EDITOR'S
COLUMN
ROSEMARY GABRIEL
FOLK ART Rosemary Gabriel Editor and Publisher Jeffrey Kibler, The Magazine Group, Inc. Design Tanya Heinrich Production Editor Benjamin J. Boyington and Janice M.Scheindlin Copy Editors Marilyn Brechner Advertising Manager Craftsmen Litho Printers MUSEUM OF AMERICAN FOLK ART
n January 21, at the Museum's Eva and Morris Feld Gallery at Lincoln Square, a small but splendid group of Shaker drawings executed in the 1840s was exhibited to the general public for the very first time. Gerard C. Wertkin, the Museum's director, had suspected for more than twenty years that these drawings existed, although they apparently had not been available for viewing since 1917. In his essay "'Given by Inspiration': Shaker Drawings and Manuscripts in the American Society for Psychical Research," Wertkin recounts the steps that led to this important discovery and shares with us his research and special understanding of Shaker material. The exhibition of these manuscripts and drawings on paper will be on view through April 2. "Victorian Vernacular: The American Show Quilt," an exhibition of textiles often referred to as "crazy" quilts, will open at the Museum on April 8 and run through September 10. It is organized by guest curators Elizabeth V. Warren and Sharon Eisenstat. As a preamble to the exhibition, Elizabeth Warren has written "Show Quilts: The Collection of the Museum of American Folk Art" for this issue of Folk Art. In this essay, she uses five stunning examples of silk quilts from the Museum's collection to illustrate her thesis on the development of the Victorian show quilt style. Warren brings to light how this quilt form was influenced in part by Japanese motifs and popular ladies' periodicals of the day, such as Godey's Lady's Book and Frank Leslie's Magazine. Jack L. Lindsey, curator of American decorative art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, has written and lectured widely on folk art and southern material culture. His essay on William Edmondson, which first appeared this winter in the Detail: UNTITLED; unidentified Shaker scribe; probably New catalog for the exhibition "Miracles': Lebanon, New York; c. 1845; blue The Sculptures of William Edmondson," ink on paper; 7Yi. 91 / 4"; American Society for Psychical held at the Janet Fleisher Gallery in Philadelphia, has been edited for Folk Art Research and illustrated with six images not offered in the catalog. The essay "On Some Little-Known Miniature Portraits by Well-Known American Folk Painters," by Arthur and Sybil Kern,focuses on small(about two-inch-high) watercolor-on-ivory portraits painted between 1833 and 1840. The Kerns have identified the work of three major American folk painters usually known for their larger portraits: I. Bradley, Ruth W.Shute, and Henry Walton. The essay is illustrated with actual-size images. The two miniatures painted by I. Bradley are extraordinary: the first depicts the subject against a "parklike background," an unusual backdrop for this type of portrait, and the second—which is in the collection of the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center—is one of the most exquisite miniatures one could ever hope to see. On behalf of the membership department,I wish to welcome all of our new Museum members. We hope that you will enjoy reading this issue of Folk Art as much as we enjoyed putting it together.
4 SPRING 1995 FOLK ART
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