COMPLIMENTARY COPY
Published Weekly By Joel Sater Publications www.antiquesandauctionnews.net
VOL. 44, NO. 5 FRIDAY FEBRUARY 1, 2013
Extended Stay For Spectacular Folk Art Event In New York City he American Folk Art Museum’s popular exhibition “Compass: Folk Art in Four Directions” at the South Street Seaport Museum has been extended through March 31. The exhibition is mounted in collaboration with the Museum of the City of New York, which operates the South Street Seaport Museum, and spans four galleries and three centuries of art. The exhibit uses highlights from the American Folk Art Museum’s extensive collection to illuminate the story of the Seaport district during the height of its prominence as an international port in the early 1800s. “Compass” is presented in four sections that represent life at the Seaport in the early nineteenth century. Exploration presents works that convey the risks and rewards of seafaring expeditions in the early years of the Seaport. Social Networking focuses on the Seaport’s history as a center for commerce, trade and social interactions. Shopping highlights the area’s roots as a thriving commercial district. Wind, Water, & Weather illustrates the effects of the environment on harbor activities. Each section features artworks that embody the history of the Seaport as well as modern artworks that express the continuation of these themes and impulses in contemporary life. “In the early nineteenth century, the Seaport was a center of commerce and culture for New Yorkers and visitors from across the globe. For the exhibition, we have selected artworks that bring this rich history to life. I am thrilled that our exhibition can bring the S e a p o r t ’s vibrant past into its exciting present moment,” said Stacy C. H o l l a n d e r, the Museum’s s e n i o r curator. “ T h e American Folk Art Museum has begun a process of “reimagining, revitalizing, and reinventing” ourselves, and we have been looking for
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opportunities to promote our art via various forms of creative presentation and collaboration,” said Monty Blanchard, President of the Board of Trustees of the Folk Art Museum. “This exciting exhibition Columbia Weathervane, artist unidentified, possibly Cushing and White, possibly Waltham, Massachusetts, circa 1865-1875. Paint on copper and zinc, 183/4 by 15 by 2 inches. American Folk Art Museum, gift of Jerry and Susan Lauren. Photo by Gavin Ashworth.
contributes significantly to our mission of giving the public access to our outstanding collection.” “The history of the Seaport, stretching back to the early nineteenth century, resonates in so many ways with the history of folk art in America. The Compass exhibition creates a terrific opportunity for the public to understand both the city’s maritime past and folk art in a new light and to experience the Seaport’s vibrant history,” said Museum of the City of New York Ronay Menschel Director, Susan Henshaw Jones. “Compass” is presented in four sections that represent life at the Seaport in the early nineteenth c e n t u r y : Exploration, S o c i a l Networking, Shopping, and Wind, Water, & Weather. Each section features artworks that resonate with the history of the Seaport district during this time as well as modern artworks that express the continuation of these themes and impulses in contemporary life.
Figurehead Model, artist unidentified, probably New England, circa 1810. Wood with traces of paint, 18 by 5 3/4 by 6 inches. Collection American Folk Art Museum, New York. Gift of Ralph Esmerian. Photo © 2000 John Bigelow Taylor, New York.
• Exploration: In the early years of the Seaport, the world was still a vast enigma and tales of faroff places stirred the imagination. Commercial expeditions yielded exotic goods while ordinary seamen were granted opportunities to experience customs and landscapes very different from their own. This gallery focuses on works that suggest the perils and rewards of lengthy voyages, the urge to explore, and the yearning for loved ones left on shore. The gallery will open with the 1835 Map of the Animal Kingdom. Such maps as this, copied by an unidentified New England schoolgirl, repre- Schoolhouse Quilt Top, The Presbyterian Ladies of Oak Ridge, Missouri. sented an urge to under- Oak Ridge, Missouri, 1897-1898. Cotton with cotton embroidery, 74-1/2 by stand the world and 90-1/2 inches. Collection American Folk Art Museum, New York. Gift of Young America’s place in Beverly Walker Reitz in memory of Vest Walker. Photo by Matt it. Hoebermann, New York. • Social Networking opens with an 1832 nied by one of the six weather jour- ty, with objects dating from the Coffeehouse trade nals the artists maintained on a 18th century to the present. daily basis for ten Founded in 1923 as a private, sign that speaks to nonprofit corporation, the years. Schermerhorn Row’s hisMuseum of the City of New York The American tory as home to a cofFolk Art Museum celebrates and interprets the city, feehouse and hotel educating the public about its disfor travelers. tinctive character, especially its What we call heritage of diversity, opportuni“social networking” ty, and perpetual transformatoday was part of the tion. The Museum connects i s coffeehouse scene the past, present, and future of the prefrom its earliest days. New York City, and serves the mier instituCoffeehouses propeople of the city as well as tion devoted vided the nexus for visitors from around the world to the aesthetbusiness and social through exhibitions, school and ic appreciinteractions, as well public programs, publications, as solitary musings and collections. over a cup of coffee. Since 1967, the South Street This section Seaport Museum has presented includes gameboards, personal journals, ledger Sea Serpent Weathervane, artist exhibitions that tell the stories of books, and artworks that commu- unidentified, New England, circa the Seaport’s past, present, and nicate personal beliefs and ideas 1850. Paint on wood with iron, 16- future. Recently reopened under 1/4 by 23-1/4 by 1-inch. Collection the management of the Museum of the artists. American Folk Art Museum, New of the City of New York, the • Shopping: Throughout its York. Museum purchase. Photo by Museum is currently presenting a history, the Seaport has been a John Parnell, New York. lively interweaving of the thriving commercial district with city and the sea through shops, open markets, services, and photography, ation of traditional folk art and crediverse activities aimed at both video, histraveler and local. This gallery fea- ative expressions of contemporary toric artiself-taught artists tures a wealth of fancy wares facts, and including textiles, painted tinware, from the United contempoand furniture, and decorative arts, States rary abroad. The available to the growing consumer preclass, as well as representations of Museum the Americans who were buying serves, conthese goods for personal “Monkeys at a use. C a r d • Wind, Water, & Table,” design. Weather concludes the Elijah T h e Pierce exhibition with artworks Museum is that illustrate environmen- ( 1 8 9 2 4 ) , open Wednesday tal aspects of the seaport: 1C o9 l 8u m bus, through Sunday weathervanes that indicat- Ohio, circa 1938from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. ed wind direction, outdoor 1940. Paint on wood Admission is $10 and free trade carvings that show and cardboard, 6-1/2 for children under 9. the effects of weathering by 15 by 10 inches. For more information on the by the elements, images of Collection American Folk extended showing of “Compass: seagoing vessels and col- Art Museum, New York. Folk Art in Four Directions,” lateral harbor activities. Blanchard-Hill Collection, gift of contact the Museum of American Anne Hill and Edward V. This final section of the M. Blanchard Jr. Photo by Gavin Ashworth, New Folk Art at (212) 595-9533. exhibition also includes York. several works depicting (More Photos extreme weather by the Chicago artist Henry Darger and accompa- serves, and interprets a comprehenOn Page 2) sive collection of the highest quali-