Folk Art (Summer 1996)

RICCO/MARESCA

Fine art curating, design installation, conservation, and consulting.

152 WOOSTER STREET, NEW YORK, NY10012, 212.780.0071, (FAX)212.780.0076

e-mail: rmgal@aol.com

http:/artnetweb.com/artnetweb/gallery/galhome.html

STEVE HILLER • AMERICAN FOLK ART

A PENNSYLVANIA PEACOCK An exceptionally rare and fine "peacock" weathervane from Pennsylvania in its original condition.

Last quarter of the 19th century; iron, lead and copper construction; original polychrome decoration. 21" x 28."

17 East 96th Street, New York, New York 10128(212) 348-5219 Gallery hours are from 1:00 pm until 6:00 pm,Tuesday through Saturday.

Other hours are available by appointment.

Diamond in the Square, wool, c. 1925, Lancaster County, Pa., excellent condition

DAVID WHEATCROFT 220 East Main Street Westborough, Massachusetts 01581 508. 366. 1723

JOSEPH WHITING STOCK (1815-1855)

A Recently Discovered Masterwork Oil on canvas, 40 x 30 inches.

Please contact the gallery for more information regarding this or other fine American and European artworks, Old Master to Modern. Free color catalogues available upon request.

Buying, selling, appraising, and consulting since 1973.

We welcome your inquiry.

315-682-6551 (Phone) 315-682-4032 (Fax) 4574 Meadowridge Road, Manlius, NY 13104

•

The Caldwell Gallery

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FOLK ART VOLUME 21, NUMBER 2/ SUMMER 1996 (FORMERLY THE CLARION)

FEATURES

COVER: Detail of MRS.CLARKE, THE YORK MAGNET: Eunice Pinney, Connecticut, dated 1821, watercolor, ink, cutout engraved collage, and thread on wove paper, 9 N x9 ' 546". Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center, Williamsburg, Virginia. 58.300.8

Folk Art is published four times a year by the Museum of American Folk Art,61 West 62nd Street, NY,NY 10023, Tel. 212/977-7170, Fax 212/977-8134. Prior to Fall 1992, Volume 17, Number 3,Folk Art was published as The Clarion. Annual subscription rate for members is included in membership dues. Copies are mailed to all members. Single copy $6.00. Published and copyright 1996 by the Museum of American Folk Art,61 West 62nd Street, NY,NY 10023. The cover and contents of Folk Art are fully protected by copyright and may not be reproduced in any manner without written consent. Opinions expressed by contributors are not necessarily those of the Museum of American Folk Art. Unsolicited manuscripts or photographs should be accompanied by return postage. Folk Art assumes no responsibility for the loss or damage of such materials.

Change of address: Please send both old and new addresses 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 of objects or quality of services 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 of folk art and it is a violation of its principles to be involved in or to appear to be involved in the sale of works of art. For this reason, the Museum will not knowingly accept advertisements for Folk Art that illustrate or describe objects that have been exhibited at the Museum within one year of placing an advertisement.

COUPLE & CASUALTY:THE ART OF EUNICE PINNEY UNVEILED Susan Foster

30

SAM STEINBERG: A HOUSE OF CARDBOARD OR A MARBLE PALACE? Craig Bunch

38

QIAN ZHI: TREASURES FROM THE GOLDEN VENTURE Dale Gregory

46

THE ART OF THE CONTEMPORARY DOLL Wendy Lavitt and Klystyna Poray Goddu

53

AN AMERICAN TREASURY: QUILTS FROM THE MUSEUM OF AMERICAN FOLK ART Elizabeth V. Warren and Sharon L. Eisenstat

54

DEPARTMENTS

EDITOR'S COLUMN

6

DIRECTOR'S LETTER

13

MINIATURES

18

MUSEUM REPRODUCTIONS PROGRAM

57

MUSEUM NEWS

64

SUMMER PROGRAMS

72

TRAVELING EXHIBITIONS

73

TRUSTEES/DONORS

74

INDEX TO ADVERTISERS

80

SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART 5

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 Copy Consultant Marilyn Brechner Advertising Sales John Hood Advertising Sales Craftsmen Litho Printers MUSEUM OF AMERICAN FOLK ART

re the watercolor paintings of Eunice Pinney—such as Couple in a Landscape and The Courtship—simply lovely renderings of tranquil country scenes and young love, and charming examples of school girl art? Maybe not. In our lead story,"Couple & Casualty: The Art of Eunice Pinney Unveiled," starting on page 30, Susan Foster of the National Portrait Gallery invites us to take a closer look and see what she sees. Foster's is the first serious research on Eunice Pinney and her art since Jean Lipman's work in 1943, and it has produced a most provocative essay.

"Sam Steinberg: A House of Cardboard or a Marble Palace?" is not so much a case of hidden messages, but of a "hidden" artist. Craig Bunch has brought forward the work of Sam Steinberg, a virtually unknown painter who for many years was visible around the Columbia University area as a street vendor, selling candy bars and chewing gum. Sometimes tucked under his arm or propped up against a wall were his vibrantly colored, surreal little paintings. Steinberg, while chatting with his customer over the sale of a Hershey bar, also sold his art and took commissions for portraits—not portraits in the conventional sense, but Steinberg's vision of a person, which might easily include a lobster-claw hand or an extra face.

Steinberg's painting was appreciated by a select few, including Jean DuBuffet, who purchased a work that is now in the Collection de l'Art Brut in Switzerland. Bunch's story of this unassuming artist begins on page 38. COILINGWOOD, THE EVER TO BE LAMENTED LORD A little more than a year ago, Dale NELSON, Eunice Pinney, Connecticut, c. 1810, watercolor on paper, 12 14. Private collection, courtesy Gregory was shown an intricate and Sotheby's, New Uri( very beautiful paper sculpture of a pineapple. She was asked,"Isn't this wonderful?" Her answer was a resounding yes. When she found out that this delightful object was one of more than ten thousand unique paper sculptures created by Chinese refugees awaiting asylum decisions in the York County Jail in Pennsylvania, she decided to find out more."Qian Zhi: Treasures from the Golden Venture," beginning on page 46,is the story of these men and their art.

An exhibition of eighty of these paper sculptures, organized by the Museum of Chinese in the Americas in New York, is currently on view at the Samuel Fleisher Art Memorial in Philadelphia through July 26.

The current exhibitions at the Museum of American Folk Art— "An American Treasury: Quilts from the Museum of American Folk Art" and "The Art of the Contemporary Doll"—will be on view through September 8.

Elizabeth V. Warren and Sharon Eisenstat, guest curators for "An American Treasury" and Krystyna Poray Goddu and Wendy Lavitt, guest curators for "The Art of the Contemporary Doll," have outlined the exhibitions in this issue to give us a small taste (see pages 53-55). I urge you to come to the Museum this summer to see this truly delicious display of quilts and dolls—and definitely bring the children.

A

Administration Gerard C. Werticin Director Riccardo Salmona Deputy Director Joan M. Walsh Controller Mary Linda Zonana Director ofAdministration Helene J. Ashner Assistant to the Director Jeffrey Grand Senior Accountant Christopher Giuliano Accountant Charles L. Allen Mailroom Daniel Rodriguez Mailroom/Reception Collections & Exhibitions Stacy C. Hollander Curator Ann-Marie Reilly Registrar Judith Gluck Steinberg Assistant Registrar/ Coordinator, Traveling Exhibitions Pamela Brown Gallery Manager Blaire Dessent Weekend Gallery Manager Gina Bianco Consulting Conservator Elizabeth V. Warren Consulting Curator Howard Lanser Consulting Exhibition Designer Kenneth R. Bing Security Departments Beth Bergin Membership Director Marie S. DiManno Director ofMuseum Shops Susan Flamm Public Relations Director Alice J. Hoffman Director ofLicensing Valerie K. Longwood Director ofDevelopment Joan D. Sandler Director ofEducation and Collaborative Programs Janey Fire Photographic Services Chris Cappiello Membership Associate Maryann Warakomski Assistant Director ofLicensing Jennifer A. Waters Development Associate Claudia Andrade Manager ofInformation Systems, Retail Operations Catherine Barreto Membership Assistant Edith C. Wise Consulting Librarian Eugene P. Sheehy Volunteer Librarian Rita Keckeissen Volunteer Librarian Katya Ullmann Library Assistant Programs Lee Kogan Director, Folk Art Institute/Senior Research Fellow Madelaine Gill Administrative Assistant/Education Barbara W.Cate Educational Consultant Dr. Marilynn Karp Director, New York University Master's and Ph.D. Program in Folk Art Studies Dr. Judith Reiter Weissman Coordinator, New York University Program Arlene Hochman Volunteer Docent Coordinator Lynn Steuer Volunteer Outreach Coordinator Museum Shop Staff Managers: Dorothy Gargiulo, Caroline Hohenradi, Rita Pollitt, Brian Pozun; Mail Order: Beverly McCarthy; Security: Bienvenido Medina; Volunteers: Marie Anderson, Helen Barer, Olive Bates, Mary Campbell, Sally Frank, Jennifer Gerber, Millie Gladstone, Elli Gordon, Edith Gusoff, Ann Hannon, Bernice Hoffer, Elizabeth Howe,Joan Langston, Annette Levande, Arleen Luden, Katie McAuliffe, Nancy Mayer, Theresa Naglack, Pat Pancer, Marie Peluso, Judy Rich, Frances Rojack, Phyllis Selnick, Myra Shaskan, Lola Silvergleid, Maxine Spiegel, Mary Wamsley Museum of American Folk Art Book and Gift Shops 62 West 50th Street, New York, NY 10112-1507 212/247-5611 Two Lincoln Square(Columbus Avenue between 65th and 66th) New York, NY 10023-6214 212/496-2966

6 SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART

GERD LONY

THE

MODERN PRIMITIVE GALLERY

1402-4 NORTH HIGHLAND AVENUE ATLANTA, GEORGIA 30306 404.892.0556

Robert Cargo

FOLK ART GALLERY Contemporary Folk Art • Haitian Spirit Flags Southern, Folk, and African-American Quilts

Abstract African-American Quilt. Alabama. Ca. 1940. Cotton. Pieced. 71 x 80 inches (uneven).

Several museum-quality African-American quilts from the 1920-1975 period available.

Write or call for list.

2314 Sixth Street, Downtown, Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35401 • Home Phone 205-758-8884 Open weekends only and by appointment • Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday 2 to 5 p.m.

FOLK ART FOR ALL SEASONS AT SOTHEBY'S

To be offered on June 20, 1996: Antonio Nicol() G-asparo Jacobsen, The Schooner Grayling Leading a Race to the Buoy, signed and dated A. Jacobsen 1888, N.Y, oil on canvas, 23 / 1 1 by 42 in.(60.3 by 106.7 cm.) Auction estimate: $30,000-50,000

To be offered in October 1996: Charles Wysocki, Horse Farm, oil on canvas, 24 by 36 in.

(61 by 91.4 cm.) Auction estimate: $10,000-20,000

0

To be offered on June 20, 1996: Leslie J.(-Old Airplane-)Payne, Blue Fish, carved and painted wood and painted tin, 11 by 43 r4 by 4 in.(27.9 by 109.9 by 10.2 cm.) Auction estimate: $2,000-3,000

Auction in New York: Thursday,June 20, 1996 at 10:15 a.m. and 2 p.m. Exhibition opens Saturday, June 15, 1996. We are accepting consignments for our upcoming October Sale.

For more information, please call Nancy Druckman or Kara Short at (212)606-7225.

SOTHEBY'S To purchase an illustrated catalogue, please call (800) 444-3709; outside the continental U.S., call (203) 847-0465. Visit us on the World Wide Web at http://www.sothebys.com Sotheby's, 1334 York Avenue, New York, NY 10021

FARM FOLK Christie's is accepting consignments until August 1, 1996 for our October American Decorative Arts sale. For further information, please contact the American Folk Art Department,212 546 1181.

School of Pieter Vanderlyn, 1687-1778. Portrait of a Young Man, oil on panel,411/2 x 311/4 in.

Sold in the Important American Furniture, Silver, Prints, Folk Art and Decorative Arts sale on January 27, 1996 for $59,700.

CHRISTIE'S Christie's on-line: http://www.christies.cotn

Principal Auctioneer: Christopher Burge #761534

RUSS & KAREN GOLDBERGER Specializing in 18th & 19th century American Furniture and accessories in original paint

Helen Lay Strong Seneca Falls, New York (1915-1994) Carver of Extraordinary Miniature Birds Examples of Helen Lay Strong's work are included in the permanent collection of the Ward Museum of Waterfowl Art in Salisbury. Maryland. Her carvings were offered through Abercrombie and Fitch in New York from 1945 until 1960.

Nashville Warbler Pair

We have acquired the entire Strong estate of 65 miniature carvings from her family. All are in exceptional original condition.

A list ofofferings is available.

Hooded Merganser Pair

Horned Lark Lark Sparrow Pair

RtliG ANTIQUES P.O. Box 2033, Hampton, New Hampshire 03843 (603)926-1770•fax:(603)929-4267

BY APPOINTMENT,PLEASE

•

•

AN ESSENTIAL COMPANION TO THE SUMMER'S DAZZLING EXHIBIT

GLORIOUS Am E RICAN QV, LTS The Quilt Collection of The Museum of American Folk Art

One of the world's best collections ofAmerican quilts is immortalized in word and image.

With more than 150 color photographs,this book splendidly displays and explains the collection of almost 400 quilts of the Museum ofAmerican Folk Art,including every important type of American quilt,from Log Cabin to Amish,and Whole Cloth to African-American.

•

IN BOOKSTORES NOW

PENGUIN STUDIO

$34.95

•

DIRECTOR'S

LETTER

GERARD C. WERTKIN

hile it is difficult to imagine the field of American folk art without quilts, this was not always so. In an essay published in The American Mercury in 1931, Holger Cahill, America's pioneering folk art curator, flatly denied that the field included textiles or for that matter other "craft-based"forms like furniture or pottery. Indeed, he asserted that only painting and sculpture belonged in the canon. Fortunately, the art world eventually awakened to the importance of quilts, in no small part because of the efforts of the Museum of American Folk Art. "An American Treasury: Quilts from the Museum of American Folk Art," an exhibition featuring many of the finest quilts in our collection, will be on view at the Museum through September 8, 1996. The exhibition is organized by Elizabeth V. Warren, the Museum's consulting curator, and Sharon L. Eisenstat, and is based on their painstaking research on the quilt collection over a period of five years. Whenever quilts are on display at the Museum, it is a time for celebration as the creative gifts and technical virtuosity of quiltmakers are recognized.

Please give yourself a treat. Come to the Museum and see these wonderful textiles. You will not be disappointed, I promise.

"An American Treasury: Quilts from the Museum of American Folk Art" is generously supported by a grant from Time Warner. As with

VII

SARAH ANN GARGES APPLIQUE QUILT Sarah Ann Garges Doylestown, Pennsylvania Dated 1853 Cotton, silk, and wool with wool embroidery 96 98" Gift of Time Warner 1988.21.1

many of the Museum's corporate sponsors, Time Warner has been associated with the institution for many years. In fact, the Museum's very first exhibition was held in October窶年ovember 1962 at the Time & Life Exhibition Center here in New York. One of the quilts in the current show,a pieced and appliquﾃｩd summer spread (1853)from Pennsylvania, was a gift to the Museum from Warner Communications in 1988. In the same year, Warner Communications also presented to the Museum in honor of Ralph Lauren an exceptionally fine Navajo child's blanket(c. 1855)from New Mexico. It is therefore a special privilege for me to acknowledge with warm gratitude Time Warner's sponsorship of"An American Treasury." In particular, I should like to thank Gerald M.Levin, Richard D.Parsons, Emelda M. Cathcart, and Kay M. Nishiyama for their commitment to the Museum and its collec-

Richard and Laura Parsons 'left] with Anne and Monty Blanchard at the Museum's Outsider Art Fair Preview Dinner, January 1996

tion. I also wish to express my sincere appreciation to The American Folk Art Society and to Fairfield Processing Corporation for providing additional support.

In connection with this splendid exhibition, Penguin Studio Books and the Museum have published Glorious American Quilts: The Quilt Collection ofthe Museum ofAmerican Folk Art, by Elizabeth V. Warren and Sharon L. Eisenstat. Not only is this book a wonderful compendium of the truly remarkable quilts at the Museum, but it also provides an insightful and well-researched commentary on virtually every aspect of the history of quilts in America. I urge you to purchase a copy for your own library and to consider it for gift-giving as well.

The hardcover book may be purchased through the Museum Book Shop for $34.95(members $31.45), with a charge of $5.00 for postage and handling.(Add $1.50 for each additional copy.)To order, please write to the Museum of American Folk Art,61 West 62nd Street, New York, NY 10023, or call Beverly McCarthy at 212/977-7170.

In addition to quilts from the collection, the Museum is currently presenting "The Art of the Contemporary Doll," an exhibition that reveals the often surprising and always inventive ways in which objects with roots deep in folk traditions are now being interpreted in the hands of contemporary artists. This colorful and varied presentation is organized by guest curators Wendy Lavitt and Krystyna Poray Goddu.

Members and friends will remember that Wendy Lavin organized the very popular "Children's Children: American Folk Dolls" at the Museum in 1983-1984. She is well known as an author in the field of American folk art. Krystyna Goddu is special projects editor at Dolls magazine. The curators have written a fine book in which many of the dolls included in this exhibition are illustrated. The Doll by Contemporary Artists, a hardcover book, may be purchased from the Museum Shop for $45.00(members $40.50), with an additional charge of $5.00 for postage and handling. To order, please write to the Museum or telephone Beverly McCarthy at the Museum offices.

These remarks come to you just prior to the new season. All of us here hope that your summer holidays will be wonderful, and we look forward to seeing you at the Museum sometime soon. A warm welcome awaits you.*

SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART 13

EPSTEIN/POWELL 22 Wooster St., New York, N.Y. 10013

By Appointment(212)226-7316 Jesse Aaron Rex Clawson Sharen Dykeman Antonio Esteves Roy Ferdinand Victor Joseph Gatto(Estate) S.L. Jones Lawrence Lebduska Justin McCarthy Inez Nathaniel Old Ironsides Pry Popeye Reed Max Romain Bill Roseman(Estate) Jack Savitsky Clarence Stringfield Mose Tolliver Chief Willey George Williams Luster Willis and other classic American outsiders

Justin McCarthy

China Sea, Sunset

13"x18", o/b, 1949

THE

AMES GALLERY

2661 Cedar Street Berkeley. California 94708 Tel: 510/845-4949 Fax: 510/845-6219 • Bonnie Grossman, Director • We specialize in the works of contemporary naive, visionary, and outsider artists, and offer exceptional 19th & early 20th C. handmade objects, including carved canes, tramp art, quilts, and whimseys.

14 SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART

Unusual examplesfrom our assortment of whimsies

-SPLENDID PEASANTE

American Folk Art and 18th and 19th C. Original Paint Country Furniture

; M

1

Martin and Kitty Jacobs Route 23 So. Egremont, MA 01258 (413) 528-5755

e mail: peasant(t, bcn.net

AMERICAN PRIMITIVE GALLERY 596 Broadway #205 New York, NY 10012 212-966-1530

Mon—Sat 11am - 6om

ATTILIO PETRILLO 1897-1994 The old trees of a Brooklyn neighborhood became the material of Attilio Petrillo's art.

Shortly after retiring from his dressmaking business at age 76 he began to carve. Attilio's experience with dressmaking contributed to his ability to bring out of the wood flowing lines and draped figures. Some of his art can be seen at the Gallery, at a show in Brooklyn College, and at the American Visionary Art Museum's Tree of Life exhibition.

The Vase,- 18" h.

Closed Sat. July and August

SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART 15

25 YEARS OF COLLECTING MOSE TOLLIVER ANTON HAARDT GALLERY MONTGOMERY,ALABAMA (334)263-5494 • NEW ORLEANS ANNEX (504)897-1172 MOSE TOLLIVER BY HENRY CADENHEAD

MATT LAMB FASSBENDER GALLERY

April 26 - May 31 1996 Chicago, IL Exhibition catalogue Madness and Matt Lamb available, with essay by Donald Kuspit and 18 color reproductions

ILLINOIS STATE MUSEUM LOCKPORT GALLERY .0

•Cr.

June - July 1996 A traveling exhibition accompanied by a 40 page catalogue with 18 color reproductions For further information, please contact the gallery.

FASSBENDER GALLERY 4

16 SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART

309 W. Superior Street, Chicago, IL 60610

tel 312-951-5979 fax 312-951-6768

VVVVVVVVY

pig ldentiiy M and Sculpture Jerry Coker's tin masks and figures will be featured at Leslie Neumann's booth at

Folk Fest'96 August16,17,18 North Atlanta Trade Center

Leslie Neumann Fine Art P.O. Box 61 V Aripeka, Florida 34679 V (352) 686-2422

MINIATURES

ANTELOPES, BOBCATS,COUGARS ...YAKS & ZEBRAS ANIMAL IMAGERY FROM A-Z

COMPILED BY TANYA

HEINRICH

Handmade Musical Instruments Locally made instruments reflect- instruments, and even pipe ing the importance of New York's organs—representing the city's rich ethnic mix. For more informusical life can be seen in the mation, please call 212/879-5500. exhibition "Making Music: Two Centuries of Musical Instrument Making in New York," on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan through July 28.

Instruments in the exhibition range from an elegantly manufactured Steinway & Sons concert grand piano to homemade folk instruments crafted by early immigrants from materials at hand—such as clarinets, recorders, mandolins,fiddles, harps, guitars, drums, band FOLK FIDDLE Unsigned Found near New Lebanon, New York 19th century Dark-varnished hemlock and maple 24 Vs 8" Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1979.21

Richard Olson, Zebras,from a serices of 26 drawings depicting the alphabet, oil pastel, 8.5" x7.25" Ivy INNot

David Gaino

Tom Jordan

Jimmy Lee Sudduth

Patrick Cardiff

Rev. Russell Gillespie

True Kelly

Mose Tolliver

Jill Games

Bessie Harvey

Crystal King

Parks Townsend

Judith Cheney

Jim Hamer

Lucien Koonce

David Vance

Albed Hodge

Richard Olson

and others.

Ion Ellington

A zoo-full of whimsy and fun! Blue Spiral l's first exhibition to explore the animal kingdom...folk pottery wood carving, circus & ark imagery boomerangs, paintings and sculpture.

JUNE 14 - JULY 28,1996

BLUE SP I•R A 1 HOURS: MON-SAT, 10AM-5PM; SUN, 12-5PM 38 BILTMORE AVENUE, ASHEVILLE, NC 28801 • 704/251-0202

28 SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART

Fifteen Years of Folk Art Studies at NYU New York University, in collaboration with the Museum of American Folk Art's Folk Art Institute, will celebrate its fifteenth year of the Master's Degree Program in Folk Art Studies this fall—the first and still the only program of its kind. In 1981 the Museum's late director, Dr. Robert Bishop, and Professor Marilyn Karp of the NYU Art Department recognized the need for increased scholarship in the field of American folk art and established an extensive curriculum that included courses on painting, sculpture, pottery, textiles, and quilts, as well as international folk art, religion in folk art, 20th-century folk

art, appraisal, conservation, and the current state of the market.

Courses are taught by leading authorities in the field, and internship requirements enable students to work with museums, galleries, dealers, and auction houses. The program's nearly 75 graduates have gone on to become leading curators, authors, and scholars in the field. For more information and a copy of the current curriculum, please contact Professor Judith Weissman, NYU Folk Art Studies Program, Department of Art & Art Professions, 34 Stuyvesant St./ Barney Building, New York, NY 10003 or call 212/998-5721.

UNTITLED C.T. McClusky Probably Oakland, California Date unknown Paper, crayon, and foil on cardboard 13 '/4 15/ 3 4" Private collection

MANHATTAN ART & ANTIQUES CENTER The Nation's Largest and Finest Antiques Center.

Over 100 galleries offering Period Furniture, Jewelry, Silver, Americana, Orientalia, Africana and other Objets d'Art. 1050 SECOND AVENUE(AT 56TH ST.) NEW YORK, N.Y. 10022 PRESENTS

A Circus Life The rootlessness and isolation of circus life is uniquely depicted in the narrative collages of C.T. McClusky, who worked as a circus clown and resided in Oakland, Calif., during the winter months. Twelve of 53 known works, most likely dating from the late 1940s to the early 1950s, are included in the exhibition "The Circus Collages of C.T. McClusky," organized by cura-

tor John Turner and on view at the San Francisco Craft and Folk Art Museum through August 11.

Constructed with crayon, ballpoint pen, magazine cutouts, candy wrappers, and animal cracker boxes, the collages are rich in color and precise in detail, providing a psychological portrait of life under the big top.

For more information, please call 415/775-0990.

African American Vernacular Art and Thornton Dial in Atlanta Two exhibitions examining the works of African American selftaught artists working in the wake of the civil rights movement will be on view in Atlanta to coincide with the 1996 Olympic Games."Souls Grown Deep: African-American Vernacular Art of the South," a monumental exhibition of more than 450 works by 30 contemporary African American artists from the Southeast, will be at the Michael C. Carlos Museum's satellite space at City Hall East from June 29 to November 3.

Organized by curator Robert Hobbs,the exhibition will include paintings and sculptures—many displaying both a postmodern awareness and deeply rooted traditions and beliefs—by Thornton Dial, Bessie Harvey, Lonnie Holley,

Ronald Lockett, Charlie Lucas, Mary T. Smith, and Mose Tolliver, among others. An illustrated catalog with essays by recognized specialists in the field will accompany the exhibition.

"Thornton Dial: Remembering the Road," an exhibition of more than 75 relief paintings, works on paper, and dynamic assemblages created by the artist over the past decade, will be on view at the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University from June 29 to October 15.

The exhibition, also organized by curator Robert Hobbs and accompanied by a catalog, will focus on Dial's interpretation of paths undertaken by African Americans in the 20th century. For more information on either exhibition, please call 404/727-4282.

Truly blazing pieced star in a field of smaller stars.

Circa 1875. Cotton.

LAURA FISHER Gallery #84 New York City's largest, most exciting selection of Antique Quilts, Hooked Rugs, Coverlets, Paisley Shawls, Beacon Blankets, Vintage Accessories and American Folk Art. Laura Fisher: Tel: 212-838-2596 The Manhattan Art & Antiques Center: Tel: 212-355-4400 • Fax: 212-355-4403 Open Daily 10:30-6, Sun. 12-6 Convenient Parking • Open to the Public

SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART 19

MINIATURES

SOUTHERN FOLK POTTERY COLLECTORS SOCIETY The Living Advancement from Traditional Southern Folk Potters of Yesteryear and Today.

Membership Available

Memory Jugs "Forget-Me-Not: The Art and Mystery of Memory Jugs," an exhibition exploring the nature of embellished jugs as both an African American funerary art tradition and a hobby craft popular at the turn of century, is on view at the Diggs Gallery at Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina through August 31. Memory jugs, also called spirit jars, are usually ceramic or glass objects decorated with pottery shards, seashells, pebbles,jewelry, bric-a-brac, mirrors, watches, toys, and other miscellany and memorabilia embedded in a putty or plaster base. This exhibition of more than 40jugs, historical material,

and photographs is organized by curator and director Brooke Anderson Linga and is accompanied by a catalog.

For more information, please call 910/750-2458.

SPIRIT JUG Artist unknown Mixed media 13/ 1 2 5" Collection of The Ames Gallery, Berkeley, California Courtesy Diggs Gallery

Quilt and Textiles Exhibitions Roundup

"Harmonica Player"Š by Billy Ray Hussey

Southern Folk Pottery Collectors Society Shop/Museum Wednesday through Saturday 10:00-5:00 or by appointment 1828 N. Howard Mill Road Robbins, NC 27325 Phone:(910) 464-3961 Fax:(910) 464-2530

20 SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART

Eight exhibitions showcasing quilts and textiles will be on view this summer at the following venues: "Art Under Foot: American Hooked Rugs" will be at The Noyes Museum in Oceanville, N.J., through June 23. For more information, call 609/652-8848.

The Quilters Hall of Fame will have its "Celebration 96," featuring an exhibition of early 20th-century quilts from the collection of Joyce Gross, at the Marie Webster House in Marion, Ind., on July 18-21. For more information, call 317/664-9333.

"Spirit of the Cloth: AfricanAmerican Story Quilts" will be at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford through August 4. For more information, call 860/278-2670.

"An Eye for Beauty: Collector's Quilts" will be at the Chattanooga Regional History Museum in Chattanooga through August 4. For more information, call 615/265-3247.

"Stitch by Stitch: A Quilt Potpourri" will be at the Indianapolis Museum of Art in Indianapolis,Ind., through August 4. For more information, call 317/923-1331.

"Virginia Quilts of the Nineties: 1790s, 1890s, 1990s" will be at The Valentine Museum in Richmond, Va.,through September 2. For more information, call 804/649-0711.

"Innovative Traditions 1996: New Expressions in Contemporary Quiltmaking" will be at The Museums at Stony Brook in Stony Brook, N.Y., through September 15. For more information, call 516/751-0066.

"Uncommon Quilts: Treasures of the New York State Historical Association" will be at the New York Historical Association in Cooperstown through the end of the year. For more information, call 607/547-1400.

CELEBRATION Eddie Arning Austin, Texas 1965 Oil pastel on laid paper 21 7/a x 31 ¼" Museum of American Folk Art, New York Gift of Timothy and Pamela Hill 1981.20.1

Liberty and Patriotism The Mingei International Museum of Folk Art in San Diego, Calif., will inaugurate its new facility with the exhibition "American Expressions of Liberty: Art of the People, by the People, for the People," on view from July 4 through December 31. The Museum of American Folk Art is a major lender to this show.Included will be early and contemporary American folk art

and crafts—weathervanes, quilts, coverlets, paintings, drawings, ship figureheads, trade figures, and furniture—all expressing patriotic themes and symbols of liberty and independence, such as the flag, the eagle, the Statue of Liberty, and Uncle Sam. The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated book. For more information, please call 619/453-5300.

Artifact & Belief "Artifact & Belief," an exhibition highlighting materials illustrating religious culture, is at the Winterthur Library in Winterthur, Del., through July 22. On view are trade catalogs, architec-

tural drawings, holiday cards, and devotional literature.

For more information, call 302/888-4600.

EAGLE Wilhelm Schimmel Pennsylvania 1860-1890 Carved and painted pine 11 / 1 2" high Collection of Washington County Museum of Fine Arts Hagerstown, Maryland Gift of Mr. Frank Mish

Homer Green

40) -r(4' 11 Schimmel Carvings and American Folk Art in Maryland ure, in exchange for food,lodgEagles carved by 19th-century Pennsylvania artist Wilhelm ing, and drink in the Cumberland Valley region. Hooked rugs, Schimmel highlight the exhibition "American Folk Art," on carvings, regional pottery, weathervanes, canes, and tramp art, as view at the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts in Hagerwell as walnut sconces, spoons, stown, Md.,through December 8. candleholders, and a book, Schimmel, a German immigrant, carved by itinerant artist Frank Feather, round out the exhibition. distinctively carved and painted in pine a menagerie of animals as For more information, please call well as the occasional human fig- 301/739-5727.

Rosehips Gallery • Barbara Brogdon 1611 Hwy. 129 S. Cleveland, Ga. 30528 706-865-6345 Free Newsletter • Photos Available

SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART 21

MINIATUR ES

Jimmie Lee Sudduth Tinware in Pennsylvania Relics of the popular 19thcentury custom of giving fanciful gifts of tin in celebration of a tenth wedding anniversary can be seen in "Treasures of Tin: Tenth Wedding Anniversary Celebrations," on view at the Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford, Pa., through August 11. Some gifts were utilitarian in nature, but the majority were novelties meant for amusement, such as oversized shoes, aprons, hats, spectacles, and pocket watches.

Many of the items in the exhibition are on loan from the Museum of American Folk Art. For more information, please call 610/388-2700.

MAN'S TOP HAT AND EYEGLASSES Artist unknown Gobles, Michigan 1880-1900 Tin 9Y2x11/ 1 2x51/2"and 51 / 2x 5',f3 x 1143" Museum of American Folk Art, New York Gift of Martin and Enid Packard 1988.25.2 and 1988.25.6

The Banjo Man,2' x 4'

American Pie Contemporary Folk Artfrom the Southeast Elaine Johansen 113 Dock Street Wilmington, North Carolina 28401 (910) 251-2131 Minnie Adkins James Harold Jennings Tubby Brown Anderson Johnson Richard Burnside Jim Lewis Chris Clark Chris Lewallen Calvin Cooper Woodie Long Ronald & Jessie Cooper R.A. Miller Patrick Davis Vollis Simpson Minnie Evans Jimmie Lee Sudduth Howard Finster

22 SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART

Mose Tolliver

Fred Smith Day in Wisconsin The tenth annual Concrete Park Celebration will be held at Fred Smith's Wisconsin Concrete Park in Phillips, Wis., on Saturday, August 11,from 1:00 to 5:00 P.M. Hosted by Friends of Fred Smith,Inc., a non-profit organization devoted to the maintenance and preservation of the sculptural environment, the day will be celebrated with music, theater, tours, and food.

The event is free and open to the public.

Smith began to animate the landscape with oversized concrete figures of animals and people in 1950, when he was 65

years old. Finally numbering more than 200 sculptures, the figures are embellished with shiny materials such as glass, mirrors, and metal, and the resulting parklike atmosphere has become a popular roadside attraction. For more information, please call 800/269-4505.

Major Paintings and Sculpture by

BESSIE HARVEY Hugo Sperger 1922-1996 Hugo Sperger, of Salyersville, Ky., known for his religious paintings and carved toys, died of cancer on January 26, 1996, after a long illness. Sperger was born in Merano,Italy, and emigrated to America in 1929, when he was seven years old. Many of Sperger's narrative paintings— first his watercolors and then his acrylic paintings on Masonite— are concerned with death and salvation. His artworks often teem with people, animals, angels, and devils. Text,fre-

quently ballooned, further amplifies messages related to good, evil, salvation, redemption, and damnation. His messages vary in tone from optimistic to pessimistic.

Sperger's work is represented in the Kentucky Folk Art Center in Morehead, where it was first exhibited in 1986. Sperger is survived by his wife, Faye; two sons, Michael Eric and Gary Lee; and four grandsons.

—Lee Kogan

Charles Shannon 1914-1996 Charles Shannon, an artist from Montgomery, Ala., who was best known for his paintings and drawings of southern life during the Depression years and the New Deal era, died on April 6 of cancer.

Shannon studied art at the Cleveland School of Art on scholarship. After graduating in 1936, he returned to Alabama to build a log cabin on property his uncle owned in Butler County.

During World War II, he served as an artist-correspondent in the Pacific, one of the first to act in that capacity. Following the war, he once again returned to Montgomery, where he taught at the Auburn University art department until his retirement in 1973. Four of Shannon's paintings are in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. In 1939 Shannon and a group of friends formed the New South School and Gallery to promote the arts by gathering artists and artisans to organize exhibitions

and to teach classes and workshops in art, music, and literature. Significantly, in February 1940 the New South presented a one-person exhibition of lively drawings of animals and people

by Bill Traylor, an African American artist living in Montgomery. Shannon, a friend and mentor of the 85-year-old former slave, encouraged Traylor and supplied him with art materials. During his lifetime, Shannon donated important Traylor drawings to several museums, including the Museum of American Folk Art, New York; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Alabama; and The High Museum of Art, Atlanta. Recent litigation against Shannon brought by descendants of Bill Traylor was settled amicably. Shannon is survived by his wife, Eugenia, and two daughters.

—Lee Kogan

"All the Eyes in the World",48" x 48" and "New Shoes for Christmas"

Also featuring select works by: GEORGIA BLIZZARD,DAVID BUTLER, THORNTON DIAL,MINNIE EVANS, HOWARD FOISTER:#386,#1106 and others, JAMES HAROLD JENNINGS,WOODIE LONG, MARK CASEY MILESTONE,SARAH RAKES, Q.J. STEPHENSON,JIM SUDDUTH, GEORGE WILLIAMS,& MALCAH ZELDIS

CKEATIVE HEAT GALLEKY 207 West Sixth Street Winston-Salem, NC 27101 910-722-2345 Tues-Sat 11-5:30

SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART 23

MINIATURES

Minnie Black 1899-1996 Minnie Black, who was well known for her figural gourd sculptures of people, animals, and musical instruments, died on April 12 following a stroke she suffered in December 1995. Prior to this last illness, Black was known to be remarkably energetic and possessed with a keen sense of humor.

Born Minnie Lincks on February 18, 1899, near London, Ky., she grew up on a farm and at age 19 married William Black, a railway agent and later a grocery store and gas station owner.

Since the early 1940s, Black had cultivated many varieties of gourds in her garden. In the 1960s, she began to perceive sculptural figures emerging from the natural forms. She often used a knife, fine nails, and Sculptamold to smooth the joints and to add features. Paint, shellac, plastic eyes,false eyelashes, and wig

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24 SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART

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Ray Hamilton 1919-1996 Ray Hamilton was born in South Carolina on April 20, 1919,into a family that included six brothers and six sisters. He died on January 7, 1996,in a nursing home after a period of deteriorating health. He was interested in drawing as a child, but did not begin to draw consistently until around 1985, after he was admitted to a state-run adult home in Brooklyn, N.Y. Hamilton was discovered and encouraged by artist Mark Davis.

Best known for red, green, and blue ballpoint-pen drawings of animals, fruit, and other images on paper, he also used watercolors and sometimes worked with crayons. He drew his shapes freehand, but also enjoyed tracing forms and arranging and repeating them forcefully in his drawings. Columns of

hair frequently embellished the approximately 500 works she created. After her husband retired in the late 1960s,she transformed the store that adjoined the front yard into Minnie Black's Gourd Craft Museum.

This museum, which featured many of her unique works, became a local attraction.

In addition to having her works on view in several museum exhibitions, Black is included in the Museum ofAmerican Folk Art Encyclopedia ofAmerican Folk Art and Artists, by Chuck and Jan Rosenak(New York: Abbeville Press, 1990).

The artist's television appearances on the Tonight Show with Johnnie Carson and Late Night with David Letterman have given her national media attention.

Black is survived by three sons and a daughter.

—Lee Kogan

numbers and words were frequently interspersed with the visual images. After a stroke in 1989, Hamilton, showing great resolve, continued to draw, using his left hand.

Hamilton's work was presented in the exhibitions "Art's Mouth," Artist's Space, New York(1991)and "Drawing Outside the Lines: Works on Paper

by Outsider Artists," The Noyes Museum,Oceanville, N.J.(1995).

He is included in American SelfTaught: Paintings and Drawings

by Outsider Artists, by Frank Maresca and Roger Ricco(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993), and Contemporary American Folk Art: A Collector's Guide, by Chuck and Jan Rosenak(New York: Abbeville Press, 1996).

—Lee Kogan

Ginger Young Gallery Southern Self-Taught Art By appointment 919.932.6003 Works by more than four dozen artists, including Georgia Blizzard Rudolph Valentino Bostic • Richard Burnside • Henry Ray Clark Raymond Coins • Yahrah Dahvah • Patrick Davis • Brian Dowdall Jon Eiseman • Howard Finster Sybil Gibson • Lonnie Holley Anderson Johnson • MC Sc Jones • Calvin Livingston • Woodie Long Jake McCord • R.A. Miller • Roy Minshew • Sarah Rakes Royal Robertson • Sultan Rogers • Lorenzo Scott • Earl Simmons Hugo Sperger Jewell Starday • Jimmie Lee Sudduth • Mose Tolliver Daniel Troppy • Fred Webster • Myrtice West • Patrick Williams

For a free video catalogue or a price list please call or write: Ginger Young Gallery • 5802 Brisbane Drive, Chapel Hill, NC 27514 Phone/Fax 919.932.6003 • E-mail: gingerart@aol.com

Right. Like My Father Before Me by Lonnie Holley carved sandstone, 18" x 15" x 10, 1984

SAM DOYLE King Kong House Paint on Canvas 19.5" x 16"

TIM I Artneum eel, I re.TICIN

(Louanne LaRoche, Former Owner of The Red Piano Art Galleries)

51 Pineview Road May River Plantation Bluffton, South Carolina 29910 (803) 757-5826 phone/fax

SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART

25

Weathervane Folk Art Gallery See our booth at Folk Fest 96

Z.B. Armstrong Ralph Griffin S.C. Hudson Earnest Lee Jake McCord Donna Wilson & others

Introducing Leonard Jones Georgia Artist.

Oil on roofing tin.

25 x 46 inches.

Tom & Krista Wells 324 Main Street, Thomson, GA 30824, (706) 595-1998 (2 hours east of Atlanta) Photos on request

"I Come From Alabama" An Exhibition of Contemporary Folk Art from Alabama's Leading Visionary Artists.

June through August 1996 In our Washington Gallery: 2020 R Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. Phone: 202-483-9644 Fax: 202-483-9645 Open Mon.-Fri., 10 am - 5 pm;Sat., 12 - 5 pm; Sun. by appointment only.

AMERICA*01I,YES! Call for a free subscription to our newsletter Folk Art Collecting.

1-800-FOLK-ART Hilton Head Island, SC * Washington, D.C. Elwyn Hudson (Alabama)

26 SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART

Clementine Hunter (1886-1988) Collection includes: J.B. Murray, Howard Finster, David Butler, Sam Doyle, Mary T. Smith, Jimmy Sudduth, James "Son" Thomas, Royal Robertson, James Harold Jennings, Mose Tolliver, Lonnie Holley, B.F. Perkins, Luster Willis, Raymond Coins, Charlie Lucas, Junior Lewis, William Dawson, LeRoy Almond, Sr., M.C. 50 Jones, "Artist Chuckle" Williams, Ike Morgan, Herbert Singleton, Burgess Dulaney, and others.

GILLEY6 "Zinnias", dated 1944 15 x 18 Oil on paper

CALLEQY

8750 Florida Blvd.

Baton Rouge, LA 70815 (504) 922-9225

19th & 20th C Folk Art Found Art Outsider Art Gene Beecher Ed Ott Ruby C. Williams

860 Path Valley Rd. Fort Loudon, Po.17224

http://www.cyspacemalls.com/huston/

By appointment 717.369.5248

HUSTONTOWN SLIMMER 1996 FOLK ART 27

Graves' Country Gallery and Antiques 15 North Cherokee, Lodi, CA 95240 Phone:(209) 368-5740 or (209) 473-7089 Open Thursday, Friday & Saturday, or by Appointment

We specialize in Country Antiques and Contemporary Folk Art. In addition to the artists we represent, we have works by: Rev. Finster

Michael Crocker

Clementine Hunter

Brian Wilson

Mose Tolliver

Edwin Meaders

Sculptures by John Abduljaami—will make you smile.

Alyne Harris

Chester Hewell

Art by Emma Gibson—will she paint again? (She last painted in 1984.)

She is in her 70s, she's great!

and others

"Out to Shore" by Frank Scarborough—His works will warm your heart.

VISIT US AT FOLK FEST '96

Kate Adams "E PLURIBUS UNUM" Quilt in Miniature 81 / 2"X 8/ 1 2"

Gallerv Americana 3941 San Felipe Houston,Texas77027 (713)622-6225

28 SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART

"SEURAT'S LADY," COUNTER TOP DISPLAY FIGURE, CARVED WOOD,METAL,OIL PAINT, HEIGHT 34"

STUDIO AND GALLERY OPEN BY APPOINTMENT

BRADFORD, NH 03221 603 938 2748

JEF STEINGREBE

RECENT WORK

"NEW HAMPSHIRE AUCTIONEER SELLING A DUNLAP HIGH CHEST," CRANK TOY,CARVED WOOD,METAL,OIL PAINT, FOUND OBJECTS, 36" WIDE, 14" DEEP,39" TALL

Couple Se Casualty The Art of Eunice Pinney Unveiled

By SUSAN FOSTER

onnecticut watercolorist Eunice Griswold Holcomb Pinney (1770-1849) was both typical and exceptional as an amateur

C

artist of the Federal period in America. This paradox animates her character as well as her art and bespeaks the complex

nature of her fledgling society, which was struggling to exert its independence while at the same time clinging to many past traditions. Eunice Pinney has

received no individual scholarly attention since 1943, when Jean Lipman published an article in Art Quarterly that provided a biographical sketch of the artist as well as an in-depth analysis of her art and a complete list of her works known at that time.'

Since then, Pinney's paintings have been featured in numerous publications on a variety of topics. However, the limited amount of biographical information available on the artist has obscured the essence of her work as a whole. This article presents new information about Eunice Pinney's life that calls for a reinterpretation of her paintings and her significance in the field of American folk art.

30 SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART

COUPLE IN A LANDSCAPE Connecticut c.1815 Watercolor on paper 11 14 Private collection

MRS. CLARKE, TIIE YORK MAGNET Connecticut Dated 1821 Watercolor, ink, cutout engraved collage, and thread on wove paper Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center, Williamsburg, Virginia. 58.300.8

MnrCLARKE ti York MAGNET (C16)/L

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SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART 31

Born to Eunice Viets and Elisha Griswold in Simsbury, Connecticut, in 1770, Eunice Pinney was the fourth of eight children. She evidently grew up in comfortable circumstances, for the marriage of her parents is said to have "brought together two of the most considerable families and estates of the town."2 The families were both wealthy and influential in the affairs of the town and the Episcopal Church. Eunice's uncle Roger Viets (1738-1811) was assistant rector of Saint Andrew's Church in Simsbury from 1763 to 1777 and later, first rector of Trinity Church in Digby, Nova Scotia. Her brother Alexander Viets Griswold became bishop of the entire eastern diocese of the Episcopal Church, which included Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, and in 1836 was named presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States. Alexander Griswold's memoirs, written by John Stone and published in 1844, provide a flavor of the upbringing of the Griswold children.

Religion and education distinguish Eunice Pinney's heritage. Her uncle Roger Viets was not only a very pious man but also extremely learned, having graduated from Yale College in 1758, after which he traveled to England to be ordained. In Simsbury, Reverend Viets supplemented his meager salary by fanning and teaching, and among his pupils was Eunice Pinney's brother Alexander. Eunice apparently received a significant amount of instruction herself, for her brother describes her in his memoirs as "a woman of uncommonly extensive reading." Their mother, Eunice Viets, was "a woman of remarkable intelligence and uncommon energy," and Reverend Griswold remembers

32 SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART

that "though a fond mother and grandmother, she was yet a strict disciplinarian." Alexander is said to have read at the age of three, and both he and Eunice were kept constantly engaged in bone-lace knitting, which Eunice began at age five. A favorite pastime of the Griswold children was performing plays for the neighborhood, and Eunice's penchant for drama manifests itself in both the style and subject matter of her artwork.

In 1789 Eunice Pinney (then Eunice Griswold) married Oliver Holcomb of Granby, with whom she had two children, Oliver Hector Holcomb and Sophia Holcomb (Phelps). Scholarship has previously maintained that Pinney was soon widowed, when Oliver Holcomb died fording a stream en route to Ohio. However, a series of entries discovered in the American Mercury discloses some shocking new information about the circumstances of this first marriage.3 On June 16, 1794, the following notice appeared in the Mercury: Whereas my wife Eunice has eloped from my bed and board for reasons best known to herself—therefore I forbid all persons harboring or trusting her, as I will pay no debts of her contracting after this date.

OLIVER HOLCOMB Hartland, June 6, 1794 The notice is repeated the following two weeks. On June 30, a response notice from Eunice Holcomb (Pinney) "TO OLIVER HOLCOMB" appeared in the same newspa-

COUPLE AND CASUALTY Connecticut Probably 1805-1825 Watercolor and ink on laid paper 7 4 12" Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center, Williamsburg, Virginia.

58.301.1

per. The tone of the communiqué—quite humorous in parts—is of sarcasm combined with bitterness and despair.

Her purpose in writing is, in her own words, to "obtain remission from public opinion." She explains that her husband was a drunk who, after only two months of marriage, deserted her for the West Indies, presumably with the military. She recounts,"When your friends had made the usual search in barns and ditches, and under hedges and the like, they were very much surprised to find they did not meet with the success to which they had been accustomed in like cases...." Mr. Holcomb apparently returned six months later to beg her forgiveness and to ask that she take him back, which she reluctantly did—only to please his parents. The result is best described in her own words:

MASONIC MEMORIAL PICTURE FOR REVEREND AMBROSE TODD Connecticut 1809 Watercolor on laid paper, pen and ink inscription 14 • 11 %."

Museum of American Folk Art purchase. 1981.12.7

...very far have I been from finding any alteration in your conduct, except for the worse.

Your own conscience, if you should happen at this time to have any about you, will bear me witness, with what patience I bore with all your extravagances; such as frequent intoxication and profane swearing, destroying the gardens and fruits of your peaceful, industrious neighbors...4 Apparently, Mr. Holcomb went out regularly and spent the family's money on gambling and alcohol, only to return home in a foul mood and abuse his wife, who was caring for two sick children. Sparing further detail, Pinney concludes that she left to save herself, for she too was "sick and in constant danger."

Upon leaving her husband, Pinney most likely returned to the home of her parents in Simsbury, from whence she wrote her notice. According to Mary Nason, who has done extensive research on the women of early Connecticut, Pinney actually managed to obtain a divorce from Oliver Holcomb.5 Her second marriage, to Butler Pinney of Windsor in 1797, was apparently more successful: the couple remained together until Eunice died in 1849. (Butler died the following year.) Eunice had three children with Butler Pinney. Their eldest son, Norman, became an Episcopal reverend like his uncle and greatuncle, as well as a professor who cofounded a school in Mobile, Alabama. Their daughter, Emeline Minerva, also went to Mobile,"at the urgent request of her brother."6 After

teaching for a time there and in Virginia, she returned to Middletown, Connecticut, where she established a young ladies' school before marrying Henry Bright of Northampton, Massachusetts. Pinney's youngest son, Viets Griswold, died at age fifteen after falling from a cherry tree.

Clearly, Pinney's first marriage represents a temporary but tragic deviation from an otherwise peaceful and prosperous life. With the information available, we can only conjecture that these unfortunate circumstances led her to take up watercolor painting. Painting apparently provided her a means of expressing the anger, resentment, and sorrow she must have felt. Financial need may also have played a part, since she was most likely supporting herself and the children from her first marriage. Eunice Pinney would undoubtedly have qualified for a teaching position in one of the many new schools in the area, and there she could have become acquainted with the technique of watercolor painting.'

Pinney was a pioneer in watercolor painting, which was introduced in the Hartford area in the early 1790s.8 Until the second quarter of the nineteenth century, watercolor painting was pursued by young girls as part of their schoolwork. Pinney's style and subject matter, while indebted to schoolgirl art, are nevertheless unique and reflective of her mature character. Yet Pinney was not a nonconformist. Like many naive painters, she derived a number of her compositions from the designs of other artists. Moreover, she chose a medium that was considered socially acceptable for a woman of her era. The authors of Artists in Aprons explain that watercolor painting was well-suited to the domestic role of women because it was "readily available, relatively inexpensive, quickly executed, and easily put away."9 While we may never learn why or when Pinney took up painting, our new understanding of her circumstances enables us to reinterpret not only individual paintings, but the entire body of her work.

Pinney painted predominantly genre scenes, mourning pictures, and illustrations from literary sources, all of which were also the most common subjects in schools and drawing academies at the time. She drew inspiration from a variety of sources, including engravings, woodcuts, ceramics, printed textiles, and illustrations from such printed sources as books, magazines, and almanacs. Copying was encouraged in American drawing academies and female seminaries, and Pinney used many motifs that were common in schoolgirl work of the time. She also employed some of the techniques taught at academies, such as pinpricking to simulate the appearance of embroidery stitches.

Yet Pinney was not strictly a copyist, and she freely adapted compositional elements to create imaginative and original works. Moreover, her choice of subjects reflects several other influences, including her extraordinary personal life and extensive education. The themes of love, marriage, and family relationships predominate in her genre pictures, expressing her own preoccupation with these concerns.

Even her scenes that derive from printed sources seem to have been very purposefully selected based on their subject matter. Most of Pinney's pictures relate somehow to events in her own life; thus, the entire body of her work can, in a sense, be considered autobiographical.

SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART 33

Pinney's earliest dated work is a 1909 Masonic memorial for the Reverend Ambrose Todd (see page 33).

Like all of her mourning pictures and family registers, the Todd memorial commemorates a figure who was important to Pinney personally. Reverend Todd succeeded Roger Viets in the Simsbury parish, and he also married Eunice to Butler Pinney in 1797.10 Pinney likely painted various of her undated pictures earlier than 1909, for many of them demonstrate less skill in technique and composition than the dated ones. More important than reconsidering the dates of these paintings, however, is reconsidering their content. Details of Pinney's letter to Oliver Holcomb provide clues to the meaning of numerous curious works that have previously been considered simple, "bucolic" scenes. The twentieth-century eye tends to equate simplicity with peace and harmony and to assume that these are what the folk artist intended to convey. It is the viewer, who is naive, however—not the artist.

We regard scenes involving conflict as amusing representations of life's occasional ups and downs. Rather than seeing the ongoing battle alluded to in Pinney's Mother and Daughter, we see a trifling spat between two women, set in a quaint interior, conveniently documenting furniture, dress, and hair styles of the period. The scene undoubtedly recalls arguments between the artist and her mother-in-law, who initially supported Pinney but betrayed her when she finally left Oliver Holcomb. Similarly, we fail to question the significance of such bizarre elements as the oversized bunch of grapes in Love at Harvest Time and the meaning of such compositions as Couple in a Landscape, wherein the female figure struggles against her overly eager suitor.

The grapes in Love at Harvest Time probably allude to the excessive indulgences of Pinney's first husband, grapes being the symbol of Bacchus, the God of Wine."

The man grabs at another bunch of grapes that the woman struggles to keep from him. The broken chain dangling from the urn of fruit in the foreground may symbolize the precarious state of a man bound by his earthly desires. Since the urn was probably copied from a print source, one could argue that Pinney intended no such profound message; however, it is unlikely that such an intelligent and well-read woman would copy images randomly. Many writers have commented on the strange stumplike trees in the picture.

Perhaps they refer to the neighbors' gardens and fruits, which Oliver Holcomb apparently destroyed on at least one drunken occasion. With these things in mind, it becomes apparent that the distraught expression on the woman's face is not that of a woman playing some sort of game with her lover, but that of a wife trying hopelessly to prevent her husband from destroying their marriage—and her own dignity—with his drinking. The same distraught expression appears on the face of the woman in Couple in a Landscape (see page 30), in which the man pours some beverage (though milk-white, it is nevertheless suggestive of wine) for the woman, who seems to be concerned primarily with removing his arm from around her neck. Not insignificantly, the dog, a traditional symbol of marital fidelity, looks away. Though likely copied from one of many Dutch genre scenes that were popular during the period, this painting should nonetheless be considered autobiographical.

34 SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART

Several other paintings may be autobiographical as well. In Courtship, a man with a guilty countenance sits atop a tree stump holding a hat full of grapes. The more industrious woman, who holds a basket full of fruit she has gathered, regards the man with skepticism. At the top, an oversized bunch of grapes provides a central message for the picture, which becomes the portrait of a family broken by alcoholism. In the background of Courtship there is a child carrying a bundle of sticks. The child most certainly represents Pinney's daughter, who, according to Eunice's newspaper communiqué, helped her carry firewood from the mountains during the direst of times.

Pinney expresses tenderness and pity for this unfortunate child in Mother and Child in a Mountain Landscape. The background of this picture contains a fortress-like building on a hill, possibly representing Old Newgate Prison, to which Pinney had several connection5.'2 These and other details provide clues to an underlying story. Unaware of the story, however, the viewer tends to see the backgrounds as generically quaint and well-balanced settings typical of folk paintings of the period.

Also unrecognized until now is the significance of many of the compositions that Pinney copied from print sources. Barbara Luck, curator of the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center, has uncovered many of these sources.

Pinney evidently copied Couple and Casualty (see page 32)from a copperplate-printed English fabric that features engravings by the British artist Henry Bunbury.13 One cannot help but wonder whether Pinney's selection of this scene relates to the physical turmoil and ultimate "casualty" of her first marriage. The couple on the right half of the composition assumes the same pose as couples in numerous other paintings, wherein the man holds the woman tightly, obviously against her will. The man may represent Oliver Holcomb, whom Pinney seems always to have depicted in uniform.

Pinney's literary illustrations derive from some of the greatest works of prose and poetry of the Romantic period, as well as from classical literature. Pinney probably had access to a great number of beautiful and inspiring books

LOVE AT HARVEST TIME Connecticut c. 1815 Watercolor and ink on laid paper 8/ 1 2 12'As" Philadelphia Museum of Art: The Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Carbisch Collection. 67.268.12

through her uncle Roger Viets, who "indulged his taste in collecting one of the largest and best-selected libraries, then known in those parts."14 Reverend Viets was also keeper of the parish library, apparently a collection of considerable value. Reverend Viets was reputedly a Greek scholar, and Reverend Griswold mentions that his uncle's tutoring was particularly strong in the classics. Pinney's painting Hector and Achilles, an illustration from book XX of The Iliad, indicates that she too read such tomes. Pinney painted many other illustrations of identifiable scenes from well-known literary works, and she often included titles and text that provide clues to her sources. Lolotte et Werther depicts a scene

from Goethe's popular novel The Sorrows of Young Werther, for which Pinney apparently relied on an engraving (or some derivation thereof) by French artist F. Bonnefoy.'5 The Cotters Saturday Night is related to a quilt owned by the Brooklyn Museum that is composed of copperplate-printed handkerchiefs illustrating two scenes from the poem by Robert Burns.'6 Valencourt and Emily depicts a scene from Chapter Thirty-eight of Anne Radcliffe's Gothic romance The Mysteries of Udolpho, and Charlotte's Visit to the Vicar illustrates another recognizable scene from The Sorrows of Young Werther. Apparently, Pinney identified with the characters of Charlotte and Emily, whose virtue remained

SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART 35

steadfast despite the deceit, greed, and other vices rampant in the world around them. Likewise, she admired the virtuous family of cottagers in Burns's poem—a simple family whose religious faith is untainted by the pretenses of wealth and social status.

Two of Pinney's paintings may have been inspired by periodicals, through which she would have had access to world news. Both pictures depict events that occurred in Great Britain during the time Pinney was painting, and each is undeniably analogous to Pinney's own life. Mrs. Clarke, the York Magnet (see page 31) refers to a woman who was the subject of many satirical articles and images in England in 1809. Mary Anne Clarke, the infamous mistress of Frederick, Duke of York, was known to have accepted bribes from aspiring military officers, which money she used to pay for the lavish furnishings and lifestyle to which she quickly became accustomed. In 1809 the Duke was brought to trial in the House of Commons for abuse of military patronage, and while the charges remained unproven, the scandal became popular among political satirists. Much attention was focused on an elaborate pair of Grecian sofas owned

by Mrs. Clarke that were specifically referred to in one of several corollary court cases." Pinney carefully renders a very elaborate Grecian sofa in her depiction of Mrs. Clarke, and in a related picture entitled Forlorn she depicts the same distraught-looking woman reclining on a nearly identical Grecian-style chair. Both paintings include a young girl (similar to the girl in Lolotte et Werther) proudly displaying a doll; this transforms the image into a domestic scene, perhaps an autobiographical one. It is not surprising that Pinney would have identified herself with Mrs. Clarke, considering that Clarke's first husband was a drunk and in debt, and that the Duke, during the time of their affair, spent the greater part of his time gambling.'s Mary Anne Clarke ended up serving nine months in prison for libel, but only after successfully avenging herself on the Duke by testifying in an investigation that led to his resignation as commander-in-chief of the army. The analogies between Clarke and Pinney are striking, though their lives and characters were quite dissimilar.

Pinney's fascination with the Clarke scandal may be related to her concern with her own reputation.

A second work relating to British current events tells another story concerning public image and may refer directly to Pinney's first husband. Collingwood, the Ever to be Lamented Lord Nelson, introduces an interesting episode from British naval history. The Dictionary of

38 SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART

National Biography indicates that Cuthbert Collingwood and Horatio Nelson are two different figures who were often confused because their careers as vice-admirals in the British navy were so closely intertwined. In reality, Lord Nelson was a truly brilliant commander-in-chief, while Collingwood, only average as an admiral, enjoyed a reputation for greatness achieved mainly through his confusion with Lord Nelson. Careful reading of Pinney's newspaper communiquĂŠ to her first husband reveals several parallels between Collingwood and Oliver Holcomb, who also traveled to the West Indies and enjoyed an undeserved "heroic" reputation, at least among his family and friends. In Pinney's picture Collingwood gestures toward an unidentified third uniformed man, while Lord Nelson gestures toward Britannia. Britannia holds her head in her hand in apparent

THE COURTSHIP Connecticut c. 1815 Watercolor and ink on paper 12 vv 9 I/4" Collection of Erving and Joyce Wolf

resignation to the unidentified man, who kneels solicitously at her side and holds her other hand.

Many of Pinney's paintings contain several layers of meaning, which become clear only with careful scrutiny of details and research into sources. Much has yet to be learned about the events of Pinney's life and the significance of many of her curious works. A variety of factors and influences contributed to the development of Pinney's technique and style, as well as to her choice of subject matter. The result is a body of work that is both typical and unique within the larger body of early nineteenth-century watercolor painting. Pinney's life and work embody many universal values, concerns, opinions, and tastes of Federal America. As a pious citizen with a strong interest in classical education and in current events at home and abroad, she was a representative member of a typical Connecticut River Valley community in the early years of the American republic. At the same time, however, Pinney was an extraordinary figure whose extensive knowledge, keen intellect, and unusual domestic circumstances provided her with the independence and the inclination to express her views and sentiments artistically. Examination of Pinney's work tells much about the origins and nature of amateur watercolor painting in America. She helped to popularize the medium, and both her style and subject matter reflect her connection with other amateur artists of her time. Yet Pinney's work is exceptional and demonstrates the possibility of personal contribution and originality in a tradition so often connected with copying and schoolgirl work. A fuller understanding of amateur watercolor painting during this period requires that other artists like Pinney be considered individually for their unique artistic contributions. *

Acknowledgments The author began her research on Eunice Pinney for a graduate seminar on American folk painting taught by Colleen Heslip at Williams College. She would like to dedicate this article to Ms. Heslip, who passed away in 1993, and to her own grandmother, Bertha Pinney Alcorn, who still lives in Suffield (near Simsbury), Connecticut.

Susan R. Foster received a bachelor's degree in American studiesfrom Yale University in 1987 and a master's in art historyfrom Williams College in 1991. She currently worksfor the National Portrait Gallery as Field Surveyorfor the Catalog ofAmerican Portraits.

NOT 1 Jean Lipman,"Eunice Pinney—An Early Connecticut Watercolorist," Art Quarterly vol.6(no. 3, 1943), pp. 213-221.

2 John S. Stone, Memoir ofthe Life ofthe Rt. Rev. Alexander Viets Griswold, D.D.(Philadelphia: Stavely and McCalla, 1884), p. 22.

3 The American Mercury (Hartford), June 16, 23,and 30, 1794.

4 Ibid., June 30, 1794.

5 Nason discovered this information in the manuscript divorce records of the Connecticut State Archives in her research for the unpublished manuscript "The Goodwives of Simsbury."(Curatorial files, Museum of American Folk Art.)

6 Henry R. Stiles, M.D.,History ofAncient Windsor(New York: Charles B. Norton, 1859), p. 751.

7 According to announcements in the American Mercury, Granby Academy was to open in November 1794. Pinney may have been involved with the new academy. On the committee was Joseph Jewett, who was later named guardian for Pinney's son Oliver H. Holcomb, aged about sixteen, in an 1809 document (Granby Probate Records, no. 961—Granby).

8 Advertisements in the American Mercury indicate that watercolor paints were available as early as May 9, 1791, when Reuben Smith & Co. first advertised "Water paints in large and small quantities. Reeves genuine Patent Water Paints, in Boxes," received from London and Bristol.

9 C. Kurt Dewhurst, Betty MacDowell, and Marsha MacDowell, Artists in Aprons: Folk Art by American Women(New York: E.P. Dutton in association with the Museum of American Folk Art, 1979), p.43.

10 Albert C. Bates, Records ofRev. Roger Viets, Rector ofSt. Andrew's, Simsbury, Conn.(Hartford, 1893), p. 62.(Curatorial files, Museum of American Folk Art.) 11 Grapes appear on the seal of the Commonwealth of Connecticut, dating from 1784. However,Pinney's treatment of the motif suggests they held a greater significance for her.

12 Pinney's grandfather, Captain John Viets, was keeper of Old Newgate in 1774, and her uncle, the Reverend Roger Viets, was sentenced in 1777 to one year's imprisonment there for his alleged loyalist activities. Evidence suggests that Pinney was familiar with the work of Richard Brunton, an engraver who was imprisoned at Newgate for counterfeiting money.(See William Warren,"Richard Brunton—Itinerant Craftsman," Art in America 39[April 19511, pp. 81-91, and "Richard Brunton," Art in America 41 [Spring 1953], pp. 69-78.) Brunton is best known for his companion portraits of Major Reuben Humphreys,then keeper of Old Newgate, and his wife. Pinney is known to have painted another picture of Old Newgate,listed in Jean Lipman's 1943 article.

13 For details, see Beatrix T. Rumford, gen. ed., American Folk Paintings: Paintings and Drawings other than Portraitsfrom the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center(Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1988), p. 379.

14 Stone, op. cit., p. 37.

15 This information was provided by Barbara Luck to the National Gallery of Art, which owns the picture. The source for the winter medallion pasted on the wall at the upper right is described in American Folk Paintings, p. 212, notes 7 and 8.

A second amateur watercolor painting of the scene is known, but Pinney's is closer to the original. An extant Chinese export reverse painting on glass also depicts this scene, indicating its popularity. This piece was sold in 1984 at Shreve, Crump & Low in Boston, and it is illustrated on the back cover of The Magazine Antiques, July 1984.

(Curatorial files, National Gallery of Art.) 16 The illustrations on the handkerchiefs were evidently drawn by David Allan and engraved by Robert Gray. The quilt is illustrated in the Catalogue ofa Loan Exhibition ofEnglish Chintz, Victoria & Albert Museum (London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1960), p. 36. This information was also provided

by Barbara Luck to the National Gallery, whose files contain information on another amateur watercolor painting of the scene, this one even closer to the printed handkerchiefs.

17 Barbara Luck,"A Connecticut Matron and the Duke of York's Mistress," Antiques World vol. 3, no. 5(March 1981), pp. 76-77. See also Rumford, op. cit., pp. 210-212.

18 This and the following information from D. Pepys Whiteley, "Who Was Mrs. Clarke?" History Today, May 1966, pp.

297-305.

SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART 37

‘INIER I q96 FOLK ART

TETE DE PERSONNAGE AVEC SERPENT New York City c. 1973 Marker on cardboard 20 • 15" 151 x 38 cm) Collection de l'Art Brut, Lausanne, Switzerland

Sam Steinberg in boxing pose in front of Low Library, 1974.

8

inety-four-year-old Pauline Steinberg summed up life with her brother Sam in a breathless conjunction: "I was a mother to him, I was a father to him, and I tried to be a sister to him. And I tried to understand him. And I know his weak points and his good points and I know how he suffered and I know how ambitious he was and how good and kind he was.

He was truly a wonderful man, my brother. The pictures don't show it, you know." Some considered the persistent street vendor a figure for mockery or even a nuisance, but few who could see beyond his humble calling would disagree with Pauline Stein-

SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART 3

40 SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART

publications. This article, then, is an attempt to synthesize and preserve the basic facts on an American original.

"Hey mistah, I got paintings here! Or maybe you want a Hoishey bar." He must have warbled some variation of this theme a million times in his unmistakable crackly Brooklynese. Like Grandma Moses before him, Steinberg came to painting at an advanced age. Until the last of his eighty-five years, however, he remained a simple street vendor, typically rising with the sun and returning by subway at the end of a workday to one of a succession of nondescript Bronx apartments long after dark. Whether hawking ice cream from a cart or candy bars from a low-slung cardboard box, Steinberg never earned more than enough to provide the necessities for himself and sister Pauline.

He enjoyed a small but livable income, fresh air, no boss, steady customers, and, in his own restricted universe, a measure of fame.

Back in the World of Tomorrow days of 1939, when he still signed his name "Chuck," Charles Saxon, best known for his long tenure as a New Yorker cartoonist, rendered for the Columbia humor magazine Jester a pen-and-ink caricature of a man with his feet firmly planted in the present.

In almost every respect, this sketch closely resembles the Sam of forty years later: candy bar in the right hand, left hand raised in the air to signal a potential customer, cardboard box beside him, the bright eyes and summoning upturned mouth, the prominent nose and ears, the baggy pants and work oxfords, the ever-present coat and oversized taxi driver's cap.9 Appearing more gaunt and less robust forty years later, as health waned and age waxed, Steinberg was nevertheless the unmistakable subject of Saxon's drawing. Shortly after Steinberg's death, Robert Diamond, a Columbia senior, remarked that he "saw a yearbook picture from 30 years

ago with a picture of Sam in it and he looked the same. What else here stays the same for 30 years?"° In certain photographs from the 1960s and 1970s, Steinberg affects the pose of a boxer challenging his opponent." Perhaps he was paying homage to Jack Dempsey or Rocky Marciano or reliving his own youthful dreams; perhaps it was a photographer's staged pose. Jack Vartoogian, one whose camera captured Sam in this stance, remembers it as Sam's idea.° Pauline Steinberg discounts any thoughts of hero-worship:"You know, Sam didn't admire anybody special. He was a

Gilbene Vasiniejan

berg's assessment of her brother's virtues. More than a few have thought that the paintings also say something wonderful about Sam Steinberg.

"The little picture is very interesting; it gives me keen pleasure," wrote Jean Dubuffet in 1973 of one of Steinberg's paintings. "I would like to acquire, if it is possible, some other pictures by him."2 Even a fictional Steinberg painting was sufficient to overcome the protagonist of a Rebecca Goldstein novel "with a nostalgia that surged into desire."3 "He was a very picturesque figure on campus," remembers Professor Robert Austerlitz. "He was straight from the heart."4 Upon the artist's death in 1992, Columbia University president Michael Sovern consoled Pauline Steinberg, Sam's companion of eighty years, saying that her brother was "an institution" and would be "greatly missed."5 "An institution gone," echoed Columbia College dean Arnold Collery of this little man who was for decades a strong presence in the Columbia community, as imposing in his own way as the dome of Low Library or the great limestone tower of nearby Riverside Church.' As Sam Steinberg himself once put it, "Everybody here knows me from my paintings and everybody likes me here."'

A typical Steinberg work is as whimsical and surreal as a Klee or Miro, as sincere as a Grandma Moses, as enamored of the boldly colored plane as a Stella and of the almond eye as the Egyptian tomb paintings— and as original as they come.(Who but Steinberg could pull off a portrait with "one Chinese eye and one Japanese eye"?8)Like each of the above artists in some ways, Steinberg nevertheless produced an oeuvre that could not be mistaken for that of any other.

"Sam," as he was universally known, touched the lives of thousands, from university presidents to generations of Columbia students. Yet he and his work are virtually unknown to anyone who did not once frequent the few blocks of Morningside Heights that converge on Columbia University's College Walk. The data on Sam Steinberg exists almost entirely in the realm of memory and anecdote, and in a variety of difficult-to-access Columbia

good, plain, ordinary person. He didn't have to admire anybody." Sam painted the famous and the infamous, she says, "because God puts in us the power to do beautiful things."

Undeniably, Steinberg painted famous people, icons of history and popular culture among them: Washington and Lincoln, Garland and Valentino, Elvis Presley and Jesus Christ. As photographic likenesses are not the forte of the surrealist or the

Sam Steinberg with William Glaser, 1981.

Steinberg is holding his portrait of Glaser.

PORTRAIT OF WILLIAM GLASER New York City 1981 Marker on illustration board 20 15" Collection of William A. Glaser

primitive, identification of the subject sometimes required a program. Like a caricaturist who emphasizes one or two striking features of his or her subject, Steinberg would render Telly Savalas's Kojak, for instance, by accentuating the large nose and shiny dome. Valentino could be recognized by the multicolored sheik's garb and the snake protruding from—or from behind—his head. As for his version of Richard Nixon, the artist could only

wonder aloud at his own ingenuity: "Ya think they'll throw me in jail?"3 By some accounts, the most popular works of Steinberg's 1978 one-man exhibition at Columbia's Ferris Booth Hall—his first show there in ten years—were the portrait of then-Columbia president William McGill and "Self-Portrait on the Moon." The well-attended show included more than fifty paintings, of which nine belonged to Professor of

German Joseph Bauke, who was reported at the time to own forty-eight "Sams"—certainly one of the largest collections.'4 The profit motive and a desire to please his customers often led Steinberg to execute special commissions. There were limits, however.

According to Henry Rosenberg, sometime around 1972 "Sam was taking commissions for portraits: students would describe their own hair- and eye-color; a few days later, Sam would deliver a painting. I had the idea to ask Sam to do a self-portrait.

At first he didn't understand what I was asking. He asked for my hair- and eye-color. When he realized that I wanted him to do a portrait of himself, Sam looked horrified. 'I don't do that,' he said."13 The 1978 exhibition of Self-Portrait on the Moon suggests that Steinberg had decided, or been persuaded, to abandon that policy. Or perhaps he simply misunderstood Rosenberg's request. In 1992 Char Smullyan's office in Columbia's Hamilton Hall still displayed one of the portraits she painted from a photograph of Steinberg. "Oh, would you paint me?" she remembers him saying. The painting shows a smiling, seated Sam holding a candy bar; on the ground sits his rendering of a dog with birdlike heads attached to or perhaps emerging from his ears.'6 Columbia graduate Peter Frank, an art critic and curator, wrote that Steinberg often produced a work to order, only to find later that "the order was a joke or an aside that Sam took seriously." Eventually Steinberg would sell it to another customer: "The party din't collect his paintin'.

D'ya think I should sell it ta someone else? Ya like it?"17 Despite the stylized portraits and regular commissions, Steinberg was best known for the animals he painted. Mermaids, snakes, dogs, birds, and especially cats inhabited his menagerie. A mermaid may have even been his muse. After deciding that he was becoming too old for the life of the peddler and wondering what to do, he one day "saw a statue, a mermaid, half-woman, half-fish, and at the age of 67, was inspired to begin a new career as a painter. Much of Sam's work," surmised Lenny Glynn in

SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART 41

Sam Steinberg talking with student, c. 1975

1968,"can best be understood as variations on the motif of this epiphany, the half-woman, half-fish."18 Indeed, a great many of his animals are hybrids unknown to veterinary science, comprising a zoo of nameless creatures that can be appreciated only by contemplating their portraits: banana dogs, bird women, lizard ladies, and what can only be described as grandmother cats. "God gave me the power," Steinberg once said. "I never was a painter before."9 "My mother was born in Russia," Pauline Steinberg explains, "you know, where that big blast was—in Kiev." Her father, Adolf(later Aaron), was from Odessa. As for her siblings: "First came my brother Lou—Louie.

After him came Sam. Then I was the first oldest daughter. Then came my brother Morris. And then came my beautiful sister Doris. That's five....

Well, each one of [them] were beautiful natures—because my mother and father were two beautiful people—you know what I mean? We were all like [one]—you know what I mean—family.... But there was something lacking, you know. There was a lacking of love and affection of both parents for the children. You know,two people, when they get together, they first have to straighten out their own lives— you know what I mean? They have to understand their own nature....

When they don't, they don't know how to put the family together properly. Right?"

Sam was born on East Ninetysixth Street in Manhattan on May 20, 1896,20 and grew up in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn.2' It was a struggle to survive, Pauline recalls: "We were very, very poor...." The first home she knew was "very shabby. A walkup wooden house—all going one way. You wouldn't know about such apartments. There was a toilet in the yard. [There] was nothing there. Oh, there was no heat."

"At a very early age," wrote Lenny Glynn in 1968, "Sam began work as a grocery boy for $12 a month. In his teens he switched to his lifelong career of peddling ice cream and candy. He was a sickly kid, 4-F in World War One,and has been through more than twenty serious operations in his life for ailments ranging from vari-

42 SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART

cose veins to ingrown eyelashes."22 According to Sam, he was once the beneficiary of a two-hundred-dollar operation at St. Luke's Hospital for "half-price, for forty dollars.""

"He couldn't write or read. He [could] write his name a little. He couldn't read. [Imagine] having a brother who couldn't read or write."

Pauline explains: "He never went to school much. They couldn't hold him in school."

Steinberg undoubtedly saw the subjects of some of his future portraits at the movies or in the pages of such magazines as Life and Look. Perhaps he even encountered Picasso there; he knew of Picasso. "Pictures, yeah," recalls Pauline."The only thing he did was magazines. He'd draw pictures on the paper. He didn't have no paper, so he drew pictures right on the print."

He sold those pictures, too, says Pauline. "That's why I had to buy the good stuff. And my older brother said, `Don't waste your money for that.'

And I used every penny to help my brother out, to do the best, to have the best, and everything." This memory led Pauline to contemplate Sam's life at Columbia: "And he didn't like the toilets there. He saw that the boys there weren't clean. They messed up everything. He was even afraid to sit on the toilets there." That was the least of his difficulties.

Steinberg's one big trip, taken sometime in the mid-1950s, wrote Lenny Glynn, "made a powerful impression on him.... Sam and a friend set out for Texas hopping freights, looking for new jobs. But they were robbed by hobos and Sam was beaten half to death. Frightened for his life, he climbed out on the ladder between the moving cars, screaming for help. It was a terrible experience for him."24 Steinberg himself tells the story best: "I was alone on the car screaming 'help! help! momma!' and stars were falling out of my eyes and I saw devils all around me but it was all country roads, country roads and nobody heard me." Only the railroad detectives heard him, and they arranged two weeks in the Albany jail for him. Apparently, he made it back to New York City with the aid of a friend called "Faffalla." After that, he was cured of the desire to roam.25

Steinberg worked in a variety of media,from t-shirts and bookmarks to large seedpods. But his best work was reserved for cardboard or illustration board. Sometime in mid-1968, about five years after beginning to sell his paintings, he switched from watercolors—"because they hurt his eyes"—to Magic Marker on cardboard; at about the same time, he

began adding scalloped borders to his works.26 The often high-quality materials—"pernianent markers," stressed Pauline, and, frequently, Pearl No. 1700 illustration board—were unusual as the media of art brut or outsider art, whose practitioners typically appropri-

•

r(1gra_wries Caricature of Sam Steinberg, 1939, by Charles Saxon, courtesy of Jester and Columbia Daily Spectator

UNTITLED (MERMAID WITH CAT AND DOG) New York City 1978 Marker on illustration board 20 15" Collection of Craig Bunch

David Weintraub

Sam Steinberg, 1973

ate whatever materials are readily at hand. "Art brut," a term coined by Jean Dubuffet, and translated as "raw art," is a style associated with children, psychotics, and other naives whose "untutored, uncensored vision" so pleased the celebrated French artist.27 And Steinberg's stories were not always apocryphal: Dubuffet did enthusiastically accept a Steinberg drawing for the collection of art brut he donated to the city of Lausanne, Switzerland.

Sam's painting is "certainly not the work of someone who's insane, but the work of someone who's simple," explains Peter Frank, who adds that although "much art brut fills the picture plane," Sam's generally did not; he "wanted to

create a volume of work that he could sell. If he left areas open, he could get more done. Also, he liked bright colors."28 Frank explains the popularity of Sam's paintings as due to both their visual and thematic appeal: the "fanciful subject matter" and the "psychoanalytic subtext" afforded the sophisticated viewer (in plentiful supply at Columbia) had seemingly found their perfect niche. "When I was on campus, the unsophisticated was celebrated and here was the genuine article.... And there was a druggie element. The sinewy lines and intense saturated colors were a trip even for those of us not doing acid."29 Columbia has at times been a hotbed of student political activity,

and Steinberg no doubt saw outdoor political gatherings as an opportunity to increase his sales. An An Mintz yearbook photograph, captioned "Sam Steinberg works a demo," features a mugging Sam folding a dollar bill while a Che Guevara look-alike in the immediate background does his part to save the world.3° In another photo, it is not clear who is the sales winner— Sam, holding an A & P bag and makeshift candy box, or his equally well-armed interlocutor, holding a "Students Must Organize" leaflet.3' Steinberg could even be found hawking his wares at Columbia commencement exercises."

Not all of Steinberg's admirers remember him from Columbia—or even knew that he was an artist. Carolyn Jones, who bought candy from him as a child in Harlem, required but a single grainy photograph to unlock a forgotten cache of memories: "He used to sell candy for many, many thousands of years," she could not help but hyperbolize. "He was always walking with his candy. He had a pleasant smile. He had a jolly step about him...a little peppy walk." She knew him only as the Candy Man.33 "The Candy—that's what they called him—the Candy Man," agrees Pauline. "And you know what? On Fifth Avenue in the Bronx was 110th Street.... You weren't allowed to stand and sell candy there. But he sold candy there, stayed there. And I was wondering how he got the guts to do [that]. I guess God gave him— let him have his way, you know....

Do you know, they were jealous of him. They were jealous of his ambition to peddle his candy, to push the ice cream wagon, of his ambition to work to earn a few pennies.... And even though I was poor and I had nothing myself and he also [had] nothing, I was thankful I had my brother—and we were both poor you know. We were both emotionally immature."

"He never hated anybody. He wouldn't hurt anybody. He was so good that, that at first he peddled outside of Columbia College—you know what I mean—and it was after the war, the first war. The soldiers came home and they wanted to take his place...."

SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART 43

"After the First World War?" "Yeh, but God put him in a better place. God let him go into Columbia College...."

"You mean he had to stay outside at first; he couldn't—" "At first they didn't know him."

"They didn't know him; they didn't want people selling things inside?"

"Right. But he was the only one."

"Finally they let him in?"

"Yeah."

"When? Do you know about when they let him in?"

"I don't know. That was the time when I think Eisenhower was something in Columbia. Wasn't he president?"34 "That's right." (Eisenhower was president of Columbia University during 1949-1950.)

"Oh, oh, oh, oh! You know St. John the Divine Church? They let him in too. The head of John the Divine Church.... Well, uh, first of all, in St. John the Divine Church they had an outreach for senior citizens—you know what I mean—so he told them that the landlord didn't do anything for us where we lived, you know what I mean. So they tried to get him in there to the building.... After he died they got me a place to live." Pauline continues: "You know, I was alone and my brother once closed the door on me and he wouldn't let me come back in the house. That was a time when I was all alone in the world. I was like an outcast. My own brother."

"Sam? Why did that happen?"

"Because I didn't have the courage of my own convictions. You know because he [knew] I was weak, I wasn't my own true self.... I was like burned out, washed out.... And he wanted me—even my pastor—he wanted me to stand up for myself. He locked me out."

"When? When did that happen?"

"It happened. How he ever let me in I don't know, but I got in," Pauline says with a short laugh. "Well, I got back in again and uh, I tried to do the best I could. I went to the arts downtown where they sell artwork—and I bought the best pencils and pens and papers and I bought a art table and I spent a lot of money—where I got the money I don't know—and I bought

44 SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART

UNTITLED (CRYSTAL BALL) New York City c. 1976 Marker on illustration board 20 • 15" Collection of Jamie Katz

him the best of everything so he could draw, because he had a yen for drawing. You see, whatever he drew— that's his!"

Steinberg was a favorite subject of passing photographers and student filmmakers. Edward Gray made a short film around 1971 with nowobsolete equipment. In a surrealist homage to a surrealist painter, Sam is featured singing through the mouths of his Magic Marker creations."

Pauline notes that Sam "made singing tapes. He sang like Caruso, you know what I mean."

"Did he have a good voice?"

"Beautiful! Beautiful voice. He had a beautiful voice. He made tapes about our landlord, what a mean landlord he is, how he doesn't do anything for the tenants."

Michael Schulder and Tim Burnett produced a video documentary about Steinberg during their junior year at Columbia(1976-1977). Schulder recounts: "We approached Sam with our idea, to which he was recep-

tive, without being terribly enthusiastic or even interested.... Our coup de grace was traveling with Sam by subway to his apartment in the South Bronx.... I laugh at the thought of us lugging all that heavy video equipment by ourselves to the Grand Concourse. Sam lived with his sister, who was a few years younger than him.

She was much more in the 'real' world than he was.... The best line, in the body of the show and under the closing credits, was Sam saying in his hoarse voice, 'I don't drink; I don't smoke; I work hard—'cause that's the kind of guy lam.'"36 A colorful 1973 jazz record album cover bears Sam's signature.

Entitled Friends, in his own shaky script but perhaps another's spelling, this cover image depicts three cats in casual shirts and shorts.37 Five years later, Sam Steinberg was still selling fifteen- by twenty-inch paintings for five dollars each. His paintings tended to grow smaller as he grew older.

Pauline says that "he went as far as

GEORGE WASHINGTON New York City c. 1973 Marker on artboard 20 15" Collection of lack and Linda Vartoogian

charging ten dollars a picture—ten dollars a picture." Schulder believes

that prices in the late 1970s "would vary from $5 to $15, depending on size and subject."38 Without a doubt, as Peter Frank noted in 1975, "If the Museum of Modern Art discovers Steinberg, those paintings ain't gonna go for $3.50 a shot!"

Sam and Pauline were collaborators in art as well as life. As for his painting, "I tried to make it a little neater, you know what I mean. More evenly. You know, it should be nice," she says hesitantly. "He knew about colors, but uh,I gave him nice colors."

The controlled use of vivid colors is one of the remarkable aspects of the paintings signed "Sam S." "I loved every picture he ever made, every picture he ever did," says Pauline, knowing, perhaps, that there is some of her in each one of them. But Sam, she says, did not particularly care for them: "He didn't want any of his pictures at all."

"You know," she considers, "he never counted his money. He just made and made, and put it away, didn't wanna count it. As though, as though it was for a reason. Maybe so I should have [enough] to live on.

Think so?... But you know what Sam told me some day? He said, 'Pauline,

would you like to live in a marble 8 David Weintraub, letter to the author, palace?' He asked me if! want to live September 12, 1994. in a marble palace. He said, 'Do you 9 This cartoon was reproduced in the want a chauffeur to take you home?' Columbia Daily Spectator, April 19, 1982, Why did he want all that good for me? p. 1, and the Columbia Summer Spectator, July 29, 1992, p. B5.

He loved his sister. But I gave away 10 Beth Knobel,"Sam Steinberg is dead my whole heart...." at 85," Columbia Daily Spectator, April The reader may have gained the 19, 1982, p. 3. impression that Sam is remembered— 11 Jack L. Vartoogian, photograph, indeed cherished—more for his 1974; anonymous photographs,c. 1965. unique personality and Brooklyn 12 Jack L. Vartoogian, telephone accent, his being at the right place at conversation with the author, July 11, the right time, and his sheer staying 1994. power than for the quality of his art. 13 Peter Frank,"Sam Steinberg: artist in Undeniably, nonaesthetic factors have residence," Columbia Today, April 1975, p.9. always affected the reputation of an 14 Joseph Ferullo and Suzanne Moore, artist. Despite the force of Sam's per- "Sam exhibit: get the 'big ones'," Columsonality, his art stands on its own and bia Daily Spectator, October 30, 1978, might one day take its place in the pp. 1-2. pantheon of American outsider artists.

15 Henry Rosenberg, letter to the author, The bright colors have here and February 4, 1993. there begun to fade. But Sam is 16 Char Smullyan, conversation with the remembered as a graying Columbian author, August 1992. flips through the pages of an old year- 17 Frank, op. cit. book, as a resident of Lausanne 18 Glynn, op. cit.

19 Ferullo and Moore, op. cit., p. 1. notices the curious small painting in 20 ICnobel, op. cit., p. 1. the Collection de l'Art Brut,4° as a 21 Glynn, op. cit. painted seedpod emerges from the 22 Ibid. confines of a desk drawer, or as a sis- 23 "Columbia Characters" in Columbian ter imagines what might have been.* (Columbia College Yearbook), 1970, Craig Bunch is a librarian, review editor ofPopular Culture in Libraries, and a member ofthe American Library Association's Reference Books Bulletin editorial board. He lives with his wife, Delana, in Oakhurst, Texas, and still admires the paintings he boughtfrom Sam Steinberg in 1978. He thanks Detain', Dr. Eva Schlesinger, Dr. Terry Bilhartz, Hollee Haswell, and all who contributed to this article.

NOTES 1 Pauline Steinberg, interview with the author, Bronx, N.Y., August 14, 1992. All quotations from Pauline Steinberg are pulled from this interview.

2 Jean Dubuffet, letter to Peter Frank (translated from the French), May 4, 1973.

3 Rebecca Goldstein, The Mind-Body Problem(New York: Dell, 1985), p. 27.

4 Robert Austerlitz, telephone conversation with the author, August 1992.

5 Michael Sovern, letter to Pauline Steinberg, April 30, 1982.

6 "Sam Steinberg, 85, a Peddler at Columbia for Generations," New York Times, April 21, 1982, p. B5.

7 Lenny Glynn,"Sam:'Everybody Likes Me'," Columbia Daily Spectator, October 24, 1968, p. 4.

p. 140.

24 Glynn, op. cit.

25 Ibid.

26 Ibid.

27 Claude Marks,"Dubuffet, Jean" in World Artists 1950-1980(New York: H. W. Wilson Co., 1984), p. 242.

28 Peter Frank,telephone conversation with the author, March 1993.

29 Ibid.

30 An Mintz, photograph in the 1981 Columbian, p. 49.

31 Sid Konikoff, photograph, c. 1975.

32 Gilberte Vasintejan, photograph,c.

1981.

33 Carolyn Jones, conversation with the author, August 1992.

34 This suggests that it was after the Second World War, not the First.

35 Edward Gray, telephone conversation with the author, August 11, 1992.

36 Michael Schulder, letter to the author, February 18, 1993.

37 Sam Steinberg, cover of Friends, Oblivion Records, 1973.

38 Schulder, op. cit.

39 Frank, op. cit., p. 10.

40 Michel Thevoz, letter to the author, October 4, 1993. Thevoz confirms that the Collection de l'Art Brut has a color marker on cardboard drawing by Sam Steinberg entitled (not by Sam)"Tete de personnage avec serpent."

SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART 40

•

an 1

• 1 11 Treasures from the Golden Venture

By DALE GREGORY

MT/ "Fly to Freedom: The Art of the Golden AArt “444%t -

Venture Refugees," an exhibition of Chinese paper sculptures, is on

EAGLE Folded paper, papiermâché 9 '/2 9 9" Collection of Thora Jacobson Courtesy of the Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial, Philadelphia

display at the Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial in Philadelphia through July 26, 1996. The works in this exhibition were created by male Chinese refugees awaiting asylum decisions in Pennsylvania's York County Prison.

During their three-year stay, more than ten thousand works of unique paper sculpture were produced.

These works include teapots, bird cages with tiny birds, lacelike baskets, pagodas, pineapples, and many one-of-a-kind objects. Three months before this artistic endeavor began, these men were aboard a cargo vessel about to complete a news-breaking journey. It is here that we will begin their story.

46 SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART

ftwrit

EAGLE (Detail) Folded paper, papier-mâché 12 12" Private collection Courtesy of the Museum of Chinese in the Americas

On June 6, 1993, the Golden Venture, a ship carrying refugees from mainland China, ran aground off Rockaway Beach, New York. Most of the passengers were coming to the United States seeking political asylum. None were artists—they identified themselves as farmers, carpenters, plumbers, teachers, and electricians.

These refugees were smuggled out of mainland China in the hold of a ship, where they spent the rest of their journey to the West. After passing through the equatorial zone off the coast of Kenya, where temperatures rose to over 100 degrees, the passengers began to hallucinate.

When rounding the Cape of Good Hope, the ship was hit by a hurricane. At this point some refugees thought they had died. After the long, treacherous journey of one hun-

dred days, their ship ran aground in the Rockaways. Here the smugglers shouted "Anyone who can swim, jump!"

Ten of the men who couldn't swim perished after diving into the rough waters. The Immigration and Naturalization Service apprehended the remaining passengers after a few hours—some on the boat, some in the water, and some on the beach. A few had slipped away. In total, 284 men and women were split up and sent to five prisons around the United States to await the decision as to whether they would be granted asylum. About 118 of the men were sent to York County Prison in Pennsylvania.

Jeffrey Lobach, President of the York County Bar Association, immediately volunteered to take on one of the refugees' cases. Each of the previous Bar Association presidents had made a formal promise for the year, and Lobach made it his promise to increase the number of pro-bono cases handled in York County.' As a result and following Lobach's lead, forty York County lawyers volunteered to take on refugee cases without pay.

Most of the refugees were fleeing forced sterilization and abortions, and persecution for their Christian faith.

Many fled because they were being persecuted for having been involved in the pro-democracy movement. In China, families and friends of some of the prisoners have been threatened or punished by the government—houses and belongings have been burned, jobs taken away, and food rations "lost." Prisoners have received letters from home begging them to return to help provide for the family; yet for many,returning may mean death.2 While awaiting their fate in prison, many of the men folded or rolled paper to pass the time. Ron Bupp, Senior Chaplain of the York Country Prison, told me that "At first, we had to confiscate some of the early paper works.

One of the first things they made out of paper was a gun. We couldn't have something like that here. It was harmless, an innocent thing, but we had to take it away.

They also made [mock] firecrackers, with rolled red paper and string."

One man,though, started using a unique fold, which none of the other men were familiar with. He tore pieces of paper from magazine pages and folded them into interlocking triangular units. From these units he constructed his first sculptures and then taught the folding technique to the other Chinese refugees, who soon joined in the artmaking.

Some of the first objects constructed were pineapples, eagles (freedom birds), vases, bowls, and baskets. Most of the objects were made using more than a thousand pieces of paper. This technique was later named Qian Zhi (pronounced "kee yan zhee"), which in Chinese means "a thousand papers."

Magazines were the most common source of inspiration. One of the first paper sculptures constructed by the refugees was inspired by a photograph of a pineapple seen in a magazine. Its surface design follows the diamond pattern of the pineapple skin.

New works were often inspired by contact with visitors. Small crabs and lobsters were added to the list after the refugees had an English lesson based on crabbing on the eastern shore of Maryland. Since many of the refugees come from the coastal Fujian Province, they are familiar

ASUMMER 1996 FOLK ART 47

BOWL WITH LID Folded paper, glue 9 >< 9" Private collection Courtesy Frank Miele Gallery, New York VASE Folded paper, glue 11 5" Private collection Courtesy Frank Miele Gallery, New York

48 SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART

Francis M.Chmielewski

THANK YOU TOWER Rolled and folded paper 40" tall Collection of Francis M. Chmielewski

with shellfish shapes and were able to craft crabs and lobsters sight unseen.

Some works combined papier-mâché and folded papers and were inspired by ceramic birds and figures advertised in magazines. Other ideas came from children's drawings of dinosaurs sent to the men through the mail.

Deer were made after hearing prison guards talk about deer hunting. Dragons and pagodas were constructed from memories of home. Many of the design forms carry traditional meaning for the makers. Some say that pairs of vases belong together—it's bad luck to break a pair apart. Cranes represent divine blessing; trees in pots with leaves symbolize wealth and fortune. Dolphins and whales represent the refugees' ocean voyage.'

The triangular units used in a Qian Zhi sculpture are interlocked or "nested" and secured with Elmer's glue as the form is built up. The sculptures take on a natural circular shape as more units are added. Forms like the pineapple are built around an empty Styrofoam cup to control the shape. The curvature of a vase is achieved—like in knitting—by gradually adding or dropping units in rows.

All patterns were planned out beforehand. An artist often spent several days in the planning stages, looking through magazines for particular colors and counting the number of units needed for an entire form. One pineapple requires a thousand papers; a medium-size bowl with a lid, four thousand. Although the paper used was predominantly from magazine pages, other sources included white lined note paper, wrappings from medications, notices from prison officials, cigarette packages (especially the silver and gold liners), gum and candy wrappers, and yellow legal paper.' Most pieces were made from a combination of papers, some were made entirely from white lined paper.

Additional coloring was sometimes added with Sharpie marking pens after the artwork was finished.

Picking colors and planning the number of units in a piece could take two days, depending on the size. Folding and sorting colors was generally done by artist's helpers.

Fitting the units together, which was done by the artist, could take another four days. 5 Almost all the Chinese refugees in York County Prison participated in creating the works of art that are now in many homes across America. It was by attending vigils outside the prison that Cindy Lobach, Jeffrey Lobach's wife, was first introduced to Qian Zhi. "I saw some of the lawyers and legal aides coming out of the prison with paper pineapples or birds given to them as gifts from their clients, but after being handled by a number of people, they would fall apart."

"Later on, in the fall of '93," Jeffrey Lobach explains, "the Chaplains persuaded the warden to allow glue to come in. In the beginning of '94, we started thinking about raising money, as more and more [artworks] were coming out as gifts. York County Historical Society had a display of the sculptures with some literature on the meaning of the works—the seven-tiered 'Thank You Towers,' are a Chinese tradition. They are given as gifts as a way of showing appreciation."

When Cindy tried to convince the artists to try and sell the work, they and the Chaplain were doubtful that they

Exhibition

iv

ly to Freedom: The Art of the Golden Venture Refugees," an exhibition of Chinese paper sculpture, is on view at the Samuel S. Fleisher

An Memorial in Philadelphia through July 26.

Organized by the Museum of Chinese in the Americas(formerly the Chinatown History Museum)in New York, the exhibition puts into context the experience of 284 Chinese refugees who ran aground aboard the Golden Venture in New York Harbor on June 6, 1993. It features 80 objects created by more than 50 Chinese immigrants still incarcerated in Pennsylvania's York County Prison.

Complex birds, plants, boats, and buildings are made from toilet paper, magazine pages, newspaper, and glue—some colored with marking pens or tinted with fruitjuice or tea. This exhibition is a stunning testament to the human impulse to find beauty in the face of deprivation. For more information, please call 215/922-3456.

would find customers, but they decided to give it a try.

Cindy and her husband hoped this would help to raise funds for the men and to make their plight public.

An auction was held at the local YWCA.Jeffrey and another lawyer auctioned off all of the one hundred pieces they brought that night. Jeffrey says, "We never had any idea we'd be seeing thousands of sculptures coming out of the prison."

Cindy Lobach collected the work from the prison and stored it in a loft in her home. As treasurer of People of the Golden Vision, a York-based national support group for these refugees, Cindy helped to initiate the sale and distribution of the art to the public. She says that once the men began to receive money individually, they really became motivated. "It didn't take them long to pick up on the capitalist system." Prior to the first sale in March 1994, Cindy picked up twelve pineapples from the prison. Soon after, the men learned that the pineapple was a symbol of hospitality. On Cindy's next trip to the prison, she found 455 pineapples waiting for her. Elissa Dorfsman, one of the legal aides defending the men, brought some of the pineapples and other objects as gifts to her parents in New York.

In the spring of 1995, I was working with Elissa's father, Lou Dorfsman, design director of the Museum of Television and Radio. Because he knew of my interest in Chinese folk art and my involvement with the Museum of

SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART 49

American Folk Art, he brought in a paper pineapple sculpture for me to see. He held it over his desk and said, "Isn't this wonderful? Did you ever see anything like this?"

I took the pineapple in my hands and noticed a line of type across one of the dark green folded leaves. The body of the pineapple felt coarse from all the little folded papers coming to sharp points. Bits of black type on white magazine paper contrasted with various colors and formed a diamond-shaped pattern. I put it back on his desk and said, "Yes, it is wonderful. And no, I've never seen anything like it."

"Do you know anyone who could help these poor guys out?" he asked."Do you know anyone who could sell these?"

A few days later, I took the pineapple to Frank Miele's art gallery in New York. When I showed it to Frank, he was so excited that he had to calm himself down before he could say,"I'd like to have a major exhibit of this work in September."

After learning of Miele's interest, Elissa Dorfsman felt that this unique paper sculpture needed a name to help identify it. She consulted her friend Dorothy Perkins, Asian scholar and author of the Encyclopedia of Japan, published

in 1991 by Facts on File. Perkins, who is currently working on the Encyclopedia of China (to be published in May 1997), suggested that it be called Qian Zhi("a thousand papers").

Already in the works but unknown to us, a major exhibition, "Fly to Freedom: The Art of the Golden Venture Refugees," had been planned to open in February of 1996 at the Museum of Chinese in the Americas in New York. (The exhibition was set to travel to The Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial in Philadelphia in May.) One Friday afternoon in early November 1995,I visited a small group of paperfolders from the Origami Society, who were preparing ornaments for the American Museum of Natural History's Christmas tree. I pulled a Qian Zhi lidded bowl and a basket out of my carrying case.

Before the sculptures were all the way out, I heard 0000hs and ahhhs rising from the origamists. "We've never seen anything like it," they said.

Risa Miller, manager of the group, searched through the Origami Society's library for similar work, but nothing was found to match Qian Zhi. Though much was found on modular unit constructions, the complicated and intricate engineering and the particular triangular fold of Qian Zhi could not be found.

BOWL WITH LID (Detail) 7 7" Private collection

The Qian Zhi Paper Fold Qian Zhi sculptures are made by folding small pieces of paperâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;commonly torn from magazine pagesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;into interlocking triangular units. The folded triangles are inserted one inside another and built into different shapes.

1 Start with a rectangle twice as long as it is wide.

2 Fold both corners A,so that they meet at point C as shown.

3 Turn the piece over and fold corners B,so they meet at point D,creating a new corner Eat top.

C/A

A

A D/B

50 SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART

In a series of conversations with other people I looked for more clues for a tradition of work like this in China. Adrienne Cooper, program director for the Museum of Chinese in the Americas, said she knows quite a few Chinese immigrants who are familiar with this work and have seen things like it in mainland China. One example she described came from a Chinese family who make small trays constructed of interlocking paper units and use them at mealtime as throw-away bone trays.

For more information on this specific tradition of modular paperwork in China, she referred me to folklorist Bill Westerman,co-curator of"Fly to Freedom" and its catalog essayist. His research led him to say,"No person has been able to show us or tell us exactly where or how the same 'complicated' works were made."

Willow Weilan Hai, native of Mainland China and curator of New York's China Institute in America, explains, "We were taught how to do this as children in handicrafts classes in elementary school, but the folded paper toys we made (pagodas, monkeys, houses, birds) were much simpler and made to fall apart. My grandmother knew this craft, though my mother didn't. The toys we made were loosely constructed."

PINEAPPLES Folded paper, glue Each approximately 9" tall Private collection

SHIP GOLDEN VENTURE Cardboard, folded paper, papier-mache 20 20" Collection of the Museum of Chinese in the Americas

4 Fold newly created comer E down to meet point D.

5 Fold so that point F meets point G. One Qian Zhi building block or unit is now complete.

6 The sculptural forms are created by nesting the points of one unit in the "pockets" of two other units, while controlling the placement of color.

F/G

E/D E/D

Illustrations by DALE GREGORY

SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART 51

The originator of Qian Zhi has since been given asylum in the United States and his whereabouts are unknown.

A handful of the other refugees have received asylum, while a number of others have been deported. The rest have lost their cases for asylum and have given up fighting for their freedom. At the time of this writing, none are creating paperworks.

I asked Cindy if it would be possible to arrange a meeting for me with two of the refugees in prison to talk about their art. "Most are so depressed right now, and so distrustful of being exposed, that it may be hard to find someone," she said. Luckily, she was proven wrong—two volunteered.

For the most part, most of the men focused on using folded paper units to build representational sculptures.

However, one of the two artists I interviewed concentrated on papier-mâché. "I used soap, glue, and toilet paper," he said (through a translator) during our meeting. "I got my ideas from a First Word book, while trying to learn English [in prison] with pictures of cows and horses. I also made a monkey from my imagination. In China, I used to work with cement, metal, and brick to build houses." Cindy pointed out that the feet of his eagles looked like chicken feet."Most of these men come from farms," she said.

When asked if he had ever made artwork in China, he said flatly, "No," but when asked again he remembered "playing with soil and water, molding animals; making a pig when I was eight or nine years old."

I asked what caused the paperworks to change and evolve. After much rewording and many attempts to understand each other, Cindy and I finally made sense of a word that sounded like "competition."

Since the men are split into groups (called "pods") and live in separate quarters, they showed each other the completed paperworks through a window. One group might show a bird, and then another group would try to outdo them. "We tried to invent new things," he said. "Once someone came up with an airplane."

I asked the other artist (he did not work in papiermâché, only folded paper) if he remembered anything like this from home, any paperworks built from units to form some kind of object. He thought for quite a while and at first said there was nothing like it, but after I asked again he remembered pineapples built from interlocking units of folded Chinese paper money. "But it would fall apart," he said,"and it was very small." He cupped his hands.

"Are you still making any of the artwork?" I asked.

"We are all very depressed now," he said. "I'm not folding anymore,I'm too depressed."

After the interviews, I spoke with Chaplain Bupp.

"Most of the men watch Chinese videos on TV now," he said, standing in his small gray office beside a gray desk full of the early, colorful Qian Zhi objects. He posed for a photograph, with a multicolored papier-mâché bird sitting in his hand. "This work is unprecedented here. We have never seen anything like it."

An assistant Bible teacher came into the Chaplain's office, before holding a class down the hall, and agreed to be photographed. I moved the group of birds with multicolored feathers, a basket with gold and silver paper glittering

52 SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART

in the center, and a white-lined-paper mobile (one of the first pieces made), out of the way and shot a close-up of her hand, in which she held another very early piece over the gray desk.

Bupp took me down the prison hall to the assistant chaplain's office to see more of the early works. He described some elaborate early paperworks of towers four to six feet high. They were made out of rolled papers (forming narrow tubes) and placed in paper courtyards with poetic inscriptions on the gates.

I recalled the tower in Cindy Lobach's dining room, about four and a half feet high with an inscription in Chinese written to her and her husband by her husband's client. Translated, it said,"The Tower of Eternal Gratitude.

Many miles I travel to Search for Freedom. Saviors I met when in Desperation and Tribulation."

Though none of the men spoke English when they arrived at York County Prison, it wasn't long before a dialogue began between the York community and the refugees. Jeffrey Lobach once told me,"It was for political, religious, and legal reasons that the community came to the aide of the detainees. They believed they weren't being treated fairly."

After reading about the refugees' plight in the newspapers, local teachers asked their young classes to write letters to the prisoners. One man made it his mission to gather shoes for the men, who spent the first winter in prison wearing only sandals. Many people came to visit them— one factory worker came every day. As the artworks began to pour out of the prison and be sold, the artists began to sign their work. Letters were then exchanged between the owners and the artists.

The artwork developed as a token of appreciation, an exchange between men in confinement and the members of a supportive community. It grew with their shared hopes and flourished for a period of about two years. Then, as case by case was lost, the artists' hope dwindled and so did their art. At the time of this writing, no one in the prison is making Qian Zhi, and we may never see anything quite like it again. Though the artmaking may have ended, the story will continue. Cindy said to me in our last conversation, "We have not lost our hope yet." * Dale Gregory earned a bachelor's degree infine artsfrom the School of Visual Arts in New York and is enrolled in the certificate program ofthe Museum's Folk Art Institute. She is a freelance graphic designer and illustrator and is currently writing and illustrating a children's book on Qian Zhi.

NOTES 1 Cindy Lobach,interview with Judy Wolfman,September 7, 1995.

2 Cindy Lobach, conversation with the author, November 17, 1995.

3 Cindy Lobach, conversation with the author, late November 1995.

4 "The attorneys make sure to bring a few extra legal pads when they visit." Quoted from legal aide Elissa Dorfsman in an article from The Magazine Antiques(October 1995), p. 29.

5 Cindy Lobach, conversation with the author, late November 1995.

The Art of the

Contemporary Doll

By WENDY LAVITT and KRYSTYNA FORAY GODDU

MARTHA, AN AMERICAN FLAG DOLL Jane Cather (b. 1946) Carmel, California 1994 Cotton knit stockinette, metal, leather, cotton 12 7 ' 6" Collection of Elizabeth Spaulding

Webster's defines a doll as "a smallscale figure of a human being, used especially as a child's plaything."

Most people are accustomed to the notion of dolls as playthings, but none of the dolls in the exhibition "The Art of the Contemporary Doll" were intended to be children's toys. The show highlights three-dimensional figures made primarily in the past decade by artists whose work is redefining the medium of the doll. Reflecting a broad range of technique and vision, these works have been conceived as artistic expressions rendered in wood, cloth, L5 leather, wax, resins, clay, and porcelain.

For artists of the late twentieth century, the doll has become an intriguing, multifaceted form of creative expression. The roots of the current movement can be traced to the early years of this century, when a few key European artists, such as Kathe Kruse (1883-1968) of Germany, turned their attention to dollmaking.

Most of the dollmakers who came directly after them, such as Helen Bullard (b. 1902), however, were Americans, and it is with their work that the concept of the modeled human figure as both doll and art object came to be. In the past fifteen years, a quiet revolution has been taking place as artists have embraced the infinite possibilities of dollmaking.

Contemporary artists use the doll form to express particular characteristics of the human condition that fascinate them. Many of the artists have been greatly influenced by nineteenth- and early twentieth-century folk art. This is often reflected in their art through the retention of techniques used by their predecessors and by the use of traditional materials such as cornhusks, cloth, wood, and found materials.

Before commercially produced toys were widely available, dolls were

handmade, often by parents for their own children. These early folk dolls reflected the diverse regional and cultural traditions of their makers. Today there are artists who work in wood in much the same manner as their predecessors carved before them. There are also a few artists who enjoy working with the time-honored medium of cornhusks. They bend and twine the cornhusks into elaborate figures, dying them in once unheard-of colors.

While the art of contemporary cloth dollmakers is based on the simple tools of needle and thread, their innovOWL DEVA Akira Blount (b. 1945) (Twig chair by Larry and Akira Blount) Bybee, Tennessee 1994 Sculpey, pima cotton jersey, gesso, leather, pine cones, twigs, polyester fiberfill 26 11 x 12" Collection of Ann Cousins

BABUSHKAS Marla Florio (b. 1956) Novi, Michigan 1996 Cotton, rayons, silks 14/ 1 2x 12/ 1 2x 7 '/a Collection of the artist Lynton Gardiner

ative creations have moved far beyond the simple rag doll.

Dollmakers today have the advantage of a wealth of materials for sculpting and costuming. Even though they continue to discover new ways to celebrate the variety of the human condition, they still find kernels of inspiration in the largely anonymous folk dolls that once inhabited homes across the American landscape.

The explorations of"The Art of the Contemporary Doll" are perhaps best summed up in the words of John Darcy Noble, curator emeritus of the Toy Collection of the Museum of the City of New York. "A doll," Noble wrote in the May 1993 issue of Contemporary Doll Magazine, "is a plaything, and its physical attributes are

irrelevant. Its qualification depends on your definition of play, but to my mind, play is a natural human function. The very making of a doll can be play, and so can the collecting of dolls, the preserving and displaying of dolls, the cherishing, and above all, the sheer thrill and delight in the possession of dolls. All this, to my mind, is an exalted form of play."*

Wendy Lavitt is the author of American Folk Dolls and The Knopf Collector's Guide to American Antiques: Dolls.

Krystyna Poray Goddu is thefounding editor ofDolls magazine. Lavin and Goddu are co-curators of"The Art ofthe Contemporary Doll" and authors ofThe Doll by Contemporary Artists (Abbeville Press, 1995).

SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART 53

AmericA an n Treasury:

Quilts

from the Museum of American Folk Art

by ELIZABETH V. WARREN AND SHARON L. EISENSTAT

he Museum of American Folk Art takes quilts seriously. In a permanent collection that includes more than thirty-five hundred objects, there are now almost four hundred quilts, with additional examples accepted at virtually every quarterly meeting of the Museum's Collections Committee.

But the collection is not just about numbers. Among the Museum's holdings are some of the masterpieces of American quiltmaking, in terms of both aesthetics and historic significance. The early wool Harlequin Medallion Quilt, the magnificent Sunburst Quilt that has been

T

54 SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART

traced to the Savery family of Quakers in Philadelphia, and the beautiful Bird of Paradise Quilt Top are among the most well known of these stars. There are also areas of particular strength within the collection. Categories such as Amish quilts, Victorian show quilts, and twentiethcentury revival quilts are so extensive that they can be studied in depth and presented to the public in a variety of exhibitions and publications.

In consequence, quilt exhibitions are an almost annual occurrence at the Museum's gallery in New York City and exhibitions of quilts from the Museum's collection tour around the world. A special membership categoryâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;The Quilt Connection, which

has its own newsletterâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;is available for Museum members with a particular interest in textiles. Classes and lectures in the history of American quilts and demonstrations and workshops that explore quiltmaking techniques are offered every semester at the Museum's education branch, the Folk Art Institute.

In preparation for the book Glorious American Quilts: The Quilt Collection ofthe Museum ofAmerican Folk Art, published by Penguin Studio, and the exhibition "An American Treasury: Quilts from the Museum of American Folk Art," on view through September 8, 1996, we have spent the past five years researching and cataloging the collection. Unfortunately,

HARLEQUIN MEDALLION QUILT (detail) Quittmaker unidentified New England 1800-1820 Pieced calamanco 87 96" Gift of Cyril Irwin Nelson in loving memory of his grandparents John Williams and Sophie Anna Macy.

1984.33.01

the majority of the quilts owned by the Museum are "orphans"â&#x20AC;&#x201D;they entered the collection without any solid provenance. Occasionally, information relating to where a quilt was found ("bought at a flea market in Connecticut") or scraps of hearsay evidence or family folklore("made for a wedding" or "made by an African American

were made. Elements such as overall design, fabrics, color, patterns, sewing techniques, and quilting motifs have been evaluated and relied upon to place the bedcovers within the overall framework of American quilt history.

The Museum's collection has grown over the years primarily through the kindness of donors. Funds

woman") accompany a quilt into the collection. Over the years, many of these tales have been retold so often that they have become accepted as gospel. Where possible, it has been our purpose to authenticate such stories or, as in most cases, to lay to rest the often romantic anecdotes that frequently become associated with works of folk art.

Where there have been enough clues to enable more historical or genealogical research, this work has been carried out by us, by members of the Museum staff, or by students at the Folk Art Institute. When such information has not been available, the quilts themselves have offered some evidence as to when and where they

have been raised or grants received to enable the Museum to purchase a significant and rare example (such as the Bird ofParadise Quilt Top)or to fill a gap in the collection, but quilts most often enter the collection through gifts. As the Museum is a national not a regional institution, it does not restrict its collection by location or by time period; thus the quilts included in the book and the exhibition come from all over the country and range in date from the early nineteenth to the late twentieth century. The only restrictions placed on gifts are condition and aesthetic and/or historical importance. Occasionally, a quilt in less than desirable condition will be accepted if it has a significant family

SARAN ANN GAFtGES APPLIQUE QUILT Sarah Ann Garges Doylestown, Pennsylvania Dated 1853 Cotton, silk, and wool with wool embroidery 96 98" Gift of Time Warner.

1988.21.1

history or is of importance in understanding the development of the American quiltmalcing tradition.

Because the collection has grown mainly by gifts, its strengths have been determined largely by the interests of the Museum's donors. The collection is particularly strong in Amish quilts, for example, as a result of major gifts of midwestern Amish quilts from David Pottinger in 1980 and primarily Pennsylvanian Amish quilts from William and Dede Wigton in 1984. Because of Trustee Cyril Nelson's interest in early textiles, the Museum today has a fine representation of quilts from the first part of the nineteenth century, including wholecloth, whitework, and early chintz examples. A recent Museum exhibition of Victorian show quilts was inspired in part by the "crazy" and other late nineteenth-century quilts that were given to the collection by Margaret Cavigga in honor of the first Museum-sponsored Great American Quilt Festival in 1986. A traveling exhibition and publication was organized in 1989 to highlight Robert Bishop's extensive collection of quilts in the "Double Wedding Ring" pattern, which is now owned by the Museum.

In 1990 the Museum received a matching grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for the purchase of ten quilts made by African Americans living in the South. This grant inspired a number of collectors to donate other contemporary African American quilts to the Museum, and today this is a growing segment of the collection. Most of the other contemporary quilts in the collection repre-

This exhibition is made possible by lime Warner.

Additional support is provided by Fairfield Processing Corporation, maker of poly-filÂŽ brand products, the American Folk Art Society, the Historical Society of Early American Decoration, and several generous friends of the Museum of American Folk Art.

SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART 55

sent the winners of the quiltmaking contests that the Museum has sponsored in recent years.

Some of the quilts in the collection came to the Museum as a direct response to needs that were identified during work for the book and exhibition. In 1992 and 1993 Irene Reichert answered a "call for quilts" that was published in Folk Art magazine—she donated five beautiful nineteenth-century floral applique quilts. This gift filled what had been a major gap in the collection, enabling the Museum to present a more comprehensive history of quiltmaking in America.

All of the quilts irr the Museum's permanent collection are included in the book. Quilts that are of particular aesthetic or historical significance have been illustrated in color and are discussed in the text. Some are pictured in black and white in the catalog in the back of the book, which includes basic information on every quilt, arranged according to the categories outlined in the individual chapters. The purpose of the book is to provide an opportunity for scholars, quiltmakers, collectors, and others who appreciate these bedcovers to explore the collection in depth, to review the significant research that has been done on the quilts, and to appreciate textiles that are unfortunately too delicate to be exhibited frequently and are therefore not generally available to the public.

Approximately thirty of these bedcovers are on view in the current exhibition. All of the major American quiltmaking traditions are represented, including whole-cloth, chintz, signature and album, applique, pieced, log cabin, Victorian show, Amish, Colonial revival and "kit," African American, and contemporary.

Some of the quilts in the exhibition are new additions to the Museum's collection and are being presented to the public for the first time. These include the only positively dated eighteenth-century bedcover in the collection, the Tree of Life Whitework Quilt. This elaborately stuffed and corded textile features the date, 1796, written in cotton roving on the surface of the quilt top. Another new acquisition is the Sunflower and Hearts Quilt, a colorful mid-nine-

56 SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART

teenth-century appliqued quilt that has also been selected for the cover of Glorious American Quilts.

Other bedcovers, including the Honeycomb Quilt Top, an early nineteenth-century example of the "English" piecing technique, and the In Honor Shall Wave Outline Embroidered Quilt Top, made in 1902, have been exhibited previously, but are now shown with new information about their history and design sources.

Many of the old favorites in the Museum's collection—such as the Pieties SUNFLOWERS AND HEARTS QUILT Quiltmaker unidentified Possibly New England 1860-1880 Hand-sewn, hand-quitted, appliqued, and pieced cotton 85 • 91" Gift of Frances and Paul Martinson. 1994.02.01

Quilt, the Sacret Bibel Quilt, and the Baby Crib Quilt—are also on view to demonstrate the breadth and quality of the collection. The Kimono hanging

by Kumiko Sudo, a contemporary Japanese-American artist, has been included to attest to the worldwide appeal of quiltmaking and the incorporation of international themes into a traditional American folk art.

A broad range of educational programs, including lectures, symposia, and children's art workshops, will be held throughout the duration of the exhibition.* Acknowledgments The authors would like to thank Dr. Nancy Kollisch and Dr. Jeffrey Pressman and The American Folk Art Society for their generous support of this project.

Elizabeth V. Warren is the Museum of American Folk Art's consulting curator.

She and Sharon L. Eisenstat are the guest curatorsfor "An American Treasury: Quiltsfrom the Museum ofAmerican Folk Art," which opened on May 4 and will run through September 8. Their book Glorious American Quilts: The Quilt Collection of the Museum of American Folk Art accom panies the exhibition.

SUNSHINE AND SHADOW QUILT Amish quiltmaker unidentified Lancaster County, Pennsylvania 1930-1940 Machine-pieced, hand-quilted wool, including crepe; rayon; cotton 83 '•• - 82 '.."

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. William B. Wigton. 1984.25.04

SACHET BIBEL QUILT Susan Arrowood West Chester, Pennsylvania 1875-1895 Appliqued cotton, including lace; silk, including velvet; wool; ink with cotton embroidery 88' • • 72" framed Gift of the Amicus Foundation, Inc., and Evelyn and Leonard Lauder.

1986.20.01

ALICE J. HOFFMAN AND MARYANN WARAKOMSKI Danforth Pewterers, Ltd.

MUSEUM OF AMERICAN FOLK ART COLLECTION Representing over 300 years ofAmerican design,from the late 1600s to the present, the Museum ofAmerican Folk Art Collection brings within reach ofthe public the very best ofthe past to be enjoyedfor generations to come.

Museum of American Folk Art CollectionTM at the April International Home Furnishings Market in High Point, North Carolina.

The Museum's first collection in American Portfolio consists of 25 pieces for the bedroom, living room,and den. New design elements and a new finish, available in maple solids, cherry, and bird's-eye maple veneers, are aged to perfection with the look of a treasured antique. Don't miss our Fall column for room settings featuring this collection. * Mary Myers Studio introduced three nutcrackers created for the Museum at the February Market Square Show in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. The Museum's Paper Doll Soldiers and Uncle Sam Riding a Bicycle Whirligig were the inspiration for these individually carved and hand-painted wooden nutcrackers. Now available, each one stands at attention ready for action.

News from Museum Licensees * Sullins House products Look for the many new products created for the home and office from our family of licensees, feainclude a Situation of America, turing new designs inspired by 1848 fireboard and kindling box, the Museum's collection.

Girl in Red Dress with Cat and * Danforth Pewterers,Ltd., Dog dummy board and mirror, has created new pewter gift prodFriendship is the Fountain of ucts for every occasion. WhimsiLove square and dome-top boxes, cal designs from hooked rugs and Fruit, Bird, and Butterfly Theodecorative paintings provided the rem desk box with ball feet, and inspiration for this series of wall-mounted peg hooks, featurframes, charm pins, barrettes, keyrings, and brooches. Domestic ing border designs from the Zoo,Friendship is the Fountain of Museum's wallpaper collection.

Decorative as well as utilitarian, Love, Classic Leaf, and these products are as welcome in M.A.D.Cats are now available. today's home as they were more * The Lane Co.,Inc., prethan 100 years ago. viewed the American Portfolio

The Lane Company, Inc.

New Directions

The Museum welcomes its newest licensees: * James Hastrich,IGMA artisan, maker of fine American painted furniture in 1" and 2" scale, is creating a limited-edition series of miniature reproductions for the Museum. It's time to begin your collection—the Museum's Tall Case Clock with signed dial by L.W. Lewis, c. 18101835, is the first in the series and is available this Fall. * Workshops of Jonathan Wiegand. Wooden gameboards, planters, wall boxes, and shelves are just a few of the hand-painted and stenciled accessories created for the Museum. No matter which way the wind blows, an authorized reproduction of the Museum's Sea Serpent Weathervane, c. 1850, is now available in three sizes for table and wall display.

Mary Meyers Studio

Special Events

Mark your calendar—July 4, 1996. Standing proud for the Red, White, and Blue, the Museum and QVC celebrate America with the Museum ofAmerican Folk Art Hour. Take a seat and tune in to purchase a parade of licensed products from the Museum of American Folk Art Collection.TM The guest host will be our very own Gerard C. Wertkin, the Museum's director. Remember, your purchase of Museumlicensed products directly benefits the cultural 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 Museum of American Folk Art Collection,TM please contact us at 212/977-7170.

Family of Licensees Abbeville Press(212/888-1969) gift wrap, book/gift tags and quilt note cube.* Andrews & McMeel(816/932-6700) traditional folk art songbook. Artwear,Inc.(800/551-9945) activewear, T-shirts.* Carvin Folk Art Designs,Inc.(212/755-6474) gold-plated and enameled jewelry.* Concord Miniatures (800/888-0936) 1"-scale furniture and accessories.° Country Critters by Donna

(412/463-3309)cloth dolls.* Dakotah,Inc. (800/325-6824)decorative pillows, woven throws, wall art, and totes.* Danforth Pewterers, Ltd.(800/222-3142) pewter jewelry and accessories, buttons, ornaments, keyrings.* Dynasty Dolls(800/888-0936)collectible porcelain dolls.* Enesco Corporation (800/436-3726)decorative home giftware collection. Galison Books(212/354-8840) note cards, address book, puzzle, holiday cards.* Gallery Partners,Ltd.(718/797-2547)silk, cotton, and chiffon scarves and wool shawls.* Imperial Wallcoverings,Inc.(216/464-3700) wallpaper and borders. James Hastrich (800/962-2932) miniature painted furniture reproductions in limited editions. James River Corporation,Creative Expressions Groups (800/843-6818) party goods.* The Lane Company,Inc., including Lane/Venture and Lane Upholstery (800/447-4700)furniture (case goods, wicker, and upholstered furniture) and mini-chests. Limited Addition (800/2689724)decorative accessories. Mary Myers Studio (800/829-9603) nutcrackers.* Perfect Fit Industries(704/289-1531) machine-made in America printed bedcovers and coordinated bedroom products. Remington Apparel Co., Inc.(203/821-3004) men's and women's ties.* Rose Art Industries(800/CRAYONS)jigsaw puzzles.* Saunders & Cecil(212/662-7607) paper and stationery products, photo albums, calendars, and journals. Sullins House (219/495-2252) peg-hook wall plaques; gift, desk, and vanity boxes; decorative mirrors, and fire and dummy boards.* Takashimaya Company,Ltd.(212/350-0550) home furnishings accessories and furniture (available only in Japan). Tyndale,Inc.(312/384-0800)lighting and lampshades. Wild Apple Graphics,Ltd. (800/756-8359)fine art reproduction prints and posters.* Workshops of Jonathan Wiegand (804/645-1111) hand-painted and stenciled wood planters; wall plaques; pegboards; clock shelf; gameboards; wall and table decor; candle, needlework, and wall boxes. *Available in Museum of American Folk Art Book and Gift Shops.

For mail-order information,contact Beverly McCarthy at 212/977-7170.

SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART 57

18 YEARS AGO THE FALL ANTIQUES SHOW WAS HELD AT THE PARK AVENUE ARMORY. THE FIRST "ALL AMERICAN" SHOW, IT WAS THE SINGLE MOST SUCCESSFUL ANTIQUES SHOW EVER HELD. THE MAINE ANTIQUES DIGEST CALLED IT "A GUTSY SHOW...EXCITING, OVERWHELMING, AND FRANKLY, DAZZLING." THE NEW YORK TIMES SAID IT WAS "BOUND TO CHANGE NEW YORKERS' VIEWS OF ANTIQUES SHOWS." AND SO IT DID !

NEW LOCATION Park Avenue Armory

NEW DATES September 26 - 29

Sanford Smith's

18th Annual

FALL ANTIQUES SHOWat the Armory SEPTEMBER 26 - 29, 1996 THURS & FRI • llam - 9pm

SAT • llam - 8pm

SUN • llam - 6pm

PREVIEW SEPTEMBER 25TH 6pm - 9pm To Benefit The Museum of American Folk Art Information & Reservations:(212) 977-7170

The Park Avenue Armory

Park Avenue & 67th Street New York City The most important American Antiques Show in the Country, featuring 76 distinguished dealers, exhibiting a complete range of American Antiques, Folk Art, Country Furniture, Quilts, Architectural & Garden Furniture, Pottery, Textiles, American Indian Art, Fine Art & Decorative Accessories

Produced & Managed By Sanford L. Smith & Associates•(212) 777-5218 Fax:(212) 477-6490

JOHN C. HILL ANTIQUE INDIAN ART 6962 E. 1st Ave. Scottsdale, Arizona 85251

(602)946-2910

The Historical Society of Early American Decoration is pleased to announce that the first volume of a projected four volume set will be available in the Fall of 1996.

American Painted Tinware A Guide To Its Identification Alfred Charlie Willeto(1906-1965) Navajo Spirit figures, circa 1962-64, 211/2" and 23" high

By Gina Martin & Lois Tucker Volume I covers the beginning of the tin industry in Berlin, Connecticut and proceeds to the Upson Shop in Marion,and the North and Butler Shops in New York.

American Folk Art Sidney Gecker

With over 200 color photos of original tinware and a comprehensive identification guide including more than 600 line drawings, the authors trace the development of American painted tinware from its inception.

We offer an extremely varied selection offine American folk art.

*Prepublication price until October 1, 1996—$35.00 *Price after October 1,1996—$42.50 Shipping & Handling-$3.00, CT residents add 6% sales tax

We specialize in fine,decorated slipware, particularly from Pennsylvania and the Shenandoah Valley.

To place an order, please contact: HSEAD,Inc. do Lois Tucker PO Box 429, North Berwick, ME 03906-0429

Also weathervanes,eighteenth and nineteenth century oil paintings, watercolors and miniatures.Tole,chalkware, woodcarvings and painted furniture.

Come and visit us.

You will be pleased with the quality ofour collection.

226 West 21st Street New York, N. Y 10011

(212)929-8769 Appointment suggested

The Historical Society of Early American Decoration is an organization of renowned craftsmen, artists, and historians. For the past fifty years,they have researched the history, and preserved the techniques used on decorative articles found in early American homes.

For information about HSEAD,contact Beverly McCarthy, Administrative Assistant 61 West 62nd Street(Third floor) New York, NY 10023-7015 •

SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART 59

American Antique,3int.

Austin T. Miller•685 Farrington Road, Columbus, Ohio 43085•(614) 848-4080

WANTED WILLIAM L. HAWKINS PAINTINGS PURCHASE OR CONSIGNMENT Works on masonite not wanted, all other mediums acceptable, confidentially assured.

Call 614-848-4080.

12" X 48"

WANDA'S QUILTS • P.O. Box 2012• Oldsmar, Florida 34677•(813) 855-1521

Lookfor The Beaver's Works at yourfavorite Folk Art Gallery.

of Washington, D.C. for their continuous support of 'The Beaver"

"Very Special Arts Gallery"

A Very Special THANKS To The

HOUSE PAINT ON PLYWOOD

"Angels and Cats"

"The Beaver"

134notie (ialients of Atlanta ISIABLISIILD 1973

5325 IZOSWELL ROAD, N.E. ATLANTA,GEORGIA 30342 (404)252-0485 â&#x20AC;˘ FAX (404) 252-0359

"GOWEN GATE PARk",

1944, by ISRAEL Li rwAk (1868-1960) o/c 21"x3 1"

MAIN STREET ANTIQUES and ART Colleen and Louis Picek Folk Art and Country Americana

WI% Noi.s

(319) 643-2065 110 West Main, Box 340 West Branch Iowa 52358 On Interstate 80

Send a self-addressed stamped envelope for our monthly Folk-Art and Americana price list

62 SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART

Two antique folk-art devil figures.

WORLD'S GREATEST SELF-TAUGHT ART SHOW & SALE

Folk Pest '96

Self-taught • Outsider • Southern Folk Pottery European Naive • Primitive • Visionary • Folk Art ALABAMA

LOUISIANA Gilley's Gallery Trade Folk Art MISSOURI Galerie Bonheur R. Ege Antiques

Artisans Cotton Belt Marcia Weber-Art Objects CAUFORNIA Graves Country Gallery & Antiques COLORADO Nan & David Pirnack

MICHIGAN

M.J.M. Outsiders Gallery NEW YORK

FLORIDA

Tricia Collins Grand Salon American Primitive Gallery Jim Linderman Museum of American Folk Art

Cavanaugh & Blue Leslie Neumann Fine Art Tyson Trading Company Wanda's Quilts Zak Gallery GEORGIA Berman Gallery Archer Locke Finster Folk Art The Hambidge Center The High Museum Jerry Campbell Jim Allen John Denton Knoke Galleries of Atlanta Larry Schlachter Ann Jacob Gallery Le Primitif Galleries Local Color Main Street Gallery Pat Mason Fine Art Millie Leathers Modern Primitive Gallery Robert Koontz Robert Reeves Rosehips Gallery Tom Wells W. Newton Crouch, Jr. IOWA The Pardee Collection

NORTH CAROUNA

The Art Cellar Gallery At Home Gallery Aly Goodwin Catawba Valley Pottery Creative Heart Gallery Ginger Young Galleries Hayes Antiques Keeping Room Antiques The Southern Folk Pottery Collectors Society OHIO

Chuck Auerbach Bingham & Vance FOLK ARTE Gallery PENNSYLVANIA

Patrick J. McArdle SOUTH CAROUNA

America* Oh Yes! Clinton Lindley The LaRoche Collection Phil & Debbie Wingard TENNESSEE

Bruce Shelton Rising Fawn Folk Art VIRGINIA

Sunnycrest Gardens WISCONSIN Instinct MEXICO Juaquin Venado

KENTUCKY

Hackley Gallery Heike Pickett Gallery Kentucky Folk Art Center Loch Lea Antiques John Denton " '

AND MANY, MANY MORE!

North Atlanta Trade Center • ATLANTA, GEORGIA Hotel Information: Bradbury Inn (770)662-8175

Mention Folk Fest & receive discounted rate!

* OLYMPIC DATES: JUNE 5 - AUGUST 5, 1996 * Meet the Artists at Friday Night's Show Opening & Party

To Mootg.rnor ,

Heisted Aden.

IntarnatIonal Airport

North Atlanta Trade Center 1-85 and Indian Trail Road

Friday: Aug. 16, 1996, 5- 10 pm Saturday: Aug. 17, 1996, 10-7 pm Sunday: Aug. 18, 1996, 10 - 5 pm

For FREE newsletter & more information on Folk Feet'96, call or write: Steve S. Amy Slotin 5967 Blackberry Lane• Buford, GA 30518 (770)932-1000• FAX:(770)932-0506

MUSEUM

NEWS

Peter, Paul & Mary with Gerard C. Wertkin

Coca-Cola Salutes Folk Art

resented by The Coca-Cola

p Peter, Paul & PAary...and Gerry he Museum of American Folk Art set the stage for the landmark reunion concert "Peter, Paul & Mary: Lifelines." Produced by Thirteen/ WNET in New York for PBS's Great Performances, the concert journeys through the past, the present, and beyond, and features the famous trio with Richie Havens, John Sebastian, Tom Paxton, Ronnie Gilbert, Dave Van Ronk, Odetta, and other folk legends and rising stars.

The set at Sony Studios in New York, where the concert was taped in front of a live audience, was designed around objects from the Museum of American Folk Art's permanent collection—on loan for this event. The Museum was publicly thanked for its participation and, at the end of the first taping, Director Gerard C. Wertkin was asked to join the famous trio on stage. The Museum's registrar, Ann-Marie Reilly, worked closely with the concert's executive producers, David Horn and Ken Fritz, and the set designer, John Lee Beatty, to create the perfect atmosphere for this "folk" event.

Included among the 30 objects from the Museum's collection were a 1920s Amish quilt, a carousel horse carved in 1910, and a selection of outstanding duck and swan decoys.

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84 SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART

The concert featured new compositions as well as old favorites, and the music was as moving, relevant, and joyous as it ever was. A home video version of"Peter, Paul & Mary: Lifelines" will be available on Warner Reprise Video.

Company with assistance from the Museum of American Folk Art,"The Coca-Cola Olympic Salute To Folk Art" is an international exhibition that celebrates folk art, craft traditions, and the "fabric of life" around the world. The exhibition will be on view during July and August at the Summer 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.

Recognizing the relationship between popular culture and folk art, the exhibition brings together sculptural works interpreting the Coca-Cola contour bottle through a wide variety of craft traditions.

The project includes artists from more than 50 countries. American participants include: Lonnie Holley, Stephen Huneck, Mary Michael Shelley, David Strickland, and Mr. Imagination. Central to the exhibition is an eightTHE RESIDENCE OF LEMUEL COOPER Paul A. Seifert Plain, Wisconsin 1879 Watercolor, oil, and tempera on paper 21 7/8 28" Museum of American Folk Art purchase 1981.12.26

1 1711 /11/,',

foot Coca-Cola contour bottle created by the noted Georgia artist Reverend Howard Finster.

Among the countries represented are Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Cambodia, France, Great Britain, Ireland, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, the Philippines, Russia, Spain, and Sri Lanka. The exhibition, presented at The Coca-Cola Company International Plaza in downtown Atlanta, will bring together people of different cultures through diverse artistic interpretations of a familiar Oft icon that transcends all — — languages: the CocaCola contour bottle.

COCA-COLA BOTTLE Howard Finster Summerville, Georgia 1995 Enamel on plastic 8 feet tall

-5 Kmaesto.5.1.44.Sean.

-

Architecture Exhibition Opens in September he exhibition "A Sense of Place: Vernacular Architecture in American Folk Art," organized by the Museum's curator, Stacy C. Hollander, will be on view from September 14, 1996, through January 5, 1997.

This intriguing exhibition of more than 75 objects examines the architecture of everyday life as depicted through folk art.

Recorders of daily life, the artists we call "folk" today have depicted the way America looks

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since at least the eighteenth century. It is through their work, produced over three centuries, that these traditions can still be observed, studied, understood, and admired. Various building styles evolved as physical reactions to issues of function, geography, available materials, and cultural heritage. These everyday solutions would be largely lost were it not for written records that illuminate the processes that resulted in an actual structure,

and images documented in paintings, textiles, decorative arts, and other mediums, often by the same people who were using these spaces.

Professor Norman Weiss of Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation will collaborate with Hollander on the exhibition and provide an interpretation of the images from an architectural historian's point of view.

WE BUY FOLK & OUTSIDER ART CALL 800-523-0450 PRIVATE COLLECTOR SEEKS OUTSTANDING WORKS BY

William Edmondson Sister Gertrude Morgan Elijah Pierce Bill Traylor JOSH FELDSTEIN • AMERICAN FOLK ART 4001 NEWBERRY ROAD, SUITE E-3 • GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA • 32607 • TEL 352-375-6161

REPRESENTING

Whirligigs by John Bambic

AMERICAN AND EUROPEAN OUTSIDER ART

WORKS BY (CLOCKWISE FROM BOTTOM LEFT) CLEMENTINE HUNTER,HOWARD FINSTER, WALTER ANDERSON,HOWARD FINSTER AND BILL TRAYLOR. CURRENTLY ON EXHIBITION THE ARTISTS OF SUSSING

THE PARDEE COLLECTION P.O. Box 2926, Iowa City, IA 52244 • Sherry Pardee (319) 337-2500

JUDY A SASLOW GALLERY 212 WEST SUPERIOR STREET SUITE 208 CHICAGO ILLINOIS 60810 3129430530

SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART 65

MUSEUM

NEWS

Gerard C. Wertkin, Helen B. Lore, and the Hon. Schuyler G. Chapin

Dr. Meredith F. and Gail Wright Sirrnans

Barbara I. Harris and Sherry B. Bronfman

Fred and Kathryn Giampietro

Hollander Lectures at the Michener tacy C. Hollander, the Museum's curator, presented a slide lecture at the James A. Michener Museum in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, on March 20. Organized to coincide with the presentation of the exhibition "American Naive Paintings from the National Gallery of Art," the lecture offered an overview of the collection of American folk paintings gifted to the National Gallery of Art by Colonel William Edgar and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch.

The audience consisted of approximately forty members of the Michener Museum,including Patrick Bell and Edwin Hild, Jr., of Olde Hope Antiques, Inc., who helped support the exhibition, as well as Museum of American Folk Art Trustees Joan Johnson and Julie Palley.

S

Photography by Matt Flynn

Ellis Raley Opens he Museum held a Members' Reception on Monday, March 4,to celebrate the opening of the exhibition "Discovering Ellis Ruley." Members of the Ruley family and Museum trustees and friends came together to view the work of this imaginative African American artist, whose paintings reflect both the optimism and racial strains of his time-1939 to 1959â&#x20AC;&#x201D;in preâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;civil rights Connecticut.

In attendance were representatives of the exhibition's New York Committee of Honor, including Sherry B. Bronfman, Evelyn Cunningham,Selwyn Garraway, Marcia Anne Gillespie, Steven L. Jones, Eric D. Robertson, Dr. Meredith F. and Gail Wright Sirmans, and Susan Taylor. The Honorable Schuyler

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66 SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART

G. Chapin, New York's Commissioner of Cultural Affairs; Helen B. Love, Urban Programs Manager for Ford Motor Company, sponsors of the exhibition; and the Museum's director, Gerard C. Wertkin, addressed the guests.

Background music was provided by the Manhattan School of Music Jazz Ensemble, as warm greetings and lively discussions erupted around the gallery.

The Museum held a symposium on the artist's work the next evening, March 5, at the gallery.

Gerard C. Wertkin gave the opening address,followed by remarks from Joan D. Sandler, the Museum's director of education and collaborative programs. The symposium, which was free and open to the public, was coordinated and moderated by Lee Kogan,director of the Museum's Folk Art Institute.

Speakers included Joseph Gualtieri, director of the Slater Memorial Museum in Norwich, Conn.; John Oilman, director of the Janet Fleisher Gallery in Philadelphia; Glenn Smith,collector and author of the book Discovering Ellis Ruley(Crown Publishers, Inc., 1993); and John Ruley, nephew of the artist. John Ruley spoke about watching his uncle paint and what a blessing it is to see all of the paintings together at the Museum. Glenn Smith delved into the story of how he purchased Adam and Eve and how that one painting began his odyssey into finding out who this artist really was. Herbert Waide Hemphill, Jr., made comments from the audience, which included Ellis Ruley's great-, great-great-, and great-greatgreat-grandchildren.

Best American Craftsmen arieDiManno, director of the Museum's shops, was chosen, along with judges from the New York State Historical Association, Cooperstown, and the Mercer Museum of Bucks County Historical Society, to select the finest artisans to be included in the "Directory of the Best American Craftsmen," published in the pages of Early American Life magazine.

The judging was held in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where hundreds of entries were evaluated for period style, enduring value, and quality of craftsmanship. The results will be published in Early American Life's August issue.

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African American Collection at the Wadsworth Atheneum; Glenn Smith, author of the book Discovering Ellis Ruley(Crown Publishers, Inc., 1993); Gail Wright Sirmans, noted collector of art by 20th-century African American self-taught artists; and Museum staff members Stacy C. Hollander and Lee Kogan, who co-authored "Filtered Images: The Art of Ellis Ruley," a chapter in Discovering Ellis Ruley; Joan D. Sandler, the Museum's director of education; and Director Gerard C. Wertkin.

This on-site Museum broadcast, the first ever for WLIB— and for the Museum—was organized by Cynthia Smith, executive producer of WLIB; Collin Boothman, producer of the Tony Brown Show; and Riccardo Salmona, the Museum's deputy director.

Deidre L Bibby and Joan D. Sandler

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neof the highlights for the exhibition "Discovering Ellis Ruley" was a live radio broadcast from the Museum's Eva and Morris Feld Gallery. On Monday, March 11, radio and television commentator and talk show host Tony Brown broadcast his weekday afternoon talk show(WLIB, 1190 AM)live from the Museum from 2:00 to 5:00 P.M. With an audience of 1.2 million listeners, Tony Brown's lively discussions with invited guests and members of the Museum staff resulted in numerous calls to the show, as well as a significant increase in the number of visitors to the exhibition in the ensuing days.

Among the guests invited to speak with Brown during the broadcast were John and Larry Ruley, both nephews of Ellis Ruley; Deidre L. Bibby, director of The Amistad Foundation's

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ALFRED McMOORE Chuck Auerbach 557 Letchworth Drive Akron,OH 44303 330-867-5515 Exhibiting: Outsiders Outside—July 26, 27,28 Folk Fest—August 16, 17, 18 Riccardo Salmona, Cynthia Smith, and Collin Boothman Lee Hogan, Stacy C. Hollander, and Tony Brown

SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART 67

CONSIDER THE SOURCE

MUSEUM

NEWS

The Folk Art Badge irl scouts work to earn a badge in folk art with the help of volunteers Beth Connor, Maridean Hutton, Candy Martinez, and Patricia Sullivan.

At 11:30 A.M. on Saturday mornings, scout leaders accompany two or three troops of eager girl scouts to the Museum's Eva and Morris Feld Gallery on Columbus Avenue. The two hours spent at the Museum include a specially tailored docent talk and tour of the current exhibition and a hands-on workshop.

G Jimmy Lewis 1994

Folk Art by Kentucky's Outstanding Folk Artists The Museum Store of Kentucky Folk Art Center, Inc.

From the beginning of March to the end of April, during the exhibition tours of"Discovering Ellis Ruley," girl scouts learned how the artist drew upon magazine advertisements as inspiration for some of his images, as well as painting pictures from his imagination. In the workshops, in addition to drawing materials, magazines were provided to give them the same option. For more information on children's programming, please call Pamela Brown, at 212/595-9533.

119 West University Boulevard Morehead, Kentucky 40351 606-783-2204

Maridean Hutton looks on as junior girl scouts complete their projects.

OPEN MON-FRI 8:30430 SAT 9:00-5:00

THE MAIL ORDER FOLK ART GALLERY Life Size!

Lady wrestler, crayon on cardboard. One of many works by Lewis Smith.

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Specializing in 19th & 20th C. Folk, tramp,& obsessive art.

Carvings,quilts, paintings, more.

Box 256, Mentone,AL 35984 (205)634-4037 http.//www.vistech.net/users/artisans Free lists will be sent to you on request. Photos lent

Please specify your areas of interest.

Hats Off and Heartfelt Thanks n February 5, the Museum of American Folk Art held a Valentine's Day celebration to honor and thank the dedicated docents and volunteers who donate their time and energies to the Museum. A cocktail party for them and their guests was graciously hosted by Museum Trustee Anne Hill Blanchard and her husband at their home off Central Park in Manhattan. Close to 100 guests, including Museum trustees and staff members, attended the fun-filled evening.

Midway through the party, guests were treated to a wonderful video of the shop volunteers,

o

created by volunteer Dorothy Gargiulo's son Mike Gargiulo, who is an ABC on-air reporter in Minneapolis. The highlight of the evening was the opportunity to see the Blanchards' exceptional collection of 20th-century folk art, displayed throughout their spacious apartment.

Volunteers Lynn Steuer and Debbie Dunn with Gallery Manager Pamela Brown

68 SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART

Museum Volunteers Reach Out ocent Lynn Steuer addressed members of Seniors in Touch, a Brooklyn, N.Y., program for homebound seniors. Her topic was "You're Never Too Old to Express Yourself," a talk and slide presentation about the work of artists who began to create late in life. Under the guidance of their director, Laurel Shute, Seniors in Touch and students at Fort Hamilton High School produced a mural-size painting of a panoramic view of the Venazano and Brooklyn bridges, which will travel to various community centers in Brooklyn's Bay Ridge area. This group is proof positive that indeed...you're never too old to express yourself.

Pinetree Needlers, a senior citizens' quilting guild that meets regularly in Toms River, N.J., under the leadership of Naomi Webb, welcomed docent Deborah Ash, who presented "New York Beauties: Quilts From the Empire State," featuring quilts documented by the New York Quilt Project. Ash was very impressed by the work of these novice quilters, and was pleased to hear that they had planned a trip to the Museum to see its current quilt exhibition.

In collaboration with the Merchants House Museum in New York City, the Manhattan School

D

of Music and the Museum of American Folk Art presented "A Victorian Valentine," a Sunday afternoon program of romantic music and a slide presentation of Victorian show quilts. Mimi Sherman, curator of the Merchants House Museum,spoke about the necessity for cooperation among cultural institutions and gave a brief history of the house. Under the Manhattan School of Music's Music In Action Program, directed by Kathryn Soroka, students Sarah Hornsby, Anna Reinersman, and Madeline Bender provided a lovely concert of music for flute, harp, and voice. Museum of American Folk Art docent Rachel Strauber presented "Victorian Vernacular: The American Show Quilt," a slide talk on the Museum's outstanding collection of embellished show quilts made in the mid- to late 19th century.

Refreshments were served.

For more detailed information on the programs available, or to arrange an outreach presentation, please call Lynn Steuer, Outreach Program Coordinator, at 212/475-2802.

Members of Seniors in Touch and students of Fort Hamilton High school

LANIER MEADERS 1968

STRONG EXAMPLES OF SOUTHERN FOLK POTTERY AND ART FEATURING: • LANIER MEADERS • EDWIN MEADERS •JOHN MEADERS • AR1E MEADERS •CHEEVER MEADERS • ANNIE WELLBORN • R.A. MILLER

• MICHAEL CROCKER •THE HEWELL FAMILY • BOBBY FERGUSON • BRIAN WILSON • MARY GREENE •CHRIS LEWALLEN • BILL GORDY

AND MORE...

e_9,-(27ae UPSTAIRS AT THE ROCKHOUSE MARKET PLACE RT. 5 BOX 965 DAHLONEGA, GA. 30533 (706) 864-8362

SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART 19

Bonnie Grossman, director of The Ames Gallery

David and Didi Barrett with Mark Karelson of The Modern Primitive Gallery

Outsider Art Fair Preview Dinner n January 27, more than 300 guests turned out in support of the Museum of American Folk Art at the Museum's First Annual Benefit Dinner following the preview of the Outsider Art Fair. The buffet supper was held in the Skylight Ballroom of the Puck Building in SoHo. Many thanks go to the evening's Co-chairs, Anne Hill Blanchard and Gael Mendelsohn, whose hard work paid off with a sold-out dinner and a waiting list for tickets!

Thanks also go to Corporate Chairman Sheldon Bonovitz; Corporate Benefactor The Coca-Cola Company; Corporate Patron Duane, Morris & Heckscher; Corporate Contributor CIGNA Foundation; the Dealer's Steering Committee, including Shari Cavin, Carl Hammer,Phyllis Kind, Frank Maresca, Randall Morris, John 011man, Roger Ricco, and Luise Ross; and the Burnett Group for their beautiful invitation design.

Be sure to save the date for next year's Benefit Dinner—January 23, 1997—and make sure to reserve your tickets!

0

Outsider Art Fair—Best Yet aroline Kerrigan and Colin Smith, codirectors of the 1996 Outsider Art Fair, told us that "this was the best year ever, with over 5,000 attendees."

The success, they said,"was due to the additional day the fair was open and to the Opening Night Benefit Preview Dinner sponsored by the Museum of American Folk Art." The fair, held again at the Puck Building in New York's SoHo district, was presented Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, Janu-

C

Gael and Michael Mendelsohn

Joanne Cubbs, Gerard Wertkin, and Eugene Metcalf

ary 26-28. The fair previewed on Thursday, January 25.

Now in its fourth year, the Outsider Art Fair has gained visibility and a strong following. It is definitely the premier midwinter weekend event in Manhattan.

Two recent articles,"Is It Art?,"

by Larissa MacFarquhar(New York magazine, January 29, 1996), and "In Love With the Myth of the 'Outsider'," by Wendy Steiner(The New York Times Art View, March 10, 1996), attest to the popularity of this growing field. Steiner wrote, "Outsider works are generally accessible and affordable, unlike the products of SoHo and 57th Street, and they confirm a democratism that is congenial to a public tired of elitist values." This may be the most important reason for the success of the Outsider Art Fair.

The Museum Book Shop booth carried its usual full range of titles on self-taught artists and did well on the show floor and with follow-up mail-order sales.

The Museum-sponsored symposium was again a sellout.

"Uncommon Artists IV: A Series of Cameo Talks," presented by the Museum of American Folk Art and the South Street Seaport Museum and coordinated by Lee Kogan,took place on January 27 at the Cavin-Morris Gallery and

Made and Shelby Gilley of Gilley's Gallery

on January 28 at the Seaport Museum. The Saturday programs included lectures on Howard Finster, by Phyllis Kind; on Ferdinand Cheval's Palais Ideal environment in France, by Barbara Cate; on Keith Goodhart, by Randall Morris; on Ralph Fasanella,

by Paul D'Ambrosio; and on Jamaican Intuitive artists Everald Brown,Leonard Daley, and Ras Dizzy, by Wayne Cox. A 28minute documentary video, The Sacred Vision ofHoward Finster, celebrating the life and work of the artist, was shown. This film was made possible with the generous support of The Coca-Cola Company. Sunday's participants received breakfast and were led on an exhibition tour of"Sacred Waters: Twentieth-Century Outsiders and the Sea" by guest curator Gael Mendelsohn.

Monty and Anne Blanchard

70 SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART

Photography by Matt Flynn

CONTEMPORARY Minnie Adkins Jesse Aaron Linvel Barker Pricilla Cassidy Ronald Cooper G.C. DuPree Mr. Eddy Roy Ferdenand Denzil Goodpaster Homer Green Alvin Jarrett Sammy Landers Tim Lewis Carl McKenzie

FOLK

ART

Hog Mattingly J. Mitchell Frank Pickel Braxton Ponder Dow Pugh Royal Robertson Sultan Rogers Jimmy Lee Sudduth Olivia Thomason Mose Tolliver Wesley Willis Troy Webb And Others

Braxton Ponder

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Chicago/Milwaukee • Brimfield, MA/New England New Orleans/Houston • Atlanta/Palm Beach • DC/Virginia/North Carolina

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CARVED DIE, CIVIL WAR ERA Representing Jan Dobowski Royal Robertson Rev. Herman Hayes John Paul Simmons William Franklin Kirk Ivan Laycock Esra Diamond Black Mel the Head & Trac Early Stan (Mouse) Miller Trench, Tramp, Memory, Masonic and Fish and Fret See you at Folkfest 96, Atlanta, GA 118 Main Centre, #186, Northville, MI 48167 (810) 349-6956

•16 .

IMMIS BURGESS DULANEY

HOWARD FINSTER GLASSMAN REV. J. L HUNTER JAMES HAROLD JENNINGS CHARLIE LUCAS R. A. MILLER A. J. MOHAMMED DEACON EDDIE MOORE

EARL SIMMONS BERNICE SIMS ISAAC SMITH LAMAR SORRENTO JIMMY LEE SUDDUTH BIG AL TAPLET SARAH MARY TAYLOR MUSE TOLLIVER DANIEL TROPPY

IKE MORGAN B.F. PERKINS WILLIAM RHODES

DECELL WILLIAMS GEORGE WILLIAMS RUBY WILLIAMS

ROYAL ROBERTSON

ONIS WOODARD

SULTAN ROGERS

AND MORE

BLOCKBUSTER BULLDOG BY ISAAC SMITH

SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART 71

SUMMER

DrTirs REVERIE

NEW BOOKS FROM

IMAGES OF OTHERWORLD MATES AMONG THE BAULE, WEST AFRICA Philip L. Ravenhill This book examines the fascinating figurative art created by the Baule people of the Cote d'Ivoire who believe that each person has a mate of the opposite sex in the blobo or otherworld. Ravenhill analyzes Baule figurative art within the context of three culturally defined processes—the creation and consecration of the figures; the interaction between the owner, the figure, and the spirit represented; and the ongoing male-female dialogue in which the art finds a place.

June • 24 color photographs

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PROGRAMS

The Museum presents the following free programs in conjunction with the exhibitions "An American Treasury: Quilts from the Museum of American Folk Art" and -The Art of the Contemporary Doll." Programs will be held at the Museum's Eva and Morris Feld Gallery at 2 Lincoln Square, Columbus Avenue between 65th & 66th streets, New York, New York. For more information, please call 212/595-9533.

LECTURE AND BOOK SIGNING Wednesday, June 12 6:00 P.M. Lecture and book signing by M.G. Lord, author of Forever Barbie: The Unauthorized Biography ofa Real Doll THURSDAY EVENING LECTURE SERIES 6:00 P.M. June 13 NEW YORK BEAUTIES: QUILTS FROM NEW YORK STATE

Deborah Ash, researcher, Museum of American Folk Art

Illustrated with more than one hundred photographs, this book is an in-depth survey of the production and cultural significance of North African fabrics. Without overlooking the technical aspects of the subject the authors concentrate on the social and cultural significance of textiles, exploring the symbolic meaning of specific colors, motifs, and garments, especially those surrounding the marriage ceremony.

50 color,65 b&w photographs 144 pp.

Paperback $29.95

SATURDAY FAMILY PROGRAMS 1:00 P.m.

June 22 BOOK SIGNING WITH FAITH

RINGGOLD Noted artist, quiltmaker, doll maker, and children's book author Faith Ringgold will sign copies of her books.

THURSDAY LUNCH-TIME GALLERY TALKS 1:00 P.M. July 11

VIDEOS A selection of videos related to the current exhibitions are screened daily.

Lee Kogan, director, Folk Art Institute June 27 CONSERVING YOUR QUILTS

Christopher Spring and Julie Hudson

Gallery visitors are invited share their own quilt stories quilt pictures and family tales.

Mimi Sherman, curator, Merchants House Museum

QUILTS OF CONSCIENCE AND THE NAMES PROJECT

NORTH AFRICAN TEXTILES

FAMILY QUILT STORIES

SUNDAY AFTERNOON WORKSHOPS FOR FAMILIES & CHILD (ages 5 and up) June,July & August 2:00-4:00 P.M. Lots of colorful paper, decorations, crayons. and fun materials with all sorts of surprises. Bring your imagination for a great afternoon. Materials fee: $1.00

June 20

128 pp.

Hardcover $29.95

July 25

CRAZY QUILTS

Susie Andersen, instructor and quilter, Folk Art Institute July 18 QUILTS OF CONSCIENCE: A SURVEY OF RECENT PROJECTS Lee Kogan, director, Folk Art

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION PRESS• P.O.BOX 960 HERNDON,VA 22070 800/782-46 I 2

Institute

COMMUNITY OUTREACH A series of slide lectures are available to communities in Manhattan and the surrounding boroughs.

TEACHERS'WORKSHOPS Educators' workshops for teachers' organizations are available upon request.

All children must be accompanied by an adult. For program information and registration, please call Pamela Brown at 212/595-9533.

The exhibition "An American Treasury: Quilts from the can Folk Art" is made possible by Time Warner

um of

Free public programming is made possible in part with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts and a generous grant from NYNEX.

72 SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART

TRAVELING

EXHIBITIONS

CRAIG FARROW Mark your calendars for the following Museum of American Folk Art exhibitions when they travel to your area during the coming months: June 21—August 18, 1996 May 26—July 21, 1996 Woven for Warmth: Coverlets The Art of Deception: American Wildfowl Decoys from the Museum of Amenfrom the Museum of American Folk Art can Folk Art Erie Canal Museum Anniston Museum of Syracuse, New York Natural History 315/471-0593 Anniston, Alabama 205/237-6766 June 1—October 20, 1996 Norwegian Folk Art: The August 25—October 6, 1996 Migration of a Tradition Amish Quilts from the State Historical Society of Museum of American North Dakota, North Folk Art Dakota Heritage Center Flint Institute of Arts Bismarck, North Dakota Flint, Michigan 701/328-2666 810/234-1695 June 5—July 28, 1996 Signs and Symbols: African Images in African American Quilts from the Rural South Baltimore Museum of Art Baltimore, Maryland 410/396-7100

Cabinetmaker

For further information, please contact Judith Gluck Steinberg, Coordinator of Traveling Exhibitions, Museum of American Folk Art, Administrative Offices, 61 West 62nd Street, New York, NY 10023, 212/977-7170.

Lecture Held for German Quitters The German group, unable to urators Elizabeth V. Warschedule its trip from Ostercapren and Sharon L. Eisenpeln to New York during the run stat presented a slide lecof the exhibition(May 4—Septure on their exhibition "An tember 8), was very pleased that American Treasury: Quilts from Warren and Eisenstat went out of the Museum of American Folk their way to arrange an unschedArt" to members of the Quilters' uled preview lecture especially Guild of Germany at the Museum for them. on April 18.

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History and Artistry in Wood 17th and 18th Century American Furniture Reproductions P.O. Box 534 Watertown, CT 06795

Please call 860-274-6203

SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART 73

TRUSTEES/DONORS

BOARD OF TRUSTEES Executive Committee Ralph 0. Esmerian President Frances Sirota Martinson, Esq. Executive Vice President and Chairman, Executive Committee Lucy C. Danziger Executive Vice President Bonnie Strauss Vice President Joan M.Johnson Vice President Peter M.Ciccone Treasurer Jacqueline Fowler Secretary Anne Hill Blanchard

MAJOR

DONORS

TO

American Folk Art Society The Ames Gallery in memory of Alex A. Maldonado Amicus Foundation William Arnett Asahi Shimbun Mr.& Mrs. Arthur L. Barrett Ben & Jerry's Homemade,Inc. Estate of Abraham P. Bersohn Dr. Robert Bishop Anne Hill & Edward Vermont Blanchard Mr.& Mrs. Edwin C. Braman Marilyn & Milton Brechner Mr.& Mrs. Edward J. Brown Iris Carmel Morris B. and Edith S. Cartin Family Foundation Tracy & Barbara Cate Edward Lee Cave Chinon, Ltd. Estate of Thomas M.Conway David L. Davies & Jack Weeden Marian & Don DeWitt Gerald 8z Marie DiManno The Marion & Ben Duffy Foundation Mr.& Mrs. Alvin H. Einbender Ellin F. Ente Ross & Glady A. Fakes Daniel & Jessie Lie Farber Eva Feld Estate of Morris Feld Janey Fire & John Kalymnios

RECENT

MAJOR

74 SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART

OF

AMERICAN

Members Edward Lee Cave Joyce Cowin David L. Davies Raymond C. Egan Vira L.M.H. Goldman Susan Gutfreund Kristina Barbara Johnson, Esq. Susan Klein George H. Meyer, Esq. Cyril I. Nelson Julie K. Palley David C. Walentas L. John Wilkerson, Ph.D.

THE

LINCOLN

SQUARE

Susan & Eugene Flamm Walter and Josephine Ford Fund Jacqueline Fowler Selma & Sam Goldwitz Mr.& Mrs. Robert Goodkind Ellin & Baron J. Gordon Doris Stack Green Cordelia Hamilton Taiji Harada William Randolph Hearst Foundation Terry & Simca Heled Alice & Ronald Hoffman Mr.& Mrs. David S. Howe Mr.& Mrs. Albert L. Hunecke, Jr. Mr.& Mrs. Yee Roy Jear Kristina Barbara Johnson, Esq. Joan M.& Victor L. Johnson Isobel & Harvey Kahn Louise & George Kaminow Shirley & Theodore L. Kesselman Susan 8z Robert E. Klein Kodansha,Ltd. Lee & Ed Kogan Wendy & Mel Lavitt Frances & James Lieu Howard and Jean Lipman Foundation,Inc. Robert & Betty Marcus Foundation, Inc. C.F. Martin IV Frances Sirota Martinson, Esq. Masco Corporation Linda & Christopher Mayer

FOLK

ART

Honorary Trustee Eva Feld Trustees Emeriti Cordelia Hamilton Herbert W.Hemphill, Jr. Margery G. Kahn Jean Lipman George F. Shaskan, Jr.

ENDOWMENT

FUND

Marjorie W.McConnell Michael & Marilyn Mennello Benson Motechin Johleen Nester, John Nester II & Jeffrey Nester Kathleen S. Nester NYNEX Corporation Paul L. Oppenheimer Dorothy & Leo Rabkin Cathy Rasmussen Ann-Marie Reilly Willa & Joseph Rosenberg Betsey Schaeffer The William P. and Gertrude Schweitzer Foundation, Inc. Mr.& Mrs. Richard Sears Mr.& Mrs. George F. Shaskan, Jr. Louise A. Simone Patricia Lynch Smith & Sanford L. Smith Stephanie & Richard L. Solar Mr. & Mrs. Austin Super Mr. & Mrs. Stanley Tananbaum Phyllis & Irving Tepper Two Lincoln Square Associates Anne D. Utescher Elizabeth V.& Irwin H. Warren Mrs. Dixon Wecter Gerard C. Werticin Robert N. 8z Anne Wright Wilson Mr.& Mrs. John H. Winkler

DONORS

The Museum of American Folk Art greatly appreciates the generous support of the following friends: $100,000 and above Estate of Daniel Cowin Ralph 0. Esmerian Ford Motor Company Estate of Laura Harding The J.M. Kaplan Fund,Inc. The Henry Luce Foundation, Inc.

MUSEUM

Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in conjunction with Norwegian Visions Jane & David Walentas Anonymous 850,000499,999 The Coca-Cola Company Lucy Cullman & Frederick M.Danziger Howard and Jean Lipman Foundation,Inc. David L. Davies & Jack Weeden Johnson & Johnson

Joseph Martinson Memorial Fund Anne Wright & Robert N. Wilson Anonymous 820,000â&#x20AC;&#x201D;$49,999 Arista Records, Inc. Peter M. Ciccone Susan & Raymond C. Egan Virginia S. Esmerian Jacqueline Fowler (Continued on page 78)

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Second Annual Self Taught Visionary, Folk Art Fair July 26 - 28, 1996 Saturday 9 - 6• Sunday 9 - 5 Special Opening Night Preview Party Friday 6 - 9 JUDITH RACHT

;

Mike Smith•At Home Gallery•2304 Sherwood Street Greensboro, North Carolina 27403

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By Appointment Only

910/294-2297

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(ONIIMPORARY AMMAN IRK ART & Silf-IAUGH1 ART

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GALLERY 13707 Prairie Road • Harbert, Michigan 49115 One Hour East of Chicago Welcomes a nationally known roster of Outsider & Folk Art Dealers.

Thor Alward - MI

Krynick & Nestor - NJ

Art From the Inside - IL

David Leonardis - IL

Charles Auerback - OH

Main Steet Antiques and Folk Art - IA Gary Marks - IL Aron Packer Gallery - IL Davy Packer - IL The Pardee Collection Rising Fawn Folk Art Gallery - TN Larry R. Schlachter - GA Bruce Shelton Gallery - IN

Bingham & Vance - OH Dewey Blocksma - MI Ken Burkhart - IL Cecil & Linda Burrows - MI Jerry Coker - FL Connie Covent Collection - MI Carol Cross/ Fish Out of Water - IL Tom Duimstra - MI Brian Dowdall - FL Janine Fentiman - MI ANDERSON JOHNSON

Galerie Bonheur - MO

R.A. MILLER • ROY FINSTER

Hackley Gallery - KY

JEFF WILLIAMS • BENNY CARTER JOE McFALL• BERNICE SIMMS

Instinct Gallery - WI

HOWARD FINSTER ARLEE MAINS (shown) MARK CASEY MILLESTONE

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KENNETH WALSH

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SOUTHERN FOLK POTTERY

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Dean Jensen Gallery -WI

Barbara Strand/Hot Stuff - NY Jim Toler and Richard Ginger - MI Eric Torgersen - MI Edward Varndell Gallery - IL Webb Gallery - TX Douglas Wyant - MI

For More Information • 616-469.1080 Preview Party & Special Saturday Collectors' House Tour to benefit I Intuit I. The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art

SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART 75

A SERIES OF FASCINATING, GREATLY VARIED BOOKS FOCUSED ON CONTEMPORARY FOLK ART AND ARTISTS

EARL'S ART SHOP Building Art with Earl Simmons

BY STEPHEN FLINN YOUNG AND D.C. YOUNG A colorful excursion to the unusual studio and gallery of an African-American artist in rural Mississippi

AMERICANA CRAFTED fehu Camper, Delaware Whittler

BY ROBERT D. BETHKE A whittler's miniature replicas that preserve America's farmlife heritage

CHICANO GRAFFITI AND MURALS

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Rocky Mountain Quilts Betsey Telford 3847 Alt. 6 & 24 Palisade, CO 81526 1-800-762-5940 catalog $7 refundable with purchase

The Neighborhood Art of Peter Quezada

BY SOJIN KIM In downtown Los Angeles mass media images that confront the public and bring neighborhood pride and rejuvenation

VIETNAM REMEMBERED The Folk Art of Marine Combat Veteran Michael D. Cousino, Sr

BY VARICK A. CHMENDEN Miniature dioramas that translate the Vietnam war into art and self-therapy for the artist CALL OR WRITE FOR A COMPLETE LIST OF TITLES. $32.50 hardcover •$16.95 softcover "Fireworks Over Cinderella Castle," Kathy Jakobsen, oil on canvas, 16" x 20"

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78 SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART

Always a source for significant buying ,

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WILTON

Main Street

ANTIQUES

gallery CONTEMPORARY FOLK AND SELF-TAUGHT ART

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g f." *•

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Early Buying 8:30-10 am $15 per person The finest one-day shows in America, featuring 130 distinguished dealers showing a wide range of authentic antiques and decorative arts in room settings.

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MCG Antiques Promotions,Inc. 10 Chicken St., Wilton, Conn.06897 (203)762-3525

SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART 77

RECENT

MAJOR

DONORS

(Continuedfrom page 74) Joan M.& Victor L. Johnson National Endowment for the Arts NYNEX Corporation Julie K.& Samuel Palley Restaurant Associates Industries, Inc. Barbara & Thomas W.Strauss Fund Time Warner The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Anonymous $10,000419,999 AEA Investors Inc. William Arnett Bear, Stearns & Co., Inc. Anne Hill & Edward Vermont Blanchard Bristol-Myers Squibb Company John R.& Dorothy D. Caples Fund Edward Lee Cave Country Living Joyce Cowin The Dietrich American Foundation & H. Richard Dietrich, Jr. William B. Dietrich & William B. Dietrich Foundation Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson Susan & John H. Gutfreund Susan 8c Robert E. Klein The LEF Foundation Anne & Vincent Mai Merrill Lynch Kay & George H. Meyer, Esq. Morgan Stanley Foundation The Peter Norton Family Foundation The Pinkerton Foundation Schlumberger Foundation, Inc. Mr.& Mrs. George F. Shaskan, Jr. Barbara & L. John Wilkerson $4,000—$9,999 The American-Scandinavian Foundation ARTCORP The Beacon Group Big Apple Wrecking & Construction Company The Blackstone Group Clarissa & H. Steve Burnett Virginia G. Cave Christie's Cravath, Swaine & Moore Mr.& Mrs. Joseph Cullman, 3rd Mr.& Mrs. Richard Danziger Debevoise & Plimpton Department of Cultural Affairs, City of New York Duane, Morris & Heckscher Ernst & Young The FINOVA Group Inc. Gallery 721 Vira L.M.H.& Robert Goldman Goldman,Sachs & Co. Hill and Knowlton, Inc. Ellen E. Howe Mr.& Mrs. Ronald S. Lauder Naomi Leff and Associates, Inc. MBNA America, N.A. Linda & Christopher Mayer Mr.& Mrs. Kenneth J. McAlley New York State Council on the Arts Park Avenue Cafe Philip Morris Companies Inc. Dorothy & Leo Rabkin

711 SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART

Frank Richardson Joseph E. Seagrams & Sons, Inc. Herbert and Nell Singer Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher,& Flom Donna & Elliot Slade Sotheby's $2,000-0,999 American Folk Art Society Bergen Line, Inc. Ellen Blissman Mr. & Mrs. James A. Block Burson-Marsteller Capital Cities/ABC Mr.& Mrs. John K. Castle Lily Cates Laurie Churchman Cigna Barbara & Joseph Cohen Mr.& Mrs. Edgar M. Cullman Davida & Alvin Deutsch Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Gail & Jay Furman Fred & Kathryn Giampietro Ellin & Baron J. Gordon Pamela J. Hoiles Harry Kahn Susan & Jerry Lauren Wendy & Mel Lavitt Ellen & Arthur Liman Macy's East Maine Community Foundation Marsh & McLennan Companies,Inc. Gael & Michael Mendelsohn Norwegian Tourist Board Paige Rense William D. Rondina Cynthia V.A. & Robert T. Schaffner Louise M. Simone Peter J. Solomon Patricia A.& Robert C. Stempel Lynn Steuer Mr. & Mrs. Stanley Tananbaum Mrs. Richard T. Taylor Vesterheim Norwegian American Museum Elizabeth V.& Irwin H. Warren Anonymous $1,000—$1,999 Alconda-Owsley Foundation Mr. R. Randolph Apgar & Mr. Allen Black Didi & David Barrett Mr.& Mrs. Thomas Block Tina & Jeffrey Bolton Dr. & Mrs. Robert E. Booth, Jr. Lois P. & Marvin Broder William F. Brooks, Jr. Mr.& Mrs. Edward J. Brown Meredith & Michael J. Bzdak Chemical Bank Liz Claiborne Foundation Katie Cochran & Michael G. Allen The Coach Dairy Goat Farm Mr. & Mrs. Norman U. Cohn Drs. Stephen & Helen Colen Conde Nast Publications Inc. Consolidated Edison Company of New York Susan R. Cullman Mr.& Mrs. David Dangoor

Mr.& Mrs. Charles Diker The Echo Design Group,Inc. Mr. & Mrs. Alvin H. Einbender Sharon & Theodore Eisenstat Margot & John L. Ernst Fairfield Processing Corporation Helaine & Burton M Fendelman Mr.& Mrs. Charles Fabrikant Fortgang Brenda & Ken Fritz Mr.& Mrs. Bruce Geismar Dr. Kurt A. Gitter & Ms. Alice Yelen Anne & Eric J. Gleacher Mr.& Mrs. Robert Goodkind Ann Harithas Mr.& Mrs. Walter W. Hess, Jr. Stephen M. Hill Dr. & Mrs. Josef Jelinek Richard Jenrette Allan Katz Barbara S. Klinger Barbara & David Krashes Ricky & Ralph Lauren Taryn & Mark Leavitt Fred Leighton Barbara S. Levinson Nadine & Peter Levy Frances & James Lieu Sylvia Kramer & Dan W.Lufkin McGraw-Hill Foundation, Inc. Mr.& Mrs. Robert Meltzer Cyril I. Nelson Mr.& Mrs. Jeffrey Peek Anthony J. Petullo Susan & Daniel Pollack Drs. Nancy Kollisch & Jeffrey Pressman Mortimer & Eugenie Propp Ricco/Maresca Gallery Grace Jones Richardson Trust Allison W.& Peter C. Rockefeller Amy & Howard J. Rubenstein Merilyn Sandin-Zarlengo Penelope & Paul Schindler Mr.& Mrs. David Schneider Mr.& Mrs. Michael P. Schulhof H. Marshall Schwarz Jean S. & Frederic A. Shari Patricia Lynch Smith & Sanford L. Smith Ellen & David Stein David Teiger Peter & Lynn Tishman Mr.& Mrs. Raymond S. Troubh Sue & Edgar Wachenheim,III Jeanette & Paul Wagner Margot Grant Walsh Sue Ann & John L. Weinberg Bennett & Judie Weinstock Herbert Wells Gerard C. Wertkin Susan Yecies Marsha & Howard Zipser Anonymous $500—$999 Joe C. Adams Tina & Aarne Anton Deborah & James Ash Dorothy Harris Handier June & Frank Barsalona Bergdorf Goodman

RECENT

MAJOR

DONORS

Mr.& Mrs. Peter Bienstock Helen & Peter Bing Mr.& Mrs. Leonard Block Michael R. Bloomberg Boardroom,Inc. Charles Borrok Nancy Boyd Mr. & Mrs. Joseph Boyle Robert Brill Brown Gale Meltzer Brudner G.K.S. Bush,Inc. Betty W.Johnson & Douglas F. Bushnell Marcy Carsey Maureen & Marshall Cogan Mr.& Mrs. Stephen H. Cooper Mr.& Mrs. Lewis Cullman Cullman & Kravis Judy & Aaron Daniels Gary Davenport Marian & Don DeWitt Charlotte Dinger Lynne W.Doss Mrs. Marjorie Downey Debbie & Arnold Dunn Howard Drubner Mr. & Mrs. Frederick Elghanayan Epstein Philanthropies Mr. & Mrs. Anthony B. Evnin Mr. & Mrs. Robert H. Falk Betsy & Samuel Farber Mr. & Mrs. Howard P. Fertig Daniel M. Gantt Barbara & Peter Georgescu The Howard Gilman Foundation, Inc. Mildred & William L. Gladstone Howard M. Graff Marilyn A. Green Dr. & Mrs. Stanley Greenberg Grey Advertising Nancy & Michael Grogan T. Marshall Hahn, Jr. Cordelia Hamilton Pria & Mark Harmon Ellen & Brian C. Harris John Hays RECENT

DONORS

Gifts James Benson Roger Cardinal David L. Davies Ralph & Eva Fasanella Jacqueline Fowler Ellin & Baron J. Gordon T. Marshall Hahn,Jr. Cordelia Hamilton Herbert W. Hemphill, Jr. Evelyn & Magdalena Houlroyd Nathan & Kiyoko Lerner

Audrey B. Heckler Herbert W. Hemphill, Jr. Mr.& Mrs. Richard Herbst Arlene & Leonard Hochman Gerry & Robert D. Hodes Fern K.& Robert J. Hurst Imperial Wallcoverings, Inc. Laura N. & Theodore J. Israel Guy Johnson Penny & Alistair Johnston Isobel & Harvey Kahn Jaclyn & Gerald P. Kaminsky Cathy M. Kaplan Leigh Keno Dr. & Mrs. Arthur B. Kern Diane D.& Jerome H. Kern Mary Kettaneh Sharon & Ivan Koota Mr.& Mrs. Theodore A. Kurz Robert Landau Wendy Lehman & Stephen Lash Mr.& Mrs. Leonard A. Lauder Mr.& Mrs. John A. Levin Mr.& Mrs. Roger Levin Margot & Robert E. Linton Gloria M.& Patrick M. Lonergan Helen E. Luchars Gloria and Richard Manney Michael T. Martin Mr. & Mrs. John A. Mayer Judith McGrath Grete Meilman A. Forsythe Merrick Ira M. Millstein Thomas Monaghan Keith Morgan Susan & Victor Neiderhoffer Mr.& Mrs. Bruce Newman David Nichols Paul L. Oppenheimer Dr. Burton W.Pearl Dale Precoda Mr.& Mrs. F.F. Randolph, Jr. Mr.& Mrs. Milton S. Rattner Ms. Irene Reichert TO

THE

Alyce & Roger Rose Fran Kaufman & Robert C. Rosenberg Marion Harris & Dr. Jerry Rosenfeld John Rosselli Selig D. Sacks Riccardo Salmona Mr.& Mrs. Richard J. Schwartz Mrs. Stewart Seidman June & Ronald K. Shelp Cecille Barger & Myron Benit Shure Randy Siegel Francisco F. Sierra Linda & Ray Simon Stephanie & Richard L. Solar Elizabeth A.& Geoffrey A. Stern Rachel L.S. & Donald Strauber Carol Millsom Studer Mr.& Mrs. Myles Tanenbaum James Adams & Ruben Teles Barbara & Donald Tober Anne D. Utescher Anne Vanderwarker Sue & George Viener Marstrand Foundation Mr.& Mrs. R.A. Wagner Karel F. Wahrsager Gayle & Clifford Wallach Eve Weinstein Daniel Weiss Anne G. Wesson G. Marc Whitehead Hall F. Willkie Honey Wolosoff Thomas K. Woodard Mr. & Mrs. William Ziff Rebecca & Jon Zoler Mary Linda & Victor Zonana Mr. & Mrs. Donald Zuckert Honey Wolosoff Thomas K. Woodard Mr. & Mrs. William Ziff Rebecca & Jon Zoler Mary Linda & Victor Zonona Mr.& Mrs. Donald Zuckert

COLLECTIONS

Jean Lipman Frances Sirota & Paul Martinson Gael Mendelsohn Holly Metz Steven J. Michaan Joy Moos Shari Cavin & Randall Morris Museum of Modem Art from the collection of Gordon & Nina Bunshaft Margery Nathanson Cyril I. Nelson

Dorothy and Leo Rabkin Marion Harris & Dr. Jerry Rosenfeld Martin E. Segal Betty Sterling Leslie Sweedler Agnes Lester Wade Susan Yecies Shelly Zegart Bequests Laura Harding

SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART 79

GEORGE AND DEBBIE SPIECKER

FINE AMERICANA P.O. Box 40, North Hampton, NH 03862 603-964-4738

4401.

Specializing in 18th and early 19th century American furniture, weathervanes and New England paintings; large inventory, auction 0411111 representation, dealer trade-in

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program and education program available; on the seacoast, one hour from Boston off 1-95; by opoil appointment.

Our 16th Year in American Antiques We are eager to purchase original American antiques made prior to 1840

INDEX

TO

ADVERTISERS

26 America Oh Yes American Antiques, Inc. 60 22 American Pie 15 American Primitive Gallery 14 The Ames Gallery 75 The Art Cellar Artisans 68 At Home Gallery 75 Chuck Auerbach 67 Blue Spiral 1 18 Charlie Boydstun 77 The Caldwell Gallery 3 8 Robert Cargo Folk Art Gallery 10 Christie's Inside Back Cover Country Living 23 Creative Heart Gallery Epstein/Powell 14 73 Craig Farrow 16 Fassbender Gallery 65 Josh Feldstein Fine Americana 80 19 Laura Fisher 76 Gallerie Je Reviens

80 SUMMER 1996 FOLK ART

28 Gallery Americana 59 Sidney Gecker Back Cover Giampietro 27 Gilley's Gallery 28 Graves' Country Gallery and Antiques 16 Anton Haardt Gallery 59 John C. Hill The Historical Society of Early American Decoration 59 27 Hustontown 62 ICnoke Galleries 24 Kurt W. Knudsen The LaRoche Collection 25 77 MCG Antiques Promotions,Inc. 71 M.J.M. Outsiders 62 Main Street Antiques and Art 77 Main Street Gallery Steve Miller 7 The Modern Primitive Gallery The Museum Store of Kentucky Folk Art 68 Center, Inc. 17 Leslie Neumann Fine Art 65 The Pardee Collection

12;â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;, Penguin Studio 69 Pottery Plus 11 RJG Antiques Judith Racht Gallery 75 Inside Front Cover Ricco/Maresca 76 Rocky Mountain Quilts 21 Rosehips 65 Judy A. Saslow Gallery 71 Bruce Shelton 63 Steve & Amy Slotin 58 Sanford L. Smith & Associates 72 Smithsonian Institution Press 9 Sotheby's Southern Folk Pottery Collectors Society 20 15 The Splendid Peasant, Ltd. 29 Jef Steingrebe 76 University Press of Mississippi 61 Wanda's Quilts Weathervane Folk Art Gallery 26 2 David Wheatcroft 4 Woodard & Greenstein 71 Yard Dog 25 Ginger Young Gallery

Co untry Living

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Source

for

Folk

Art

and

Antiques

A PUBLICATION OF HEARST MAGAZINES. A DIVISION OF THE HEARST CORPORATION.

M)East 78th Street New York City 10021 Tuesday - Saturday 11:00 to 5:-10 (212) 861-8571

Two Zuni Katchina8 by the Same Maker Circa 1895 . 13 7/8" & 12 314"