SPRING/SUMMER 2006 FOLK ART 9
FOLK ART Tanya Heinrich Editor and Publisher Mareilce Paessler Managing Editor
AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM Maria Ann Conchi Director
BOARD OF TRUSTEES Executive Committee Laura Parsons President/Chair ofthe Executive Committee
Linda Dunne Deputy Director/ChiefAdministrative Officer
Barry D.Briskin Vice President
Cara Zimmerman Assistant Editor Benjamin J. Boyington Copy Editor
ADMINISTRATION & FINANCE Robin A. Schlinger ChiefFinancial Officer
DEVELOPMENT Cathy Michelsen Director ofDevelopment
Eleanor Garlow Advertising Sales
Susan Conlon Assistant to the Director
Christine Corcoran Manager ofIndividual Giving
Madhukar BaLsara Assistant Controller
Pamela Gabourie Manager ofInstitutional Giving
Angela Lam Accountant
Katie Hush SpecialEvents Manager
Irene /Creny Accounts Payable Associate
Dana Clair Membership Manager
Danelsi De La Cruz Accounting Assistant/Membership Assistant
Lara Allen Development Coordinator
Beverly McCarthy Mail Order/Reception
Matthew Beaugrand Membership and Special EventsAssistant
ICatya Ullman Administrative Assistant/Reception
Wendy Barreto-Greif Membership Clerk
COLLECTIONS & EXHIBITIONS Stacy C. Hollander Senior Curator/Director ofExhibitions
EDUCATION Diana Schlesinger Director ofEducation
MUSEUM ADDRESS 45 West 53rd Street New York, NY 10019-5401 212/265-1040 www.folkartinuseum.org
Brooke Davis Anderson Director and Curator efThe Contemporary Center and the Henry Darger Study Center
Lee Kogan Director ofthe Folk Art Institute/Curator of SpecialProjectsfor The Contemporary Center
Ann-Marie Reilly ChiefRegistrar/Director ofExhibition Production
James Mitchell Librarian
MAILING ADDRESS Administrative Offices 49 East 52nd Street New York, NY 10022-5905 212/977-7170,Fax 212/977-8134 info@folkartmuseum.org
Elizabeth V.Warren Consulting Curator
Janet Lo Manager ofSchooland Docent Programs
DEPARTMENTS Susan Flamm Public Relations Director
Jennifer ICalter Museum Educator and Coordinator
The Magazine Group,Inc. Jeffrey Kibler Design Mary Mieszczanski Production Manager Denise Butler Production Artist Anita Handy Advertising Traffic Coordinator
Publishers Press Printer
SHOPS ADDRESSES 45 West 53rd Street New York, NY 10019-5401 212/265-1040,ext. 124 2 Lincoln Square (Columbus Avenue between 65th and 66th Streets) New York, NY 10023-6214 212/595-9533,ext. 26 MUSEUM SHOPS STAFF Assistant to the Director ofMuseum Shops: Sandy B.Yun; Shop Managers:Dorothy Gargiulo, Louise B. Sheets,Pierre Szczygiel, Marion Whitley; Book Buyer:Evelyn R. Gurney; Staff:Joel Snyder, Susan Tan EVA AND MORRIS FELD GALLERY STAFF Weekend Gallery Manager.Ursula Morillo; Security: Kenneth R.Bing,Bienvenido Medina
Marie S. DiManno Director ofMuseum Shops
Madelaine Gill Family Programs Coordinator
Alice J. Hoffman Director ofLicensing
FACILITIES RobertJ. Saracena Director ofFacilities
Janey Fire Director ofPhotographic Services
Alexis Davis Manager ofVisitor Services
Richard Ho Manager ofInformation Technology
Christine Rivera Assistant Manager of Visitor Services
Jane Lanes Director of Volunteer Services
Daniel Rodriguez Office Services Coordinator
Caroline Kerrigan Executive Director ofTheAmerican Antiques Show
PUBLICATIONS Tanya Heinrich Director ofPublications Mareate Paessler Managing Editor
Lucy Cullman Danziger Vice President Frances Sirota Martinson, Esq. Vice President Edward V.Blanchard Jr. Treasurer Taryn Gottlieb Leavitt Secretary Didi Barrett Joyce B. Cowin Joan M.Johnson Margaret Z. Robson Selig D.Sacks,Esq. Members Akosua Barthwell Evans David L.Davies Jacqueline Fowler Vicki Fuller Susan Gutfreund Robert L. Hirschhorn R.Webber Hudson ICristina Johnson, Esq. Michelle L. Lasser Nancy Mead J. Randall Plummer Terry Rakolta Bonnie Strauss Nathaniel J. Sutton Richard H.Walker, Esq. L.John Wilkerson Trustees Emeriti Ralph 0. Esmerian Chairman Emeritus Joseph E Cullman 3rd (1912-2004) Samuel Farber Cordelia Hamilton Cyril I. Nelson (1927-2005) George F. Shaskan Jr. Gerard C.Wertkin Director Emeritus
AMERICAN
Cara Zimmerman Assistant Editor
0 LL ---1 MUSEUM
10 SPRING/SUMMER 2006 FOLK ART
ALLAN KATZ Americana
Carved Pipe Bowl An American Folk Art Masterwork with Native American attribution. Circa 1810. Height - 4 3/8". Pictured in "Pleasing the Spirits," Douglas Ewing, page 127, plate #79.
Allan & Penny Katz By Appointment 25 Old Still Road Woodbridge, CT 06525 Tel.(203) 393-9356 folkkatz@optonline.net
MEM I> 0
INSEENII
American Folk Art Museum 45 West 53rd Street New York City 212/265-1040 www.folkartmuseum.org
EDITOR'S
COLUMN
TANYA HEINRICH
t 11*.0117Si, — ARE
/14 - -1" --
crvT6PERS
MUSEUM HOURS Tuesday-Sunday Friday Monday
ver since I encountered the work of 10:30 Am-5:30 PM 10:30 Am-7:30 PM Closed
ADMISSION Adults Students/Seniors Children under 12 Members Friday evening 5:30-7:30 PM
$9 $7 Free Free Free to all
SHOP HOURS Saturday-Thursday Friday
10 AM-6 PM 10 AM-8 PM
Shop Branch:2 Lincoln Square (Columbus Avenue between 65th and 66th Streets) Hours:Tuesday-Saturday, 12-7:30 PM; Sunday, 12-6 PM EXHIBITION SCHEDULE White on White (and a little gray) Floor 2 Through Sept. 17,2006 Concrete Kingdom: Sculptures by Nek Chand Floor 3 Through Sept. 24,2006 Folk Art Revealed Atrium and Floors 4 and 5 On continuous view Brewster's Worlds: A Deaf Artist in Early America Floors 2 and 3 Oct. 3,2006-Jan. 7,2007 TRAVELING EXHIBITIONS Darger: The Henry Darger Collection at the American Folk Art Museum and Studies and Sketches from the Henry Darger Collection Frye Art Museum,Seattle 206/622-9250;wwwiryeart.org Aug. 19—Oct.29,2006
12
SPRING/SUMMER 2006
FOLK ART
Mingering Mike in early 2004,I've been determined to share it with the museum's readers.The remarkable body of handmade record-album covers, each adorned with enthusiastic drawings and hand-rendered titles, song lists, and related information emulating the real thing,serves as a THE OUTSIDER'S ARE BACK / Mingering Mike (b.1950)/ poignant document ofthe popular culture ofits Washington, D.C. / c. 1968-1976 / mixed medial place, urban black America, and time,c. 1968121/2 x 121/2"/ collection of Dori Hadar, courtesy 1976, with its attendant raging social issues.The Princeton Architectural Press chance discovery ofthe works as an intact group among boxes ofLPs at a flea market,and the clues that yielded a reunion ofthe artist with his lost creations, exemplifies the thrill ofa real find. At long last, I'm particularly excited to present"The Advent and Unlikely Reemergence of Mingering Mike," by Tom Patterson, which begins on page 50. Two rich exhibitions opened at the museum earlier this spring."White on White (and a little gray)" is an exploration ofelaborately embroidered whitework bedcovers, mourning needleworlcs stitched in glossy dark threads on shimmery white silks and satins, and iridescent marble-dust drawings ofsublime, often moonlit scenes.The "whiteness ofwhite,comprising all colors and reflecting light, was the perfect metaphor for the Age ofEnlightenment," writes Stacy C. Hollander. For a close look at these essentially female contributions to neoclassicism, please turn to page 32. Nek Chand's Rock Garden, in Chandigarh,India,is populated with thousands ofcement figures inlaid with recycled materials such as glass bangles, pottery shards, and foundry waste."Concrete Kingdom: Sculptures by Nek Chand"is a presentation of more than 30 works by the artist in the museum's collection; Brooke Davis Anderson gives us an enticing introduction to the exhibition, beginning on page 42. Basket-weave scherenschnitte are papercuts that incorporate panels folded and woven from strips sliced—but not entirely separated—from one or two pieces ofpaper.The technique appeared most frequently on love tokens in the middle of the 19th century, often with heart motifs, and the small-scale paper constructions provoke wonderment. Leslie S. May contributes a careful study beginning on page 58;since there were no instruction manuals,in conducting her research,she set about the daunting task ofre-creating several works in order to figure outjust how they were made. Joseph Bohannon,who spent most of his life in Baltimore working as an engineer on ships ofthe Chesapeake Bay region, created a series ofwatercolor drawings ofships between the 1940s and the 1960s. He came from a family ofseamen,and the vessels that plied the local waters remained Bohannon's enduring passion throughout his life. Lewis Wright documents the artist's life and works,which are a valuable record ofa past era in this country's maritime history; please turn to page 64. I am delighted to welcome our new staffers in the publications department: assistant editor Cara Zimmerman,who joined us in October 2005, and managing editor Mareike Paessler, who arrived earlier this year,in February. Cara's tremendous impact is already in evidence on these pages, and Mareike is ably shepherding exhibition catalogs in addition to the magazine and printjob production. Have a lovely spring and summer;we'll see you again in September.
AMERICAN PRIMITIVE GALLERY 594 BROADWAY # 205 AARNE ANTON
NEW YORK, NY 10012
(212) 966 1530
Mon-Sat 11-6
am.primitive©mindspring.com
\it\\situliitio;iiiiiisor,
EUGENE ANDOLSEK
1.41:10,4 itessarosoffe•g:iiii;:ii:100 14000:$444, 0,1•.:'•:•0141i.1
:0::••••••:41 0, AktvAlk 0 0001,4 it$ to y. O Itth
•••••••10.*•144,40. ItrneardiI. 04101041f I I . I "M 0 • 10 Op . /II III , . S 1#1,1:•• 1 11 ° ril 1.00* 101111,0101M,I I ISPVIdfrtI# IS•10:::0011aninniffri"""""”114:PAgg:
11, •5 II
• os••
pringiffiimmyk.+;',......... Tr *tfrn114Ae
% $•• %It ‘0,0ts64101 z‘%10,1144$ 00N:40601 .00-0 it t * * • % laii %Itt it
Ogg„IA
\
I'
te. •%0, 111,11, .%‘$$P•0 4S% •
•
ititittaftit u111111......
\\\liftimi?coo" ‘‘‘wi‘i.
‘‘‘‘‘110
C444 tolb
01
°
,
I .
•fr M '411 / 4 11•NIIP.
, 40 . •• •11 1•01040
..........
" 4. '421 ! • 4* • *1•41.4 ••
4
• ' \\
•:
•
11,
• all ...
4
Oke,
.... /c/515111,/ 4.ttit:••••••41„V . ...... •••••:-. ' 'zed • • ::•-
111
0,1••gaP°
409. •
•
44.X.....•••••*•••••
014: 1111111c111,11,1 /If. 4 \44: 10 10# 0, 7 I,* • *•t01.:11.1$0 \ 11,4•11, 411, Iili1I tt% 1111 illiffir 0 1 111 11/0 • 411 ‘. ....111111 11 ts.,44410. ° 0. ° 0 • 44, .o °Iva •
1014+,
NI /
":1 04° 9•1 g •• P s ? tfr '\ \ flo. /,,, .1%.,•-•...4.,4t.if A\ \ \, .- 1".44.4f-,./ 3..,...;,.....-..,,14, 4%.•
.....''''....."--.........."'"" tt ••.......""'-' .. ., ig.• ft...," *a, A ,, \ \ .„,... ii, „L.'S' •" / A ••• • -114 SIII # -7'.-----a= - -Wikr ili e -14IoNkA 4% 1111 Illtr•1 b 4.* MI ILI allAIIklillfillnlk It=Z — ----= = :'.-= IP illi. Il•llr Es AN 44Aft" - 4 wits------no ma we in -147/ri 1111
Avoks 'nu van
5 I II- 5 If 1-..".1. 1111 le le IIII I II II 5111111111 II II I •1 488111 5 II 1. ...,..„ , .. .,.......„,........ IIIII 1 • %II 'VA /le II Nall2 NM. I RUIR1111111 • Ell ' •• •,404,4,7 • 0 lit Inn MI1111411VilA 14 ' , ,j•tia i ht •
......... .....-..
-ifisissnewin il• r7 --'s.,.....'"--" A t:."----... -,ii 4. . 1 ,,,,,, .wk Ira•Vik*.•:=4,,kAk7t, '" "my. 4*.,11•4 11510,;0044 /*VOID I . 1. -t'ktb tAtait il.::-. . c . ---,_,...... -*-tt:..• ,., • . •ott,„, /: - ..;.. -.t, W. . „ ,. • .1„,,.....,, 4.... 74.. --,--s-- .:-,.. ......- .,,, . .. ..-• •,-..., 01 t00% v. ••• ........ ......... 4, 1 • i• 0, 410 ... lb , *4 • is •• 40.7•0• A. • .. %%%%% ••• - • ak. do= 111,1%%% •is•• " 11.•
•
0 1 ..e
M a•
411P,
1.1111I••
\%.
• %%%% ZSNI`Zt* :
-Nor010.
‘5`..„%ft:ftft'.
.•"'"'•••••••...441.112S1.1-4%." -->---"--------I 11 —.7: .1111111111111.1UM, ' ,• ; 1,0%I% •
•
•• •:1, III OW
I I
•• •
••
ot I. .
• d •
• AN I
III , ••• I
-
•g
I, ,
• ••
.........
a • .„ „-
III
% I 1•tV: •... .. ----...4111,111111“ •I I la 11 : , --• .. I'L . . ' . = ' .L' . . . ' . " . . . . . . ::,-.".-a K, 7 : = = . . • a V .1111MAIIIMU I, I,• ,,_-_-•11......0....:a....... ...--7..........-•., ,.ii;• II ..----'••• ...... NI ,ara, :-.5r...r.Sr.: 1 .1-Pr I go: .. nirkunut t1 .. ----- --,..... to ...al. .5. 4 '. ••••.--1112...!"..%:::::er.....n.0 -, 0 . ..•....AIM MUM 1111 ,..............4..........1,...•::•!wv,..--go ,e,..; ..mu InlItl• 11 li
. d •.•
..
.... .
•• ' .1.1. illairs•
%%%%
I.•:eg•,....:;ri•:Sg35"'.•••Z'F::::;:': .•, "OA lititiliti" .........I VS . .0...... 1 1alg....ra , ,i 15,;.• __,..,.... •••••...............,, nroo._.................•••• '..--.. 4 " .
......,:".... • ..0 .. .
0 -. 0. 7.;• " .... T;07 5 ....... ' "- . I
•...
. ;. 1.
., •,••.....
„,,
''''. .1...,': ! .Z .: : . . --16,..4....•... .:_-
,..„•••
Mil tutu *nun I
.......,,..11 Itilinnildrin; \
-"Ir."......1 I 1 I%%%%%%%%%%%I t S
HiNelltayei,
untitled, ink on graph paper
21 x 16 inches.
We are pleased to be representing the art of Eugene Andolsek. His remarkable patterned drawings were featured in Obsessive Drawing at the American Folk Art Museum.
410101.1114016...-
11111111111Nialw,
• •
-
PORTI,,
-
••
A-
•
117
\ORTEDEHABANA'-
215 545 7562/fax 215 545 6140/http://www.fleisher-ollmangallery.com
FLEISHER OILMAN GALLERY
'
,
•
DIRECTORS
LETTER
MARIA ANN CONELLI
At
0 2000 JOHN BIGELOW TAYLOR
its meeting in December 2005,the museum's board of participants was that it was our most successful show yet. Special thanks trustees elected Vicki Fuller, R.Webber Hudson,and Terry are extended to trustees Barry D.Briskin and Joan M.Johnson,who Rakolta as trustees. I am delighted to welcome them to board spearheaded this initiative; Caroline Kerrigan,the executive director of service. TAAS;and Karen DiSaia,the show's manager. Vicki Fuller is senior vice president and senior portfolio Only a few days separate TAAS from Outsider Art Week,but the manager for Alliance Capital Management Corp., an investment manmuseum's staff, ever tireless, produced a beautiful Gala Benefit Preview agement firm. She has 24 years of experience in the field. Fuller earned for the Outsider Art Fair, with a special booth at the fair highlighther bachelor's degree at Roosevelt University and her MBA at the Uni- ing current and upcoming museum exhibitions and new scholarships versity of Chicago. She serves on the boards of Mercy Center,Prep for in the field, as well as several educational programs.The museum was Prep,and Women for the Apollo. delighted to welcome to the benefit preview Lynne V. Cheney, wife Webber Hudson is the executive vice president of Related Urban of Vice President Dick Cheney,who toured the booths with museum Development. His previous work experience stationed him in Chicago, trustee Margaret Robson. Both TAAS and Outsider Art Week provide at Urban Retail Properties, and in San Francisco, where he worked wonderful opportunities to meet museum members, many of whom with Edward Plant Company and R.H. Macy Corporation. We picked travel to New York from all over the country; these events are a chance Hudson's brain early last year when we began thinking seriously about to renew old acquaintances and to welcome new friends. For a full remarketing. He has served on the board of port on both fund-raising events, please turn Edgewood Children's Center,in San to pages 80 and 82. Francisco, and was recently elected to the exFrequently, the museum receives gifts ecutive committee of the alumni association from new and longtime friends, and I would ofthe Westminster School,in Simsbury, like to share the tale of a recent acquisition. Connecticut. This past winter, New York dealer Carroll Terry Rakolta resides in Bloomfield Hills, Janis attended an artists' panel at the muMichigan,and Palm Beach,Florida. She and seum.While there, he saw a painting by her husband,John,are avid art collectors and Morris Hirshfield hanging in the museum's philanthropists.Terry founded Americans atrium and later called me to offer the donafor Responsible Television as well as Friends tion of a Hirshfield work from his collection. of Near East Studies, an organization at the Several days later, he personally delivered University ofMichigan that underwrites the the painting(no small feat during the tranparticipation ofstudents in archeological sit strike), and the staff and I were thrilled digs in Egypt. She has served on the boards when we saw it.Janis then delighted us with of, among others, the American Archives in stories about his father, Sidney Janis, whose PEACEABLE KINGDOM / Edward Hicks (1780-1849)/ Newtown, the Arts,the Advisory Council on Children's renowned gallery exhibited the work ofJosef Pennsylvania / 1846-1848 / oil on canvas / 26,293/8"/ Television, the Detroit Artists Market, ChilAlbers,Jean Arp,Piet Mondrian,and Morris American Folk Art Museum, promised gift of Ralph Esmerian, P1.2001.59 dren's Hospital, Detroit, and the Michigan Hirshfield and other contemporary painters. Cancer Foundation. I would like to extend my sincere thanks to It is especially gratifying to me that the board oftrustees continues Carroll Janis for his generous donation and for the wonderful insights to grow in strength and diversity.The board and the professional staff he provided into this modern master. work together as a remarkable team.I am grateful to our three new The museum's collection continues to grow through such acts of trustees for their commitment to the museum and its mission. kindness. Several other patrons have graciously promised works of art, January proved to be an exhilarating month, marking the return of and one ofthe museum's most exquisite gifts, Peaceable Kingdom,comes the American Antiques Show(TAAS)and Outsider Art Week. Fesas a promised gift from chairman emeritus Ralph Esmerian.It is a work tivities for TAAS began with a special reception at the home ofJoseph ofextraordinary quality, and we greatly appreciate Esmerian's generosity. Cunningham and Bruce Barnes; always gracious hosts, they shared their Esmerian will be honored at the museum's spring benefit in June for the knowledge and spectacular collection of Sticldey furniture and Arts and work he has done on behalfof the museum and for the many gifts he has Crafts pottery with the museum's special patrons.The following eveoffered to enhance the collection. Other honorees include Herb Allison, ning marked the Gala Benefit Preview and the American Spirit Award president and chief executive officer ofTIAA-CREF,and Elizabeth Ceremony.This year's award recipient was Martha Stewart, who has McCormack,ofthe Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Fund.This gala played a vital role in creating a broad awareness offolk art and Ameribenefits the museum on a variety oflevels: It supports programs and can craft traditions through her publications and television shows. exhibitions, connects the institution to our corporate and foundation Following her gracious remarks,the doors to the show opened,revealsponsors, and brings trustees, members,and special guests together. It ing beautiful displays and exquisite objects.The consensus among the will be a memorable evening, and I hope to see many of you there!*
SPRING/SUMMER 2006 FOLK ART 15
MINIATURES
SNAKE JUG, INSCRIBED "A NICE YOUNG MAN GOING IN" / Anna Pottery, Anna, Illinois / midto late nineteenth century / collection of Richard Ellis
BY CARA ZIMMERMAN
BEAUTY, DREAMS, AND LAUGHTER The Museum ofInternational Folk Art(505/476-1200, www.moifa.org), Santa Fe, N.Mex.,has three notable exhibitions on view through summer. "Quiet Beauty: Fifty Centuries ofJapanese Folk Ceramics from the Montgomery Collection," through August,showcases 100 examples offolk ceramics,including tomb vessels, sake bottles, and storage jars, dat21111111•11 ing from 3000 BC to 1985. Displayed chronologically, this exhibition ofrare surviving works explores different forms,colors, textures, and movements from Japan's long ceramic history. "Dream On:Beds from Asia to Europe at the Museum ofInternational Folk Art," also through August,examines the origin and evolution offurniture, pillows, and bedding. Divided into three major sections,"Sleeping Low," "Sleep on the Move," and "Sleeping High," this show indudes a tatami mat, nomadic piled bedding,a kimono-shaped quilt, and European beds to illustrate the diversity in bedding across geographical regions and throughout time. "Dichos: Words to Live, Love,and Laugh," DICHO ON THE BACK OF A BUS / Grant La Faroe / Panama City, Panama /1984 / color photograph through Sept. 25,examines the form known as dichos, hand-painted bumper stickers that are popular in South and Central America. Unlike bumper stickers from the United States, which are most often commercially produced, dichos convey the particular opinions and sentiments ofindividual drivers. This exhibition features photographs ofvehicles in South and Central America taken by Dr. Grant La Farge,and includes images of stickers that express religious belief, love,jokes, and machismo.
BAUBLES, BANGLES, AND BEADS A selection offine and costume jewelry is on display in "Baubles, Bangles,and Beads: American Jewelry from Yale University, 1700-2005," at the Yale University Art Gallery(203/432PAIR OF CUFFLINKS/ artist unidentified / United States/ 0600; artgallery.yale.edu), New Haven, c. 1880-1910 / gold-washed metal and photographs/ Conn. On view through July 23,this %x "lie" each / Yale University Art Gallery, New survey ofworks from the gallery's permaHaven, Connecticut, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Philip Holzer nent collection seeks to identify the many current and historical uses ofjewelry in U.S. society. Accordingly,the pieces are organized into three sections of purpose: jewelry in the "personal adornment" category reflects styles and fashions of particular times; the "mourning and remembrance" pieces are examples ofjewelry associated with the memory ofloved ones; and the "cultural and social organizations" works deal with the specific adornments ofcertain societal groups,such as the masons,and how these ornamentations manage to evoke a sense ofcommunity and affiliation. The emphasis is not entirely on concept, however, and some of the technical movements highlighted include the appearance ofphotography in jewelry, and revolutions in machine-aided mass production.
16 SPRING/SUMMER 2006 FOLK ART
WEAVINGS OF WAR Personal and collective experiences of contemporary warfare are revealed in "Weavings ofWar: Fabrics of Memory,"on view through June 11 at Michigan State University Museum (517/355-7474; www.museum. msu.edu), East Lansing. Created mostly by female residents and refugees of countries recently marked by violent conflict, including Afghanistan, Chile, Laos, Lebanon,Peru, South Africa, and Thailand,the featured textiles provide a pictorial commentary on the impact ofcivil unrest on individuals and on society at large. Organized by Marsha MacDowell, this exhibition seeks to examine the role offolk art in the contemporary world,while the works themselves serve as evidence that traditional textile arts can still function as an outlet for self- and community expression.
I.11TVVVVYVYYTTYVY41 O. 4 A I. .4 I.4 .. -4 1. 4 1. A II. 41 a. 4 1. .. 41 1. -4 /.,:•,.r.,.4., -4 1. 4 AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA HMONG STORY CLOTH / Sheng Yang / Thailand / c.1980-1985 / Michigan State University Museum,6057.2
ANNA POTTERY In 1859,brothers Cornwall and Wallace Kirkpatrick opened the Anna Pottery,in Anna, Ill. Over the course of their careers,the potters became known for their fantastical,one-of-a-kind stoneware pottery with humorous and political messages.The Lakeview Museum of Arts and Sciences (309/686-7000; www.lakeview-museum. org),Peoria,Ill., showcases a selection ofthe Kirkpatricks'remarkable works in the exhibition "Kirkpatrick Pottery of Anna,Illinois: Highlights ofthe Richard Ellis Collection," on view through Oct. 15.Included are stunning examples of snake jugs, pig flasks, and frog mugs, many of which are on view to the public for the first time. A small color catalog accompanies the exhibition.
THE HALLIDAY HOUSE ANTIQUES BARN AMERICAN COUNTRY FURNITURE AND FOLK ART
HAND CARVED WOODEN PUPPET OF BLACK MAN DRESSED IN RED AND WHITE CHECKERED CLOTHING. HANDS AND FEET ARE ALSO WOOD CARVED. C. 1920'S 15 1/2 INCHES TALL
HALLIDAY HOUSE ANTIQUES OFFERS 18TH AND 19TH CENTURY AMERICAN COUNTRY FURNITURE AND WHIMSICAL FOLK ART. LOCATED IN THE HEART OF THE BEAUTIFUL NAPA VALLEY, WE ARE OPEN FOR CASUAL APPOINTMENTS WHENEVER YOU PLAN TO VISIT. OUR LATEST ARRIVALS ARE ALSO AVAILABLE ON OUR WEBSITE.
PHONE:(707) 253-1092
EMAIL: GAIL@HALLIDAYHOUSEANTIQUES.COM
ATUR
ES
THE OLD OAKEN BUCKET! Anna Mary Robertson "Grandma" Moses! Eagle Bridge, New York / 1943 / mixed media on board / Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, New York, N-414.67 / @ Grandma Moses Properties Co., New York
GRANDMA MOSES A retrospective on the life and art of Anna Mary Robertson "Grandma" Moses(1860-1961) opens May 26 at the Fenimore Art Museum (888/547-1450; www.fenimoreartmuseum.org), Cooperstown,N.Y."Grandma Moses: Grandmother to the Nation" will feature paintings, personal items, and quotes from the popular folk artist in order to illuminate her life and art. As well as presenting Robertson's paintbrushes and rocking chair for context, this exhibition will examine her art in relation to its political and social milieu. This show will be accompanied by a companion book by guest curator Karal Ann Marling,Designs on the Heart: The Homemade Art ofGrandma Moses. After closing at the Fenimore on Dec.31, "Grandma Moses"will travel to Reynolda House Museum of American Art(336/758-5150; www.reynoldahouse.org), Winston Salem, N.C.; Hunter Museum of Art(423/267-0968; www.huntermuseum.org), Chattanooga,Tenn.; Crocker Art Museum (916/264-5423; www.crockerartmuseum.org), Sacramento, Calif; and the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art(941/359-5700; www.ringling.org), Sarasota, Fla.
ISLAND TIES More than 30 textiles are on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art(212/535-7710; wvvw. metmuseum.org), New York,in the recently opened exhibition "The Fabric of Life: Ikat Textiles ofIndonesia." Historically created by women of many ethnic groups, ikat works are considered by some to be the most sophisticated of all the Indonesian textile traditions.The word ilzat, stemming from the Indonesian verb to tie, relates to the distinctive process oftying cords around unwoven fabric before dyeing. However,while this similarity ofconstruction provides categorization for these works, there is great variation in the aesthetic qualities and forms ofthe finished products, which can appear as skirts, mourning cloths, or even symbols ofwealth."The Fabric of Life" is on view through Sept. 24.
CLOVERS SURVIVE KATRINA After Hurricane Katrina slammed into New Orleans on Aug.29,2005,the Lower Ninth Ward,among other areas, was decimated by floodwaters from one of the breaches ofthe levee in that area.This neighborhood was the home of Sister Gertrude Morgan's Everlasting Gospel Mission. For weeks following the storm,the area was closed for safety reasons, even to those who lived there. When residents were finally allowed into the area for controlled, brief visits, I ventured down to find out what had happened to Sister's house and mission. Although I had been there many times before and after her death in 1980,I quickly became lost in her neighborhood because the familiar landmarks were either gone or rearranged. I finally located her small parcel offenced land, only to find that the foundations and front steps were there but the Mission house had moved into the next lot and slammed into the neighboring house at a perpendicular angle. Her building was marked with a florescent orange label, indicating that it was uninhabitable and would be demolished.The area was SISTER GERTRUDE MORGAN SINGING AND PLAYING THE TAMBOURINE ON THE FRONT GALLERY OF THE a panorama of grays and browns EVERLASTING GOSPEL MISSION! Joshua Horwitz / and very discomforting in its silence New Orleans / c. 1974 / gelatin silver print / 7 5" / and absence oflife. Amid this decollection of Joshua Horwitz struction, at the base ofthe house's front steps was a substantial clump of bright, emerald-green four-leaf clovers standing triumphantly as a beacon, as they had in years past, blanketing the front yard ofthe Sister's Everlasting Gospel Mission. Everlasting indeed. As this area will undoubtedly be bulldozed, an artist friend, Dawn Dedeaux,and I plan to transplant these clovers to the yards of Sister's friends and admirers throughout the city. At the suggestion of New Orleans Museum of Art director John Bullard, we will also plant a patch in the museum's Besthoff Sculpture Garden.In this way, Sister Gertrude Morgan's presence and legacy will continue to live on in her adopted city, and perhaps one day in the future some of the clovers can be brought back once again to grace 5444 North Dorgenois. —Wiliam A.Fagaly, curator ofAfrican Art, New Orleans Museum ofArt
WILLIAM A. F
MINI
The clovers after Hurricane Katrina
18 SPRING/SUMMER 2006 FOLK ART
THE
AMES GALLERY
nix!
AC=1
Early handmade Americana including quilts, carved canes, tramp a and whimseys. • Exceptional contemporary self-taught, naive, visionary, and outsider art.
• Bonnie Grossman, Director • 2661 Cedar St., Berkeley, CA 94708 I 3/5005A
lay 29, I910," 3.5 x 5.5 in.
Tel 510/845-4949 Fax 510/845-6219 Email info@amesgallery.com 13/500513,"August 27, 1910.- 55
35 In
www.amesgallery.com
American Folk Art Sidney Gecker
226 West 21st Street• New York, N.Y 10011 •(212)929-8769•Appointment Suggested Subject to prior sale.
SPRING/SUMMER 2006
FOLK ART
19
MINI
ES
A COMICS HISTORY "Masters of American Comics," on view at the Milwaukee Art Museum (414/224-3200; www. mam.org) through Aug. 13,showcases 15 key American artists who helped define the comic strip and comic book of the 20th century: Milton Caniff, R. Crumb,Will Eisner, Lyonel Feininger, Chester Gould ("Dick Tracy"), George Herriman ("Krazy Kat"), Frank King,Jack Kirby,Harvey Kurtzman(MAD magazine), Winsor McCay("Little Nemo"), Gary Panter, Charles Schulz, E.C. Segar, Art Spiegelman (Maus), and Chris Ware.This exhibition, co-organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Hammer Museum,both in Los Angeles, and independent scholar John Carlin, contains more than 300 drawings, proofs, and comic books tracking the progression ofthe art form from newspaper comic strips to the early days of comic books to the rise of the independent comics movement.
•9
Gregorio Marzon 15" x 10" x 65"
George & Sue Viener 2nd & Washington Streets The Goggle Works Reading, PA 19601
?hone: 610-939-1737 www.outsiderfolKart.com
20 SPRING/SUMMER 2006 FOLK ART
BOUQUET / Leopold Blaschka / Dresden, Germany / c.1889 / glass and organic pigment with wire armatures / Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, gift of Elizabeth C. Ware and Mary Lee Ware / 0 President and Fellows of Harvard College
ROBERT WEDEMEVEF
atue of Liberty
UR
H LLEL DURGER
Outsider Folk Art Gallery
AT
ARTISTIC COMICS(COVER DRAWING)/ R. Crumb / 1973 / collection of Art Spiegelman, courtesy the artist and Paul Morris Gallery, New York
GLASS FLOWERS The Ware Collection ofBlaschka Glass Models ofPlants, often known simply as "The Glass Flowers," is on permanent view at the Harvard Museum of Natural History(617/495-3045,vvww.hmnh. harvard.edu), Cambridge,Mass. Handcrafted near Dresden, Germany,between 1887 and 1936 by father-and-son team Leopold and Rudolph Blaschka,these remarkably intricate plant models were originally produced as a teaching tool for botany students.The collection,lifelike in both detail and color, consists of3,000 individual models representing 847 different species, and each is made entirely of glass and organic pigment with an internal wire armature for support. Elizabeth C.Ware and her daughter Mary Lee Ware financed the Blaschlcas'efforts and donated the collection to Harvard University in honor of Dr. Charles Eliot Ware. The Glass Flowers have long been housed at the Harvard Museum of Natural History; its gallery underwent renovations in 2002, and the new space is designed with better lighting to improve the viewer's experience when visiting this extraordinary collection.
MINIATURES
SILKWORK PICTURE / Sarah Derby / Boston / c. 1763/ silk and tempera paint on black silk satin / Winterthur Museum, Delaware, bequest of Henry Francis du Pont
ASTURE PERFECT "Needles and Haystacks: Pastoral Imagery in American Needlework," on view through July 24 at the Winterthur Museum (800/448-3883; www.vvinterthutorg),Winterthur, Del.,examines the age-old tensions between urban industrialization and rural agriculture. While pastoral themes have long existed in literature and art, needlework pictures ofthat ideal became especially prominent in colonial America,as many of the colonists saw themselves as escaping the urban centers of Europe in favor ofa more rustic existence. Ironically, many ofthe works in this exhibition were created in cities such as Boston and Philadelphia, and the metropolitan locations of the artists are clearly in contrast with the ideals ofthe images they created. Organized by Linda Eaton,"Needles and Haystacks" presents 17th- and 18th-century American needlework from the museum's collection.
KARL MULLEN b. Dublin, Ireland 1954
New works on masonite, 24x24" ARCHITECTURE OF GEE'S BEND QUILTS Seventy quilts from Gee's Bend,a small,isolated community in southwest Alabama, are featured in a new exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (713/639-7300; www.mfah. org),in Texas."Gee's Bend:The Architecture of the Quit," on view June 4— Sept.4,showcases textiles created by 45 women over four generations. Originally serving both utilitarian and decorative purposes,the Gee's Bend quilts strike a balance between traditional American quilt designs and more contemporary abstract patterns.This exhibition, drawn HOUSETOP / Nancy Pettway / Gee's from the collection of the Tinwood Bend, Alabama / 2003 / cut corduroy Alliance, also provides an in-depth his- and cotton twill / 72 x 72"/ collection of Tinwood Alliance, Atlanta torical look at Gee's Bend,displaying photos ofthe community and excerpts from interviews with 30 of the area's quilters. The exhibition will travel to the Indianapolis Museum of Art(317/920-2660; ima-art.org); the Orlando Museum of Art(407/896-4231; www.omart.org), Fla.; the Walters Art Museum (410/547-9000; www.thewalters.org), Baltimore; the Tacoma Museum of Art(253/272-4258; www.tacomaartmuseum. org); and other destinations through October 2008. AMERICAN ALBUMS When faced with the challenge ofassembling individual photographs into sequences, album makers have long utilized unusual and personal solutions."Snapshot Chronicles: Inventing the American Photo Album," on view through Aug.20 at the San Francisco Public Library(415/557-4400; sfpl.lib.ca.us), examines these creative choices in albums of vernacular photography from the turn of the 20th century. A hardcover catalog accompanies this exhibition.
LINDSAY GALLERY 986 North High St. Columbus, Ohio 43201 614-291-1973 www.lindsaygallery.com
SPRING/SUMMER
2006
FOLK ART
21
C
ON
V
ERSATIO
N
BY TOM PATTERSON
Junebug's subplot concerns the inner workings ofthe contemporary folk art field. At the film's outset, Madeleine is introduced as the owner ofan outsider art gallery in Chicago,and we learn that her visit to her new husband's hometown is motivated by her determination to secure an exclusive contract with a newly discovered,self-taught visionary artist who happens to live nearby.The sought-after artist is David Wark (Frank Hoyt Taylor),who makes rawly expressionistic paintings of battles from the American Civil War.These densely composed, blood-drenched scenes are augmented with handprinted texts and invariably feature Union and
22 SPRING/SUMMER 2006
FOLK ART
Confederate soldiers engaged in heated battles. Instead ofusing guns to slaughter one another, though,their primary weapons are their own gargantuan, bulletspewing sexual organs. Early on Wark is introduced while working on a painting inside his ramshackle rural home.Taylor does a convincing job of portraying the artist as a soft-spoken rustic with a heavy southern Appalachian accent. He's mild-mannered except when channeling his inspirational muse, a disembodied spiritual entity known as Sister Glow-ray. Junebug's screenplay is by Angus MacLachlan, an awardwinning playwright and screenwriter who—like director
Morrison—grew up in WinstonSalem,N.C. MacLachlan still lives in Winston-Salem,where Junebug was filmed during a three-week marathon in the summer of2004,on a budget ofa little more than $1 million. Full disclosure: I've known Morrison for 20 years, since he was a freshman filmmaking student at New York University. I also happen to be a longtime resident ofWinston-Salem, and MacLachlan is a friend and neighbor. As the Junebug advance
crew was arriving in town to set up for filming, Morrison asked me to read the screenplay and appraise the authenticity of the scenes having to do with outsider art and the art market. He also requested my help in lining up artworks for an art-auction scene, in which I wound up appearing as an extra. I was one of many hometown friends whom he recruited for such volunteer efforts. In fall 2005,1 had a series of conversations with MacLachlan, Morrison,Taylor, and Ann Wood,
JUNEBUG 'The beautifully acted film distills antagonistic red-state, blue-state attitudes... Ms. Adams's portrayal of an effusive girl-child is especially outstanding, and the camera's leisurely exploration of the family house conveys a rich, indelible sense of place." liolORK. TM ROY YORK mirs "It is only a matter of time before Phil Morrison achieves the status of Jim Jarmusch, Gus Van Sant and Woody Allen." -Jan Stvart, HEVISIM
"Amy Adams is a revelation!" -Stephen Faspec 1.0yitoRf
COURTESY SONY PICTURES CLASSICS
When the independent film Junebug was released in summer 2005, it won widespread critical acclaim for its sensitive, quirkily insightful treatment of family and community life in the contemporary American South. The film is the first feature outing for its director, Phil Morrison, a native Southerner based in New York who has built a successful career directing commercials and music videos. Junebug's plot centers on George (played by Alessandro Nivola), a young North Carolinian transplanted to Chicago, and Madeleine (Embeth Davidtz), the sophisticated, widely traveled young woman whom he marries there. Most of the proceedings take place during a few days that the couple spend in George's North Carolina hometown. The visit provides the occasion for Madeleine's first meeting with George's family, including his parents, Peg (Celia Weston) and Eugene (Scott Wilson), his underachieving younger brother, Johnny (Benjamin McKenzie), and his brother's pregnant wife, Ashley(Amy Adams), all living together in the modest suburban house in which George grew up.
NEW' :R'10i*E' tTO?S IEW FILMSF VA1S4
V
,ES-1
CARREs FILM FESTIVAL V,
2005 DIRECTED BY PHIL MORRISON aillhYfJIItilllAllICSflllAlI iillIPtglitilt , ,PIDBK1101111114111c diftbafISDISEDILIViDI/!MAGNI! All1SRIDE010401k Iffit 31frittilV GIISWIVON 11111IMESEN roodhNIMPCOINIRS MIR S.116 1.1S111K iassublIgfr(RIR MOD UR AMU PAPPAKW DtU Wll yaw Alto whoPfIR Roam EMIR DOR16IK care KKR(Gm triVai DAN:RUDA C{1,14414,A M Nth DO IdnitriPAKtISKIARAII MCP,fiflitliOWNA ,YONYPICKCIRES CLASSICS'
David Wark (Frank Hoyt Taylor) and Madeleine (Embeth Davidtz)
•
ROBERT KIRK, COURTESY SONY PICTURES CLASSICS
the New York artist who made the Wark character's paintings, with an emphasis on the film's treatment of contemporary folk or outsider art and the folk art marketplace. What follows is an abbreviated, edited transcript of those exchanges. Angus MacLachlan
TP I understand thatJunebug had its origins in a play that you wrote earlier, Divertimento. AM I wrote Divertimento in 1982 and produced it late that same year in a classroom at the North Carolina School of the Arts [in WinstonSalem]. I had graduated from the school in 1980, but I had friends still in school and got permission to do the play. We did our own presentation, and Phil saw it. He was 15. TP To what extent does the screenplay differ from the original play? AM The play is only five characters onstage—Peg, Eugene,Johnny,Ashley, and Madeleine. George is always offstage.The artist is not in the play. Although the Madeleine character has a gallery in Chicago in the play,she was not coming to George's hometown to sign the artist—only to meet the family. Phil actually first suggested we have an artist that Madeleine wants to sign up. And then all the other characters in the film are new. TP On whom and what did you base the Wark character and your portrayal ofthe outsider art market? AM He's not based on any one person. Ofcourse there are parts of Howard Finster and Henry Darger,but also James Harold Jennings, Minnie Evans, Mose Tolliver, and many others. I read some on different artists, and then,ofcourse, he's part complete fiction. TP One ofthe most interesting things about the Wark
character,I think,is the way he combines two kinds of Southern characters—the visionary artist and the obsessive Civil War buff. When and how did you first become aware ofcontemporary folk or outsider art? AM In the 1980s I had a good friend, Gary Cook, who taught painting at Wake Forest University [in WinstonSalem],and he and his wife, Susan Chambers,really introduced me to that world. I remember Finster coming to Wake Forest and talking. He was fantastic, and if he'd had a church, I would have attended. TP From what you know ofcontemporary folk art and its market,do you feel that the widespread interest in it is driven to some extent by stereotypes about Southerners? AM I don't know if that's true, because I don't know if it's just Southern. I think it's much more about appreciating and patronizing something that has primitive power and crude charm and beauty. TP Did you do much in the way ofspecial research to prepare for writing the scenes involving Wark or Madeleine's gallery? AM No, not really. I was a visual arts major at the North Carolina School of the Arts and have a lot offriends who went on to careers in visual art. And I just made
up what I thought might happen. TP Do you see the Wark character as exaggerated by comparison to what you know about so-called outsider artists in the real world? AM No,I didn't intend him to be an exaggeration per se, but I don't really know any visionary artists myself and haven't followed them in the "real world." But I will say that I don't even think ofthe character as "mentally ill," as some people do.I think he's a visionary and sincere in his sense of a mission.There's a very fine line between mental aberration and artistry. Is a psychotic break an encounter with a godhead or brain chemical damage? And if it's just chemical,is that godhead as well? TP Was there any particular reason that you selected Chicago as the location of Madeleine's gallery and her meeting with George? AM I wanted her to be sophisticated and successful, but being in Chicago she's even looked at as outside—outside the New York market. She's provincial by some New York standards,just as some might think Winston-Salem is provincial by the big-city standards ofa place like Chicago. And one ofthe themes ofthe film is who's inside and who's outside, and what is patronage? TP To
what extent are you aware of Chicago's history ofbeing conspicuously receptive to folk and outsider art? AM Not at all, not anymore than anyplace else. TP What kind ofstatement,if any, do you think the film makes about the relationship between dealers and artists in the outsider art field? AM I do believe that when we as non—outsider/visionary artists look at, appreciate, and love a work they have produced, we are standing in a safe place. We are not where the artist was when he created it. And the creator was often,I believe,in a very troubled or powerfully emotional place. So I did want to explore the whole idea ofpatronage of art, and patronizing ofpeople— even beyond the pejorative sense of that word. And the pull we have with the other—when we feel an affinity but we are not that person.There is an eros in that relationship. And what happens when we want a relationship and don't want it at the same time. TP I'm told that at least one viewer who works in the art field thought the Wark character was a real outsider artist, rather than an actor playing a role. Do you think any other viewers might have made the same assumption? AM I know that some people
SPRING SUMMER 2006 FOLK ART
23
CONVERSATION
think Frank Hoyt Taylor isn't an actor. And I think some people believe he did the art, or that we found the art and wed it to our story Phil really took great responsibility in what we were doing in presenting faux-naĂŻve art. He was queasy with the whole idea of"faking it." But I think the collaboration of the script, Ann Wood's paintings, Phil's ideas, and Frank's portrayal was a really good one. Phil Morrison TP What was it about seeing Angus MacLachlan's play Divertimento as a 15-year-old that stayed with you to the extent that you ended up basing your first feature-length film on it? PM It was about people in North Carolina that I recognized, and I had never seen a play like that before. Seeing a play about a family that might have lived down the road from me was extraordinary, and it hit me in a kind of mystical way. TP At what point in conceptualizing the film did it occur to you to specify that Madeleine is an outsider art dealer, and to incorporate the outsider artist character David Wark? PM In the play, Madeleine's character was identified as an art dealer, but she was focused more on crafts. And in thinking about it,I felt it was important that it be neither George's idea nor Madeleine's for them to visit his family, but that they were there for other reasons. Also,in thinking about the themes ofthe movie and about Madeleine's relationships to the family members,it seemed like it would be interesting for her to have this objective or almost mediated experience of the South. It was via her appreciation for these beautiful pieces of art she had found that she became
24
SPRING/SUMMER 2006
FOLK ART
fascinated by the region, and this is part of what makes George attractive to her. It's not necessarily her first time in the South,but it just so happens that she hasn't had this particular experience of Southerners. It may even be the first time she's been in any middle-class, non-bohemian household for any real amount of time in any region ofthe world. It's easy for her to walk into some strange artist's environment,or to go to Chapel Hill or Athens, Georgia, or Oxford,Mississippi, and attend a cocktail party with people in bow ties, but this is just a new experience for her, it's terra incognita. So,this notion ofthe painter is really the result of my wanting to come up with something to get George and Madeleine to George's neighborhood,and it kind ofdeveloped from there. It seemed to make sense thematically, and it also provided entertainment. TP To what extent were you aware ofoutsider art? PM I had known about it since around the time I moved to New York in 1985, when I had spent some time with Howard Finster and James Harold Jennings. TP How and when did you meet Finster? PM I got directions to his house from a friend who knew him,and I drove down there for the first time in the summer of 1985,right before I moved to New York I ended up sleeping on Finster's couch that night.Then I went to see him again in December of
that year, and I shot a Super-8 film ofParadise Garden that was one of my freshman-year projects at NYU.I audiotaped Finster talking on his front porch and used the tape as the soundtrack Right around then there was a particular kind ofexcitement in hipster culture about outsider art, thanks to David Byrne and R.E.M.,et cetera.I have to acknowledge that,in moving to New York from Winston-Salem,I probably grabbed onto that, because it was something that was being honored about the place I came from. It had a cachet and a currency. No doubt many other freshman film-school exercises were shot at Paradise Garden that year. Later, when I had started directing commercials in the early 1990s,I met with Bob Greenberg [the founder ofthe innovative film production company R/GA], and he [showed] me his outsider art collection. He had Henry Darger's book [the original manuscript of Darger's magnum opus, The Story ofthe Vivian Girls.. in his office.This was in the early days of digital scanning technology,and the book's owners had given it to Greenberg to scan.I knew about Darger before that, and his work had been ofinterest to me. When it came to the idea of coming up with this [artist] character, Angus and I both sort of hoped to pay tribute to what we liked in that world. We also wanted to try to look into our-
"I did want to explore the whole idea of patronage of art, and patronizing of people— even beyond the pejorative sense of that word."
selves about its often-talkedabout challenges and complexities. TP How specific were your discussions with Angus about the Wark character? And was the character's name your idea? PM The character's name was definitely an indulgence on my part, and sometimes I feel a little silly about that.[The name comes from that of pioneer film director David Wark"D.W." Griffith, whose credits include the landmark silent epic Birth ofa Nation.] It's one of those kinds of things that, when you see them, you think the person making the movie is trying to deliver a message or a joke. But giving him that name helped me to conjure some ofthe feelings we were hoping to explore, and also to relate to Madeleine's predicament.The challenge the artist poses to Madeleine is not unlike the one that Griffith poses to movie lovers.To me it has to do with reminding ourselves that good and evil aren't inextricable. That's a simple idea, but I think it's worth exploring. We used Griffith a little in the paintings. We looked at a lot of stills from Birth ofa Nation,and I gave Ann Wood a lot of books on Griffith to look at. In the Antietam painting, you can see an image ofthe Gish sisters from An Unseen Enemy. Griffith created the cinema, and made beautiful art, which we're forced to reconcile with the simultaneous awareness of his racism. Part of Madeleine's experience with the Walk character has to do with the realization that this art that moves her so is a product of his entirety—good and evil. I think she comes to have a more authentic relationship to him as his patron when she has to participate in the fact that she wins him,to some degree,on account of his being
G
randma Moses: Grandmother to the Nation
Opens May 27
•
4,
.11t4c.4„.
s Sugaring Off 1945, by Anna Mary Robertson (Grandma) Moses (1860-1961), Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, NY Copyright Grandma Moses Properties Co. New York
Experience first-hand the familiar and rarely seen works of America's most beloved folk artist, Grandma Moses, in a major retrospective. Catch this national exhibit in its charming premiere venue. Route 80, Lake Rd.• Cooperstown, NY 13326 (888) 547-1450 • www.fenimoreartmuseum.org
<ERR GALLERY outsider art american and international folk art tribal and ethnographic art
418 North 3rd St. Suite 330 Milwaukee,W1 53202 1.414.224.1469 email: kerrethno@aol.com by appointment
Mary Maxtion,8 point star quilt I 960
SPRING/SUMMER 2006 FOLK ART
25
CONVERSATION
distrustful ofJews. She was already benefiting from the sum total ofwho he is and the way that it makes its way onto the canvas. This gets into ideas about privilege: Racist systems often benefit even those of us who don't believe in them.It's a privileged position that we're in to be able to benefit from what is evil in the world without having to see it or acknowledge it. TP Aside from suggesting the name David Wark, did you make any other suggestions to Angus about the artist character? PM When Angus began writing that part, he actually used lot ofwords directly from Howard Finster. But I wanted him to take the next step and create a character that was completely our own—to let ourselves be fanciful—and I remember talking to him about that. I knew that Angus had a strong ability to draw characters who are simultaneously funny and imaginative, and who at their core hit some kind ofsurprising truth, and I had faith that he could really do that with this character. After I had that talk with him,that's when he began to come up with things like the painting where General Lee's [penis] is so big that he has to turn the painting over to draw the end ofit on the other side. When I was working with Ann to get the right kind oflook for the paintings,it got to be really fun— and difficult. TP Was the Wark role difficult to cast? PM Sure.It wasn't the easiest thing to articulate what this role was about to an actor who didn't have any experience or awareness of artists like this. I auditioned a lot of actors for the part—maybe 20 or 30. But Frank just really seemed to inherently get it. He walked into the audition already in character, and
he stayed in character through the whole audition. He stayed in character when he was responding to the notes I was giving him,and he didn't allow me to meet Frank Hoyt Taylor until it was absolutely clear that the audition was over.I really loved that he was committing to an accent so extreme that plenty ofpeople might not even believe it could possibly be real. But lots of my relatives on my mom's side talked that way, and even though Frank did a thicker dialect than theirs, it wasn't too far off. I didn't get the impression that he knew a whole lot about self-taught artists prior to the audition, but he did seem to take at face value what was in the script about a man who lived to paint and who was a visionary. That seemed to make sense to Frank. Or he didn't seem to need to know more—it wasn't really necessary for him to make sense ofit. And I really liked that he didn't try to make the character comical. Circumstantially he's comical, but there's no schtick about the way Frank plays it.
TP How did you come to select Ann Wood to create the Wark paintings, and to what extent did you collaborate with her in conceiving and creating them? PM She's created things for a lot of movies and TV shows.I had worked with her on the design aspect of a TV commercial,and she seemed like she would be right for doing this. We had a number of meetings and looked at a lot of books on outsider art. We talked about Finster and Darger, but we looked at work by a lot of people, and notjust American self-taught artists. It was a real process we went through to find Wark's style, and for a while I felt like I was having to drive Ann's training out of her. We also had to be really rigorous about not being too cute about the choices we made,and about not paying too much attention to perspective. We spent a lot oftime looking at these things and talking, and really trying to figure out what would make these paintings right. It was a funny experience for me,because I'd never participated in anything like that.
HOLES / Ann Wood / New York / 2004 / acrylic on newsprint /121 / 2 23" / courtesy the artist
26 SPRING/SUMMER 2006 FOLK ART
I had never particularly enjoyed looking at paintings where the artist was obviously trying to emulate the look ofoutsider art. But this was different in that these paintings were meant to be by this character. And doing it this way was not only more fun,but it seemed like the responsible way to do it, rather than to use paintings by an actual outsider artist and claim that they were our character's paintings. TP Is there anything else you'd like to say in addressing this aspect ofJunebug? PM I'd like to mention that I really don't think ofthe film as being a critique ofthe art world and outsider art. I know that these issues have been explored with much more complexity and rigor among the people who specialize in it than we could ever do.I just wanted to utilize those ideas to trigger people to think about issues in their own lives that might have nothing to do with art—to take lessons from that world and apply it to people in general,rather than critiquing that world.I think what the Madeleine character
CONVERSATION
is doing in trying to present this art is an admirable thing. Ann Wood TP What's your art background as far as formal studies and degrees? AW My education was sporadic and incomplete, most ofit in 1986 and '87 at Massachusetts College of Art. I didn't get a degree. TP For how long have you been living and working in New York? AW I moved to New York from Boston almost ten years ago. I have a funny little niche in life. I work as an artist for hire. I make paintings and other objects in a variety ofstyles and mediums for films,TV commercials,commissioned murals, et cetera. TP How did you get involved in this line of work,and what other films have you worked on? AW When I moved to New York,I knew one person, Amy Silver, who was an art director, and she helped me get work on commercials. She also introduced me to Dave Doernberg, who is a production designer, and to Phil Morrison.I've worked with them over the last ten years on various things.[Doernberg was the production designer for Junebug.] Some of the other films I've worked on are Palindromes, Pootie Tang, Party Monster, and Jesus'Son. TP When did Phil approach you about taking on this project, and what was the nature of your negotiations with him as you worked on the David Wark paintings? AW Phil approached me about making the paintings in the spring of2004,when he was
starting preproduction work on the film.I read the script and met with Phil and Dave Doernberg. Then Phil and I spent a lot of time together looking at things— art and Civil War history and images, the work of Henry Darger, Howard Finster, and other selftaught artists. I started making drawings and took an initial stab at making an entire painting.I started with the first painting you encounter in the film, GeneralLee. I would paint a little, then Phil and I would go over what I had done to pick out bits that worked and bits that didn't. One ofthe hardest things for me to do was let go ofscale in a way that didn't look purposeful and contrived. TP What are some of the other influences these paintings? on AW One ofthe biggest influences is Pieter Brueghel— [in] the tangles of people and that one repeating red, blood mostly, that's the only bright color in an otherwise moody palette. Another influence [are] the murals at Pompeii.They,along with some Civil War—era photographs, provided the inspiration for the spraying and splattering of paint in those paintings. TP To what extent, if any, are the Wark paintings related to the art you make on your own,as Ann Wood? AW I have always been pretty much occupied making things for various purposes, but that work often ends up being somewhat personal for me in the making.[Painting forJunebug] really loosened me up and made me think differently—made me paint more imaginatively, and less
"One ofthe hardest things for me to do was let go of scale in a way that didn't look purposeful and contrived.''
KENTUCKY'S ONLY FOLK ART SHOW
A Dayin the
ountr),
T
Morehead, Kentucky
June 3,2006 9 a.m.- 3 p.m.• Auction at 1 p.m. Carvings in wood and stone, primitive paintings, painted furniture, canes, art from found objects, and much more, for sale directly from more than 50 regional folk artists all under one large tent. After 12 years at various locations in Elliott County, A Day in the Country has now found a permanent home at the Kentucky Folk Art Center. Held in conjunction with Bluegrass 'n More: A Celebration ofAmerican Music,June 2-4.
Kentudw-"' Kentucky Folk Art Center 102 West First Street Morehead,KY 40351 606.783.2204 KFAC is a cultural,educational and economic development service of Morehead State University.
VISIT OUR NEW ONLINE STORE! www.kyfolkart.org
SPRING/SUMMER 2006
FOLK
ART
27
CON
V
ER
S
A
TION
realistically, and that was a good exercise. It's always good to try working without using the skills that you're comfortable with—like being forced to write or paint with your left hand when you're righthanded.It definitely opens up some new possibilities. TP What are your thoughts about outsider art? AW I don't understand what that word means.I'm fine with the terms naïve and self-taught, but that term—outsider— addresses the circumstances ofthe person who made the art, not the art itself. And it also gives a lot of importance to the observer, as opposed to the creator. I don't like it, and I don't think it's a necessary term.I'm not saying that an artist's background can't be intriguing and shouldn't be part ofthe picture when you're considering their work, but it shouldn't be the whole focus. TP I agree. I've never liked the term,but a lot of people obviously do.Is there anything else about the film and the paintings you made for it that you'd like to mention? AW My first instinct when Phil and Dave asked me about doing these paintings was to decline.I was surprised they wanted to actually make paintings for the film instead of using existing ones or shooting around them,and I was afraid that whatever I made would end up seeming like a parody, or obviously manufactured and prop-ish.
Junebug? FHT Lisa Kincannon is a casting director in Wilmington [N.C.], and she had cast me in several things. She saw the script forJunebug and noticed that the artist is described as having a North Carolina mountain accent. I live in that same area, close to Abindgon,Virginia, and Lisa knew that I had played other roles that were situated in this part of country,so she arranged for me to read for the part. TP What did you think ofthe character? Did he remind you of anyone you knew,and did you model your performance on anyone in particular? FHT When I first got the script and started reading it, I thought of Ray Hicks,the famous storyteller from Beech Mountain, North Carolina, who died about three years ago. Appalshop,the Appalachian film workshop in Whitesburg, Kentucky, made a film on Ray several years ago,and his speaking voice was familiar to me.I respected Ray a lot. He was a performer in his own right, and it wasn't his character that I used in that role but his voice.I didn't try to copy his voice, but it had a strong influence on me.I'm not a linguist, but if you spend much time in rural areas in the mountains of North Carolina and Virginia, you hear a lot of other people with that kind of accent. And when I read the dialogue in the screenplay,I thought it really lent itself to that accent. TP Did you do any special research in preparing for the role? FHT I looked at folk art by famous folk artists,
"As for my own performance, I claim to be a charter member of the slow talkers of America."
Frank Hoyt Taylor
TP How did you happen to audition for the part ofDavid Wark in
28 SPRING/SUMMER 2006
FOLK ART
like Howard Finster and others, on folk art websites. And some of my friends put me in touch with a few folk artists[whom] I talked to over the telephone. When you're an actor, you're terrified if you don't have a real sense ofa character inside you. So I concentrated on what I could get from Angus's words, and I tried to let them work through me. You get a sense ofthe power of well-chosen words in Junebug.I live on a farm,in a house that I built myself years ago. I bought the farm with a group offriends in 1972. Some ofthe neighbors called us a hippie commune. But I've held on to it. I've had a life in the film industry and a life in the rural part of Scott County, Virginia. And in some ways my life must not be unlike this artist's life. I've got a house full offound objects—things I've found on the farm—and that connection with the character felt apparent to me. I felt like who I am in my life here certainly helped me understand this particular artist. Actors are always interested in discovering what a character's motivation is, and in this case it was pretty clear that the character's knowledge of the Bible and the Civil War were the two things he was caught up in. TP What do you think ofthe film and ofthe way your part in it turned out? FHT A lot ofcritics have said the film's magic is that you're drawn into it as it goes along, and I found that that was happening to me.Because I live in this part of the country,it was all so familiar that it wasn't even like watching a movie. As for my own performance,I claim to be a charter member ofthe slow talkers of America, and sometimes I thought my delivery was a little too slow. But I was glad that my
physical performance seemed to work pretty well. It's not something that I was thinking about when I was working.I was concentrating on what I was saying and how the character was feeling, but it turns out that my body sort offollowed along.That was good to see. TP I'm not professionally involved in the film world,but I spent a lot oftime with Howard Finster, and I've known a number ofother visionary artists, and I think you did a terrific job in that part,for what it's worth. FHT It was a big role for me.I've been acting for thirty years, and working in films for twenty years, but that was a great role for me, because it dealt with my roots. Plus it was just such an extreme character. I felt like it pulled a lot out of me to do that role. I felt so pleased and honored to be part of that film, because I've worked in many films that depict the South and Southern characters, and this film got it right.*
Amy Adams, who plays the character Ashley, was nominated for an Academy Award for best actress in a supporting role for her performance.
AMERICAN FOLK ART EXTENSIVE SELECTION FROM OVER 90 ARTISTS
Sister Gertrude Morgan "Modern Inventions" 14" x 11"
Bill Traylor "Blue Cat" 7" x 11"
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
PRIVATE EVENTS AT THE AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM Host a private event in the museum's awardwinning building at 45 West 53rd Street in midtown Manhattan. Cocktail receptions for up to 250 guests - Seated dinners for up to 100 guests Auditorium with full range of audio/visual technology for meetings and conferences AMERICAN
0
For more information and to arrange a site visit, please contact Katie Hush at 212. 977. 7170, ext. 308, or khush@folkartmuseum.org.
MUSEUM
SPRING/SUMMER 2006
FOLK ART
29
THE
COLLECTION:
A
CLOSER
LOOK
BY GERARD C. WERTKIN
n 1979,the American Folk Art Museum received a gift ofa drawing from Mr.and Mrs. Philip M.Isaacson of Lewiston,Maine.Well composed and mysterious, The Messiah's Crown contains a text revealing the artist's opposition to secret societies. Greater light has been shed on the composition now that A PoliticalExplanationâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a companion piece,signed by Franklin Wilderâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;has been acquired by the museum,a 2004 gift from Allan and Kendra Daniel ofPark Ridge, New Jersey. Together,the drawings provide insights into Wilder's political and religious views, but only hints of his identity. Outraged by the Ku Klux Klan,Wilder was implacably, perhaps obsessively,opposed to "oath-bound"societies. In the text of The Messiah's Crown,he states that any person joining one ofthese groups is doomed to an eternal hell. In A PoliticalExplanation, he condemns slavery and "Know-Nothing hypocrisy," a reference to a political movement ofthe 1850s that kept its own organizational structure secret. A current ofstrong and consistent opposition to secret societies may be found among evangelical Christians; Wilder's hostility to "pledged secretiveness" is in keeping with a conviction that is deeply rooted in American culture. There is a strangeness to the texts ofWilder's "banners," as he called them,that may suggest he suffered from mental illness. In The Messiah's Crown,for example, he asserts that his message was compiled by"His Servant,the Son ofMan,the P[rince] ofP[eace]," clear references to Jesus Christ. In a rambling statement on the back of the companion piece, Wilder claims that he was "unlawfully confined and otherwise barbacued [sic] by the government for going on twenty three years." In the same statement, he asserts that he once had been taken before a court and "sent to the House of Correction for the space of nine months,"further evidence of a troubled life. An association with central Massachusetts,where members ofthe Wilder family were well established by the 18th century, has descended with the drawings.The records ofthe town ofLeominster contain information about a Franklin Wilder (c. 1878-1955) who,at various times, had worked as a mechanic,a clerk, and an engineer. For at least one year, he was employed by the Whitney Reed Chair Co., manufacturers offurniture and children's toys,including rocking horses.Interestingly,from 1910 to 1918 the Leominster directory lists him as a painter. Except for a couple ofbriefinterludes, he lived in his father's home until he was 40 years ofage or older. He never married. It is possible that Franklin Wilder ofLeominster created these drawings; however,statements in A Political Explanation about 19th-century political issues may suggest an earlier origin for the works.*
I
30 SPRING/SUMMER 2006
FOLK ART
rI
THE MESSIAH'S CROWN / Franklin Wilder (possibly c.1878-1955)/ possibly Leominster, Massachusetts / late / 2\ 163 / 4"/ American Folk Art Museum, nineteenth or early twentieth century / ink and pencil on paper / 151 gift of Mr. and Mrs. Philip M. Isaacson, 1979.28.1
A POLITICAL EXPLANATION! Franklin Wilder (possibly c. 1878-1955)/ possibly Leominster, Massachusetts / late nineteenth or early twentieth century / ink and pencil on paper / 17 - 201/2"/ American Folk Art Museum, gift of Kendra and Allan Daniel, 2004.28.1
When in NYC, come visit this new location for yesterday's and tomorrow's heirlooms... FISHERHERMGE is now home to Laura Fisher's large, diverse, well-edited collections of antique quilts, hooked rugs, rag carpet, coverlets, samplers, paisleys, Navajos, Beacon blankets, textiles, select American folk art, and now... FISHERHEEIMET" HOOKED RUGS, made-to-order room-size geometric hooked rugs,folky pictorial rugs, and floral area rugs, all based on favorite antique rugs. Choose from our vast selection, or bring in your own to replicate.
FISHERHEEMCGE 305 East 61st Street (east of Second Avenue) New York, NY 10021
w
fora
illusion ; velvet, c. 1920s.
Monday through Friday 9:30-4:30 tel: 212/838-2596 cell: 917/885-3464 email: fisherheritage@yahoo.com web: www.laurafisherquilts.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 Cullman/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
0
7,3
MUSEUM
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
SPRING/SUMMER 2006
FOLK ART
31
"White on White (and a little gray)" is on view at the American Folk Art
The exhibition is organized by Stacy C. Hollander and supported in part by the Gerard C. Wertkin Exhibition Fund and Cotton Incorporated.
Detail of CORNUCOPIA AND DOTS WHITEWORK QUILT (See page 35)
he emphasis upon white in the neoclassical scheme that was formulated in the mid-eighteenth century was founded upon a misconception. It was a widely held belief that classical Greek sculpture and architecture were created from white marble,its pureness unsullied by tawdry pigments.This belief was disseminated through unquestioned sources of ancient knowledge, such as the writings of Roman historian Pliny, who further described an austere Greek color scale of black and white,red, and yellow, with intermediate shades oflight and dark. White was equated with light, and philosophers no less respected than Plato wrote of altering colors through the addition oflight, which did not affect the innocence oftheir nature. According to the ancients, mixing colors was a "deflowering," a "passing away," and as few or no Greek paintings ofthe classical period survived to test such statements, and because Greek sculpture was known largely through Roman copies, there was no authoritative voice to contradict these assertions.'Ideas ofclassicism were further mediated through engravings and drawings, which relied largely upon earlier sources to create a canon ofclassical representation that was not challenged through actual experience ofthe originals. In the eighteenth-century imagination,therefore, the crystalline austerity sought in neoclassical art, architecture, and decorative arts was an ideal that could be captured only in the incorruptibility of whites that directly invoked the transcendence, purity, and timelessness of classical antiquity.
SPRING/SUMMER 2006 FOLK ART 33
he whiteness of white, comprising all colors and reflecting light, was the perfect metaphor for the Age of Enlightenment. Brilliant whiteness invited an intellectual engagement with the physical world it illuminated: Blinding yet revealing, it exposed all flaws and demanded perfection. The role of white was fully realized in the neoclassical concept through the elegant beauty of meandering white threads on white fabric. Snowy expanses of white cotton or bleached linen resonated with the high arts of drawing and sculpture through linear designs that were stuffed, corded, or embroidered. These refined associations were brought into the domestic environment by turning beds into sculptural planes defined through the chimerical play of light and shadow. Fields of white on white displayed in dazzling white interiors anticipated contemporary large-scale monochromatic works and the spare white museum spaces that contain them. Ironically, in looking to the classical past for inspiration, neoclassicism provided a model for the future notion of"modern." The female response to neoclassicism was manifold and intimate. The exhibition "White on White (and a little gray)" focuses on three essentially female art forms from the Federal era through the end of the nineteenth century. Whitework followed in a long tradition of whole-cloth quilts of wool or silk. The single-color top of whole-cloth quilts provided an opportunity to prominently display exquisite needlework and, as many early examples were fashioned from professionally woven, imported fabrics, to display a family's wealth. The American Folk Art Museum's collection of whiteworks was formed primarily through gifts from trustee Cyril Irwin Nelson (1927-2005), who had "a particular fondness" for the form. The selections included in "White on White" are dated from 1796 through 1897,indicating the enduring popularity of all-white bedcovers over the course of a century, and the persistence of classicism as a significant design trope. The earliest whitework in "White on White" is also the earliest dated quilt in the museum's collection. It demonstrates a strong reliance upon the graceful tree-of-life motif, initially introduced into quilts through painted Indian cottons called pa/ampores that were imported into Europe by the seventeenth century. The popularity of such imported dyed, painted, and printed cottons was well established in America by the Revolutionary period; the founding fathers quickly recognized that for American independence to become a reality, the new citizens needed to rely upon their own domestically manufactured goods. From an organized movement to plant flax for homespun linens, it was a logical next step to increase cotton production. By the end of the eighteenth century, the four southernmost states were producing enough cotton for their own consumption and beyond.' The American taste for whitework at this time evolved in part from intricately embellished all-white quilts, petticoats, and waistcoats made earlier in France and other
34 SPRING/SUMMER 2006 FOLK ART
areas of Europe. The raised patterns on these textiles were usually accomplished in a technique known as cording, in which a narrow channel was stitched and then filled with cotton cord. Often called Marseilles work, after the French port through which such textiles were exported, woven yard goods that simulated the handmade quilted examples were available by the 1770s. The terms "whitework" and "quilts in imitation of Marseilles" were used in America to distinguish hand-stitched whitework quilts and embroidered candlewick bedcovers from loom-woven.' The date of 1796 that appears in cording at the bottom of the Tree of4fe Wbitework Quilt (page 36) places it at the beginning of the American vogue for whitework bedcovers and soon after Eli Whitney's invention of the cotton gin. This simple machine, perhaps more than any other innovation, revolutionized the production of cotton in the southern United States. At a moment when the paradox ofslavery in a new nation founded on freedom was being hotly debated, greatly increased cotton growing and processing reinvigorated the need for manual labor, which was provided through the muscle of slaves. Even so, cotton did not become a primary crop in America until the early decades of the nineteenth century, after Samuel Slater established the first water-powered cotton spinning factory, in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, which led to the mechanized spinning, weaving,and mass production of cotton cloth. Whiteworks usually consisted of a top layer of linen, cotton, or a combination; a backing fabric of a coarser weave; and either a light batting or no batting at all. Three primary techniques were used in these elegant productions: embroidery; quilting and stuffing, often with cording; and embroidered candlewicking. Stuff work (sometimes called trapunto after a possible Italian origin for the technique) required the pattern to be outlined in quilting stitches, creating a pocket. A sharp implement was used to open a space between the threads of the fabric behind the element to be stuffed. A padding material was pushed into the space until it was filled, and the threads in the bottom layer were then pushed back into place. Stuffed and corded whiteworks often featured dense background quilting of parallel rows or closely spaced, tiny stitches in a random stippling pattern that flattened the areas between the design elements. This accentuated the sculptural effects of the raised motifs, especially when viewed in the harsh and raking candlelight of the period. Cording could be used to create an overall pattern or restrained to depict delicate linear elements,such as stems. Candlewicking referred to a technique in which a whitework bedcover was embroidered with a thick cotton roving similar to the wicks of candles. Such bedcovers usually consisted of a single layer of fabric or two layers with no batting. The top was often pieced from three lengths of woven cotton or linen in a plain or ribbed weave.The surface was embellished using the roving in a variety of raised embroidery stitches, such as bullion knots or French knots, and flat running stitches, such as stem, back, satin, or outline. Sometimes, the bedcover was embroidered over twigs. When the twigs were removed, the resulting loops could be left on the surface or they could be cut so they fluffed up,in a technique called tufting.'
CORNUCOPIA AND DOTS WHITEWORK QUILT Artist unidentified United States c.1800-1820 Cotton 95 r 89" American Folk Art Museum, gift of Cyril Irwin Nelson, 2005.11.1
GAVIN ASIIWORTI
SPRING/SUMMER 2006
FOLK ART
35
_
atialinli
100,2440bAiikilshi,oymtliaa Tgo "r#Vik. , Am'viAx ,rxrr
36
SPRING/SUMMER 2006
FOLK ART
4:111.**POPPine"001400111“
t the turn of the nineteenth century, and around the same time that whitework became a symbol of taste and status, neoclassicism was also embraced in schoolgirl embroideries worked in glossy silk threads on shimmering silk and satin fabrics. Recent archaeological rediscoveries, such as the buried cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum, had incited a reaction against baroque and rococo styles in favor of the simplicity and geometry of the
nonphysical world to come.' In life, it also turned young women into breathing sculptures reminiscent of antique white marble. The slim fashions were a radical departure from the clothing of the eighteenth century, which exaggerated the female figure by lifting the bosom, constricting the waist, and plumping out the fullness of the hips. Empire dresses, by contrast, masked the body, prompting satirical pieces such as an 1806 quip about unmarried women garbed in "modern fashion" who had "no-body."6 However, the sheer gossamer fabrics that draped the extremities provided a shocking hint of thigh and groin when a young woman sat, moved, or walked.' Fashion therefore dictated that she stand still as a statue. This forced a
VAN RENSSELAER FAMILY MOURNING PIECE Christina Schuyler Van Rensselaer (1791-1814) Claverack, New York 1804 Silk thread, ink, and watercolor on silk 161/2 x 233/ii" (sight) Private collection
e"na P. Strir I 7A3 DAZD I7R6
CAMERARTS. NEW YORK
IlAmAtuatox. an i)flqn .V.sr.rid I
TREE OF LIFE WHITEWORK QUILT Artist unidentified United States 1796 Cotton and linen with cotton fringe 92Âź'.873/4" American Folk Art Museum, gift of Cyril Irwin Nelson in honor of Joel and Kate Kopp, 1997,16.1
classical forms uncovered in such excavations. Unlike earlier samplers that included alphabets, numbers, and verses, as well as pictorial elements, the new style of needlework was ornamental and the images often were memorials based upon engravings that echoed the classical themes ofthe day. Plinths, steles, and urns were among the classical funerary motifs essential to the mourning convention, and, most important, the mourning figure.This usually took the guise of a young woman, her head bowed in grief, dressed in the French neoclassical fashion of a high-waisted,low-bodiced, white Empire gown. In mourning pieces, the columnar shape of the gown abstracted the body, a reference to the
dilemma for one young woman in another satirical essay who was forced to choose between standing fashionably still and being scalded by spilling boiling water or doing as "nature" dictated and leaping aside for safet? The Reverend Timothy Dwight went so far as to say that "A young lady dressed a la Grecque in a New England winter violates alike good sense, correct taste, sound morals and the duty of self-preservation." The art of engraving had played a major role in eighteenth-century America through newspapers, broadsides, and prints that stirred up revolutionary fervor. After George Washington's death, in 1799, engravings also
SPRING/SUMMER 2006 FOLK ART
37
contributed significantly to a storehouse of imagery that reflected the nation's shared grief and unified its expression. The memorial prints that flooded American markets were excellent sources of classical mourning iconography, successfully translated into needlework patterns drawn on silk and satin. In America, these patterns were uniquely personalized, as girls painstakingly stitched memorials for mothers, fathers, and siblings, as well as the country's public heroes. One of the most visually and technically extraordinary forms of early pictorial embroidery in America was literally inspired by the art of engraving. Monochromatic
.2* FUN"L
FRYER FAMILY MOURNING PIECE Margaret Fryer (1785-1823) Albany, New York 1800 Silk thread, ink, and graphite on silk; in original gilded frame with eglomise mat 193/4 x 24" Collection of Suzanne and Michael Payne
Sc:it
GAVIN ASHWORTH
„vi -AIA;A:A*
Instruction in print work was advertised from 1799 to the mid-1820s, but only two distinctive groups emerged: one from Mary Bakh's renowned academy in Providence, Rhode Island, and another from an unidentified school, or schools, in Albany, New York, that produced some of the finest and most detailed examples.' The earliest Albany designs that were drawn on silk were the work of two artists, notably the engraver Henry W. Snyder (1784-1864), who signed his patterns "Snyder dlt. [delineator]," and a second artist who has not been identified but whose work is distinguished by the use of diminutive figures. The Balch
memorials known as print work were executed exclusively in black or brown silk threads on white silk and satin and were intended to imitate uncolored engravings using tiny seed stitches to simulate the stippling of the engraver's tool. The stitches were sewn over an underdrawing—often provided by a professional artist—that might be rendered on the silk in ink or graphite. Additionally, the restrained use of black or brown threads on a white ground was a subtle reference to the ancient Greek chromatic scale of dark and light, black and white.
38 SPRING/SUMMER 2006 FOLK ART
school was one of the first to produce large pictorial silk embroideries in the neoclassical taste, and examples of print work from this school rely upon specific classical motifs gleaned from memorial prints in honor ofWashington. They are further characterized by precise stitched lettering in fine black thread on obelisks and other classical funerary elements. After 1800, the final presentation of print-work embroideries usually entailed a black reverse-painted glass mat and a brilliant gilded frame that would have reflected handsomely in candlelit interiors.
SUSAN TIBBETS CANDLEWICK SPREAD Susan Tibbets (life dates unknown) Possibly Connecticut 1847 Cotton with clipped cotton roving embroidery 1001 / 2x 91" American Folk Art Museum, gift of Cyril Irwin Nelson in honor of Joel and Kate Kopp, 1991.18.1
SPRING/SUMMER 2006
FOLK ART
39
he dassical ideal remained the touchstone of aesthetic refinement through the nineteenth century. In 1835, a new art known as Grecian painting was introduced in The Artist, or, Young Ladies'Instructor in Ornamental Painting, Drawings, & c., by B.F. Gandee. The technique involved sooty lampblack drawings on a board
prepared with iridescent marble dust. The use of crushed marble evoked an association with Greek sculpture and the art of creating three-dimensional effects in shades of gray that Greek artists began to explore in the fifth century BCE. The reflective quality of the fine grains glittering through charcoal was especially suited to sublime landscapes, architectural views, and moonlit scenes. In spite of the typical depictions of dassical ruins, however, neither the technique nor the results bore any true relation to the art of antiquity.
40 SPRING/SUMMER 2006 FOLK ART
Nearly three-quarters of Gandee's small volume was devoted to Grecian painting. The name referred to "the near resemblance ... of this beautiful art .. . to the effect of several paintings discovered on the walls of ancient Grecian palaces." Gandee's instructions took the form of a conversation between a mother and her daughter, who was to prepare artistic pieces for a fancy sale. The girl's older cousin was proficient in a "new style of painting" that "excites surprise" and "affords more scope for the exercise of
the mental facilities." As described by cousin Charlotte, a millboard was first coated with a varnish made from linseed oil and mastic and then pigmented with white lead or yellow ochre. A white ground was recommended for moonlight scenes, while a buff color was deemed appropriate for daytime views. After the board was painted, crushed marble dust procured from a stonemason was sifted through fine muslin over the entire surface. The board was then allowed to harden for one week, after which it was sanded
MOUNT VERNON AND WASHINGTON'S TOMB Artist unidentified United States c.1845-1865 Chalk over lampblack pigment on marble dust on board 143/16 203 / 4 "(sight) Collection of Gary Davenport
and made ready for use. Charlotte taught her young cousin to sprinkle a small amount of dry lampblack pigment onto the board and to spread it into the general outlines of the desired landscape with a pounce of soft leather.Then,using harder leathers, the pigment could be rubbed off to create gradations of black and gray. For harder edges,the pigment was scraped off with the blade of a knife, sometimes right down to the rough-textured surface to reveal the white or cream of the board. Additional details could be added using black or white chalk. Through the interplay of smoky blacks and brilliant white highlights,"a finished effect of light, shade,form and colour" could be produced. Marble-dust drawings were usually translated from engravings. Because they relied upon published images, multiple works have survived on such specific themes as Mount Vernon and Washington's Tomb and Byron's
who coined the term "monochromatic painting" to replace Grecian painting.' A more accurate description of the process, it also explicitly acknowledged the debt to the chiaroscuro technique known as grisaille. The vogue for neoclassicism was widespread, and some of its most lovely manifestations were wrought by female hands. Around 1816, artist Ammi Phillips painted a series of portraits in New York's Rensselaer County. The women he portrayed were the wives of farmers, merchants, and physicians. In each solemn portrait, a single female figure sits at a table, a piece of hand-stitched white lace wrapped around her index finger and trailing into her lap. In some, a needle is casually slipped through the open work. But in one, the secret smile that plays just behind the sitter's eyes may be inspired by the beautiful embroidered whitework that adorns her table.* The author dedicates this essay to the memory oftrustee emeritus CyrilIrwin Nelson (1927-2005). Stacy C. Hollander is senior curator and director ofexhibitions at the American Folk Art Museum.
Notes 1 Philip Ball,BrightEarth:Art and the Invention ofColor
BYRON'S DREAM Artist unidentified United States c.1845-1865 Chalk over lampblack pigment on marble dust on board 173/ie x 22"(sight) Collection of Valerie Smith and Matt Mullican
Dream, as well as published compendiums of topographical views. One subject that was especially popular at midcentury, judging by the number of extant examples, was "The Magic Lake." An engraving by John Sartain (18081897) after James Hamilton (1819-1878) was published in Sartain's Magazine in 1852 as an illustration to "The Pilgrim of Love," a Gothic romance written by Henry B. Hirst." Engravings after well-known works of art, notably Thomas Cole's four-part series Voyage ofLfe, also provided models for marble-dust interpretations. The impressive atmospheric effects achieved through this relatively simple technique led to its widespread popularity through the 1860s. Marble-dust drawing was taught in schools,learned at home through instruction manuals, and practiced by professional artists. Silas Wood Jr. was an itinerant teacher
(New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux,2002), pp. 15-19. 2 Stephen Yafa,Big Cotton:How a Humble Fiber Created Fortunes, Wrecked Civilizations, and PutAmerica on the Map(New York: Viking,2005), pp. 70-90. 3 Lynne Z.Bassett and Jack Larkin, Northern Comfort:New England's Early Quilts, 1780-1850,from the Collection ofOld Sturbridge Village(Nashville: Rutledge Hill Press, 1998), pp. 79-86. 4 A detailed description ofthe various forms ofwhitework is contained in Elizabeth V.Warren and Sharon L. Eisenstat, Glorious American Quilts: The Quilt Collection ofthe Museum of American Folk Art(New York Penguin Studio in association with the Museum ofAmerican Folk Art, 1996), pp. 8-13. 5 Anita Schorsch, Mourning Becomes America:Mourning Art in the New Nation(New Jersey: Main Street Press, 1976), unpaginated. 6 "Modern Fashion,"in(New London) Connecticut Gazette and the CommercialIntelligencer,July 9,1806,p. 4. 7 I am indebted to Linda Eaton, curator oftextiles at Winterthur Museum &Country Estate, Winterthur, Del.,for sharing her thoughts regarding neoclassical fashion. 8 "Fashion," in (New London) Connecticut Gazette and the CommercialIntelligencer, October 29,1806,p.4. 9 As quoted in Gerald W.R.Ward and William N.Hosley Jr., eds., The Great River:Art & Society ofthe Connecticut Valley, 16351820(Hartford: Wadsworth Atheneum,1985),catalog entry 259. 10 Betty Ring, Girlhood Embroidery:American Samplers &PictorialNeedlework, 1650-1850(New York Alfred A. Knopf,1993), pp. 320-327; and Ring,Let Virtue Be a Guide to Thee:Needlework in the Education ofRhode Island Women,1730-1830(Providence: Rhode Island Historical Society, 1983), pp. 158-161,182-188. 11 The subject ofthe Magic Lake is explored in depth in Shelley R. Langdale,"The Enchantment ofthe Magic Lake:The Origin and Iconography of a Nineteenth-Century Sandpaper Drawing," Folk Art 23, no.4(winter 1998/99): 52-62. 12 Randall and Tanya Holton,"Sandpaper Paintings of American Scenes," The Magazine Antiques 150, no.3(September 1996): 356-365.
SPRING/SUMMER 2006 FOLK ART 41
Rock Garden, Chandigarh, India, 1913 .
4;.
CONCRETE SCULPTURES BY NEK CHAND
ek Chand's Rock Garden is nestled on the outskirts of the modernist city of Chandigarh,India. Thousands of sculptures inhabit the enormous environment of transformed lands, architecture, waterways, and gardens. "Concrete Kingdom:
This magical setting testifies to the maker's life philosoph
Sculptures by Nek
as a follower of Gandhi, his spiritual inclinations as a
Chand" is on view at
Hindu, and his approaches to recycling, the landscape, and
the American Folk Art
environmental preservation."Concrete Kingdom" showcases
,Museum through 'September 24.
the work of this visionary self-taught artist.
The exhibition is organized by Brooke Davis Anderson, Juliana Driever, and Lee Kogan, and is supported in part by the Gerard C. Wertkin Exhibition Fund.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY GAVIN ASHWORTH.
INGDOM
All works collection American Folk Art Museum, gift of the National Children's Museum, Washington, D.C., from the Capital Children's Museum Nek Chand Fantasy Garden in honor of Gerard C. Wertkin, director of the American Folk Art Museum, 1991-2004.
LADY FETCHING WATER (detail) Nek Chand (b.1924) Chandigarh, India C. 1984 Concrete over metal armature with mixed media 32 11 , 4" 2004.25.11
The American Folk Art Museum recently acquired twenty-nine concrete and mixed-media works from the Nek Chand Fantasy Garden, a small outdoor installation of approximately one hundred sculptures Nek Chand (b. 1924) created for the National Children's Museum, in Washington, D.C. (currently relocating), in the 1980s. The new additions to the permanent collection, along with five works already owned by the museum, are a powerful link to the Rock Garden in India. In "Concrete Kingdom," the sculptures are featured in numerous groupings on tiered pedestals in the galleries; this multilevel approach to display, along with the inclusion of numerous large-scale photographs of the Rock Garden, illuminate for the museum visitor the design and grand scale of the original environment. Displaced by the partition of 1947, Nek Chand migrated from his small Punjabi village on the freshly marked border between Pakistan and India, ultimately settling in Chandigarh, the new capital of Punjab, in 1951. While working as a road inspector overseeing highway construction for the city, he began to collect oddly shaped rocks and riverbed stones, which he felt were imbued with spiritual forces. At this time, the architect Le Corbusier (1887-1965) was working on the transformation of Chandigarh from more than twenty small villages into his version of a grand modernist
44 SPRING/SUMMER 2006 FOLK ART
DUCK C. 1984 Concrete over metal armature with mixed media 56 / 35 / 11" 2004.25.27
THREE LADIES FETCHING WATER c.1984 Concrete over metal armature with mixed media 27 x 10 - 4"; 32 x11 \ 4"; 31x 11 x 4" 2004.25.2; 2004.25.11; 2004.25.10
SPRING/SUMMER 2006 FOLK ART
45
city for the newly independent India. Inspired by the architect's municipal buildings and by his own visions, Nek Chand began to clear abandoned land north of the city and to construct—in secret—a private environment of numerous intimate, figurative sculptures and rock formations. He spent his spare hours on a bicycle, traveling the countryside in search of discarded objects from landfills, construction sites, and factories. He also collected seedlings and cuttings and channeled water from monsoons for his lush plantings and waterworks. Adapting construction techniques used by Le Corbusier, he fashioned old bicycle parts into armatures for concrete sculptures. For embellishment,in addition to rocks and stones, the artist broke down vast quantities of industrial waste into fragments and repurposed it—with meticulous precision—to give form and character to a landscape populated by uniform clusters of human figures and animal groupings. Discovered in the 1970s by the local government, the Rock Garden escaped destruction because of public acclaim. As a result, politicians and local leaders embraced it and provided ongoing support. Today, many decades after Nek Chand began his project, the Rock Garden extends across more than twenty-five acres and contains more than two thousand works of art. It is now the second-most visited tourist site in India; only
46 SPRING/SUMMER 2006 FOLK ART
MAN WITH BASKET, BOY, and BOY FETCHING FLOWER POT c.1984 Concrete over metal armature with mixed media 57 x 24 x 13"; 35 x 13 x 13"; 47 x 24 x 20" 2004.25.15; 2004.25.13; 2004.25.22
`7 ., it .,, -011%
MONKEY c. 1984 Concrete over metal armature with mixed media 24 x 12 x 14" 2004.25.19
â&#x20AC;˘
SPRING/SUMMER 2006
FOLK ART
47
Detail of BEAD FENCE / c. 1984/ clay / 2004.25.30
the Taj Mahal attracts more people. In his artwork, Nek Chand references the tumultuous history of ethnic and religious strife in India and Pakistan. It also illustrates influences of Le Corbusier's architecture as well as visual and philosophical revolts against it. The exhibition explores the art of reclamation, recycling, and site spedficity; the public perceptions of the Rock Garden and how Nek Chand has adjusted his private vision into a communal one; and the adaptation of the mission of the Rock Garden to reflect the needs of its community * The museum wishes to acknowledge Nek Chand; Charlotte Frank;Kathryn Morrison; CherylRivers and Steve Simons; Kathy Southern, Veronica Szalus, and Karen Yager ofthe National Children's Museum, Washington, D.C.;Anton Rajer;and Madhukar Balsara. Brooke DavisAnderson is director and curator ofthe museum's Contemporary Center. Editor's Note: For more information on Nek Chand,please see Cheryl Rivers,"A Spiritual Refuge: Five Early Works by Nek Chand," Folk Art 28, no.4 (winter 2003/04):62-67; Lucienne Peiry and Philippe Lespinasse,Nek Chand's Outsider Art: The Rock Garden of Chandigarh (Paris: Editions Flammarion,2005); and the Nek Chand Foundation website (www.nekchand.com).
48 SPRING/SUMMER 2006 FOLK ART
MARCHING SOLDIERS c.1984 Concrete over metal armature with mixed media 37 9 7" each 2004.25.4; 2004.25.5
n preparation for mounting the exhibition "Concrete Kingdom: Sculptures by Nek Chand," the twentynine figures recently gifted to the American Folk Art Museum required restoration and conservation. Originally created for the outdoor Nek Chand Fantasy Garden at the National Children's Museum, in Washington, D.C., the objects needed to be stabilized and cleaned. Some had broken arms and hands, and many had lost some of the various materials used as embellishment. As part of my responsibility as chief registrar at the American Folk Art Museum, I oversee
LADY FETCHING WATER c.1984 Concrete over metal armature with mixed media 29 11 â&#x20AC;˘ 7" 2004.25.3
all conservation and restoration projects involving objects in the collection. The Nek Chand project was particularly interesting and challenging. Several conservators were interviewed before we hired Anton Rajer, a well-established and respected conservator with previous experience restoring similar figures. Rajer is a trustee of the Nek Chand Foundation, and he traveled to Nek Chand's Rock Garden to discuss the restoration effort with the artist, who drew detailed diagrams and gave specific suggestions about returning the sculptures to their original, intended states. Nek Chand uses many different materials in his work, including found objects, industrial
by-products, and environmental waste. Before getting started, we had to locate sources for some of the materials used to decorate the figuresâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;broken crockery, glass bracelets manufactured in India, slag, and clinkers. Finding a resource for this material proved to be the most challenging part of the conservation process. The crockery was easiest to find (and it was fun buying dishes and then breaking them!). The glass bracelets were acquired through the generosity of staff member Madhukar Balsara, who has relatives in India; thousands of bracelets were sent for the project. Finding slag was the challenge. Slag is the remnant of the metal casting process, created when the impurities from the molten metal float to the top. The resulting material is an irregular, rocklike substance. Bedi-Makey Art Foundry Corporation, in Brooklyn, was kind enough to save quantities of this material for our use. Nek Chand also uses clinkers as a decorative element in his artwork. This material, too, is a rocklike substance, similar to lava, that was once commonly found inside the fire chamber of certain industrial-size boilers or furnaces. After many telephone calls to boilercleaning companies in New York City, we learned that current environmental laws requiring the use of cleaner fuels preclude the formation of clinkers; therefore, we had to use only slag for the areas needing clinkers.
For more than six weeks in 2005, Rajer worked on replacing hands, feet, and arms of the most severely damaged pieces and filling in missing materials. The conservation project took place in the museum's climate-controlled storage space and at a workshop open to the public at the museum's Eva and Morris Feld Gallery at Lincoln Square. During the process, Rajer's setup included various glues, brick dust, cement, molds, bright lights, and foam cushions to support the figures. Broken bangles were applied to pants and tunics and birds' feathers, and new feet and hands were cast in cement mixed with brick dust. Many volunteers helped with this restoration effort, including the museum's adult and teen docents. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Ann-Marie Reilly, chief registrar and director of exhibition production
SPRING/SUMMER 2006
FOLK ART
49
MONO
cox 7,r„,„• "'Mc
*PM 43'3431 PY1,0""ti•LV M./4•Ass
J041
MR.00649 gftr TM.SALL FI.Uo 4V,011owl
VOCAL NOM nme • fO, A1TIMI
YOu K:CP •" PI
ASKING Me
LOVE YOU'
flin4.' THE nsout •14 liCis o
The Advent and Unlikely Reemergence of
Mm
enl
hen Dori Hadar stopped o'ree5couatiLy. „ v4 is at an outdoor flea market in Washington, D.C., COWIg one weekend in late TtiC 614:0- CCP Ft, December 2003, he was, as usual, 44n d 9 110101, foraging for old vinyl records of experience had revealed this 45, PL. OZCZ.O.PC•O "Y "•4 SY"P rOY the kind he has avidly collected particular flea market,in a pre••"..4 VA CAL since the early 1990s. What he dominantly African American found on that occasion instead neighborhood, to be a good was one of the more unusual source ofsuch records. and idiosyncratic bodies of Perusing the stacks of miswork by a contemporary selfcellaneous albums displayed N ELV taught artist to be uncovered in co. 41....Co there that day, he came across • oso Reuot.r, recent memory. "et, _AA something wholly unanticipated, 106.0•CP•O A 32-year-old criminal invesand unprecedented in his extensive 9n41) tigator who lives in Washington, collecting experience: a box of more "RILTHK1 I HAVE IS •youK5" D.C., Hadar has amassed a collecthan thirty homemade record-album tion of more than six thousand albums covers, many ofthem containing ersatz since he took up his pastime, and like records made of blackened, grooved many other collectors, he specializes. cardboard and encased in handcrafted His particular interests are old-school paper sleeves. The covers were indifunk and rhythm 'n'blues albums from vidually designed and embellished, the 1960s, '70s, and '80s. Previous quite painstakingly in some cases,with
W
SO
SPRING/SUMMER 2006
FOLK ART
PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY PRINCETON ARCHITECTURAL PRESS.
S
RAck13/411,4 drawings, a few collaged photographs, hand-rendered record-company logos, song lists, artists' names, and related information of the kind that routinely appears on the packaging of commercial recordings. Some of them were even encased in cellophane shrink-wrap, just like massproduced albums. Most were attributed to someone curiously identified only as "Mingering Mike," portrayed in several cases as a young, dark-skinned man selfstyled as a soul superstar a la James Brown, wearing casually hip attire suited to the period when the album covers were made-1968 to 1976, according to the dates handwritten in small numerals on them.
11, on. nv,16
, cm) TiMe
*LIZ HI 04.3
re
RE I sxw
j/ OUR LovE 90 ) g,,L.e.a.
M1S5 FLY DARLENE
TWO RECORDS AND SIX LABELS Mingering Mike (h.1950) Washington, D.C. c. 1968-1976 Mixed media Dimensions various All works collection of Dori Hadar.
By Tom Patterson
Fascinated by these anomalous objects, Hadar examined them for a while, then bought the whole boxfil He promptly photographed them and posted the photos on Soulstrut .com, a website dedicated to the kinds of music he collects. To his amazement, his notice received eight thousand hits in just two days. None of the respondents had any information to convey about Mingering Mike's identity, but all were clearly interested, and some were eager to
KING-stoop 4t .t,HT 1.44 OW* 4.4r.
ea•
t toe (+++,,, /Vole
O.•ft +)
IAVS;loirl6.4.4 n+A) • ++.•l++ + ,,, 4 ++4
offer advice as to the disposition of the material Hadar had so fortuitously come across. One of them, a fellow Washington-area collector named Frank Beylotte, reported that he had found more of Mingering Mike's work at the same flea market and that he had bought about ten fake single records credited to Mingering Mike on that occasion. He told Hadar that he had also come across handwritten correspondence, reel-to-reel tape recordings, and other Mingering Mike material,but he had not purchased any of it. Wasting no time, Hadar returned
after the flea-market discovery That first encounter was awkward and inconclusive, but it led to subsequent meetings and telephone conversations, during which Mingering Mike filled in the details of his story and formed a friendly partnership with Hadar. It turned out that Mingering Mike is an African American man in his fifties who lives alone and juggles two blue-collar jobs in order to make ends meet. He had made his self-designed, self-packaged, fake LPs when he was in his late teens and twenties, but had curtailed these activities thirty years
THE MINGEMIG MIKE SHOW
to the flea market and snapped up what was left; Beylotte subsequently gave him his singles. Hadar estimates his total investment for the entire Mingering Mike collection at less than $150. Having posted so much of the material on the Internet, Hadar felt responsible for finding the individual who created it and informing him about its new status and popularity A complete name and mailing addresses preserved in some of the correspondence enabled him to trace Mingering Mike to a Washington apartment, where Hadar and Beylotte paid him an unannounced visit a few weeks
52 SPRING/SUMMER 2006 FOLK ART
ago, after the demands of the workaday world began to consume much of his time and energy He valued the material enough to hold on to most of it, but circumstances eventually forced him to place it in storage, along with some of his other belongings, in the early 1990s. A misunderstanding with the storage facility's owner and an unintended delay in Mingering Mike's payment of the monthly fee on his unit prompted the owner to remove and dispose ofits contents late in 2003. Soon afterward, most of the previously stored items wound up at the flea market where Hadar found the box ofrecords.
THE MINGERING MIKE SHOW: LIVE FROM THE HOWARD THEATER (recto and verso) 1969 Mixed media 121/2 x 121 / 2 "
A firsthand look at the Mingering Mike material confirms its status as a uniquely remarkable body of work that can be categorized in various ways. Its essentially private nature might lead some of its appreciators to call it "outsider art." However, its firm roots in the popular culture ofits place and time—namely urban black America and the era of Vietnam, Richard Nixon, and Watergate—lends support to its status as both folk and vernacular art or, simply, contemporary art. Regardless ofthe terminology applied, the imagery and accompanying words
nasally or—by its more hardcore constituency—intravenously. It was also a time when disproportionately large numbers of young black American men were being jailed (as they still are, in even larger disproportions) or drafted and shipped off to perform military duty in Southeast Asia, too often at the cost of life and limb. All of this is reflected in Mingering Mike's homemade album-cover art, as are other facets of that period in American history. Record albums had long been familiar commodities in the home-
5/0:14104
corn( Youv NOT JUMPING DUDE? "THE FIRST ONE Is Fltei:
GHETTO PRINCE (recto and gatefold left) 1972 Mixed media / 2 " 121/2 x 121
reflect the tenor of a time,in the wake of Martin Luther King's assassination, when the Black Power movement was ascendant and influential, culturally if not politically. In fashion, it was the era of big Afros, dashikis, aviator shades, and bell-bottoms; in film, it was the moment of superbad, black urban heroes such as Shaft and Superfly; and in music, it was the age of James Brown's "Say It Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud" and Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On." On the illicit-pharmacology front, those years marked a period when mass interest in psychedelics was yielding to the growing popularity of cocaine, ingested
entertainment market by the time these objects were created, but in the late 1960s their packaging underwent an artistic revolution fueled in part by the emergence of Pop Art and the psychedelic aesthetic, not to mention the lavish production budgets that unprecedented profits from record sales allowed. By 1970, the twelveinch-square cardboard sleeves in which record albums were sold had gained a new status as popular objects of aesthetic contemplation, and it was increasingly commonplace for them to be designed by widely known artists such as Peter Blake, R. Crumb, Mali Klarwein,and Andy Warhol. Gatefold
SPRING/SUMMER 2006 FOLK ART 53
covers with twice the standard amount of cover art were increasingly common for single LPs as well as two-album sets. The target audience for both the art and the music it was designed to sell was the emerging international youth culture—a fast-growing population of baby-boomer teens and young twentysomethings with disposable income. These young consumers were known to spend extended periods of time during those years not only listening to their favorite records but also contemplating the covers, grooving on the imagery, and sometimes finding all sorts of hidden meanings therein. In harboring aspirations to musical stardom and envisioning hit records of his own, Mingering Mike was no different from thousands of his peers across racial lines. Many other young people in this country had access to home tape recorders and used them, as he did, to record themselves performing their favorite hit songs or self-penned numbers. Given the popularity of album-cover art in the late 1960s and early '70s, it is entirely possible that at least a few other young Americans of his era went so far as to create packaging for the studioproduced vinyl records they imagined cutting, but no other examples of the practice have yet surfaced. Included among Mingering Mike's fake discography are soundtracks to imaginary films, records celebrating holidays including the U.S. Bicentennial, and an album billed as having been recorded to benefit victims of sickle-cell anemia. The album covers carry the logos of various imaginary record companies with names such as Decision, Fake, Hypnotic, Puppy Dogg, Ramit, Relations, and Sex. In addition to the Mingering Mike persona, the creator of this material invented other musical acts billed on some of the album covers, such as Audio Andre, the Colts Band, the Freedom Stompers, the Mongoes,the Outsider's,and Rambling Ralph. These groups are occasionally cobilled, as on an album cover for The Mingering Mike Show: Live from the Howard Theater (page 52), which visually depicts and lists songs by several of these bands. Two performers sometimes billed as feature
54 SPRING/SUMMER 2006 FOLK ART
acts or collaborators—Joseph War and Big D—were actually cousins, and Big D sang with Mingering Mike on the latter's homemade reel-to-reel tapes, as did Joseph War on at least one occasion. Their recordings, many of which have survived, consist of spirited vocals typically accompanied
by makeshift percussion, usually an Afro-comb rhythmically pounded on a bed or a telephone book. Some of Mingering Mike's album covers center on relatively straightforward portraits—in most cases self-portraits—augmented by boldly lettered album titles and lists of featured song titles. Facial portraits of himself and Big D, both leering lasciviously and sticking out their
LET'S GET "NASTY" (recto and gatefold left/ 1975 Mixed media 12/ 1 2 121/2"
tongues, grace the front cover of their "Nasty"(left), duo album Let's Get accompanied by the text teaser "Ohio Players Eat Your Hearts Out." Other covers are more elaborate, casting one or more figures in scenes of musical performance, interpersonal exchange, or other activities suggesting broader
narrative contexts. Some of these are hilariously funny.Minger's GreatestHits Volume One (1):"Mother Started It All" (Fig. 1, page 56) is illustrated by an unfinished-looking scene in which the artist is shown relaxing on a broken log and holding on his lap what appears to be a purple-and-yellow penguin wearing a hat and eyeglasses. "In My Corner"(Fig. 2), an album attributed to Rambling Ralph, carries a
cover illustration of a more ordinary domestic scene, in which a man sits in a lounge chair and eats a sandwich while flipping channels on a television set. Small lines of accompanying text advertise the album's contentsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; "20 Hits / Plus / a Free 45 Entihed [sic] / T.V. Dinners of Mines. / & / 'Eat Now and Eat Later.'" Some of the cover drawings for Mingering Mike's albums refer directly to controversial social issues of the era. The topic of drug abuse was clearly on his mind when he titled an album The Drug Store (Fig. 3) and drew on its cover jars of pills, a hypodermic syringe, and other drug paraphernalia and related accoutrements. And he was obviously thinking about the connections between drug abuse and racism when he created the cover art for Joseph War's solo album Ghetto Prince (page 53), with its rectangular cut-out revealing an informal blackand-white photograph of War collaged on the interior gatefold juxtaposed with a drawing ofpills, syringes, money, and what appears to be a Ku Klux Klan hood. One of the inscriptions reads,"Once you start, it's hard for you to stop / Once you stop .... 'Stop." An album cover that probably dates from the Watergate era is illustrated by a scene in which Mingering Mike and Big D wear bellbottoms and platform shoes as they strike matching proto-disco dance poses on the sidewalk in front of the U.S. presidential residence and underneath the album title "Boogie Down" at the White House (Fig. 4). Lines of smaller text at the bottom identify this as a "Comedy song album / with music & meaning / featuring / the likenesses of / Richard Nixon, Frank Sinatra / Bel-La-La Gossie, Ramblin Ralph / & Suburban Richard." And in a more pointedly critical reflection of the era during which this body of work was created, the cover illustration for Mingering Mike's album "You Know Only What They Tell You" (Fig. 5), billed as the soundtrack for a film of that title, shows a U.S. soldier manipulated by puppet strings to kick a knife from the hands of a Vietcong guerrilla identified by his straw hat and black pajamas. Emblazoned above this scene is a bold red headline
SPRING/SUMMER 2006
FOLK ART
55
touting "The United States of America Puppet Force," and imprinted alongside it is an induction date. This is one of several clues among the album-cover drawings and writings that the Vietnam War and the draft were big issues for Mingering Mike at the time, as they were for most drafteligible men in this country. Before he acquired the Mingering Mike archive, Dori Hadar had no expertise or special interest in visual art, but he was culturally savvy enough to have recognized that these handmade, one-of-a-kind objects were likely to interest specialists in that field as much as or perhaps more than they would appeal to pop-music fans. He also felt that they would be most likely to find an audience among folk art aficionados. With these thoughts in mind, he
0
the work and an opportunity to meet of a "merging traffic" sign prompted and talk with Hadar, who traveled to him to combine the words mingling North Carolina for the opening re- and merging, which in his mind yielded ception. Accompanying him was none "mingering"—a word that he coined other than Mingering Mike himself, simply because he thought it "had a who had agreed to attend the show's nice ring to it." opening reception on the condition Although he has shunned personal that he be allowed to remain on the publicity, Mingering Mike is not persidelines and go without formal in- sonally shy. On the contrary, he struck troduction. Evidently publicity-shy, me as a man possessed of a healthy Mingering Mike has consistently de- self-confidence and great pride in clined to reveal his identity. But when his youthful work, if still somewhat attentive members of the reception surprised at the extent of the pubaudience figured out who he was and lic response to it. He said that when approached him with compliments on he learned that it had all been sold his work, he didn't seem to mind the along with his other stored belongattention in the least. ings, he had been devastated and had In our discussions, both in per- resigned himself to never again seeing son and on the telephone, Mingering these artifacts of his younger years. He Mike spoke straightforwardly about said he'd been astonished to learn later his motivations for creating this body that they'd been saved, and he seemed
0
•
•
MINCER'S GREATEST'Hinf MINCERING MIKE .MITOL(.1.1116
t•KOADCS
showed the work to Jane Livingston, a veteran scholar of modern and contemporary art and the former curator for Washington's Corcoran Gallery of Art (where in 1982 she co-organized the influential exhibition "Black Folk Art in America, 1930-1980"), and to George Hemphill, the owner of a commercial art gallery in Washington.These art-world contacts soon led him to the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA), a nationally recognized nonprofit gallery in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where Mingering Mike's work was given its first formal exhibition, in early 2005. The show at SECCA gave several hundred viewers, including this author, an extended firsthand look at
56 SPRING/SUMMER 2006 FOLK ART
of work, explaining that it was an outgrowth of his songwriting efforts and aspirations. Recalling his late teens as a time of musical inspiration, he said, "Music just popped into my head, and I would let it come out." He was so prolific in those years, by his account, that he sketched out the basics for several thousand songs, a few hundred of which made it onto his reel-to-reel recordings. When he listened to the tunes afterward, he said,"I liked what I heard, so I decided to take it a step further and make my own covers for them." Where did the name Mingering Mike come from? He said that first he thought to call himselfMingling Mike, but he didn't quite like the sound of that moniker. Then, he said, the sight
happy with the subsequent turns of events in connection with them. So why the aversion to being more public about his identity? The available evidence, in the form of comments he has made about his past, suggests that his avoidance of personal publicity is a tendency conditioned by pivotal life experiences during the time period spanned by his record albums. Although clearly uncomfortable in discussing the details, he has recounted that in 1970 he was drafted and inducted into the Army, whereupon he underwent basic training at Fort Dix, New Jersey. He was then ordered to report to Seattle, he recalls, and he assumed that from there he would be sent to combat duty in Southeast Asia. Instead, he went
Fig. 1 MINGER'S GREATEST HITS VOLUME ONE (1): "MOTHER STARTED IT ALL" c. 1968-1976 Mixed media 12/ 1 2 12/ 1 2 " Fig. 2 "IN MY CORNER" c. 1968-1976 Mixed media 121 / 2x 12'/ 1 2" Fig. 3 THE DRUG STORE 1972 Mixed media 12/ 1 2x 12/ 1 2 " Fig.4 "BOOGIE DOWN" AT THE WHITE HOUSE 1975 Mixed media 121/2 x 12/ 1 2 "
Fig.5 YOU KNOW ONLY WHAT THEY TELL YOU" 1973 Mixed media 121/2 x 12/ 1 2 " Fig. 6 THE TWO SIDES OF MINGERING MIKE c. 1968-1976 Mixed media 121/2/121/2" Fig.7 "AS HIGH AS THE SKY" c. 1968-1976 Mixed media 12/ 1 2x 121/2 Fig.8 GET'TIN TO THE ROOTS OF ALL EVILS 1971 Mixed media / 2 " 12/ 1 2x 121
•
absent without leave, returning to Washington, D.C. Once back in familiar environs, he remained officially underground for the next seven years, until President Jimmy Carter granted a general amnesty to nonviolent Vietnam-era military deserters and draft resisters in 1977. During those years, Mingering Mike was faced on a daily basis with the consequences of his refusal to serve in a war that he neither believed in nor understood. Something of the feelings he experienced at the time are reflected in the two-headed selfportrait he drew for the cover of The Two Sides ofMingering Mike (Fig. 6), in which one half wears the shirt, tie, and long sideburns of a hip musician of the early 1970s, hand reaching for a microphone, and the other, with hair
the better part of a decade—plenty of time for anyone in such circumstances to develop the instincts of an outlaw or fugitive. Even though it has been nearly thirty years since he and thousands of other Americans were granted amnesty for having made such tough choices, it's easy to see how the post-9/11 political climate might have stirred up and reinforced those instincts. Whatever Mingering Mike's reasons for wanting to keep his identity under wraps, as his work becomes more widely known, there will probably be increasing pressure on him to reveal who he is. Aside from this pressure, Mingering Mike must be feeling some degree of urgency to capitalize on the emerging interest in his creative endeavors by making more work
•
Mike's work, but Hadar said he feels certain that there will be more such shows and that the cardboard record player will be included, with one of the cardboard disks cued up on its turntable, poised and ready to play the soulful sounds of the artist formerly—and now once again—known as Mingering Mike.* Tom Patterson is an independent writer, critic, and curator, and the author of several books on contemporaryfolk art and artists, including St. EOM in the Land ofPasaquan(WinstonSalem, NC.:Jargon Society, 1987), and Howard Finster, Stranger from Another World(New York:Abbeville Press, 1989). His latest curatorialproject was "Homegrown and Handmade,"an exhibition ofmore than two hundred
•
cropped close and an army-green cap, in the same vein, or at least something works ofcontemporary Southernfolk art has a hand reaching for a weapon. related to it. When I asked him about from the collection ofBarry and Allen These feelings are also reflected in this, he acknowledged that he had Huffman, at the Hickory Museum ofArt, his logo design for his Decision re- indeed been thinking about a return in Hickory, North Carolina, in 2005. cord label, which, too, features a pair to his creative activities. More reof hands—one reaching for a gun, cently, I learned in a phone conversathe other for a microphone. (In some tion with Hadar that Mingering Mike variations, the hand not grabbing has a new work in progress—and not at the microphone is going for a another fake album packaged with hypodermic syringe, positing a choice his cover drawings, as might be exbetween singing and intravenous pected. Instead, according to Hadar, Mingering Mike, by Dori Hadar, Mingering Mike is working on mak- will be published by Princeton drug use.) Perhaps the fact that the United ing a portable record player like those States is now involved in an overseas popularized in the late 1960s and early Architectural Press in early war whose opponents have been la- '70s, with a pair of detachable, hinged beled unpatriotic has given Mingering speakers that fold in for carrying and 2007. For more information on Mike an unpleasantly close-to-home out for operation—all fabricated of Mingering Mike, visit sense of déjà vu. His post-induction cardboard. At this writing, there are no plans www.mingeringnnike.com. choice to desert from military service rendered him a marked man for for subsequent shows of Mingering
SPRING/SUMMER 2006 FOLK ART
57
Hapd Henart ,ever
By Leslie S. May
A Study of Basket-Weave Scherenschnitte
ne of the most popular works in the American Folk Art Museum collection is its Heartand-Hand Love Tokens (c. 1840-1860, opposite), a colorful collage of papercuts that has been repeatedly reproduced since the museum acquired it in 1981. What is less well known is that the work is representative of a body of small scissors-cut paper designs produced in the middle of the nineteenth century that incorporate intricate woven panels of several different types. Obviously treasured by their makers and recipients, these small works have survived by being tucked into Bibles, glued into albums, and folded into preserved correspondence. Most incorporate cutpaper hearts and were presumably made as valentines or love tokens; these are now largely in the hands of valentine collectors and museums. Not all, however, were associated with courtship. Some were made as bookmarks,others were given to schoolchildren as rewards of merit, and a number were made for the purpose of anchoring the locks of hair kept by sentimental Victorians as mementos of childhood or of departed loved ones. Often, however, it is impossible to know what purpose was in the maker's mind as he or she wove the minute paper panels.
58 SPRING/SUMMER 2006 FOLK ART
HEART-AND-HAND LOVE TOKENS Artist unidentified Possibly Connecticut 1840-1860 Ink and varnish on cut paper 12,14" American Folk Art Museum purchase, 1981.12.15
Scherenschnitte, a German word that means "scissors- above). The panels in basket-weave scherenschnitte can cuts," is commonly used to designate all cut paper designs. be woven in papercuts made from a single sheet of paper Because of the characteristic appearance of the group of (single basket weave) or used to interweave two separate papapercuts discussed here, they are sometimes referred to as percuts (double basket weave), such as two hearts or a heart "basket-weave" scherenschnitte. This designation includes and a hand. By slightly varying the techniques for these baall cut-paper works that incorporate woven panels made sic weaves,a variety ofdifferent effects can be achieved. from strips that retain their connections to the original Looking at any basket-weave scherenschnitte is like whole even as they are being woven. The strips are cut by seeing a magic trick performed before your eyes, an amazfolding the paper in half, then cutting on an angle from the ing bit of sleight-of-hand that defies explanation. "How fold towardâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;but not throughâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the edges. This is in con- did they do that?" one wonders. The nineteenth-century trast to what might be referred to as "kindergarten" paper artists who produced these works almost certainly wanted weaving, which involves the weaving of separate strips into to provoke precisely the reaction one has today upon seea whole (as seen in the wrist treatment of the love tokens ing them: amazement, delight, and a kind of incredulous
SPRING/SUMMER 2006 FOLK ART 59
mental applause that acknowledges the maker's ingenuity and inventiveness. The Victorians took pleasure in puzzles ofall kindsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;conjuring tricks and trick cards that astonished and amused were commonâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and had time to spend on creating and solving them.' Though many of the artists who produced basketweave scherenschnitte were doubtlessly motivated by a desire to please a loved one, there is an element of showmanship about these woven-paper works, too; despite their generally small scale,they virtually shout,"Look at me!" Most examples of basket-weave scherenschnitte date to the mid-nineteenth century, from about 1840 through the Civil War period. Though few are actually dated, we can deduce the period of their popularity in other ways;for example, among the earliest works located is a bookmark found in Pennsylvania in a German Bible dated 1837. Much of the basket-weave scherenschnitte work appears to have come from the northeastern states, particularly
in their design. One of these, a small green foliate medallion (not illustrated), is woven to a reward of merit for a schoolchild with a single row of double basket weave. It was probably made by a teacher, as the reward reads,"This certifies that Addie has been a very good girl this week," suggesting that it was presented to a fairly young child. The paired single-basket-weave love tokens (below left) are interesting because, although they have unconventional forms, the designs were obviously influenced by the heartand-hand motif. The bilaterally symmetrical shapes were perhaps cut at the same time the paper was folded to make the basket-weave strips for interweaving. Down the center of each runs a simple row of single basket weave. On one, every small strip is turned up to fill the space left by
a Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, and Maine. These were all states with significant German communities, and there is reason to associate basket-weave scherenschnitte with this ethnic group. However, many examples are inscribed with English phrases and names, and the celebration of Valentine's Day itself is more an English tradition than a German one. It seems highly unlikely that the art form was practiced exclusively by those of German descent. Though few of the papercuts can be positively identified as to maker, there are occasionally small bodies of work that can be attributed to one unidentified artist. For example, there exist two heart-and-hand weavings that are virtually identical to those in the museum's c. 1840-1860 piece (page 59). Woven of the white, blue, and pink papers seen in that work, they are precisely the same shape and size, and they incorporate the same distinctive weaves in heart and wrist areas. One also includes the verse found on one of the hands in the museum's piece, inscribed around the heart in the same configuration: "Hand and heart / Shall never part!When this you see / Remember me."' Of the basket-weave scherenschnitte examined for this study, only a handfil do not incorporate the form of a heart
60 SPRING/SUMMER 2006 FOLK ART
its folded neighbor. On the other example, the strips are longer and cut at a sharper angle; every other strip is turned down and tucked under the strip below it. This weave is sometimes referred to as "Jacob's Ladder." The shape of these remarkable works resembles a heart that terminates in the wrist of a glove, rather than in a point.The point ofthe heart has been reversed and moved up to rest between the two lobes of the heartlike form.This position of the heart's point in the design clearly reflects the influence of another popular double-basket-weave form, the reversed hearts, a design created when two hearts are woven together with one placed upside down over the other, so that the point of one heart terminates in the V at the top ofthe other. A clue that the artist may have had reversed hearts in mind as he or she was cutting lies in two tiny reversed hearts inked just above the "wrist" of one of the two papercuts. In dissecting the heart form and repositioning its elements, the conventional shape was transformed into an abstract design motif. Reversed hearts appear frequently in other examples of American folk art: There are both drawn and painted examples, but those made from cut and woven paper are among the most common. Reversed hearts are decidedly
(left) JACOB'S LADDER SINGLE-BASKET-WEAVE LOVE TOKENS Artist unidentified Probably northeastern United States 1840-1860 Watercolor and ink on cut paper 4/ 1 4 25/a"; 37/a x 3" Private collection
(right) HEART-AND-HAND LOVE TOKENS Artist unidentified Probably New England c. 1820 Watercolor and ink with gilt paper on cut and pinpricked paper, mounted on paper 9/ 1 4 x 141/8" American Folk Art Museum, promised gift of Ralph Esmerian, P1.2001.256
REVERSED-HEARTS LOVE TOKEN WITH JOINED HANDS (recto and verso) Artist unidentified Probably northeastern United States 1840-1860 Cut paper 10 33/4" Private collection
the most common basket-weave scherenschnitte form; they appear alone and as decorative elements in larger works, such as the extraordinary Heart and Hand Love Tokens (c. 1820), also in the American Folk Art Museum collection (opposite). In this work, fifteen elaborate reversed-heart tokens embellished with pinpricks, colored ink, and gilt paper are mounted, in three rows, along with six smaller heart-and-hand tokens, on a sheet of paper with a striped watercolor border. One of the reversed hearts contains the inked outline of a hand. Interestingly, pairs of cut paper hearts seem always to have been woven together in the reversed format, rather than side by side, as sometimes occurs in other media. First
jo<qt*ft N.Iâ&#x20AC;˘" 4,;(4,4,440,4
0..14+00 4.4014144
<
glance at the reversed-hearts love token with joined hands (above) suggests that two of the yellow hearts are joined top to top, but a closer look shows that the lined notepaper used in the central reversed-hearts motif is cleverly cut in one piece with the gloves to which the other hearts are woven, so that they are not actually joined. The composition creates a generous gesture of openhandedness, as if the central heart is being offered up to a beloved. Most basket-weave scherenschnitte that incorporate hearts were probably created as love tokens, though not necessarily to be given on Valentine's Day. While it is not usually obvious who made and who received the tokens, even when they are signed, it appears that they were exchanged between female friends and family members, as well as between sweethearts, or teachers and children. Most are not inscribed at all, though occasionally a verse or inscription suggests the sex of maker or recipient; even in this case, however, the inscriptions may not be significant, since verses for valentines were published in small books called "valentine writers" and were widely circulated and
used. One small double-basket-weave heart-and-hand love token (not illustrated) was apparently passed from generation to generation and sex to sex over a period of years. On one side, the inscriptions read,"Presented to my / mother September 1st 1843," and "Presented to Charlie Sunday Aug 8 1879." On the other side is penned "Given to Miss Louisa Fisher by Samuel Cole / Fancy Creek II" Fancy Creek Township is in Sangamon County, near Springfield. The name of the township was changed from Power on September 11, 1861, so we know that this inscription postdates that event. Unfortunately, we do not know if the dainty token won Miss Fisher's heart for Mr. Cole. A love token with double-basket-weave reversed hearts and hair (not illustrated) was probably created on the eve of a long leave-taking. The main design consists of three tiny reversed hearts made of green and gold embossed paper; coiled and braided locks of hair are pasted behind these, and the whole is affixed to a sheet of paper penned with a sentimental verse. The piece is dated "Aug the 6 / 1848" and contains an inscription noting the place of origin simply as East Hamburg. The verse reads "Awhile we part dear sister / Perhaps to meet again / And may thy hours be laden / With happiness 'till then./ May peace her silken pinions / spread oer thy much-loved form / And banish sorrows minions / and quell afflictions storms."Two of the locks of hair are identified as belonging to Robert Tompkins and Hepsibah L. Tompkins. The third lock, centered beneath the other two, is labeled "Lydia H."The only East Hamburg listed in the 1850 census was in Erie County, New York, near Buffalo. In that census, we find the family of Robert Tompkins, blacksmith, recorded as being 46 years old; a young woman,Hepsibah, age 23; and a child, Lydia, age 1? Despite the verse being addressed to "sisters," it seems most likely that it is a testament to the warm relationship between father, mother, and child. The word "sister" was loosely used in the nineteenth century as an endearment for all women. Was the family, in fact, facing separation? There is no way to know for certain, but in 1848 there were many reasons for family members to be parted: War in Mexico, westward migration, and even impending death split families apart. It is also possible that the maker simply liked the sentimentality of the verse and copied it. The heart-and-hand form commonly carries panels of basket-weave scherenschnitte. The concept of a joined heart and hand has a long history, beginning with the followers of St. Benedict, whose motto "Ora et labora"(prayer and labor) referred to the desirability of a life of work and meditation. In nineteenth-century America, the design more commonly carried connotations of affection and romantic love. It might even be more accurately called heart and glove, since the association of gloves with love dates back to the Middle Ages, when the protocol of courtly love dictated that a jouster wear his lady's glove pinned to a sleeve to honor her. In English folk tradition, the first man that a woman met on Valentine's Day gave her a gift of gloves for Easter Sunday.The old association survived in the nineteenth century in the form of glove silhouettes (not necessarily with basket weave) given as love tokens. They were produced commercially as well as made by hand.
SPRING/SUMMER 2006 FOLK ART
61
of exuberance, she covered both sides of the token with popular Valentine couplets, including "Here's my heart and here's my hand. I yield them both at love's command" and "If you love as I love youâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;No knife can cut our love in two." Finally, she wrote "Union forever!" and emphasized her point with small stripes ofred and blue paper. This last sentiment is significant not only because the piece was made during the Civil War but because there was great support in northwestern New York for the abolitionist cause. Rochester, very near Canada, was one of the last stops on the Underground Railroad. Segregation ended in Rochester schools in 1857, thanks largely to the efforts of resident Frederick Douglass.' When war was declared in
When multiple cuts are made in both papers, a row of joined notches can be made. If the cuts made are long and closely spaced together, it becomes possible to weave these longer "notches"(now actually strips) over and under one another, creating multiple rows of double basket weave. The blue and green double-basket-weave heart-and-hand love token (above right) has only one row of double basket weave, but its maker has faked a more impressive second row by gluing four patches in place where the additional rows would be; in addition, he has fooled viewers into believing that he was somehow able to weave in a second shade of blue, or a third piece of paper, a true Victorian conjuring trick. Another heart and hand (not illustrated) features not a second sheet of paper but long strands of hair deftly woven through the downtumed notches. The outstanding cream-and-pink double-basket-weave heart-and-hand love token (opposite) from the Erie Canal village of Lockport, New York, has so many rows of double basket weave and is so complicated in its execution that it practically defies analysis. The artist began by slipping the point ofthe heart through the uppermost strip on the hand. She then slid the wrist of the hand through the third strip down from the top ofthe heart. Interweaving the strips between these two points must have taken sharp, young eyes and patient fingers. Once finished, the artist inscribed the glove's fingers on one side,"To G.W. Germaine, Lockport N.Y./ Katie B.P./ Saint Valentine's day / 1862."Then,full
1861, Lockport responded immediately. A Wm. H. Bush, who kept an oyster saloon in Lockport, heard about the call for troops before official word was received and began recruiting men in his saloon to form a company, with himself as captain. He was later recognized as the first Civil War volunteer.' Women in northwestern New York also helped the abolitionist cause, and later the northern armies, by joining anti-slavery societies and holding bazaars and suppers to raise money for the struggle. It seems likely that Katie B.P. was involved in some of these activities and supported them ardently. A search of Victorian literature (especially parlor periodicals of the mid-nineteenth century) failed to reveal any published directions for making basket-weave scherenschnitte. In fact, the diverse characteristics of the examples studied here suggest that there was no common source of directions for making them. The variety of shapes taken by the heart-and-hand works (and the varying positions of the hearts in those works), the range of sizes in all the basket-weave forms (from minute to several inches), and the diversity in the interpretations of the basic weaves indicates that the techniques may have been personally passed from maker to maker. It also seems likely that some individuals,fascinated by an example they had seen,figured out on their own how to reproduce them. The difficulty in the nineteenth century of conveying directions for complicated undertakings like
MICHAEL
The weave used to join heart and hand (as well as reversed hearts) is based on the principle of cutting opposing triangular notches in two pieces of paper,then joining them by slipping one point over the other to secure the merge. This was a method commonly used to join documents in the pre-stapler, preâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;paper clip, white-flour-paste world of the nineteenth century. It is easy to imagine that someone who happened to join two documents of different colors in this way for expediency's sake noticed the decorative possibilities and began experimenting.The technique is clearly evident in the tiny double-basket-weave heart-and-hand love token (below), in which long white gloves are affixed to a blue heart.
62 SPRING/SUMMER 2006 FOLK ART
(above left and center) DOUBLE-BASKET-WEAVE HEART-AND-HAND LOVE TOKEN (recto and verso) Artist unidentified Probably northeastern United States 1840-1860 Cut paper 13/4 x 15/8" Collection of Nancy Rosin (above right) DOUBLE-BASKET-WEAVE HEART-AND-HAND LOVE TOKEN Artist unidentified Probably northeastern United States 1840-1860 Cut paper Ptin" Collection of Nancy Rosin
Leslie May is afellow ofthe American Folk Art Museum, a formerfellow ofthe Longwood Gardens Program in Botanic Garden Management, Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, and a former Mercer Fellow ofthe Arnold Arboretum ofHarvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Notes 1 See George Buday, The History ofthe Christmas Card(London: Rockliff, 1954), p. 90. 2 One piece is in the collection of Nancy Rosin, and the other is in the Hallmark Archives, Hallmark Cards,Inc., Kansas City, Missouri. 3 My thanks to genealogists Francis W.Waite,of Doylestown, Pennsylvania, and Ward Bray, of Amherst, New York.
MICHAEL I.. MAY
basket-weave scherenschnitte in print is suggested by one contemporary author's observations on making "Paper-Rosette Baskets." In 1834, Mrs. L. Maria Child wrote in The Girl's Own Book, "I believe it is impossible to describe or paint them in such a way as will enable you to make them; you must see them done in order to understand how they are done." In the same publication, she later remarked,"There are a variety of things made for the amusement ofsmall children, by cutting and folding paper; such as boats, soldier's hats, birds, chairs, tables, baskets, etc., but they are very difficult to describe; and any little girl who wishes to make them, can learn of some obliging friend in a very few moments." The paper used for making the basket-weave examples studied here varies from lined ledger paper—and, in one case, the recycled cover of a nineteenth-century exercise book—to fine glazed papers, some printed and embossed, which were probably imported from Germany,where a luxurypaper industry flourished in the second half of the nineteenth century. Paper was commonly available in the United States by the mid-nineteenth century; colored, glazed, and printed papers, however, were used sparingly because of their high cost, and appear most often in basket-weave scherenschnitte as decorative elements such as cuffs of gloves. The expense of these papers may also account for the minute size ofsome ofthe works,though miniaturization would also have been a way for a maker to provoke the amazement of his or her recipient. Whoever received the lavender, green, and white double-basketweave reversed-hearts love token (above) must have been amazed indeed.The entire work is just over seven inches in diameter, and the individual pairs of reversed hearts (all fifty-three of them) are only one inch in size. The configuration of this piece, in concentric circles, suggests that it may have been made in a German cornmunity,though its colors would be atypical.' The demise of the art of basket-weave scherenschnitte following the Civil War can almost certainly be attributed to the flood of colorful, commercially produced chromolithographed cards and scraps that appeared on the market around 1870. To a clientele accustomed to black-and-white woodcuts and engravings, the reasonably priced colored prints would have been a fresh source of wonder and delight. Coupled with die-cut paper lace, chromolithographs became the standard for valentines, bookmarks, and rewards of merit—the objects most frequently made using basket-weave scherenschnitte—and the complicated handmade products fell out offavor.*
(above) DOUBLE-BASKET-WEAVE REVERSED-HEARTS LOVE TOKEN Artist unidentified Probably northeastern United States 1840-1860 Cut paper 71 / 4"diam. Collection of Nancy Rosin (right) DOUBLE-BASKET-WEAVE HEART-AND-HAND LOVE TOKEN Artist unidentified New York State 1862 Ink on cut paper 1 4" 57/8 3/ Courtesy the Hallmark Archives, Hallmark Cards, Inc., Kansas City, Missouri
4 Sandra Thomas,"The Rochester Years," in Frederick Douglass: Abolitionist/Editor(1995), http://wvvw.history.rochester.edu/class/ douglass/part3.html (accessed March 3,2006). 5 Clarence 0.Lewis,"The History of Lockport, New York:The First Hundred Years"(1964)in Lockport History, http://www. lockport-ny.corn/History/lewis.htm (accessed March 3,2006). 6 For a discussion ofthe round format of papercuts found in Germanic communities,see Stacy C. Hollander,American Radiance: The Ralph Esmerian Gfft to the American Folk Art Museum(New York: Harry N. Abrams in association with the American Folk Art Museum,2001), p499.
SPRING/SUMMER 2006 FOLK ART 63
Joseph Bohannon
Ship Portraitist of the By R. Lewis Wright oseph Saunders Bohannon, a self-taught ship portraitist, was born in Baltimore in 1894. His father, Herbert A. Bohannon (1868-1959), worked on steamships on the Chesapeake Bay and its great rivers most of his adult life.' For thirty-five years, Captain Bohannon commanded ships on the Baltimore—Washington run, which included stops at several landings on the Chesapeake Bay and along the Potomac River in Maryland and Virginia. The captain was originally from Mathews County, Virginia, and kinsmen in the Bohannon family included two uncles, Captain Wycliffe A. Bohannon and Columbus Bohannon, who worked as a mate on steamboats on the bay.'The town ofBohannon on the East River in Mathews County was probably named for an ancestor. Joseph Bohannon's maternal grandfather, Joseph J. Saunders, of Solomons Island, Maryland, was a builder of sloops and bugeyes and worked as a shipwright at the M.M. Davis Shipyard. As children, Joseph and his brother, William Victor,often accompanied their father on sailing excursions out of Baltimore. In later years, Joseph became a steamship engineer and his brother worked in the business office of the Merchant and Miners Transportation Company in Baltimore—one of several steamship lines that served the city. The use of steamboats on the Chesapeake Bay out of the port of Baltimore began about 18132 By 1816, regular service had been established between Baltimore and Norfolk, Virginia, at the lower end of the bay. Schooners of the competing sailing packet lines slowly disappeared. As steamboats became more numerous, service was added to Washington and Richmond as well as to a number of rural landings along the rivers of Maryland and Virginia. With the coming of the railroad and the automobile, the need for steamboats decreased. However,the Baltimore—Norfolk run lasted almost a century and a half, until 1962. Surviving letters of Joseph Bohannon record many details of his life.' As a child, he often spent the summer months with his mother's family on Solomons Island. This community, then rather isolated, was south of Baltimore near the mouth of the Patuxent River on the Chesapeake Bay. Recalling his childhood experiences in a letter written in 1963, he related that his grandmother and other ladies of the village "lined up at the store" after the Baltimore boat arrived in order "to lay in a supply of roasts and steak and sometimes smoked sausage." The St. Marys, which often made this twice-weekly run from Baltimore, was the
J
64 SPRING/SUMMER 2006 FOLK ART
Joseph S. Bohannon, undated photograph, courtesy Calvert Marine Museum, Solomons, Maryland
St MARYS Joseph S. Bohannon (1894-1973) Baltimore n.d. Watercolor, ink, pencil, poster paint, and cigar ash on paper 11 x 193/4" Calvert Marine Museum, Solomons, Maryland
only source for fresh meat and ice for the island. The ice was shipped in "two hundred pound cakes," he reported. In the early years of the twentieth century, Joseph's father served as quartermaster on the St. Marys. This small side-wheeler steamboat had been built on the hull of the Theodore Weems, which had been damaged by fire in 1889. According to Joseph's recollections, the St. Marys had only twelve staterooms, no electricity, no steam heat, and very primitive sanitary facilities. It was used as a "day boat" for the Baltimore—Patuxent River run. In an interview conducted sometime in the 1960s, Bohannon recalled Baltimore's great steamship strike of October 1906.5 His father, along with the captains and mates of more than twenty steamships, participated. After requests for salary increases were denied by several lines operating out of the area, the deck officers submitted resignations. As a result, meat and other supplies could not leave Baltimore, fertilizer needed for the fall seeding of wheat piled up,and—on the other end—farm produce and seafood were spoiling at the rural landings. About ten days
into the strike a settlement was negotiated, and the salary for steamboat captains was raised to between 100 and 125 dollars a month. In 1905,Joseph's father purchased a house on Augusta Avenue in the Irvington section of Baltimore. Joseph lived there until his death in 1973. He attended Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, a public high school founded in 1883 to emphasize engineering, but left school without graduating. In 1912, Joseph Bohannon began working on the steamship Northumberland as an oiler in the engine room. He later served on the Tangier. During these years, he probably saw the portraits of larger oceangoing ships in the passenger terminal in Norfolk, which were painted by Antonio Jacobsen and others. With the coming of World War I, Bohannon enlisted in the U.S. Navy. Military personnel records show that he entered service in Baltimore with a rate of machinistmate second class.' He served onshore duty in Baltimore from July to October 1917, and in Norfolk at the headquarters of the Fifth Naval District until October 1918. He was
promoted to machinistmate first class in January 1918, and in June of that year to chief machinistmate. From October 1918 until his discharge from the navy in August 1921, he served aboard the USS Avocet, a minesweeper whose home port was Norfolk. Once he was a civilian again, he returned to work on steamships in the Chesapeake Bay, and in 1933 he was awarded a license as chief engineer for inland waters. In the late 1930s, Bohannon began to work for the United States Postal Service in Baltimore. He devoted his free time to drawing and music. As a child, he had been a member of the boys' choir at St. James' Episcopal Church and had studied piano. He resumed piano lessons given by a "Peabody coach"; it is unclear whether his use of this term meant that he studied with a student, graduate, or faculty member of the esteemed Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. He collected recordings, many of which were operas, and was fond ofWagner's Ring cycle. He frequently traveled to New York City for concerts and opera performances, and regularly listened to the Saturday afternoon
SPRING/SUMMER 2006
FOLK ART
65
radio broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera, which were popular for several decades during the twentieth century. He was a member of his parish choir. As far as can be ascertained, he received no formal instruction in drawing. Bohannon retired from the Postal Service in 1958 and returned to his first love: steamships. Working as an engineer on ships of the Old Bay Line and the Chesapeake Line, he traveled most often the route between Baltimore and Norfolk, until operations were discontinued in 1962. It has been related that one night while he was serving as engineer on the City ofRichmond, his midnight meal was very late in being delivered, so he stopped the engines, bringing the ship to a standstill in the Chesapeake Bay, until it was delivered.' Later in the 1960s, after his final retirement, he lived briefly in Florida, where he operated a ferryboat. The humidity there made it difficult to keep his piano in tune, however,and after several months he returned to Baltimore. His watercolor drawings of ships were probably done over a period from the 1940s into the 1960s. Some were based on photographs, and some were drawn from life. Self-taught as an artist, he developed his own individual style. After sketching a ship in pencil, he overdrew the lines in ink. Watercolors were then applied. Colors chosen for ships were usually realistic, but water and sky were sometimes depicted in unusual hues. He often used pencil for shading and added the fine detail of smokestacks, flags, and paddle wheels using bright poster paints and gilt. He chain-smoked cigars, and this may have led him to develop the mixture of saliva and ash that he smeared on with his thumb to depict smoke emitted from the funnels.째 Many of his works were given to friends; he sold some for five or ten dollars each. When the artist was in his later years, a museum purchased one of his works and he complained that their check for twenty-five dollars was too much. Most of his works are undated. Bohannon's drawings are an unusual and valuable record of a past era in American maritime history. The oldest of the ships depicted herein was the St. Marys. It was originally built in 1872 as the Theodore Weems by William Skinner and Son of Baltimore for the Weems Line. After it was damaged by fire in 1889, it was rebuilt and named the St. Marys, but it was destroyed by another fire in 1907. This small ship was often used for day trips. The steamship Lancaster was built in 1892 by the Maryland Steel Co., Sparrows Point, Maryland, also for the Weems line. In 1924, it was sold to the New York, Albany, and Western Steamship Co. for use on the Hudson River; the ship was retired in 1926 and dismantled in 1927. The City of Richmond was built in 1913 by the Maryland Steel Co. for the Chesapeake Steamship Co. When the BaltimoreNorfolk run was discontinued in 1962, the ship was sold, and in 1964 it sank off the South Carolina coast while being towed to the Virgin Islands. The Yorktown was built in 1928 for the Chesapeake Steamship Co. by the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co., Newport News, Virginia. In 1942, it was chartered to the British Ministry of War Transport. In September 1942,it sailed in a convoy from Newfoundland and was torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine.'In his drawing ofthis ship, Bohannon included the nineteenth-century screw-pile lighthouse at
66 SPRING/SUMMER 2006 FOLK ART
Seven Foot Knoll, which marks the junction of the Patapsco River and the Chesapeake Bay. The state of Maryland has more than three thousand miles of shoreline, which includes the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, the Chesapeake and several smaller bays, and more than twenty rivers. Many twentieth-century Maryland artists depicted nautical themes in a variety of styles. Most of these painters chose to portray smaller fishing and pleasure boats in scenic landscapes that often included docks and piers, coves, marshes, and dense forests. The majority of Bohannon's works were very large watercolor drawings of commercial steamboats, and background scenery and landscape details were minimal or absent. Bohannon never married. He died at his home in Baltimore in January 1973, at the age of 78.10 According to his death certificate, he died of a sudden heart attack; he also suffered from diabetes mellitus and thrombophlebitis ofthe lower extremities." Bohannon was interred in Loudon Park Cemetery in Catonsville, Maryland." He died intestate, so his brother,William Victor Bohannon,was his sole heir." Joseph Bohannon's works are in the collections of the Calvert Marine Museum, in Solomons, Maryland; the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, in St. Michael's, Maryland; the Mariners' Museum, in Newport News, Virginia; and private collections.* Dr. Lewis Wright is a retired neurosurgeon who lives in Midlothian, Virginia. For more than three decades, he has studied and written on little-known artists ofthe South, particularly Virginia. Hisprevious essayspublished in this magazine include "CarlHambuck:Richmond Artist," vol. 9, no. 1 (winter 1984/85), and '"UncleJack7ohn William Dey," vol. 17, no. 1 (spring 1992). Notes 1 Robert H.Burgess, Chesapeake Circle(Cambridge,Md.: Cornell Maritime Press, 1965), pp. 30-32. 2 Alexander Crosby Brown,Steam Packets on the Chesapeake:A History ofthe Old Bay Line Since 1840(Cambridge,Md.: Cornell Maritime Press, 1961), p. 154; and Clara M.Dixon,"Joseph Saunders Bohannon,1894-1973,Painter, Chesapeake Bay Steamboats," Bugeye Times 8, no.4(winter 1983): 1-3. 3 M.V.Brewington, Chesapeake Bay:A Pictorial Maritime History (Cambridge, Md.: Cornell Maritime Press, 1953), pp.43-44; and David C. Holly, Chesapeake Steamboats: Vanished Fleet(Centreville, Md.:Tidewater Publishers, 1994), p. 11. 4 Letters ofJoseph Bohannon written in the 1960s are in the archives ofthe Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum, Williamsburg, Va.; the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, St. Michaels, Md.; and the Mariners' Museum,Newport News, Va. 5 Burgess, op. cit. 6 Military Personnel Records, National Personnel Records Center, St. Louis. 7 John L.Lochhead,"Chesapeake Bay&South," Steamboat Bill 126(summer 1973): 104. 8 Dixon,op. cit. 9 Holly, op. cit., pp.229,263,271,280. 10 Baltimore Sun,January 17,1973. 11 Maryland State Archives, Annapolis. 12 Records ofthe Witzke Funeral Home,Catonsville. 13 Baltimore City Register.
LANCASTER n.d. Watercolor, Ink, pencil, poster paint, and cigar ash on paper 11 x 211/2" Calvert Marine Museum, Solomons, Maryland
CITY OF RICHMOND n.d. Watercolor, ink, pencil, poster paint, and cigar ash on paper 12 22" Mariners' Museum, Newport News, Virginia, 1983.9.2
YORKTOWN-7 FOOT KNOLL n.d. Watercolor, ink, pencil, poster paint, and cigar ash on paper 111 / 2 22" Private collection
, 4 1 www.1.1 171 Twriti Fri
5111 III
-
innmenol
•eittr
,_
Iir MM.
‘ 1111111L . 1112
lL
SPRING/SUMMER 2006
FOLK ART
67
The 12th Annual Outsiders Outside Art Fair September 1-3, 2006 at Judith Racht Gallery Harbert, Michigan Always seeking unique exhibitors to join artists and buyers from around the country for a weekend of fun!
No more stringing you along!
Info: 269-469-1080 judithracht@earthlink.net www.judithrachtgallery.net
Featuring folk art, outsider art, quilts and contemporary art. 13707 Prairie Road, Harbert, Michigan 269-469-1080 Photos: James Yochum
The Drummer
48" x 52"
In The Kitchen
48" x 60"
Anne Bourassa www.homeportfolio.com www.annebourassa.com e-mail: abourassa@prexar.com (207) 872-5236 (215) 842-2168
RAWVISION #54 Spring 2006
RAWVISION SPRING 2006
MADNESS IS F MARGARET HENNIG Work by women patients from Prinzhorn.
CONTEMPORARY FOLK ART OUTSIDER ART ART BRUT
CREATIVE GROWTH TESSA DE CARLO One of America's leading art workshops.
MADNESS IS FEMALE
RAS DIZZY EDWARD GOMEZ Jamaica's vagabond-artist.
PRINZHORN CREATIVE GROWTH
MINHAZZ MAJUMDAR Meticulous drawing from India RAYMOND MORki Spiritual work by London outsider.
RAS DIZZY
RAW CLASSICS TONY THORNE Edward Monsiel.
PUSH PA KUMAR!
OUT NOW Re-print of RAVVVIS101\ #1 ,#2,#3 in full colour
$43.00 - order at www.rawvision.com Roger Cardinal ART BRUT IN CON1LA I
Johann Feilacher WHO IS O.T?
Willem Volkersz
Selden Rodman
WHO IS YOU?
HAITI & SAINT SOLIEL
Michel Thevoz
Laurent Dancin
AUGUSTIN LESAGE PIERRE PETIT
CHOMO Eva Syristova SCHIZOPHRENIA AND EXPRESSION
David Maclagan
Cardinal/Maizels
FROM THE INSIDE OUT
VALERIE POTTER
Jean-Louis Lanoux
SS Bhatti NEK CHAND'S ROCK GARDEN
Seymour Rosen
Bruno Montpied
SPACES
CHARLES BILLY
Laurent Danchin
Nico Van Der Endt
AUTOUR DE L'ART BRUT
WILLEM VAN GENK
John Maizels
Paulo Bianchi
FRENCH SITES
GUSTAV MESMER
John Maizels John Turner
BILLY MOREY
HOWARD FINSTER's PARADISE GARDEN
David Moclogan
Sheldon Williams
Sam Farber
SCHRODER-SONNENSTERN
PASCAL VERBENA
SOLITUDE & COMMUNICATION
Roger Cardinal
Barbara Brockman
THE ART OF ENTRANCEMENT
TOP TEN USA SITES
RAWVISION HISTORIC ARCHIVE REPRINT OF RAW VISION'S FIRST THREE ISSUES
13th Annual World's Greatest Folk Art Show & Sale
FOLK FEST 90 Exhibitors Showcasing the Roots of American Self-taught Art
Atlanta, Georgia ro th Atlanta Trade Center 1-85 & Indian Trail Rd. Exit 1.01
August 18-20, 20306 Friday 5-topm ($15)• Sat. toam-7pm ($7)• Sun. toam-5pm ($7)
770 932-1000• Email: folkfest@bellsouth.net • Website: www.slotinfolkart.com
QUILT
CONNECTION
COMPILED BY CHRISTINE CORCORAN; TEXT BY ELIZABETH V. WARREN AND SHARON L. EISENSTAT
he oldest quilts in the museum's collection belong to what is called the "wholecloth tradition."This is generally acknowledged among quilt historians to include bed coverings made oflarge pieces of either solid-colored wool or silk, printed chintz or copperplateprinted cotton or linen, stenciled cotton, or one ofthe various forms ofembroidered cotton or linen known as whitework. Technically, the quilts that are called "whole cloth" are not made ofone piece offabric. Looms of the 18th and early 19th centuries were too narrow to permit production offabric that was large enough to cover the entire surface ofthe beds ofthe period, which often were piled high with feather mattresses or straw ticks. Consequently, a number of pieces offabric,occasionally of different colors or patterns, would be seamed together to form the quilt top,which was then usually quilted with motifs that covered the entire surface. Cotton and linen whole-cloth quilts from the late 18th and early 19th centuries are among the rarest American bedcovers.The American Folk Art Museum's Chintz Whole-Cloth Quilt is a particularly wellpreserved example that
T
72 SPRING/SUMMER 2006
was made of high-quality blockprinted English fabric, probably between 1810 and 1820. Although quilts made of pieced and cut-out chintz are more numerous and therefore
FOLK ART
better known,chintz whole-cloth quilts provide a wonderful opportunity for textile historians to study large lengths offabric.The term "chintz" is derived from the Hindu language chitta, meaning
CHINTZ WHOLE-CLOTH QUILT Artist unidentified Probably United States 1810-1820 Cotton 911 / 4 x 87" American Folk Art Museum, gift of a museum friend in honor of Joel and Kate Kopp, 1993.6.7
Quilt and Textile Exhibitions COMPILED BY ELEANOR BERMAN
"spotted cloth," and the first examples of this cloth were brought to England from India by 16th-century traders. Chintzes from India often were finished in that country as bedcovers known as palampores, which sometimes were stuffed with cotton and quilted. Both the whole-cloth and the cut-out chintz bedcovers made of English (and later American) printed fabrics are often seen as continuations of the palampore tradition. This is particularly true for quilts that maintain the Indian motifs, such as the Tree ofLife and other floral patterns. The Chintz Whole-Cloth Quilt was made ofa block-printed floral pattern in the colors and designs that were popular at the beginning of the 19th century. Shades of red, brown, black, green, and penciled blue (indigo) have been set against a bright yellow background. According to textile historian Florence Montgomery, "About 1810... arborescent patterns in short repeats were printed on brilliant yellow grounds, and blue and green grounds also appeared.Thus the present-day custom of offering a print in several different color combinations was begun."'* Adaptedfrom Elizabeth V Warren and Sharon L. Eisenstat, Glorious American Quilts:The Quilt Collection of the Museum of American Folk Art(New York:Penguin Studio in association with the Museum ofAmerican Folk Art, 1996). Elizabeth V Warren is consulting curator ofthe American Folk Art Museum. Sharon L. Eisenstat is an author and has served as cocuratorfor exhibitions at the American Folk Art Museum.
Notes 1 Florence M.Montgomery,Printed Textiles:English andAmerican Cottons and Linens, 1700-1850(New York: Viking Press, 1970), p. 162.
American Quilt Study Group Research funds available P.O. Box 4737 Lincoln, NE 68504 402/472-5361 www.h-net.org/-aqsg Hanceville, Ala. Wallace State College Quilt Symposium ofAlabama June 8-11,2006 205/437-8318; www.quilt symposiumofalabama.org Toronto, Canada Textile Museum of Canada The Lion King ofMali Through June 18,2006 The Dance ofPattern Through June 25,2006 Continuum:Ancient and Contemporary Textile Artfrom the Lloyd Cotsen Collection June 26—Nov.4,2006 416/599-5321 www.textilemuseum.ca Golden, Colo. Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum Aloha:Hawaiian Quilts Through June 3,2006 Crazy About Crazy Quilt June 6—Aug. 12,2006 303/277-0377 vvvvw.rmqm.org Washington, D.C. The Textile Museum Seldom Seen:Director's Choice from the Museum's Collections Through July 30,2006 Harpies,Mermaids,and Tulips: Embroidery ofthe Greek Islands and Epirus Region Through Sept. 3,2006 202/667-0441 www.textilemuseum.org Chicago,Ill. Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art "Big Mama"Roseman May 5—Sept. 1,2006 312/243-9088 www.art.org
Intercourse, Pa. People's Place Quilt Museum A Showcase ofQuilts: Dazzling Contemporary Creations Ongoing 800/828-8218 www.ppquiltmuseum.com
New Albany,Ind. Carnegie Center for Art & History Elmer Lucille Allen:Shibori and Ceramics May 26—July 8,2006 812/944-7336 www.carnegiecenter.org Paducah, Ky. Museum ofthe American Quilter's Society Canada Uncovered Through July 9,2006 Fandangle Spangle May 13—Aug.9,2006 270/442-8856 www.quiltmuseum.org
Lancaster, Pa. Lancaster Quilt and Textile Museum For Show,Notfor Blow: HandkerchiefQuilts Through Sept. 3,2006 Lancaster County Amish Quilts Ongoing 717/299-6440; www.quiltand textilemuseum.com
Lowell, Mass. New England Quilt Museum Circle ofFriends: Marjorie Lydecker and Colleagues Through June 18,2006 Blending the Old &the New June 22—Aug. 13,2006 978/452-4207 www.nequiltmuseum.org
Houston,Texas Museum ofFine Arts, Houston Gee's Bend:The Architecture ofthe Quilt June 4—Sept.4,2006 713/639-7300 www.mfah.org
Lincoln, Nebr. International Quilt Study Center University of Nebraska Wild by Design Through July 30,2006 Indigo Gives America the Blues July 21—Sept. 17,2006 402/472-6549 www.quiltstudy.org New York, N.Y. Metropolitan Museum of Art The Fabric ofLife:Ikat Textiles ofIndonesia Through Sept.24,2006 212/535-7710 www.metmuseum.org Asheville, N.C. Southern Highland Craft Guild New Traditions:Quiltmalcing Through July 1,2006 828/298-7928 www.southernhighlandguild.org
Harrisonburg, Va. Virginia Quilt Museum Three Ladiesfrom Rockingham Through May 22,2006 All About Log Cabins May 27—Oct.2,2006 540/433-3818 www.vaquiltmuseum.org La Conner,Wash. La Conner Quilt Museum Hawaiian Quilt Inspirations Through May 14,2006 Stand Up and Be Counted May 17—July 16,2006 On Tour with Landscape Quilts July 19—Sept. 17,2006 360/466-4288 www.laconnerquilts.com
Eleanor Berman is a volunteer at the American Folk Art Museum.
SPRING/SUMMER 2006
FOLK ART
73
UP
D
A
T
E:
T
H
E
S
H
IR
LEY
K.
SCHL
A
F
ER
LIBRARY
BY JAMES MITCHELL
VALUA BLE SECRETS, ELEGANT
aNp °SET...ARTS,
WOW film. the Priliire f lir dr/7 .Ieqh, „. Arcomm arm,VARio.&Dm.,
he museum's Shirley K. Schlafer Library owns several examples ofearly American artists' manuals. Works such as Robert Dossie's The Handmaid to the Arts(London,1758;gift of the Historical Society of Early American Decoration) and the anonymous One Thousand Valuable Secrets, in the Elegant and Useful Arts...(Philadelphia, 1795;gift of Edith S. and Barry D.Briskin in memory ofPaul Martinson)were often used by artists and craftsmen in the American colonies and states who did not have access to more formal training. These handbooks featured recipes for pigments,varnishes, and other materials, as well as practical advice on composition and style, that had been copied and distributed among European artists for centuries. Prior to the development ofthe printing press and movable type, manuscripts such as De diversis artibus, by the monk Theophilus (early 12th century), and Cennino Cennini's Illibro dell'arte (late 14th century) provided an important source for the transmission ofcraft knowledge,often restricted by guild membership and closely held by workshops.This idea of"trade secrets"led to descriptions of such recipes as a form ofesoteric knowledge and a conflation with alchemical principles. By the late 18th century, however,these ideas were rhetorical flourish. Cennini, for example,explicitly refers to the alchemical preparation ofpigments,which in the context of his time simply meant that they were manufactured in a synthetic manner. As the Gutenberg revolution led to increasingly widespread dissemination ofinformation in all fields, more and more ofthese
T
74 SPRING/SUMMER 2006 FOLK ART
manuals were published. By the middle ofthe 18th century,the British colonies in America were regularly importing such publications, primarily from London. Although printing presses had been established in the British colonies since the early 17th century, they were still mostly producing broadsides, newspapers, almanacs, religious tracts, and government documents. Only seven books on artistic technique are documented as being available from New World booksellers by 17602 The most complete and popular ofthese was Dossie's Handmaid to the Arts; at least 29 libraries and booksellers owned it or had it available for sale. Artist Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827)is known to have bought a copy in the Philadelphia shop ofJames Rivington and Samuel Brown,as part ofhis initial self-instruction in art,in 1762.2 Though influential, Dossie relied heavily upon John Smith's Art ofPainting in Oyl, published in London in several editions beginning in 1676. Smith's work was the earliest English manual on decorative painting intended for lay use, rather than for the guild ofprofessional painter-stainers. Dossie's publication follows in a long tradition ofcopying or adapting texts without regard to original authorship.This derives in part from the monastic practice,common during the Middle Ages,ofpreserving knowledge by copying important texts.In the Renaissance, humanist scholars emended and corrected manuscripts that they copied. And although copyright protections were established in Britain in 1710 with the Statute ofAnne,they were much weaker than they are now and difficult to enforce in the remote colonies.
Following the American Revolution, domestic printers flourished.This was partly the result ofa broad interest in developing the new nation's economic self-sufficiency. Books on the arts made explicit appeal to the public's interest in developing a marketable expertise in the fine and decorative arts. Again because ofthe weakness ofcopyright protection,works were often reprinted or pirated from earlier British texts. Only five such handbooks are known to have been published in the United States before 1800,beginning with The SchoolofWisdom or Repository ofthe Most Valuable Curiosities of Art(New Brunswick, NJ.,1787), from a London edition of 1776. The Shirley K.Schlafer Library's copy of One Thousand Valuable Secrets provides a particularly good example ofthe complicated publishing history of these texts.The library holds the first American edition, published in Philadelphia in 1795 for the booksellers Benjamin Davies and Thomas Stephens.That same year, a variant edition was printed in Norwich,Connecticut,byThomas Hubbard,under the title Valuable Secrets ConcerningArts and Trades: Or,Approved Directions,from the BestArtists. It had first been published in London in 1758 as Valuable Secrets in Arts and Trades... Containing Upwards of One ThousandApproved Receipts Relative to Arts and Trades... (London:J. Barker, 1758).This itself was a translation ofa twovolume French book,Secrets concernantles arts et metiers(Paris, 1716), compiled and published by Claude Jombert. Although the contents are derivative, the books make an effort to address a specific audience. The author of One Thousand Valu-
,
.1::;. •
5
I
4%.
MST ANLItICAN F.DITION.
"795.
One Thousand Valuable Secrets, in the Elegant and Useful Arts,,./ first American edition / printed for B. Davies and T. Stephens / Philadelphia / 1795 / American Folk Art Museum Shirley K. Schlafer Library, gift of Edith S. and Barry D. Briskly in memory of Paul Martinson
able Secrets opens with a preface extolling the need to improve our national manufactures. Increasing our knowledge of"the usefull and necessary arts," the author asserted, and reducing our dependence on foreign imports "will be the surest means ofestablishing our independence on the firmest basis." Robert Dossie, a generation earlier and in the midst ofthe Seven Years'War, had similarly addressed his British countrymen with a call for"the national improvement ofskill and taste,in the execution ofworks of design"in order to improve the country's "domestic security" against"our rival France."The translation and copying ofcontinental sources was thus enlisted in the larger economic and political struggles ofthe day.*
Notes 1 Janice G.Schimmelman,"Books on Drawing and Painting Techniques Available in Eighteenth-Century American Libraries and Bookstores," Winterthur Portfolio 19(1984): 193-208. 2 Lillian B. Miller, ed., The Selected Papers ofCharles Wilson Peale and His Family, vol. 1(New
Haven:Yale University Press, 1983),p. 33.
VVa
THE AD-A/HISTORIC DEERFIELD ANTIQUES SHOW- SATURDAY, OCTOBER 7TH, 11AM-6PM SUNDAY, OCTOBER 8TH,11AM-5PM DEERFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS
*aim
FROM THE SOUTH: TAKE 1-91 NORTH TO EXIT 24N. Go 6 MILES NORTH ON ROUTES 5 & 10 AND FOLLOW THE SIGNS TO THE SHOW. FROM THE NORTH: TAKE 1-91 SOUTH TO EXIT 26 TA-WkROUTE 2A EAST TO ROUTES 5 & -111 SOUTH. Go 3,5 MILEIISOUTH ON 5 & 10 AND .FOLLOW THE Sligb/S TONCHE SHAW. Hotels, Motels, Inns and Bed & Breakfasts in the area: HOTELS & MOTELS: Red Roof Inn Deerfield, MA,413.665.7161
Quality Inn Hadley, MA,413.584.9816
d Tavern Farm reenfield, MA,413.772.0474
The Greenfield Inn Greenfield, MA,413-774-2211
Holiday Inn Express Hadley, MA,413.582.0002
*West Winds Inn Greenfield, MA,413.774.4025
Super 8 Motel Greenfield, MA,413.77
HISTORIC INNS: The Deerfield Inn Deerfield, MA,413.774.5587
Ivory Creek B&B Inn Hadley, MA,866.331.3115
578
Best Western Northampton, MA,413386.1500 Campus Center Hotel Amherst, MA,413.549.6000 University Lodge Amherst, MA,413.256.8111 Howard Johnson's Hadley, MA,413.586.0114 Econo Lodge Hadley, MA,413.582.70
Lord Jeffrey Inn Amherst, MA,413.253.2576 Hotel,Northampton Northampton, MA,413.584.3100 BED & BREAKFAST:
Ferry Hill Farm B&B Granby, MA,413.467.7751 Deerfield's Yellow Gabled House Deerfield, MA,413.665.4922 Allen House B&B Amherst, MA,413.253.5000
Greenfield, MA,413.774.3329 *Carriage Towne B&B
Belchertown, MA,413.323.028 *Country Cape B&B
Amherst B&B Amherst, MA,413.256.6151 Birches B&B .Amherst, MA,413.256.6257
Whately,)11A, 413.665.8523 NorwottuckInn Hadley, M.A. 413.587.9866 Holiday Inn Holyoke, MA,800.238.8000
--The Hitchcock House Greenfield, MA,413.774.7452
-Bed & Breakfasts participating in Historic Deerfield's B&B membership progra
For more information call: 413.775.7177i. www.adadealers.com I
BOOKS
OF
INTEREST
COMPILED BY EVELYN R. GURNEY
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)
T
Nek Chand's Outsider Art: The Rock Garden of Chandigarh Lucienne Peiry and Philippe Lespinasse, Flammarion,2005, 280 pages, 140 color photographs,$50 (hardcover) his highly anticipated hardcover pays exclusive homage to Nek Chand's vast Rock Garden,in Chandigarh,India. It includes essays on the religious, architectural, sculptural, and symbolic aspects of the installation, biographical background, quotes from the artist, and a chronology of the construction. In addition, the book includes a map ofthe garden and extensive bibliographic and exhibition reference tables. However,it is the book's numerous color photographs that best capture the spirit of this spectacular landmark. In many ways, Nek Chand is the quintessential self-taught artist. Uprooted and displaced by the partition ofIndia in 1947 and working in obscurity with found materials, Nek Chand NEK CH labored alone for OJJTSID1 TH OCH GARDEV CHANOVORAH decades creating his fantastic world. While employed as a government roads inspector, he collected stone, wire,sheet metal, bicycle parts, broken bits of ceramics, and discarded objects ofevery kind, with which he built a landscape of figures and animals, squares and waterfalls, paths and gardens. He worked at least four hours a day, mostly at night, to create a dazzling installation of thousands of statues that would eventually cover more than 25 acres of abandoned land in northern India. Nek Chand's story reflects the solitary passion of the self-taught artist, compelled by an inner voice to produce what he called "a kingdom ofgods and goddesses." Nek Chand's work will be on view in "Concrete Kingdom: Sculptures by Nek Chand" at the American Folk Art Museum through Sept. 24,2006. For more on the artist's work, please turn to page 42. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;E.R.G.
76
SPRING/SUMMER 2006
FOLK ART
African American Vernacular Photography: Selections from the Daniel Cowin Collection, essays
by Brian Wallis and Deborah Willis,International Center of Photography/Steidl,2005, 120 pages,$25
Clementine Hunter: The African House Murals, Art
Shiver and Tom Whitehead,eds., Association for the Preservation of Historic Natchitoches,2005,75 pages, $29.95 Collecting American Folk Art, Helaine Fendelman
American Anthem: Masterworks from the American Folk Art Museum, Stacy C.
and Susan Kleckner, House of Collectibles, 2004,196 pages, $12.95
Hollander, Brooke Davis Anderson, and Gerard C.Werticin,American Folk Art Museum/Harry N.Abrams,2001, 432 pages, $65
Coming Home: SelfTaught Artists, the Bible, and the American South,
American Radiance: The Ralph Esmerian Gift to the American Folk Art Museum,
Stacy C. Hollander, American Folk Art Museum/Harry N.Abrams,2001, 572 pages, $75 The Art of Adolf ;MEOW St. Adolf-GiantCreation, Elka Spoerri
and Daniel Baumann, American Folk Art Museum/Princeton University Press,2003,112 pages,$29.95 The Art of Gaman: Arts and Crafts from the Japanese American Internment Camps (1942-1946), Delphine
Hirasuna,Ten Speed Press,2005,128 pages,$35
AMERICAN FOLK AR
1.1
Carol Crown,ed., University Press of Mississippi/ Art Museum ofthe 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/ Harry N.Abrams,2001, 128 pages,$29.95 Disabled Fables: Aesop's Fables Retold and Illustrated by Artists with Developmental Disabilities, Star Bright Books,
2005,52 pages,$19.95
The Life and Art of Jimmy Lee Sudduth,
Donald Mitchell: Right Here, Right Now, Cheryl
Rivers, ed., Creative Growth Arts Center, 2005,92 pages,$24.95
of Eugenia Alter Propp,
Susan Mitchell Crawley, Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts in association with River City Publishing,2005, 96 pages, $29.95
Sharon Gold,ed., Jandam Press,2004, 138 pages,$35
Lonnie Holley: Do We Think Too Much? I Don't Think We
Enia's World: The Art
Can Ever Stop, David Moos and Everyday Genius: Self-Taught Art and the Culture of
everyday WINS
Authenticity, Gary Alan Fine, University of Chicago Press, 2004,342 pages,$30 Forms of Tradition in Contemporary Spain,
Jo Farb Hernandez, University Press of Mississippi,2005,256 pages, $65 (hardcover), $35 (softcover) How to Look at Outsider Art, Lyle
Rexer, Harry N. Abrams,2005, 176 pages,$22.95
Quilted Planet: A Sourcebook of Quilts from Around the World, Celia Eddy,
Clarkson N.Potter, 2005,224 pages,$40 Real Photo Postcards: Unbelievable Images from the Collection of Harvey Tulcensky,
Michael Stanley, eds., Holzwarth Publications, 2004,78 pages,$20
Laetitia Wolff,ed., Princeton Architectural Press, 2005,192 pages, $19.95
Miracles of the Spirit: Folk, Art, and
Scottie Wilson: Peddler Turned Painter, Anthony J. Petullo and
Stories of Wisconsin,
Katherine M.Murrell,Petullo Publishing LLC,2004,78 pages, $25
Don Krug and Ann Parker, University Press of Mississippi,2005, 336 pages,$65
The Shipcarvers' Art: Figureheads and
Monika's Story: A Personal History of the Musgrave Kinley Outsider Collection,
Monika Kinley, Musgrave Kinley Outsider Trust, 2005,240 pages, $32
Cigar-Store Indians in Nineteenth-Century America, Ralph Sessions,Princeton University Press,2005,240 pages,$75 Silk Stocking Mats: Hooked Rugs of the
Thornton Dial in the 21st Century,
Paul Arnett et al., Tinwood Books/ Museum ofFine Arts, Houston, 2005,324 pages, $65 Threading the Generations: A Mississippi Family's Quilt Legacy, Mary Elizabeth Johnson et al., University Press of Mississippi,2005, 119 pages,$28 Tools of Her Ministry: The Art of Sister Gertrude Morgan,
William A.Fagaly, American Folk Art Museum/Rizzoli,2004, 120 pages, $35 * Windsor-Chair Making in America: From Craft Shop to
Consumer, Nancy Goyne Evans, University Press of New England, 2006,508 pages, $65
mit
The Perfect Game:
Grenfell Mission,
America Looks at
Tom Trusky,Idaho Center for the Book,2004,190 pages, $29.95 (hardcover),$19.95 (softcover)
Baseball, Elizabeth V. Warren,American Folk Art Museum/ Harry N.Abrams,2003, 150 pages,$29.95
Paula Laverty, McGill Queen's University Press,2005,192 pages, $44.95
the Joseph D. and
* Snapshot
Janet M. Shein Collection of
* Just Above the Water: Florida
Phantom, Christine Sefolosha,
Chronicles: Inventing the
Folk Art, Kristin G. Congdon and Tina Bucuvalas, University Press of Mississippi,2006,368 pages, $65
Art & Fiction Press,2005, 80 pages,$30
American Photo Album, Barbara Levine,Princeton
James Castle: His Life and Art,
The Potter's Eye: Art and Tradition in North
r. 1. 111 4
Wos Up Man?
we
r
Selections from
Self-Taught Art,
Joyce Henri Robinson,Penn State University Press,2005, 139 pages, $34.95
Architectural Press,2006, 200 pages, $40
Carolina, Mark Hewitt and Nancy Sweezy, University of North Carolina Press,2005, 336 pages,$39.95
SPRING/SUMMER 2006
FOLK ART
77
MUSEUM
R
EPRODUCTIONS
RAM A M
BY ALICE J. HOFFMAN
FOLK ART
Representing more than 300years ofAmerican design, from the late 1600s to thepresent, the American Folk Art Museum Collection'brings within reach ofthe public the very best ofthepast to be enjoyedfor generations to come.
COLLECTION
New Directions * Bespoke Books A Stitch in Time! Bespoke Books,the museum's newest licensee, specializes in the development and design ofbooks on the cultural arts. Its first project with the museum will celebrate the art of needlecraft. Bespoke will create patterns of20 masterpieces from the museum's collection for today's needleworker,including such popular works as the Bird ofParadise Quilt Top and Girl in Red Dress with Cat and Dog by Ammi Phillips.These patterns will include instructions for making pillows, picture frames, photo album covers, eyeglass cases, rugs, pincushions, and footstools. The projected publication date is 2007. News from Museum Licensees Share our legacy;look for new products from our family oflicensees,featuring unique designs inspired by objects from the museum's collection. * Sunham Home Fashions America's Flower Garden! Floral themes have blossomed in American quilts as a testament to the beauty of America's flower gardens. Sunham,inspired by this theme,chose three exquisite and expertly crafted quilts from the museum's collection and adapted them to create a fresh look for today's lifestyle. Flower Basket and Wild Flowers both feature appliqué flowers in ajoyous color palette. Wild Rose, a limited-edition
78 SPRING/SUMMER 2006 FOLK ART
textile,features a center medallion of delicately detailed and embroidered roses. Coordinating pillow shams are available for each design.()silts and pillow shams are 100 percent cotton and are machine washable.You can find the entire collection at Macy's. * Mary Myers Studio Ahhh, Paradise! Mary Myers has chosen to create a limited-edition series of hand-carved figures inspired by the museum's Bird ofParadise Quilt Top. A wise owl, Hannibal the elephant, and a blackbird with a red scalloped wing will be the first images featured in this series. Contact Mary Myers at 757/4811760 or mmcrackers@cox.net to start your collection today. *Waterford Wedgwood USA Holiday Cheer! Christmas 2006 is closer than you think. Inspired by two paintings on permanent view at the museum—Girlin Red Dress with Cat and Dog by Ammi Phillips and Peaceable Kingdom by Edward Hicks—Waterford Wedgwood USA has created two very special holiday collections. A full array of decorative ornaments and tabletop/mantel accessories will be available for both collections this fall. Dear Customer Your purchase of museumlicensed products directly benefits the exhibition and educational activities of the museum.Thank you for participating in the museum's continuing efforts to celebrate
the style, craft, and tradition of American folk art. If you have any questions or comments regarding the American Folk Art Museum CollectionTm, please contact us at 212/977-7170.
BASKET OF FLOWERS QUILT / Elizabeth Schumacher Leece (1867-1956)/ Kansas City, Missouri / 1930-1940 / cotton with cotton 1 2 84" / American Folk Art embroidery!95/ Museum, gift of Marian Baer, 1984.11.4 Inspiration for Flower Basket quilt by Sunham Home Fashions
Family of Licensees Andover Fabrics (800/223-5678) printed fabric by the yard and prepackaged fabric craft kits. Bespoke Books(212/737-8613) needlepoint pattern book. Chronicle Books(800/722-6657) note cards.* Fotofolio (212/226-0923) art postcard books and boxed note cards.* FUNQats(708/445-1817)limited-edition quilt collection.* Galleon (212/354-8840) portfolio and boxed note cards." Impact Photographics (916/939-9333) Magic Cubes.* LEAVES Pure Teas(877/532-8378)loose tea in decorative tins.* MANI-G'Raps(800/510-7277) decorative gift wrap and coordinating accessories.' Mary Myers Studio(757/481-1760) wooden nutcrackers,tree ornaments, and table toppers." Museum Store Products(800/966-7040) magnets.' Ozone Design,Inc.(212/563-2990)socks.* Sunham Home Fashions(212/6951218) quilts, comforters, duvets, and sheet sets. Talcashimaya Company,Ltd. (212/350-0550) home furnishings and decorative accessories (available only in Japan). Waterford Wedgwood USA(800/223-5678) holiday decor.* *Available in the American Folk Art Museum Book and Gift Shop. Members receive a 10 percent discount on all shop items. Visit our website and online store at www.folkartmuseum.org.
SUSAN SLYMAN REPRESENTED BY
FRANK J. MIELE CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN FOLK ART 10E38 MADISON AVENUE NEW YORK, N.Y. 10029 212.249.7250
GALLERIE JE REVIENS 991 POST ROAD EAST WESTPORT CT. 06880 203.227.7718 ALL ABOARD! NOW! A/C 24 X 36
STEPHEN
A
DERSON
LTD
Offering thefinest heirloomquality custom hand-hooked rugs made in America today.* Working with leading architects, designers and collectorsfor over 20 years. 'as seen on CNN
APPOINTMENT STEPHEN T. ANDERSON LTD. 1071 FIRST AVE. NEW YORK, NY 100 212.319.0815 FAX 212.980.5453 standerson21@earthlink.net www.customhookedrugs.com
PHONE
SPRING/SUMMER 2006
FOLK ART
79
MUSEUM
NEWS Martha Stewart and trustee Barry Briskin
BY CARA ZIMMERMAN
THE AMERICAN ANTIQUES SHOW 2006 he museum's highly successful and muchanticipated four-day American Antiques Show (TAAS)returned this January to its original home at the Metropolitan Pavilion.The show featured more than 40 select exhibitors. The festivities kicked off with the Gala Benefit Preview on Jan. 18, preceded by an award ceremony for the TAAS 2006 American Spirit Award recipient Martha Stewart, who was honored for her unwavering support ofthe arts and America's cultural heritage. Clearly thrilled by the award, Stewart spoke at length about her dedication to the field offolk art. Museum trustee Susan Gutfreund, chair ofthis year's TAAS Interior Designers'Committee, was also honored at the ceremony.The following benefit preview proved a great success. The live music,food,wine,and fabulous exhibitor booths made for a vibrant and enjoyable event. The 44 dealers present at TAAS 2006 offered a wide variety of Americana,ranging from furniture, schoolgirl needlework, game boards, and weathervanes to decoys, burl treen, quilts, and jewelry. Highlights included a massive and wonderfully ornate tramp art frame at Allan Katz Americana and Native American canoe paddles at Cherry Gallery; Fleisher Oilman Gallery presented a dynamic assortment ofFelipe Jesus Consalvos pieces, while American Primitive Gallery showcased fascinating small-scale carnival sideshow banners. Exhibitors from across the country provided attendees with the finest examples inâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and extensive knowledge ofâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;American art and decorative objects.
T
80 SPRING/SUMMER 2006
FOLK ART
This year's educational programs,designed to enhance enjoyment and understanding ofobjects presented at the show, included tours with the museum's curators and with auction house experts, object appraisals, and book signings by renowned appraiser Helaine Fendelman and TAAS exhibitors. TAAS 2006 was organized by executive chairs Barry and Edie Brislcin,Joan and Victor Johnson, Lucy and Mike Danzinger, and Laura and Richard Parsons; show manager Karen DiSaia; and executive director Caroline Kerrigan. Robin Schlinger (left) and Marjorie Hirschhorn
Arthur Huffman and director Maria Ann Conelli
Irma McLaurin (left) and trustee Akosua Barthwell Evans
Jan Willem von Bergen Henegouwen and Phyllis Kossoff
Lucy Cullman Danzlger
Edgar and Louise Cullman
Board president Laura Parsons (left) and trustee Susan Gutfreund
Director Maria Ann ConeIli and Kim Hartswick
Barbara Pollock and Eric Maffei
Trustee emeritus Samuel Farber, Betsey Farber (center), ' and Ann-Marle Reilly
Stephen Fletcher, Karen Keane (center), and Nancy Brockman
(Left to right): Robert Wilson, Stephen O'Brien, and David Nichols
SPRING/SUMMER 2006 FOLK ART
81
MUSEUM
NEWS
(Left to right): Hannah Achtenberq Kinn, Richard Parsons, board president Laura Parsons, and director Maria Ann Conelli
OUTSIDER ART WEEK 2006 he museum celebrated the 2006 Outsider Art Fair in January with an opening night preview to benefit the museum and a week of educational programs celebrating self-taught artists. The benefit preview took place on Jan.26 at the fair's location in the Puck Building and proved a wonderful success, offering attendees entrance to the Outsider Art Fair before it opened to the public. Renowned scholars, collectors, and artists convened from international locations to meet and greet, as well as to examine the latest offerings from the 33 exhibiting galleries. Wine,hors d'oeuvres, music, and outstanding art made for an unforgettable evening. Outsider Art Week,with programming beginning Jan. 24, included presentations from both artists and scholars. Needlework artist Ray Materson's phenomenal debut performance,"Sins and Needles: A Dramatic Monologue," brought the audience on a passionate and humorous journey through his life. The annual Anne Hill Blanchard Symposium,Uncommon Artists XIV: A Series of Cameo Talks,featured lectures by Phyllis Kind on Carlo Zinelli, Regenia Perry on Roy Ferdinand, Cheryl Rivers on Donald Mitchell, and Stuart E. Shepherd on Martin Thompson.In the panel I Taught Myself Everything I Know:Autodidacticism in New Media Art, scholar Mark Tribe served as a moderator for artists Mary Flanagan,W.Bradford Paley, and Keiko Uenishi, whose discussion focused on whether the term self-taught can be applied to artists working in digital fields.The Folk Art Explorers
T
day trip Inside Outsider Art included tours at the American Folk Art Museum and the Newark Museum,as well as a visit to the New Jersey studio of artist Kevin Sampson and Luise Ross's new gallery in Chelsea. To round out Outsider Art Week,the museum's special booth at the fair presented a selection ofrecent publications about selftaught artists and their work,as well as information about the museum's upcoming exhibitions and educational programs. Programming and events for Outsider Art Week were presented by the museum's Contemporary Center and Education Department; the benefit preview was organized by Katie Hush,the museum's special events manager.
(Left to right): Serena Altschul, Geoffrey Holder, Sini von Reis, and Brooke Davis Anderson
Director emeritus Ger Susan Conlon
tine Johnson and Dieter F. Lange
Louise Sbeets DAS and Sandy Van in the museum's booth Trustee Didi Barrett (left) and Pat Parsons
82 SPRING/SUMMER 2006 FOLK ART
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAMES KOCH
(Left to right): Maria Ann ConelII, Lynne Cheney, and trustee Margaret Robson
Retell Bowman (left) and Mark Leavitt
common Artists participants (left to right): trustee Edward V. Blanchard director Maria Ann Conelli, Lee Kogan, Regenia Perry, Phyllis Kind, Stuart Shepherd, Brooke Davis Anderson, and Cheryl Rivers
JOIN US ON MONDAY, JUNE 5, 2006, FOR AMERICAN
SHIMMER IN CHANDIGARH AN ENCHANTED EVENING TO BENEFIT THE AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM
0 Li_ MUSEUM
COCKTAILS, DINNER, SILENT AUCTION, AND FESTIVE ENTERTAINMENT FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CALL 212. 725. 2192 OR E-MAIL AFAM@JKSEVENTS.COM
SPRING/SUMMER 2006
FOLK ART
83
THE AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM WISHES TO THANK THE FOLLOWING FRIENDS FOR THEIR GENEROUS SUPPORT OF THE 2005 SPRING BENEFIT, THE AMERICAN ANTIQUES SHOW 2006, AND THE OUTSIDER ART FAIR BENEFIT PREVIEW 2006.(THIS LIST RECOGNIZES CONTRIBUTIONS OF $250 AND UP.) Simon Abrahams Emily Ades Advanced Technology Ventures Advantage Security Albert Hadley, Incorporated Becky and Bob Alexander Ted Alfond Caralee Allsworth Peg Alston and Willis Burton Altria Group, Inc. Serena Altschul Aman & Carson Interiors American Express Christopher and Jean Angell Judy and John M. Angelo Peter K. Anglum Jody and John Arnhold Leo Arons Gayle Perkins Atkins and Charles N. Atkins Atlantic Health System Ray Azoulay/Obsolete Jeremy L. Banta Nina Barker/Conde Nast Bruce Barnes and Joseph Cunningham Didi and David Barrett Akosua Barthwell Evans Douglas E. Barzelay Martina Batan Jill and Marvin Baten Dina Battipaglia Bell-Guilmet Associates Lee and Paul Belsky Roselyn Benon Mr. and Mrs. Stephen E. Bepler Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Berman Joan and Robert Bernhard Jeanne Bertoia Ginny and Bill Birch Mr. and Mrs. Robert S. Birch Mrs. G.P. Bissell Jr. Suzanne and Robert Bizzell Monty Blanchard and Allison Saxe Leslie May Blauner and Andrew Blauner Emanuelle Block Mr. and Mrs. James A. Block Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Block Thomas Block and Marilyn Friedman Dena and Jay Bock Jeffrey Bolton Sheldon and Jill Bonovitz Diana Bittel Alessandra Branca Jim and Linda Brandi Catherine and Bob Brawer Mr. and Mrs. Martin Bregman Edith S. and Barry D. Briskin/ The Shirley K. Schlafer Foundation Judy and Bernard Briskin Sally and Thatcher Brown Tim Bruce Mario Buatta Elli Buk Barbara Bundy Deborah Bush Helen Butler Ann L. Buttenwieser Virginia and David Butters Shawn and Brook Byers Paul Caan Judy and Bill Campbell Mrs. Sharon Casdin Barbara and Tracy Cate Frank J. Caufield Cavin Morris Gallery Kathryn and Kenneth Chenault Winston J. Churchill Jane Forbes Clark Claire and Rusty Cloud Maggie Cohen, ASID Mc and Mrs. George-Anthony Colettis Colgate-Palmolive Phyllis D. Collins Robert Couturier Lone Cowen Mrs. Daniel Cowin Cravath, Swaine and Moore LLP Susan Crawley
Charley and Jacque Grist Mr. and Mrs. James F. Crystal Elissa and Edgar M. Cullman Jr. Louise and Edgar Cullman Susan R. Cullman and John Kirby Cullman & Kravis, Inc. Mr and Mrs. John R. Curtis Terry Dale and Richard Barry Kendra and Allan Daniel Aaron and Judy Daniels Alex Daniels David and Sheena Danziger Katie Danziger and Steve Horowitz Lucy and Mike Danziger Peggy and Richard M. Danziger Abbey Darer David Davies and Jack Weeden Marian Davis Ed and Pat De Sear Charles and Valerie Diker Donovan & Yee LLP Linda Douglass Kathleen M. Doyle Nancy R. Druckman Mary Douglas Drysdale Gail Duffy Mr. and Mrs. Charles P. Durkin Jr. Richard G. Durnin Bob and Joan Easton Peter Eaton and Joan Brownstein Radika Eccles and Steven Weddle Andrew Edlin and Batia Zumwalt Ray Egan Elizabeth Eisen Lewis M. Eisenberg Michael Elitzer John and Margot Ernst Carl and Janet Eskridge Ralph Esmerian Mr. and Mrs. Thomas M. Evans Jr. Judy and Anthony Evnin Stacey Facter Sam and Betsey Farber Lori and Larry Fink Jeremy Fitzgerald Jacqueline Fowler Susan Frame Maxine and Stuart Frankel Foundation Frances J. Frawley Margot and Norman Freedman Marilyn and Lawrence Friedland Robert Froelich Dr. Gail Furman Frank Gaglio Galen Associates Galerie St. Etienne, Inc. Rebecca and Michael Gamzon Barbara Gillespie Barbara Goldfarb/Design Logic Laura and Mark Goldman Arthur Goldstone Mark Goldweitz Mariette Himes Gomez Irene Goodkind Peter and Barbara Goodman Barbara Gordon Ellin and Baron Gordon Ann and Herb Granath William R. Grant Nicholas Gravante Jr. Susan Zises Green Gayle and Robert Greenhill Richard Grubman and Caroline Mortimer Nancy and Tim Grumbacher Audrey Gruss Samuel L. Guillory Agnes Gund and Daniel Shapiro Mr. and Mrs. John H. Gutfreund Peter and Pat Handal Lynne and Harold Handler Mr. and Mrs. William Harnisch Marion Harris Halley K. Harrisburg and Michael Rosenfeld Mark Hayden John Hays Inge Heckel, President, New York School of Interior Design Audrey B. Heckler Richard and Catherine Herbst
Judith Hernstadt Anne and John Herrmann Samuel Herrup Peggy and Tom Hess High Five Foundation The Hirschhorn Foundation/ Robert and Marjorie Hirschhorn, Carolyn Hirschhorn Schenker Mr. and Mrs. Joseph C. Hoopes Jr. John and Sandra Horvitz John Houlahan Peter Houlahan Stephen and Carol Huber Mr. and Mrs. R. Webber Hudson Jill and Ken lscol Thomas Isenberg Barbara and Thomas C. Israel Martin and Kitty Jacobs/ The Splendid Peasant Ned Jalbert JDS Pharmaceuticals LLC Vera and Pepi Jelinek Hope Gladney Jessup Robert and Virginia Joffe Joan and Victor Johnson Kristina Johnson Linda Johnson and Harold Pote Penelope D. Johnston Just Folk/Susan Baerwald and Marcy Carsey Gerald P. and Jaclyn Kaminsky Cathy Kaplan Allan and Penny Katz Kevin Kearney Mrs. Carl L. Kempner Leigh Keno Mary Kettaneh Keyspan Phyllis Kind Kelly Kinzie Robert and Luise Kleinberg John and Lesley Koegel Franny Koelsch Joan Kofodimos and Kyle Dover Elizabeth Kontulis Phyllis L. Kossoff Betty and Arthur Kowaloff Barbara and Dave Krashes Richard Lammert Land America Financial Group ME and Mrs. Mark Laracy Bruno and Lindsey LaRocca Wendy Lehman Lash and Stephen S. Lash Jo Carole and Ronald S. Lauder Jerry and Susan Lauren Taryn and Mark Leavitt Robert M. Lerch, M.D. Lisa Lesavoy and Marco Paniccia Nina Lesavoy John Levin and Diane Keefe Stephen and Petra Levin Nadine and Peter Levy Carol Sutton Lewis and William M. Lewis Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Carl M. Lindberg Joyce Linde Stephan Loewentheil Allen Logerquist Gloria and Patrick Lonergan Cynthia and Dan Lufkin Mary P. Mackenzie Ruth Maetzener, Ph.D. Eric J. Maffei Ann and Vincent Mai Linda Saltman Mandle Matthew Marks Marks Paneth & Shron LLP Frances S. Martinson Erika and Gary H. Matt Matthew Patrick Smyth, Inc. Jon and Juliana May William J. Mayer Raymond J. McGuire Ted and Ellie McLean Anne S. McPherson Nancy and Dana G. Mead Med Assets James D. Meltzer and Dianne Deachan Barry and Wendy Meyer
George H. Meyer and Kay White Meyer Buxton and Lisa Midyette Michael and Pamela Miles Timothy and Virginia Millhiser Richard Mishaan William S. Monaghan Beth Goldberg Nash and Joshua Nash David G. Nazarian Ronnie Newman Newman & Company, Inc. David E. Nichols Elin Nierenberg Emily Anne Nixon George N'Namdi Northeast Auctions/ Ronald Bourgeault Stephen O'Brien Nancy and Morris W. Offit Michael Ogle Barbara Ostrom, ASID David Owsley Alex Pagel Judith K. Parnes Elbert H. Parsons Jr. Laura and Richard Parsons Margaret Parsons Pat O'B Parsons Geoffrey Paul Joan Pearlman John B. Penrose Rolando and Karin Perez Ruth and Leonard Perfido Barbara Pollack Christen and Duncan Pollock Andrew and Pamela Postal Wayne Pratt and Marybeth Keene Jeffrey H. Pressman and Nancy Kollisch Sumpter Priddy III Jessica Prince and Peter Pouridas Leo and Dorothea Rabkin Jackie Radwin Sy and Susan Rapaport Keith E. Ravaioli Mr. and Mrs. Judson P. Reis Russ and Carla Ricci Julia and Leroy Richie Betty Ring Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Riordan Susan W. Robertson Margaret Robson David Rockefeller Alyce and Roger Rose Marshall Rose Janet and Marvin Rosen Margot Rosenberg Mr. and Mrs. Joseph B. Rosenblatt Jerry Rosenfeld Helene and Jim Rosenthal Elizabeth Ross Bob Roth and Cleo Wilson Howard J. Rubenstein Wolfe Rudman David Rumsey Charles Russell and Alison Weld Mr. and Mrs. Francis J. Russo Andrea Rutherford Leslee Rylee Angela and Selig Sacks Mrs. Lucia Moreira SaIles Sheri Sandler Jeanne and Bob Savitt G.P. Schafer, Architect Linda and Donald Schapiro Herbert and Donna Schinderman Bill and Ruth Schneck Anne and Alan Schnitzer David Schorsch Sue Ann and Albert Schuck Thomas F. Schutte Donna and Marvin Schwartz Mark Schwarz Mrs. Frederick R. Selch Al and Phyllis Se!nick Ralph Sessions Jane and Barton Shallat Robert I. Shapiro Stephen Shapiro Charles A. Shepard III
Hardwick Simmons Linda and Ray Simon George Skouras Adam and Tamara Sloan Jodi Smart Stephen S. Smith Amy and Frank Snider Elliott and Grace Snyder Karen and David Sobotka Ann and Richard Solomon Mr. and Mrs. Peter J. Solomon Julie Spivack and Paul Reiferson Nikki B. Springer Mr. and Mrs. William W. Stahl Jr. Mr. and Mrs. David F. Stein Judy and Michael Steinhardt Stewart Stender and Deborah Davenport Elizabeth Stern Geoffrey Stern H. Peter Stern Donna and Alan Stillman Foundation Rachel and Donald Strauber Bonnie and Tom Strauss Eric Streiner Mr. and Mrs. John M. Sullivan Jr. Susan K. Gutfreund, Inc. Susan Sheehan Gallery, Inc. Nathaniel J. Sutton Barbara J. Tamerin Harry Taranto and Rosalind Forse LaDonna Thompson TIAA-CREF Time Warner Inc. TishmanSpeyer Properties Dorothy C. Treisman Joseph A. Trunfio Billie Tsien and Tod Williams Judith Tuller Mark Ulrich D. Vander Heyden Hilary Vartanian Mary Ellen Vehlow and Stephen 0. Hessler Verizon Joseph and Meryl Viener Sue B. and George P. Viener Sin von Reis Sue and Ed Wachenheim Amanda Waitt Jane and David Walentas Richard H. Walker Mary and James G. Wallach Stephen T. Walrod and Michelle Stein Borgne Alan Wanzenberg Joan Waricha Elizabeth and Irwin Warren Philip and Jane Waterman Susan Weiler George and Joyce Wein John and Amy Weinberg Mr. and Mrs. John L. Weinberg Bennett and Judie Weinstock Marc A. Weisman Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Phyllis and Ira Wender Bill Wenzel Gerard and Barbara Wertkin The Wetsman Foundation/ Janis and William Wetsman Tracy Whitehead Jan Whitlock L. John and Barbara Wilkerson Robert N. Wilson and Anne Wright Wilson David Wolfe Samantha Wolfe Gerald M. Wunderlich Rob and Michelle Wyles Susan Yarnell Richard Zaken Susan and Donald Zuckert Stuart Zweibel
MUSEUM
NEWS
CRAIG FARROW Master Furniture Maker
WALK-IN WEDNESDAYS alk-In Wednesdays, the museum's series of educational afternoon programs,features a wide range ofengaging topics. Last fall and winter, programs included Shaped Note Music,during which composer Neely Bruce led area singers and interested audience members in a selection of modern folk music from New England and the South; and Looking at Painted Surfaces, with renowned appraiser Helaine Fendelman,who explained how to develop a
W
more critical eye when viewing antiques. Don't miss the next Walk-In Wednesday event: On May 24, Dr. Stephen P. Huyler will present Enforced Isolation: A Woman's Art in India, a discussion ofthe bas-reliefsculptures artist Sonabai Rajwar made on the interior mud walls of her home. Elena Bernstein, a volunteer in the education department, has worked on coordinating these programs. For more information on Walk-In Wednesdays,please turn to page 94.
MEMBERS' HOLIDAY PARTY raving the bitter, cold weather, nearly 200 guests attended the museum's third annual members'holiday party last December. A winterwonderland decor was the perfect backdrop for holiday festivities, which included a children's tour and treasure hunt,a magician's entertainment,champagne punch, and the jovial tunes ofthe Ernesto Cervini jazz trio. Museum staff organized a craft activity in which participants could paint-decorate miniature chairs in emulation of works in "Surface Attraction." Snowflake pencil and eraser party favors were given as mementos of"Obsessive Drawing," and some lucky
B
members won door prizes of coveted items from the gift shop, including a bracelet with charms modeled on folk art icons from the museum's permanent collection. Members received a 20 percent discount in the museum's Book and Gift Shop on this special evening.
When originals are not available History and artistry in wood 17th and 18th century American furniture Reproductions
240 Lewis Creek Drive Ferrisburgh, VT 05456
Please call 802.425.6070
Members holiday party guests Noelle and Ivory Butler painting miniature chairs
SPRING/SUMMER 2006 FOLK ART 85
MUSEUM
Untitled by Emanuel Hersch, one of several artists
NEWS
DARGER ON THE ROAD his February,the museum's Henry Darger exhibitions, "Darger:The Henry Darger Collection at the American Folk Art Museum" and "Studies and Sketches from the Henry Darger Collection," traveled to the Andy Warhol Museum (412/237-8300; vvww.warhol.org),Pittsburgh, for their Pennsylvania debut. For the opening of the exhibitions, museum guests reveled in all things Darger: Attendees could create their own Vivian girl outfits out ofpaper, add their own drawings to a wall-size Darger-inspired landscape, and indulge in bright purple Vivian girl cocktails.The American Folk Art Museum's Brooke Davis Anderson,who organized both exhibitions in 2001,was on hand to deliver a lecture about the material. The exhibitions remained at the Warhol through April; both shows are on their way to the Frye Art Museum (206/622-9250; www.fryeart.org), Seattle, where they will be on view from Aug.19 to Oct.29,2006.
T
A GALLERY WITH VISION
www.artisticspiritgallery.com info@artisticspiritgallery.com (317) 842-8502
INc2160 ATO
Brooke Davis Anderson with a
Vivian "girl"
EDUCATORS' OPEN HOUSE n September 2005,the museum hosted an Educators' Open House for teachers and administrators. Participants arrived to a wine-and-cheese reception and were then led on a tour that highlighted ways in which the museum's collection can support school curricula. Dorothy Callaci, a journalist for the United Federation ofTeachers (UFT)newsletter and website, interviewed several attendees about their experiences with the museum;their positive comments were posted on the
I
loSi;
11e1SCO B/Iige5 (Bit/Z/1)
Popular and Folk Art from Asia, Africa and the Americas Haitian Paintings • Metal Sculpture • Vodou Flags Cuban Art• West African Barber Shop Signs Latin American Folk Art & Paintings • Ethnographic Art 151 N. 3rd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106 215-922-4041 www.incligoarts.com
86 SPRING/SUMMER 2006
FOLK ART
Janet Lo (far right) leading educators on a tour of the collection
UFT website New York Teacher
in October.
Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art
lion by Edward Saidi Tingatinga - 24x24", acrylic on board
Contemporary Art from Africa & The African Diaspora Aixii IT - A-74114st 14,,ZOOI, 756 N. Milwaukee Ave Chicago, Illinois 60622 312 243-9088 www.a rt.o rg intuit@art.org
Hours. Tuesday-SaturdaN 11-5 Thursdays, 11-7:30 Bill Traylor, Promised Gift of Jan Petry and Angie Mills
Ridge Art 21 Harrison St., Oak Park, IL 60304 1.888.269.0693 or 708.848.4062 www.ridgeart.com In Association with Culture Crates, Ltd., exhibitors of indigenous and folk art from around the world.
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. A Ml F P CAN
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. 200123.5
0
SPRING/SUMMER 2006
FOLK ART
87
MUSEUM
Church Street Art Gallery
NEWS
Symposium panelists (from left): Ronald Bourgeault, Samuel Herrup, and trustee Joan M. Johnson
34 Church Street Lenox, MA 01240 â&#x20AC;˘ 413-637-9600
FURNITURE SYMPOSIUM n November 2005,the American Folk Art Museum and the American Folk Art Society cosponsored PaintDecorated Furniture: Collectors and Dealers Talk It Over,a fullday symposium on 19th-century paint-decorated furniture. Held in conjunction with the exhibition "Surface Attraction," this program featured accomplished dealers, collectors, and experts reflecting on issues ofthe genre: regional style, techniques, conservation and restoration, and collection building.The day began with a welcome by museum director
I
Maria Ann Conch,followed by presentations and panel discussions with participants Ronald Bourgeault,Peter Deen, Dean Van Dusen,Samuel Herrup, Stacy C. Hollander, Charles Hummel,Joan M.Johnson, JeffPressman,Sumpter Priddy, Cynthia Schaffner, Elliott Snyder,and Rubens Teles.This sold-out event finished with a late-afternoon wine-and-cheese reception in the museum's atrium. The event was chaired by collector Dave Krashes and coordinated by Folk Art Institute director Lee Kogan.
ARTISTS' TALK
g
)r oo
To
WINTER
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
88 SPRING/SUMMER 2006 FOLK ART
t a sold-out program at the museum on Nov.9,2005, three of the artists whose works were featured in "Obsessive Drawing" spoke about personal motivation in producing their artwork. Japanese artist Hiroyuki Doi and British artist Chris Hipkiss,who each flew in from overseas, and Charles Benefiel, who traveled from Pittsburgh, discussed the underlying meanings behind their conceptual and visionary drawings with exhibition curator Brooke Davis Anderson. The artists' talk was organized by Diana Schlesinger, the museum's director of education.
A
T
RECENT DONORS TO THE COLLECTION
he museum is grateful to the following friends who donated objects to the permanent collection: Charlotte Adelman & Bernard L. Schwartz; Eugene Andolsek; Aarne Anton/American Primitive Gallery, New York; Charles Benefiel; Bliss Camochan; Virginia Cave; Shari Cavin & Randall Morris/Cavin Morris Gallery, New York; Hiroyuki Doi; Dorothy Trapper Goldman; Chris Hipkiss; Sue Hirsch; Donna &Carroll Janis; Louise &George Kaminow;Phyllis Kind/Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York; Evelyn Meyer; Cyril I. Nelson; Margaret Z. Robson; Stuart Shepherd; Martin Thompson; Don Walters &Mary Benisek; and Thomas Whitehead.
Robert Cargo FOLK ART GALLERY Self-taught, visionary, and outsider artists of the South African-American quilts â&#x20AC;˘ Haitian spirit flags
Caroline Cargo 110 Darby Road Paoli, PA 19301 info@cargofolkart.com 610-240-9528
www.cargofolkart.com Main Line Philadelphia By Appointment Only
Raymond Coins, "Valley of Dry Bones" 22 x 18, ca. 1988, signed has relief carved stone
't.A
A
A
A
AAA
AA
AA
AA
A
A.A'
Folk art from a camera ... QUILT-IT KIT
NEW FROM DENYSE SCHMIDT Learn the secrets of Denyse Schmidt and create 15 colorful quilt and patchwork projects. This kit comes complete with a beautifully photographed how-to book, project patterns, fabric, needle, and thread. Get 25% off all Denyse Schmidt books, kits, and stationery at www.chroniclebooks.com/denyseschmidt Valid through July 31, 2006
SNAPSHOT CHRONICLES INVENTING THE AMERICAN PHOTO ALBUM BY BARBARA LEVINE
CHRONICLE
BOOKS
$40 // Hardcover // www.papress.com
SPRING/SUMMER 2006
FOLK ART
89
MUSEUM
NEWS
*FOLK* ART * FRAMES * MORE
/ Artist Alberto Velasco presenting his work to students from La Guardia High School of the Arts
DAY WITH(OUT) ART 2005
64 Biltmore Ave. Ashevffie, NC 28801
828.281.2134 www.amerifolk.com
Mary Michael Shelley 607-272-5700
ogether with the Visual AIDS organization, the museum hosted its annual Day With(out) Art program at the Eva and Morris Feld Gallery at Lincoln Square on Dec. 1,2005.The international Day With(out) Art is marked each year on this date to increase AIDS awareness in the visual arts. Artist Alberto Velasco presented his artwork to teacher Karyn Kay's creative writing students from La Guardia High School ofthe Arts,in Manhattan,and shared stories and thoughts about being an artist living with AIDS.The students responded to the experience through poetry, which was later compiled into a booklet to commemorate the event. The museum's participation in Day With(out) Art was organized by Diana Schlesinger, director ofeducation, and Janet Lo, manager of school and docent programs.
T
PATRON MEMBER RECEPTIONS he museum honored its patron members at two exclusive receptions last fall, each featuring an intimate curatorial tour of current museum exhibitions. Members from as far away as Florida gathered at the museum for a breakfast reception on Oct. 19 and for a festive cocktail reception on Oct.25. The museum wishes to extend special thanks to its vital patron members,who provide critical annual support for the museum's daily operations. For more information about the enhanced privileges of patron membership and recognition opportunities, please contact Christine Corcoran at 212/9777170,ext. 328,or Patron members Kim and Stephen Bepler (left), and ccorcoran@folkart Duncan and Christen Pollock museum.org.
T
Demonstration carving summer Saturdays at the Ithaca
Farmers' Market
90 SPRING/SUMMER 2006 FOLK ART
NEW ENGLAND'S PREMIERE SUMMER SHOW THURS. AUG. 10, 10AM - 7PM FRI. AUG. 11, 10AM - 7PM SAT. AUG. 12, 10AM - 4PM ADMISSION THURS.$10.00 FRI. & SAT. $8.00 INCLUDES RE-ENTRY
SHOW INFORMATION: 603-585-9199
FREE 2006 NHADA SHOW BROCHURE Includes Info, on area Hotels, Airport & Show Directions
Please call: 603-798-3116 Visit our website at : RADISSON THE CENTER OF NEW HAMPSHIRE, WWw.nhada.org Sponsored by The New Hampshire Antiques Dealers Association
AMERICA'S OLDEST MAKERS OF COLONIAL AND EARLY AMERICAN LIGHTING FIXTURES
700 ELM STREET, MANCHESTER, NH 603-625-1000 (Request NH Antiques Show Rates)
ANTIQUE TEXTILES VINTAGE FASHIONS SHOW & SALE
125 BOOTHS • FABRICS QUILTS TRIMMINGS BUTTONS LINENS r* OLD JEWELRY LACES A ANTIQUE CLOTHING 8z Pk ACCESSORIES '--
2006 MONDAYS MAY 6
JULY 10 SEPT.4 EARLY ADMISSION 9:30 AM $20 GENERAL ADMISSION 11:00 AM
AUTHENTIC DESIGNS West Rupert, Vermont 05776 (802) 394-7713 • 800-844-9416 www.authenticdesigns.com Catalogues $4.00 each
$5
GIED 'AV
„ HOST HOTEL -STURBRIDGE I0, Route 20, Sturbridge, MA USA (jct. Mass Pike & 1-84)
LINDA ZUKAS 207-439-2334
-
ONE DAY • INDOORS • BRIMFIELD WEEK vintagefashionandtextileshow.com
SPRING/SUMMER 2006
FOLK ART
91
OBITU
AR
IES
HAVE YOU
REMEMBERED
BY LEE KOGAN
THE AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM
IN YOUR WILL?
SYBIL KERN (1924-2005) ybil Blistein Kern, an art collector, researcher, author, and longtime contributor to this magazine, died of cancer at her home on Sept. 29,2005. Raised in Pawtucket, R.I., she attended Pembroke College on a Pratt-Whitney Engineering Fellowship and graduated with a B.A.in English. Following her marriage to Dr. Arthur Kern in 1945,she moved to New York City, where she worked as a file clerk in the local office of Colonial Williamsburg. In 1949, Kern returned to Pawtucket with her family, where she lived for the rest of her life. In the 1950s and 1960s, Kern actively participated in the League of Women Voters and was involved in local politics. She also served as president of the Pawtucket Arts Council, where she helped organize several exhibitions showcasing local artists. In the late 1960s, she became an interior designer. Kern and her husband were early members of the American Folk Art Society, a group of collectors with a significant educational mission. The Kerns meticulously researched little-known artists using primary sources. Sybil Kern initiated the couple's research interests with a project on J. Anthony Davis, and over the
S 7.1
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: I give dollars/ percentage or all of the residue of my estate to the American Folk Art Museum, 45 West 53rd Street, New York, NY 10019, for its general purposes. 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.
years they completed a formidable body of written work. Many of their research projectsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;on artists Jonathan Budington,J. Anthony Davis,J.H. Davis,William M.S. Doyle, Benjamin Greenleaf,
James Guild, William Murray, James Osborne,Joseph Partridge, Royal B. Smith, and Thomas Wareâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;were inspired by curiosity about artworks in their personal collection. The Kerns served as cocurators of the American Folk Art Museum exhibition "Painters of Record: William Murray and His School"(1990-1991), and they frequently lectured at the museum's Folk Art Institute. In addition to her husband, Kern is survived by a daughter, two sons, and seven grandchildren.
AMERICAN
BEN APFELBAUM (1941-2005)
_J 0 MUSEUM ELEPHANT WEATHERVANE (detail) / artist unidentified / probably Bridgeport, Connecticut / late nineteenth century! paint on pine with iron / 191/2 x 481/4 x 1" / American Folk Art Museum, promised gift of Ralph Esmerian, P1.2001.335
92 SPRING/SUMMER 2006
FOLK ART
en Apfelbaum, director of exhibitions at Spruill Gallery in Atlanta, died on Sept. 23,2005, ofcomplications following knee-replacement surgery. A New York City native, Apfelbaum earned a master's degree in American folk art studies from New York University, where
B
he studied with former American Folk Art Museum directors Robert Bishop and Gerard C. Werticin. Before moving to Atlanta in the early 1990s, he worked in New York as folk art buyer for the Polo-Ralph Lauren Corporation and as curator ofthe East River Gallery at the Manhattan
BARN STAR PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS
ANTIQUES in the VALLEY
TWO GREAT SHOWS,ONE CONVENIENT LOCATION ** UNDER NEW AIR-CONDITIONED TENT! **
MID* WEEK
Wednesday, August 9 MANCHESTER 9am - 7pm AND ANTIQUES SHOW Thursday, Featuring 110 outstanding dealers August 10, exhibiting 18", 19'and early 20th c. llam - 4pm authentic antiques in room settings. (reentry with •NI
June 16th ("17th, 2006 Friday. Ilam-7pm Saturday.10am-Ipm
Oley Valley High School Oley. Berks County, Pa. 19597 Located on Route #73in Southeastern Pa. 60 Outstanding Antique Dealers will be Showcasing their Finest 18th. 19th and early 20th Century Pieces Admission - $6.00 per person Portion ofProceeds benefit Student Scholarships at Oley Valley Information - 610-987-33126 610-779-0705
Purchase our 2-Show Ticket for $30 at Mid-Week and save $5 off Early-Buying at The Bedford Pickers Market on Friday!
• On-site shipper 0 Outdoor barbecue • Free Parking
LOCATED AT THE QUALITY INN & CONFERENCE CENTER 121 South River Road, Bedford, NH — Next to MACY'S (603) 622-3766
The 'Pedford'Pickers Market...
. .,•._ . ot...-1..,. ... strIlir0
jig Qui, ality,yIntiques Show Friday, August 11
OBITUARIES
Early Buying: 9am -1Iam, $25 0 General Admission: Ilam - 4pm, $8 Psychiatric Center,where he exhibited the work oftalented patients. In Georgia,Apfelbaum taught at the Atlanta College of Art and served as consulting curator for the Tubman Museum of African American Culture,in Macon. For the past five years, Apfelbaum had worked at the Spruill Gallery at the Spruill Center for the Arts, during which time he showed work by emerging artists. His tongue-in-cheek exhibition titles at Spruill included "Looks Good on Paper"(2001),"In-Flight Entertainment"(2003), and "Reading Between the Lanes"(2004). Apfelbaum organized two exhibitions for the American Folk Art Museum:"Beneath the Ice: The Art of the Spear Fishing Decoy"(1990) and "Tobacco Roads: The Popular Art of an American Pastime"(1987). Apfelbaum also donated a carved church interior and Jacob's Dream,a Malcah
Zeldis watercolor, to the museum's permanent collection. He is survived by two nieces.
111 FRESH dealers who have not exhibited anywhere during Antiques Week!
end your week with a Greauintique! Russell Carrell's Original
Antiques In A Cow Pasture Saturday, September 9 Early-buying, 9am - 11 am, $15 General admission, 11 am - 5pm, $7 Come rain or shine t over 65 dealers and relive a tradition started almost half a century ago by the highly respected Mr. Russell Carrell. Located at the original Carrell Homestead.92 Canaan Road (Rte 44) Salisbury, CT. This show benefits Salisbury Visiting Nurse
Show Details:(845)876-0616 wvvvv.barnstar.corn
SPRING/SUMMER 2006
FOLK ART
93
PUBLIC
PROGRAMS
nless 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.
U
HUBER ALEXANDRA new works on-line and at the gallery BEVERLY KAYE 15 LORRAINE DRIVE WOODBRIDGE, CT
203.387.5700
artbrut.com by appointment
GALLERY TALK
WALK-IN WEDNESDAY
Concrete Conservation: Caring for the Art ofNek Chand Speaker: Anton Rajer Tuesday, May 16 6 PM reception,6:30 PM talk $15; $10 members,seniors, students The museum recently acquired 29 works from a garden Nek Chand constructed in 1984 for the National Children's Museum, in Washington,D.C.(currently relocating). These sculptures, having been exposed to the elements for nearly 20 years, required some restoration. Rajer conducted part of the conservation at a workshop open to the public in the American Folk Art Museum's Eva and Morris Feld Gallery, in 2005. In this informal talk, he will explain the process and his techniques. Rajer will also talk about his recent trip to India, where he met with Nek Chand to discuss the restoration effort.
Enforced Isolation:A Woman's Art in India Speaker: Dr. Stephen P. Huyler Wednesday, May 24 1:30 PM $10; free to members,seniors, students As a young bride, Sonabai Rajwar was forced by her husband to live in total solitude for 15 years. Lonely and unable to view the outside world, Rajwar populated the interior mud walls of her home with basrelief sculptures created from her imagination. Upon the discovery of this remarkable woman's artwork, her artistic reputation spread, and her work has been awarded top honors in her country.
SLIDE TALK Eddie Arm:Ling...Lazy Slagle Bacon"
***4C44 Classic& Contemporary Folk Art
WWW.YARDDOG.COM li F
1 )7 4
0
YAP DO D
94 SPRING/SUMMER 2006
ta x
I
I 51
WARD DOG EOL,Ii ART 1510S.ccnvermss AVE. AUSTIN,TX 78704 512.912.1613
rommAirerosuraraux....iviair
U.
FOLK ART
Obsessive Drawing from the Living Museum Speaker: Dr.Janos Marton Tuesday,June 20 1:30 PM $3; free to members,seniors, students Dr.Janos Marton, director of the Living Museum,Creedmoor Psychiatric Center, Queens Village, N.Y., will discuss the center's artists whose artwork and process might be considered obsessive.
TAKE A BREAK FOR FOLK ART
Informal lunchtime talks with museum curators Tuesdays at noon Free with museum admission Exploring Nek Chand's Rock Garden May 16,June 13 Lee Kogan Considering"White on White" May 9,June 6 Stacy C. Hollander
THE GALLERY AT HAI VIEW OF THE PARK FOUNTAIN & CITY HALL N.Y./ Abigail Gardner (life dates unknown)/ possibly Rochester, New York / 1853/ black chalk over lampblack on marble-dust board / 17/ 1 2x 251/2"/ American Folk Art Museum, gift of Leighton G. Roberts, 1984.20.2
548 BROADWAY NEW YORK, NY 10012 presenting outsider artists of hai
Roy Hamilton. Watercolor and ink on paper, 12" x 9".
FAMILY ART WORKSHOPS Sundays,2-4 PM $10 per family $5 per member family Sandpaper Scenes Sunday, May 7 Look at the marble-dust drawings featured in "White on White" and make your own version using chalk on sandpaper. Start Stitching Sunday, May 21 Embroidery stitches ornament the bedcovers seen in "White on White." Learn the basic stitches and how to embroider your name or a simple design on cotton cloth. Embroidery hoops,floss, needles, and cloth will be provided. DROP-IN EXHIBITION TOURS Tuesdays—Fridays Noon and 2 PM Free with museum admission Guided tours of current exhibitions are offered to the visiting public.Tours are facilitated by fellows of the Folk Art Institute and docents. Please call the museum to check for available times or more information.
CAMP PROGRAMS Summer campers will explore the museum's exhibitions through hands-on projects with themes like Mosaic Wonderland, Animals are Everywhere, and Folk Art Revealed. Interactive tours and workshops for camp groups are offered in July and August and are appropriate for children ages 5 and up. Programs begin at 10:45 AM,Tuesday—Friday. For more details or to make a reservation, please call 212/2651040, ext. 381, or e-mail grouptours@folkartmuseum.org. Major supportfor education is provided by the William Randolph Hearst Foundations. Evening events at the museum are made possible through the generous support ofNancy and Dana Mead. Family art workshops are sponsored by D'Arcy and Dana G. MeadJr. and Susan and Mark C. Mead. Additionalfundingfor education is provided by Ray Simon in honor ofLinda Simon, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Consolidated Edison Company, the New York Times Company Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the New York City Department ofCulturalAffairs.
Monday - Saturday
Noon - 6PM
www.hospaud.org
212-575-7696
CONTEMPORARY OUTSIDER ART IN AMERICA:
SURVEY 2007
CALL FOR ENTRIES AVAILABLE JULY I, 2006
te, oriteit
'Wf-tatig,c‘
ZS-
Berenberg Gallery Clarendon Street Boston, MA 02116 t 617.536.0800
Cher Shaffer, ll'Itat Happens to Otto, Happens to
2005
www.berenberggallery.com
SPRING/SUMMER 2006 FOLK ART 95
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
Rex Clawson,"Daughters of Women's Lib"
•Justin McCarthy (oils and drawings)
•Mose Tolliver
•Victor Joseph Gatto (estate)
• Jesse Aaron
•Rex Clawson (representing)
• Max Romain
• S.L. Jones ('81-'83 drawings)
•Donovan Durham
• Old Ironsides Pry
• and many other folk/outsider artists
20.5 x 16.5", mixed media/cardboard, 1972
INDEX
TO
ADVERTISERS
ADA Dealers Allan Katz Americana American Folk Art and Framing The Ames Gallery American Primitive Anne Bourassa Artistic Spirit Authentic Designs Barn Star Productions Berenberg Gallery Beverly Kaye Chronicle Books Church Street Art Gallery Craig Farrow David Wheatcroft Antiques Epstein/Powell Fenimore Art Museum Fisher Heritage Fleisher Oilman Gallery Folk Fest The Gallery at HAI Giampietro Halliday House Antiques Indigo Arts Intuit:The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art Jackie Radwin Judith Racht Gallery
96 SPRING/SUMMER 2006
FOLK ART
75 11 90 19 13 69 86 91 93 95 94 89 88 85 3 96 25 31 14 71 95 8 17 86 87 Back Cover 68
Kentucky Folk Art Center
27
Kerr Gallery
25
Lindsay Gallery
21
Mary Michael Shelley
90
New Hampshire Antiques Dealers Association
91
Northeast Auctions Olde Hope Antiques,Inc. Oley Valley Antique Enterprises
7,Inside Back Cover
1 93
Outsider Folk Art Gallery
20
Paul and Alvina Haverkamp Princeton Architectural Press
29
Raccoon Creek Antiques,LLC Raw Vision Ricco/Maresca Gallery
89 5 70 Inside Front Cover
Ridge Art
87
Robert Cargo Folk Art Gallery
89
S. Scott Powers Antiques Sidney Gecker American Folk Art Stephen T Anderson Ltd. Susan Slyman Thurston Nichols American Antiques Trotta-Bono Vintage Fashion and Textile Show Yard Dog Folk Art
6 19 79 79 2 4 91 94
THE RAYMOND AND SUSAN EGAN AMERICAN FOLK ART COLLECTION
NORTHEAST AUCTIONS by RONALD BOURGEAULT. LLC 93 Pleasant Street Portsmouth, NH 03801 tel. (603)433-8400 www.northeastauctions.com NH license #2109. Buyei's Premium.
AUGUST 5TH, 2006
AMERICAN FURNITURE AND FOLK ART AUCTION AUGUST 4-6, 2006
U.
A JACKIE RADWIN
Whimsical and wonderful. Joyous presence. Silk and velvet. 561/2" x 74".
By appointment• San Antonio, Texas •(210) 824-7711 Visit us at our website www.jackieradwin.com