Folk Art (Winter 1996/1997)

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MASTER AMERICAN VIS.ONAR 1830-1923

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CHARLES A. A. DELLSCHAU MAST

01ERICAN VISI 30- I Q23

Working in a self-imposed secrecy beginning at the age of 76, and continuing for nearly 20 years until his death in 1923, Dellschau produced a remarkable body of work consisting of mixed media works on paper based on the concept of fantasy flight. The works, which incorporate an elaborate symbolic language, take us on an anti-gravity journey which predicts the future of flight yet to come.

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RICCO /MARESCA GALLERY

This body of work which was lost and forgotten from his death until the mid-sixties, has for the first time been re-discovered. We are pleased to announce the discovery and exclusive representation of this important selftaught artist.

mixed media on paper, 1920. 20"h x 16"w

RICCO/MARESCA GALLERY

STEVE MILLER • AMERICAN FOLK ART •

"CIGAR-STORE INDIAN"

by P. Gaspari, Baltimore, MD,Ca: 1870, pine and cedar with original polychrome still intact, 42" high. Gaspari, an Italian immigrant,changed his first name from Pietro to Pierre. He was listed in the 1868 Baltimore business directory as working from a shop on West Baltimore Street.

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.

Principal Auctioneer Christopher Burge C761543

CHRISTIE'S

IMPORTANT AMERICAN FURNITURE, SILVER, PRINTS, FOLK ART AND DECORATIVE ARTS

Auction: New York, January 18, 1997 at Christie's

Edward Savage (1761-1817), Mount Vernon from Carriage Entrance, 1791, oil on canvas, 22 x 36 inches.

Inquiries: American Decorative Arts Department at 212 546 1181 Catalogues: 800 395 6300 502 Park Avenue, New York, New York 10022 tel: 212 546 1000 fax: 212 980 8163 on-line: http://www.christies.com

South Egremont, Massachusetts 01258 (413) 528-5755

EXCLUSIVE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE NATHAN LERNER COLLECTION OF ARTWORK BY

HENRY DARGER 1892-1973

Henry Darger, At Jennie Ritchie during Progress of Storm (front and back) c. 1950, mixed media on paper, 19 x 70 inches.

CARL HAMMER GALLERY 200 West Superior Street, Chicago, Illinois 60610, 312.266.8512

FOLK ART VOLUME 21, NUMBER 4/ WINTER 1996/97 (FORMERLY THE CL4R10IV)

FEATURES

LOUIS MONZA:PASSIONATE PROTEST & HARD LOVE Susan C. Larsen HENRY DARGER:THE UNREALITY OF BEING On Preparing, Organizing, and Mounting a Darger Exhibition Stephen Prokopoff

THE IMAGE BUSINESS: SHOP AND CIGAR STORE FIGURES IN AMERICA Ralph Sessions Cover: Detail ofTHE HOLY FAMILY: John Philip Yaeger(1823-1899), Baltimore, Maryland, 1870-1890, poplar, pine, maple, and varnish, 33/ 3 4X 28 X 14/ 1 2".

Museum ofAmerican Folk Art, gift ofMr. and Mrs. Francis Fitz Randolph, Jr., 1996.06.01 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.

DEPARTMENTS

EDITOR'S COLUMN

6

DIRECTOR'S LETTER

MINIATURES

22

HOLIDAY TREE EXHIBITION

66

MUSEUM REPRODUCTIONS PROGRAM

68

TRUSTEES/DONORS

72

MUSEUM NEWS

78

WINTER PROGRAMS

82

TRAVELING EXHIBITIONS

83

INDEX TO ADVERTISERS

84

WINTER 1996/97 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 Gregory Baird Advertising Sales John Hood Advertising Sales Craftsmen Litho Printers MUSEUM OF AMERICAN FOLK ART

trough this issue of Folk Art, we are happy to introduce you to two of the Museum's latest acquisitions. These gifts, The Holy Family, by woodcarver John Philip Yaeger(1823-1899), and an untitled, twosided painting by Henry Darger(1892-1973), are important additions to the Museum's growing collection. A detail of The Holy Family graces our front cover; the full image is shown in the Director's Letter on page 11. The Holy Family will be installed in the Museum's Daniel Cowin Permanent Collection Gallery this winter. The extraordinary Darger painting is featured in "Henry Darger: The Unreality of Being," an essay

by Stephen Prokopoff, the director of the University of Iowa Museum of Art (see page 46).

This issue also includes an article on Louis Monza by Susan C. Larsen, who is recognized for her work on this artist. Dr. Larsen has done extensive research on Monza, who is best known for his early paintings of the 1940s. In "Louis Monza: Passionate Protest & Hard Love," beginning on page 38, Larsen not only outlines Monza's beginnings as a painter of political protest, but also describes with great understanding and warmth Monza's development as a mature artist and gives us her insight into Monza's drawings, prints, and sculptures of the 1960s and 1970s.

"The Image Business: Shop and Cigar Store Figures in America," by Ralph Sessions, starting on page 54, is the result of five years of research that will culminate in an exhibition of the same name. Organized by the Museum of American Folk Art, this UNTITLED (The Blengiglomenean Called a Crimerceian exhibition will open at the Heritage Venemous): Henry Darger, Chicago, n.d., pencil and Plantation of Sandwich, Sandwich watercolor on paper, 19 24. Collection of Sam and Massachusetts, on May 11, 1997. The Betsey Farber. exhibition, featuring more than 65 figures—many of them larger than life—will be on view in Sandwich through October 19. It will then open at the Museum of American Folk Art on November 1, 1997, and run through January 25, 1998, before moving on to the Baltimore Museum of Art."The Image Business: Shop and Cigar Store Figures in America" promises to be an exhibition worth waiting for and one you will not want to miss.

Once again, we are happy to announce the annual decorating of the Museum's holiday trees. Members of the Shenandoah Chapter of the Historical Society of Early American Decoration have made and donated a flock of handpainted tiny birds and birdhouses to decorate the Museum's trees and help us ring in the holiday season. The miniature birdhouse theme echoes that of our current exhibition,"A Place For Us: Vernacular Architecture in American Folk Art." The trees are up now and will be on view through January 12.

Come to our house—to our many houses—this holiday season and bring the children. On behalf of the whole Museum staff, I wish you a happy holiday season and the very best New Year.

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Administration Gerard C. Wertkin Director Riccardo Salmona Deputy Director Joan M. Walsh Controller Helene J. Ashner Assistant to the Director Luis D. Garcia Accountant Natasha Ghany Accountant Charles L. Allen Mailroom Daniel Rodriguez Mailroom/Reception

coul•cuons a Exhibitions Stacy C. Hollander Curator Ann-Marie Reilly Registrar Judith Gluck Steinberg Assistant Registrar/ Coordinator, Traveling Exhibitions Sandra Wong Assistant Registrar Pamela Brown Gallery Manager Dale Gregory, Brian Pozun Weekend Gallery Managers 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 Flanun 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 Sarah R. Case 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 Hohenrath, Traci Jacobson, Ursula Morillo, Rita Pollitt, Brian Pozun; Mail Order: Beverly McCarthy;Security: Bienvenido Medina; Volunteers: Marie Anderson, Olive Bates, Mary Campbell,Sally Frank, Millie Gladstone, Edith Gusoff, Ann Hannon, Bernice Hoffer, Elizabeth Howe,Joan Langston, Annette Levande, Arleen Luden, Katie McAuliffe, Nancy Mayer, Marie Peluso, Frances Rojack, Phyllis Selnick, Lola Silvergleid, Maxine Spiegel, Myrna Tedles, 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 Administrative Offices Museum of American Folk Art 61 West 62nd Street, New York, NY 10023-7015 212/977-7170, Fax 212/977-8134, http://www.folkartmuse.org

6 WINTER 1996/97 FOLK ART

IMPORTANT AMERICANA

Hannah Cohoon, Tree ofLight or Blazing Tree, dated 1845, watercolor and ink on paper, 16 by 2034 in.

Auction estimate: $250,000-350,000

Important Americana Auction: January 19, 1997 Exhibition opens: January 11, 1997

SOTHEBY'S FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CALL NANCY DRUCKMAN OR KARA SHORT AT (212) 606-7225.

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

A.G. Itizzoli, S-3, The Spirit ofCooperation/Academically The Essosee 1935,ink on rag paper,17 5/16" x 23 5/8"

"Suh Jim" Colelough Lady ofthe Nile, c.1970 wood and paint 601/2" in.

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Winter Antiquities Show

[self-taught, visionary, outsider, intuitive, art brut, folk] Jan. 24, 25, &26,Preview Jan. 23 The Puck Building, New York, NY

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Alex A. Maldonado,Maldonado's Giant Auditorium, ND, oil on canvas board with painted frame,20" x 24"

Dec. 28 & 29 Sweeney Center, Santa Fe, NM

• Outsider Art Fair

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GALLERY MCP

Dealers in exceptional self-taught, visionary, naive, and outsider art.

• Bonnie Grossman, Director • 2661 Cedar Street, Berkeley, California, USA 94708 •510/845-4949 Fax 510/845-6219

SELF-TAUGHT TWENTIETH CENTURY ART: SELECTIONS FROM THE GAEL MENDELSOHN COLLECTION

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William Hawkins(1895-1990), The Wrigley Building, enamel on found board, 48% by 63% in., executed 1982.

Auction estimate: $25,000-35,000

Important Americana Auction: January 19, 1997 Exhibition opens: January 11, 1997

SOTHEBY'S FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CALL NANCY DRUCKMAN OR KARA SHORT AT (212) 606-7225.

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

Earl Cunningham (1893-1977) January 17 - February 22, 1997

Life at the Waterfront, signed Earl Cminingham (lower left), oil on masonite, 20V, x 24'4; inches, c. 1940

Now representing the work of Earl Cunningham

BEACON HILL FINE ART 980 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10021

Tel: 212.734.3636

Tuesday through Saturday, 10am - 6pm; Monday, by appointment

DIRECTOR'S

LET TER

GERARD C. WERTKIN

even years ago, the Museum of American Folk Art presented "Discoveries in Folk Sculpture," organized and designed by Roger Ricco and Frank Maresca. This exhibition introduced scores of intriguing sculptural forms to the Museum's audiences. Among the works of art comprising the exhibition, my favorite was The Holy Family, which is attributed to a relatively little-known late nineteenth-century Baltimore woodcarver, John Philip Yaeger. I am therefore especially pleased to announce that this compelling example of American folk sculpture, which is featured on the cover of this issue of Folk Art, is now part of the Museum's collection, thanks to the thoughtful and generous interest of Mr. and Mrs. F.F. Randolph, Jr. On behalf of the Board of Trustees and the professional staff of the Museum,I am privileged to extend profound gratitude to Mr. and Mrs. Randolph. I should also like to express my warm appreciation to Frank Maresca and Roger Ricco for their enthusiastic support of the Museum and its mission.

The Museum's permanent collection is very much on my mind these days. Just prior to the closing date for this issue of Folk Art, the Museum hosted the inaugural meeting of the Jean Lipman Fellows.

Named for Trustee Emerita Jean Lipman,the pioneering scholar whose published works remain indispensable to an understanding of the field, the Fellows annually support a gift of one or more works of art to the Museum. This year, the Jean Lipman Fellows voted to present the Museum with a nineteenthcentury needlework picture depicting the figure of"Liberty." An outstanding example of schoolgirl embroidery by Lusina Hudson of the Abby Wright School of South Hadley, Massachusetts, this delightful artwork, dated 1808, greatly enhances the Museum's collection of early textiles. A full report on the Lipman Fellows is planned for the Spring issue of Folk Art, but I did not want this opportunity to pass without thanking Chairpersons Keith and Lauren Morgan, Don Walters, and Mary Benisek. I am deeply grateful to them and to all the Jean Lipman Fellows for their public-spirited commitment to the Museum.

Through their generosity, the Museum's collection will grow each year in quality and comprehensiveness.

Following the gathering of the Jean Lipman Fellows,I traveled to Birmingham, Alabama,for the yearly conference of the Folk Art Society of America, where I joined Rebecca Hoffberger, Director of the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, and Gail Trechsel, Deputy Director of the Birmingham Museum of Art, on a panel that

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considered the role of museums in the collection, conservation, and exhibition of contemporary folk art. During the course of the weekend, the Society honored me with its Annual Award of Distinction. This expression of the Society's regard previously has been presented to Trustee Emeritus Herbert Waide Hemphill, Jr., and to Robert Bishop, my predecessor as Director. Deeply touched by this recognition, I accepted the award with pride, but only as the representative of the Trustees, staff, and volunteers of the Museum, who work with such dedication to further its goals. I recognize a debt of gratitude to the whole Museum family as well as to the officers and directors of the Folk Art Society of America.

On a sad note, I record the passing of two distinguished associates and friends of the Museum: Herbert M.Singer, a generous supporter of the Museum's educational programs, and Charlotte H. Dinger, a wellknown collector and authority on the art of the carousel. Herbert Singer was a benefactor of many New York charitable organizations and earned universal respect for his wholehearted commitment to health care and medical research. He and his wife, Nell, helped establish the Folk Art Institute here at the Museum and took a thoughtful interest in many aspects of the Museum's educational outreach. Charlotte Dinger founded Carousel World, a museum and working carousel at Peddler's Village in Lahaska, Pennsylvania, following a lifelong passion for the traditions associated with carousel carving. She served as John Philip Yaeger (1823-1899) guest curator of the exhibition Baltimore, Maryland "Catch a Brass Ring: Carousel 1870-1890 Poplar, pine, maple, and varnish Art from the Charlotte Dinger 33/ 3 4 x 28 x 14 'A" Collection," which was presented Museum of American Folk Art, gift of Mr. by the Museum at the PaineWebber and Mrs. Francis Frtz Randolph, Jr., 1996.06.01 Art Gallery from November 25, 1986, to March 27, 1987. Both these good friends will be profoundly missed.

My colleague, Martha Longenecker, and her staff at the Mingei International Museum of Folk Art have installed the institution's inaugural exhibition at its splendid new headquarters in San Diego's Balboa Park. Many objects included in this exciting presentation were borrowed from the Museum of American Folk Art. I had the pleasure of visiting the new facility last month and met many members of our own Museum family there. The Museum was delighted to cooperate with its friends in San Diego and congratulates them on this important achievement.*

WINTER 1996/97 FOLK ART LI

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9243 elaigeo Raad Sc. Zara:), Na. 63124 rimazietweeme: 314-993-985/ 7,:tx: 3/4-993-4790 1-800-763-6105 Ralph Au! der Heide Jeannette Carballo, Costa Rica Rita Hicks Davis Mamie Deschillie Esperanza Espinoza, Nicaragua Amos Ferguson, Bahamas V. J. Gatto Guatemalen artifacts Dora Gonzalez, Costa Rica Carolyn Hall Haitian Masters Boscoe Holder, Trinidad Edwin A. Johnson

Woodie Long Metal Sculptors of Haiti Rafael Morla, Dominican Rep. Nikifor, Poland PolishWood Carvers Frank Pickle Jack Savitsky Lorenzo Scott Horacio Valdez Voodoo Flags '"N Bottles, Haiti Fred Webster Malcah Zeldis (and many others)

Ginger Young Gallery Southern Self-Taught Art

"Calvary" L. Wiecek, Poland, Oil on board, 16 x 24

Come See Us: Outsider Art Fair. N.Y. Booth #29

By appointment 919.932.6003 Works by more than four dozen artists, including: Georgia Blizzard Rudolph Bostic - Raymond Coins Yahrah Dahvah • Lonnie Holley Royal Robertson • Lorenzo Scott Jimmie Lee Sudduth • Mose Tolliver Fred Webster • Myrtice West

For a free video catalogue or a price list please contact: Ginger Young Gallery 5802 Brisbane Drive Chapel Hill, NC 27514 Phone/Fax 919.932.6003 E-mail: gingerart@aol.com Website: http://members. aol.com/gingerart2/

"Caping .1.P. Scott" by J.F! Scott Cypress and mixed media, 24" x 52" x24', 1995.

12 WINTER 1996/97 FOLK ART

MINNIE EVANS

NEW LOCATION! THE MODERN PRIMITIVE GALLERY 1393 NORTH HIGHLAND AVENUE ATLANTA, GA 30306 404/892-0556

Exhibiting at the Outsider Art Fair, New York, N.Y., Jan. 23-26, 1997

Tattoo Flash Vintage tattoo parlor drawings

by Prof. Henry Biehler, George Burchett, Tino "Rosie" Camanga, Joe Darpel, William R. King, "Electric" Eddie Long, Leo Zulueta, and others

Also fine work by Joe Hrovat, Rev. Josephus Farmer, Norbert H. Kox, Dwight Mackintosh, Johnny Meah, Gerard Sendrey, Carter Todd, and many others

dean jensen gallery 165 N. Broadway • Milwaukee, WI 53202 (414) 278-7100 • Tuesday-Saturday

Joe Darpel. Parlor Sign. Watercolor, ink, and varnish on illustration board. 19 1/2" x 15". Ca. 1920s.

FASSBENDER Matt Lamb Upcoming Solo Exhibitions GALERIE LISETTE ALIBERT PARIS, FRANCE

EASTER INSTALLATION LIFE, DEATH AND REBIRTH OF CHRIST CATHEDRAL OF THE HOLY SPIRIT MANNHEIM, GERMANY

Catalogs available Madness and Matt Lamb:Essay by Donald Kuspit Life, Death and Rebirth of Christ: Publication for the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit Exhibition Matt Lamb: Publication for Traveling Exhibition to Greece, Germany and the United States For further information, please contact the gallery.

309W.Superior Street, Chicago, IL 60610 312-951-5979 Matt Lamb, Untitled 1996, Oil on plywood 84 48 inches

14 WINTER 1996/97 FOLK ART

JON

SERL

Jon Serl, Indian Fisherman, oil on board, 45" x 32"

CAVIN-MORRIS GALLERY 560 Broadway, New York, NY 10012 (212) 226-3768 fax (212) 226-0155 CAVIN-MORRIS represents the work of Dorthella Branch, Keith Goodhart, Chris Hipkiss, Jon Serl, Gregory Van Maanen and Mary Whitfield, as well as Haitian and Jamaican self-taught artists. Also represented are the estates of Chelo Amezcua, Bessie Harvey, Joe Salvatore and Anna Zemankova.

FRANCE FOLSE (1906-1985) Born in Raceland, Louisiana, in 1906, Miss Folse began painting after becoming crippled from a severe illness. As a self-taught artist, her paintings depict the unique culture found in rural Louisiana.

"France Folse—Rediscovered" An Exhibition of 32 Paintings LSU Museum of Art, Baton Rouge, LA January 19, 1997—March 30, 1997 (504) 388-4003 Southdown Plantation, Houma, LA April 6, 1997—May 21, 1997 (504) 851-0154 "Train," oil on canvas, 24" x 32 1/4", c. 1969

WILLIAM PELTIER • FINE AND FOLK ART 376 Millaudon St. • New Orleans, LA 70118 • (504) 861-3196 Bill Peltier By appointment only

Gene Beecher b.1909

"F/ease Be Sealed"

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Oil

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Folk, Found eZ Outsider Art: Gene Beecher, The Glassman, Ed Ott, Ruby C. Williams, Popeye Reed http://www.cyspacemalls.com/huston/ 860 Path Valley Road Fort Loudon Pa. 17224 717.369.5248

H USTONTOWN 16 WINTER 1996/97 FOLK ART

Robert Cargo

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

Sybil Gibson(1908-1995). Flowers. Tempera on paper, ca. 1980-1985. Image dimensions, / 4; 181 / 2 / 4, dated Aug. 1985. Bottom: 16 x 121 / 4 inches; 18 x 141 top, left to right: 16 x 113 / 2 inches to vertical (first figure) and 8 inches to / 4. For framed dimensions, add 81 x 133 the horizontal.

Other quality paintings by Sybil Gibson, done between 1970-1985, are available.

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.

Please visit us at the Outsider Art Fair, New York City, January 23-26

Clementine Hunter (1887- 1988) Collection Includes: "Artist Chuckie" Williams, Ike Morgan, J.B. Murray, Howard Finster, Mary T. Smith, B.F. Perkins, Jimmy Lee Sudduth, David Butler, Clementine Hunter, Sam Doyle, Royal Robertson, Reginald Gee, James Harrold Jennings, Mose Tolliver, Lonnie Holley, Luster Willis, Raymond Coins, Burgess Dulaney, Charlie Lucas, Nellie Mae Rowe, Sarah Rakes, Leroy Almon, Sr., M.C. 50 Jones, S.L. Jones, Rhinestone Cowboy and Albert Louden.

"Melrose Plantation Quilt" 1961 67" x 47" Cloth and paper

8750 Florida Blvd.

Baton Rouge, LA 70815 (504) 922-9225

Minnie Evans (1892 - 1987) Alsofeaturing work by: MINNIE ADKINS

CHRIS LEWALLEN

GEORGIA BUZZARD

WOODIE LONG

RICHARD BURNSIDE

SAM MCMILLAN

RONALD COOPER

R.A. MILLER

JESSIE COOPER

VOIDS SIMPSON

PATRICK DAVIS

BERNICE SIMS

HOWARD FINSTER

Q.J. STEPHENSON

SYBIL GIBSON

JIMMIE LEE SUDDUTH

JAMES HAROLD JENNINGS

MOSE TOLLIVER

REV ANDERSON JOHNSON

MYRTICE WEST

Graphite/crayon/oil collaged on canvas, 19"x 14'; 1961-1966

American Pie Contemporary Folk Artfrom the Southeast Elaine Johansen • 113 Dock Street, Wilmington • North Carolina 28401 • (910) 251-2131

1.8 WINTER 1996/97 FOLK ART

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Outsider / Contemporary Folk Art Exhibition January 24 - February 2,1997 Art 54 Gallery 54 Greene Street, Soho corner of Broome Street & Greene Street Every day 11 a.m. -6 p.m. and by appointment 212. 226.1605 during exhibition Reception for Artists - Saturday, January 25, 7 - 10 p.m.

Meet the Artists: Woodie Long, Charlie Lucas, Sarah Rakes, Ab the Flagman, Hope Atkinson, Benny Carter and others

Marcia Weber/Art Objects 1050 Woodley Road Montgomery, Alabama 36106 334.262.5349 E-Mail: Weberart @ Mindspring . corn

Felipe Archuleta Eddie Arning Andrea Badami David Butler Patrick Davis "Uncle Pete" Drgac Estate "Glassman"

Joel Lage Justin McCarthy Ike Morgan Greg Pelner Mary T. Smith Rev. Johnnie Swearingen Robin Wellito

Nicholas Herrera "Let's Party" woodcarving with found objects 19x11 x34" 1996

The gallery is pleased to announce representation of Nicholas Herrera, New Mexico's award-winning contemporary folk santero. Nicholas's work can currently be seen at the American Visionary Art Museum's "Wind in My Hair" exhibition.

It will be in our booth at the 1997 Outsider Art Fair at the Puck Building, New York City, the last weekend in January.

For photographs of new work, please contact the gallery.

LESLIE MUTH GALLERY 131 W. Palace Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 (505)989-4620 FAX(505)989-4937

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

By Appointment(212)226-7316 Jesse Aaron Rex Clawson 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

Victor Joseph Gatto

"Space Newspaper"

(1 893-1 965)

22"x36", oil on board, c.1954

We're a few blocks away from the Outsider Art Fair.

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"Henry Ford" by Reverend Howard Finster (1916-), Tractor Enamel on Board, 20" x 24", Dated 1984, Numbered 3,800

5325 ROSWELL ROAD, N.E. ATLANTA,GEORGIA 30342 (404) 252-0485 • FAX (404) 252-0359

WINTER 1996/97 FOLK ART

21

MINIATURES

COMPILED BY TANYA HEINRICH

Figureheads and Nautical Carvings The diversity of themes that have appealed to shipcarvers and the patrons who commissioned them will be explored in "Figureheads and Carvings," an exhibition on view at The Mariner's Museum in Newport News, Va., through March 16, 1997. More than 40 18th- and 19th-century European and American figureheads, cabin ornaments, and other nautical carvings from the museum's collection—depicting animals, royalty, military heroes, historical characters, and allegorical figures—will be on display. For more information, please call 804/596-2222.

Jamaican Intuitives "Redemption Songs: The SelfTaught Artists of Jamaica," an exhibition examining AfricanAtlantic art as a manifestation of cultural resistance, will be on view at the Diggs Gallery at North Carolina's Winston-Salem State University from February 1 to April 12, 1997. Among the 25 featured artists—known in Jamaica as "Intuitives"—will be Everald Brown,Leonard Daley, Ras Dizzy, Errol McKenzie, and Doc Williamson. The exhibition, organized by guest curator Randall Morris, will consist of paintings, sculpture, and religious banners drawn primarily from the collection of Wayne and Myrene Cox,in addition to contextual photographs and videos. Moths will demonstrate an innate spiritual presence and consistent aes-

22 WINTER 1996/97 FOLK ART

STEM OF JESSE &eraId Brown Jamaica 1988 Oil on board . /16" 30' / 3 46 23 Collection of Wayne and Myrene Cox

thetic link between the fields of contemporary art, the art of the African Diaspora, and the works of self-taught artists living in Jamaica, Haiti, Brazil, and the United States. The exhibition will be accompanied by a symposium (February 7-9) and a catalog providing historical context. Running concurrently with "Redemption Songs" will be an exhibition of the work of Hubert Walters, a Jamaican-born, self-taught artist living in North Carolina. For more information, please call 910/750-2458.

LADY WITH A ROSE Artist unknown American, possibly from the ship Osage c. 1795-1815 Painted wood 35/ 1 2,12 x 13/ 1 2" Collection of The Mariners' Museum, Newport News, Virginia

The Western Perspective "Memories and Visions: SelfTaught and Outsider Artists West of the Rockies" is on view at the Sheppard Art Gallery, University of Nevada at Reno, through the end of December 1996. Organized by curators Suzanne Kanatsiz and Bonnie Grossman, this exhibition features memorybased and visionary drawings, paintings, carvings, and sculpture

by Eddie Aming,Dorothy Binger, Ree Brown, Keith Goodhart, Anne Grgich, Fatisha, Leon Kennedy, Bill Potts, and Barry

Simons. In addition, photographic documentation of folk art environments of the West will be on view. The exhibition, which is accompanied by a catalog, will travel to the Nevada Institute of Contemporary Art in Las Vegas from January 16 to February 24.

For more information, please call 702/784-6682.

Destination Unknown "Wind In My Hair," an exhibition organized by guest curator Suzanne Theis around the ideas of motion, speed, transport, adventure, and escape, is on view at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, Md., through April 21, 1997. The exhibition of nearly 400 works by self-taught artists includes whirligigs, flying machines, a levitation suit, the journal of an 1850s secret flying society, fantastical and religious paintings, and art cars, among other objects.

For more information, please call 410/244-1900.

MIDNIGHT STALLION Victor Gardner Long Eddy, New York 1967 Carved black walnut, buckshot, BBs 17 30 10" Collection of Ivan and Sharon Hoota

AMELIA EARHART Raymond Materson Connecticut c. 1991 Sock threads on cotton 2% x 2Âź" Collection of Vicky Wilson

English Naive Art and Early American Flags "Two Hundred Years of English Naive Art: 1700-1900," a traveling exhibition organized by guest curator James Ayres, is on view at the Fraunces Tavern Museum in New York City through January 17, 1997. This exhibition examines the simplicity and honesty of folk art in Great Britain through oil paintings, watercolors, carved wooden figures, signs, scrimshaw, trays,

quilts, and textiles, all displaying the vitality of English country life. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalog.

Also on view is â&#x20AC;&#x201D;A Flash of Color': Early American Flags and Standards," a new permanent installation focusing on the variety of banners that have been American national symbols at one time or another. For more information, call 212/425-1778.

Carved buggy whip handle, c. 1880

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

WINTER 1996/97 FOLK ART 23

MINIATURES

SANTOS Sculptures Between Heaven & Earth Highlights ofEl Museo del Barrio's permanent collection offolk art.

Opens November 1, 1996

Tramp Art and Whimsies Chip-carved wooden objects, typically created between 1860 and 1940 from the soft wood of cigar boxes, are on view in two exhibitions this winter."Time on their Hands: The Tramp Art Tradition," featuring pieces from Midwestern collections, is on view at Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art in Chicago through January 4, 1997. This exhibition includes trinket chests, frames, toys, and large pieces of furniture. For more information, please call 312/929-7122.

"Tramp Art and Whimsies from the Ciardelli Collection" will be on view at The Noyes Museum in Oceanville, N.J., from January 26 to March 23, 1997. In addition to chip-carved tramp art, this exhibition will include a selection of whimsiesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;seemingly impossible carvings, such as balls inside cages or interlocking chain links, whittled from a single block of wood. For more information, please call 609/652-8848.

Quilt Exhibitions Roundup Five exhibitions showcasing quilts will be on view this winter at the following venues: "City and Country: Four New York Quilts," an exhibition that highlights quilts dating from between 1830 and 1860, at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (212/535-7710)in New York City through February 23, 1997.

"Covered by the Stars: Quilts from the James Collection," an exhibition of quilts from 1830 to 1940 organized by curator Merikay Waldvogel,at the Museum of Our National Heritage (617/861-6559)in Lexington, Mass., through January 5, 1997.

"No Two Alike: African American Improvisational Quilts," an exhibition culled Norberto Cedeiio, The Powerful Hand/La Mano Poderosa c. 1950 Collection: El Museo del Barrio, Photo: K. Showell

El Museo del Barrio 1230 Fifth Ave/104th St. NYC Hrs: Wed -Sun 11 am - 5 pm Tel. 212.831.7272

24 WINTER 1996/97 FOLK ART

The American Child "Nineteenth-Century Children in Portraits and Play," an exhibition on view at The Museums at Stony Brook in New York through March 16, 1997, explores the changing depiction and increased celebration of the lives

from the collection of Eli Leon, at the High Museum of Art Folk Art and Photography Galleries (404/733-4437)in Atlanta through February 1, 1997.

"Pennsylvania Quilts: Selections from the Landes Dowry," an exhibition of rare 19th-century textiles, at the Dallas Museum of Art(214/922-1200)in Texas from February 16 to April 22, 1997.

"Quilt Masterpieces from the Collection," an exhibition of 18th-, 19th-, and 20th-century quilts, at The Newark Museum (201/596-6550)in New Jersey through February 23, 1997.

of 19th-century children through a variety of portraits and genre scenes, including 16 paintings by William Sidney Mount and his brother Shepard Alonzo Mount.

For more information, please call 516/751-0066.

AMERICAN PRIMITIVE GALLERY 594 Broadway #205 New York, NY 10012 212-966-1530 Mon - Sat 11-6

RAYMOND MATERSON PICTURES SEWN FROM UNRAVELED SOCKS

Navajo Textiles of the 19th Century "Woven by the Grandmothers: Nineteenth-Century Navajo Textiles from the National Museum of the American Indian," on view at the Smithsonian Institution's George Gustav Heye Center in New York City through January 8, 1997, addresses the spiritual significance of weaving in Navajo culture and the impact of new weaving materials and designs of the 19th century. This exhibition of rare wearing blankets, all woven between 1825 and 1880 and predating the production of textiles for sale to the non-Indian market, consists of boldly patterned and finely woven chief

BEELDLEI (NAVAJO BLANKET) Artist unknown Fort Laramie, Wyoming c. 1850-1860 Hand-spun wool and raveled yarn 78 • 57 '/13" Collection of the National Museum of the American Indian, New York

blankets, poncho serapes, twopiece dresses, shoulder blankets, mantas, shawls, and utility blankets."Contemporary Navajo Weaving: The Gloria F. Ross Collection of the Denver Art Museum" is also on view. Both exhibitions are accompanied by a catalog. For more information, please call 212/825-6922.

VISION OF PARADISE, 33/4 x 21/4" Making peace with God, yet feeling that his faith was just a shadow, Ray's vision is of his hometown

Folk Art Symposium "Folk Art: Is it All Over?," a symposium questioning the notion of naïveté in an age of mass communications, will be held March 6 to 9, 1997, at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in Halifax. Panelists will debate the

issue of whether folk art, with its many definitions, still exists and continues to be created, or if it is merely derivative of work produced to date. For more information or to register, please call 902/424-7542.

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CHEKHOV REVISITED (3 SISTERS), 3 x 2 1.4"

WINTER 1996/97 FOLK ART 25

MINIA TURES

Puerto Rican Santos

THREE LITTLE PIGS hooked rug circa 1930-40 36"w x 24"h

El Museo del Barrio in New York City is presenting "Santos: Sculptures between Heaven and Earth," a new rotating permanent installation of45 Puerto Rican santos selected from its permanent collection. Organized by curator Fatima Bercht, the exhibition illustrates the traditional function of the polychromed wood santos as domestic devotional objects with a rich iconographic reperStrings of Light and

ONE LITTLE PIG signed L. Barker carved wood 19"w 12"h x 5"d

J.E. PORCELLI AMERICAN FOLK ART and AMERICANA P.O. Box 200453 Shaker Heights, Ohio 44120 216/932-9087 Appointment and Shows

26 WINTER 1996/97 FOLK ART

ONCE MIL VIRGENES (ELEVEN THOUSAND VIRGINS) Tomas Cabo 1940s Puerto Rico Polychromed wood Each: 5/ 1 2 2 â&#x20AC;˘ 6/ 1 2" Collection of El Museo del Barrio, New York

toire of saints, holy figures, and culturally significant subjects to their current status as collectibles and symbols of national identity.

For more information, please call 212/831-7272.

More

"Merry Christmas America: Photographs of Yard Art by Christina Patoski" is on view at Ohio's Akron Art Museum through January 5, 1997, bringing seasonal cheer via both humble and elaborate expressions.

The 25 large color photographs provide a simulated trek across

the United States and through neighborhoods of front-yard holiday displays featuring decorations homemade and storebought, spare and overblown.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalog. For more information, please call 330/376-9185.

Correction In the "Miniatures" section of the Summer issue (vol. 21, no. 2, p. 24), it was incorrectly stated that Minnie Black suffered a debilitating stroke in December 1995 and subsequently died on April 12, 1996. In fact, Minnie Black worked actively on her art in January and February 1996 before suffering a series of minor strokes in March and a fatal stroke on April 10.

5th Annual

OUTS I DER A RT FA I R American Primitive New York, NY The Ames Gallery

Marion Harris

January 24 - 26 1997 1

Anima Gallery

K.S. Art

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Adelaide, Australia

New York, NY

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Archer/Locke Gallery

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Atlanta, GA

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Liz Blackman Gallery

Columbus, OH .

Phyllis Kind Gallery

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New York, NY

Los Angeles, CA

Mia Gallery

Henry Boxer Gallery London, England

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New York, NY

Atlanta, GA

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Leslie Muth Gallery

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Joy Moos Gallery Miami, FL

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Janet Fleisher Gallery

Modern Primitive Gallery

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Frank J. Miele Gallery New York, NY

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J. Crist Gallery Boise, ID

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Cavin-Morris Gallery

Ann Nathan Gallery

Galerie Heike Curtze

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Galerie St. Etienne New York, NY

Dean Jensen Gallery Milwaukee, WI

Berkeley, CA

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Simsbury, CT

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The Pardee Collection Iowa City, IA

Ricco/Maresca Gallery New York, NY

Rising Fawn Folk Art Chattanooga, TN

New Orleans, LA

self taught • visionary • intuitive outsider • art brut

Gilley's Gallery Baton Rouge, LA

Carl Hammer Gallery

PRE\/1 EVV JANUARY 23

Chicago, IL

Luise Ross Gallery New York, NY

Sailor's Valentine Gallery Nantucket, MA

Thursday, 5:30 - 8:30PM $50. Includes preview, 2 readmissions & catalog

Uncommon Artists V A symposium jointly sponsored by the Museum of American Folk Art & New York University Information Lee Kogan 212-977-7170

Th e Puck Building LAFAYErrE & H OUSTON STREETS • SOHO, NEW YORK crrt Fair InFormation SANFOFID L. SMITH & ASSOC.

212-777-5218 • FAX 212-477-6490 http://vvvvvv.freeverse.com/SLS/outsider.html

68 EAST 7T" ST. NEVV YORK, NY 10003

ssmithasso @ aol.com

4441, 4.

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Jim Sudduth Mose R. A. Miller Jake McCord Charlie Lucas Lonnie Holley Woodie Long Richard Burnside Lanier Meaders Michael Crocker and others

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:714' 1 , r• Afr4T_A Ar•Amd' A Celebration of tbe Mountains

Barbara Brogdon

Artist: Missionary Mary Proctor

28 WINTER 1996/97 FOLK ART

1611 Hwy. 129S., Cleveland, GA. 30628 (706)865-6345 http://web.infoave.net/-rosehips

PUBLIC AUCTION The 30 Year Collection of Eason Eige Huntington, West Virginia

Leroy Lewis,Indian Maiden Earnest Patton, Uncle Sam Edd Lambdin,Monkey Dad Denzil Goodpaster, Coiled Snake S.L. Jones, Country Musk Singer Elisha Baker,Elvis Cane

Friday, January 3, 1997 — 5 PM Saturday, January 4, 1997— 10 AM Preview Times Thursday, January 2 — 4 to 8 PM Friday, January 3— 10 AM to 5 PM Saturday, January 4 — 9 to 10 AM

Hugo Sperger, Sacre ofIsaac

Catalogue Available: $15.00 • Buyer's premium 13% •Cash discount buyer's premium 10% •Absentee bids accepted

FOLK ART BY:

Mose Tolliver, Woman in Pink Dress

Auctioneers: Tom Porter, Tom King and Steve Bemiller On the premises of Garth's Auctions, Inc. 2690 Stratford Road P.O. Box 369 Delaware, Ohio 43015 Telephone: 614-548-6778 614-362-4771 Fax: 614-363-0164

Garland & Minnie Adkins, Tiger Quilt

Minnie Adkins Hazel Kinney Richard Burnside Jimmy Lewis Tim Lewis Gerald "Creative" De Prie Karl McKenzie Rev. Herman Lee Hayes Rev. Anderson Johnson Rev. Benjamin Franklin Perkins Oscar L. Spencer Mose Tolliver James "Son Ford" Thomas Charles Kinney Lillian Fay Barker Edd Lambdin Leroy Lewis Ronald Cooper Willie Massey Dilmus Hall E. Moore M.C."50" Jones Bobby Quinlin Hugo Sperger Donald Lee Tolson Henry York Elisha Baker Noah Kinney Buzz Busby Linvel Barker Lavell Nickoll Denzil Goodpaster RA. Miller Earnest Patton S.L. Jones Charles Keeton Carter Todd William Wombles

THE

ZETTER COLLECTION

OUTSIDER ART DEWEY BLOCKSMA MAMIE DESCHILLIE LONNIE HOLLEY MALCOLM McKESSON GREG PELNER PHILADELPHIA WIREMAN GERARD SANDREY HENRY SPELLER JIMMY LEE SUDDUTH MOSE TOLLIVER PURVIS YOUNG

LONNIE HOLLEY "MAST IN A FRAME" PAINTED WOOD, FABRIC, NAILS, STICKS, WOODEN FRAME, 25 X 18 X 15"

AMERICA*011,1ES!

5570 OLD HWY. 395 N. CARSON CITY, NV 89704 PHONE: 702-885-2827 FAX: 702-885-6850

Exhibitions In Our Washington, D.C. Gallery

Jonathan Green (January) Mary Proctor (February) Tin Can Alley (March) 2020 R Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20009 Phone: 202-483-9644 Visit Our Web Site: americaohyes.com

For information or a copy of our newsletter, Folk Art Collecting, call:

1-800-FOLK-ART America * Oh,Yes! Hilton Head Island Gallery: P.O. Box 3075, Hilton Head Island, South Carolina 29928 Photo by Larry Ruggeri

30 WINTER 1996/97 FOLK ART

RECENT WORK

JEF STEINGREBE CENTER ROAD BRADFORD,NH 03221 603 938 2748 STUDIO AND GALLERY OPEN BY APPOINTMENT

"JOHN AND YOKO," CARVED WOOD,OIL PAINT BASE: 23 X 34" YOKO: 23" TALL

"SOLO ACOUSTIC," FEMALE FOLK SINGER, CARVED WOOD,OIL PAINT, 24" TALL

GALLERY 121 HENRY is proud to represent the emerging self-taught artist

FRED FELDMAN Loan arrangements with other galleries will be considered.

Collectors and gallery representatives are seen by appointment.

Slide catalog available. contact: Jennifer Wei, director Gallery 121 Henry, Inc. 121 Henry Street New York, NY 10002 (212) 766-2898 tel (212) 732-6314 fax "SAFARIA," oil on linen, 20 x 21

32 WINTER 1996/97 FOLK ART

LEVENT

ISIK

AA/AA/A.A.A.A.A.A.AAAA 4

drYVVVVVYVVVVVVVVVVVYVVVYVY American Buffalo

TOM KENNAUGH 580 East Town Street, Columbus, Ohio 43215 614-221-1805

Look through the eyes of self-taught artist

Don Cadoret "Cortlan4 Granny Smith & Yellow Delicious" 12"x14.5" masonite(1996)

His work can be seen at these and other galleries around the country: Gallery Americana, Houston Vaillancourt Folk Art, Sutton, MA Art Naif Studio Galerie, Quebec

Studio Open. Commissions accepted.

P.O. Box 193 Charlton City, MA 01508 508-248-6856

e_b-e2zaew AT. 5 BOX 965 DAHLONEGA, GA. 30533 (706) 864-8362 The Meaders Michael Crocker Melvin Crocker The Hewells

The Gordys

Bobby Ferguson R. A. Miller

Mary Greene Chris Lewallen

Annie Wellborn, "Red Ball of Fire"

We specialize in locating the unusual!!

34 WINTER 1996/97 FOLK ART

B.B. Craig Brian Wilson Annie Wellborn

ANNE BOURASSA

"Minnie & Me #20" 32" x 48"

"Woolworth's" 48" x 72"

GALLERY HOUSE 5 CENTER STREET

NOBLEBORO, MAINE

207-563.8598

*

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www.folkartmuse.org Visit the Museum of American Folk Art online.

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' T- ' '-e Museum of American Folk Art IS UiedNell LU dIflIUUiILt

the Second Annual Benefit Dinner following the Opening Night Preview of the Outsider Art Fair Thursday, January 23, 1997 Preview 5:30 to 8:30 P.M. Benefit Dinner Following in the Skylight Ballroom Puck Building Lafayette and Houston Streets New York City UNTITLED 130 at Jennie Richee Still Pursued Along the Aronburgs...)

Henry Darger Chicago, n.d.

Watercolor on pieced paper; double-sided 19 x 47" Gift from the Kiyoko and Nathan Lerner Collection, courtesy Carl Hammer Gallery

The Museum is pleased to announce that through the generosity of Kiyoko and Nathan Lerner and courtesy of the Carl Hammer Gallery, this double-sided watercolor by Henry Darger will be auctioned at the Benefit Dinner.

UNTITLED (At Aronburgs Run...)

Following on the heels of last year's successful evening, the Museum of American Folk Art will hold its Second Annual Benefit Dinner after the Opening Night Preview of the Outsider Art Fair. Anne Hill Blanchard and Gael Mendelsohn, chairwomen for the dinner, have an exciting evening planned. We join them in asking you to come and celebrate this new tradition with us.* Produced by Sanford L. Smith & Associates, the Outsider Art Fair has become one of the most important showcases for contemporary folk art and the work of self-taught artists. The Museum has participated in this event since its inception in 1993, presenting diverse public programs, including the annual symposium Uncommon Artists. * For more information and for reservations for the Benefit Dinner, please call Jennifer Waters at the Museum's administrative offices, 212/977-7170. Seating is limited. Tickets for the Benefit Dinner are $1,000 for Benefactors, $500 for Patrons, $250 for Donors, and $125 for Supporters. Benefactor tables of 10 are available for $10,000 and Patron tables of 10 for $5,000. Tickets for the Preview are $50. Your participation in this fund-raising event will help support the Museum's exhibition and educational programs. For information about the symposium,see page 82.

WINTER 1996/97 FOLK ART 37

LOUIS MONZA

Passionate Protest Se Hard Love

By Susan C. Larsen

o those who theorize that the did not prosper in the competitive life art of the self-taught is a of bicycle racing. static, limited enterprise, the Arriving in New York City in forty-six-year artistic career 1913 at the age of sixteen, Monza of Louis Monza offers a looked for the kind of work he had sharp, definitive rebuttal. done in Italy, but there was little need Born in 1897 in Turate, Italy, near for regional Italianate folk carving in Lake Como, Monza was apprenticed Manhattan. Monza considered New at the age of seven to a provincial York City the gateway to America, wood-carver and folk and he undertook to see artisan skilled in the the length and breadth everyday religious imof the country by signagery that is so loved ing on as a railroad in the small towns hand and criss-crossing of northern Italy. His the country several childhood world was times in the next two one of carved Madonyears. His travels also nas, gargoyles, tall took him to Mexico, languid saints, and colwhere he lived from orful geometric architec1915 to 1917. This tural ornaments fanciful a proved to be a formaenough to animate the Louis Monza,1977 tive experience for many religious festivals and political Monza, as his socialist leanings found parades of nearby towns. With his confirmation in the highly charged "foster father" he traveled from town political atmosphere of Mexico, where to town working on temporary dis- news of the Russian Revolution plays for festivals and furniture for sparked similar aspirations among the churches and homes. Monza retained population. Louis Monza also took a lifelong affection for his early comfort in the familiar religious master, but also acquired a bitter imagery of Mexico, even as he understanding of the fate of the aver- became increasingly anticlerical and age working person. In adolescence, soon came to use his fund of Catholic Monza's wanderlust led him to leave iconography as a source of parody and the wood-carver's shop to try his luck political protest. on the bicycle-racing circuit. A small Following the entrance of the man, sensitive and philosophical, he United States into World War I,

T

38 WINTER 1996/97 FOLK ART

THE COMIC TRAGEDY 1943 Oil on canvas 54 72" Museum of American Folk Art

WINTER 1996/97 FOLK ART 39

Monza enlisted in the U.S. Army; he was stationed in Panama from 1917 to 1919. In later life, Monza would sigh bitterly when asked about his experiences in the army. He left the army as a confirmed pacifist and also, not incidentally, as a U.S. citizen by virtue of his military service. Monza returned

activities found the focus of his life in art. His first oil painting, executed in 1939, features a family standing in a ray of light in the midst of a charred and bloody battleground. The words "peace" and "socialism" are emblazoned in a glowing sunburst as though in a moment of revelation. This paint-

average citizens caught up in the machines of war or trapped on the emotional battlefield of human betrayal. His art is serious, not entertaining; it is not naive except in its formal handling of space, figural proportions, and conventions of artistic composition. He did not reject the decorative

to New York City and began a new chapter in his rapidly evolving life.

In 1938 Monza had an unfortunate fall from a painter's scaffold while working as a housepainter. The resulting injury to his spine, which proved to be quite serious, transformed his life in several ways. While recuperating, he returned to drawing, carving, and painting and in these

ing presents a mixture of hope and fear. Clearly, Monza sensed the gathering forces of war in Europe.

Building on the experiences of his childhood, Monza found a voice in his art, an angry voice reaching up from the working class to a world he perceived as cruel and unreasoned.

Time and time again, he would depict the innocent, children, women, and

conventions of his Italian training; he built upon them to create a curious original style that is partly folkloric yet also faithful to the facts of life as he saw them. One sees Monza's clumsiness but also senses his need to speak plainly and directly to an audience who probably found his work obscure, difficult, and even dangerous to the public order.

40 WINTER 1996/97 FOLK ART

THE CORNEATERS AT A REUNION 1944 Oil on board 20 24" Didi and David Barrett

THE TRIUMPHANT PARISIANS 1944 Oil on canvas 20 151 / 2" The Monza Archive

The masterwork of his early years is a large canvas, The Comic Tragedy (1943), given by the artist and his wife in 1984 to the collection of the Museum of American Folk Art. It reflects Monza's preoccupation with Europe even as he was living in New York City. It is, in effect, his Guernicaâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Picasso's great painting of 1937 had been on display in New York since 1938 and was clearly fresh in Monza's mind. Monza's Comic Tragedy is set in Rome as carabinieri joust in the streets, monuments fall, and the head of Mussolini is displayed and mocked in the public square. The actions of the piece reflect Monza's familiarity with the most gruesome customs of ancient Rome. This painting is actually predicting Mussolini's fate, which had yet to unfold.

The firm drawing, vivid color, and pageantry of this work uses all of the tools Monza acquired as a young apprentice carverpainter. The profundity of this work becomes apparent when you consider that Monza's horrific vision of wartime Italy was created in the United States and that his former homeland was now an adversary of his adopted country.

Although Monza was recovering slowly, he was largely confined to his apartment. From his bedside, he created a formidable series of wartime paintings. These include several depictions of the bombardment and defense of Pearl Harbor, hospital scenes of the dead and dying, the fall of Paris, the toppling of Mussolini's effigy in Rome, a symbolic beheading of the European populace, and a triumphant chorus of Parisians singing the "Mar-

himself to become an artist of intensity and eloquence.

The art dealer Federica BeerMonti spotted Monza's political wartime paintings and featured them in 1941 and 1943 at the Artists' Gallery in Manhattan, which was known for its varied, egalitarian artistic program. Monza also attracted the interest of Sidney Janis, who was then working on his important book, They Taught Themselves (1942). Janis offered to represent Monza but the artist, following the advice of a colleague, declined. His work did not

appear in the book and the Artists' Gallery changed course, closing a few years later. Janis may have been attracted by the fantastical aspects inherent in Monza's vision, which run parallel to veristic Surrealism as prac-

nearby. Gloor's emigration to the United States led her to what was then apparently an unhappy marriage, but she had a lively nature, a great sense of humor, and most of all the spirit of adventure. She left her husband and married Monza. They moved to California in 1946, settling near Los Angeles in Redondo Beach, which was then a quiet seaside community. The Monzas soon established a pattern that would continue throughout the thirty-eight years of their married life.

Heidi commuted on a bus to downtown Los Angeles, where she worked as a secretary, and came home to a meat cooked by Louis, who spent the rest of his day working on his art.

Together at night they would catalog and title his day's work and enjoy thinking about it and planning for the next day's project. Monza branched out to printmaking, ceramic sculpture, and even small bronzes with the help of a local high school teacher who befriended him and allowed the fifty-something self-taught artist to use the school's kiln, press, and metal shop. Monza's art was occasionally shown in cornmunity galleries, but his obsession with political and social issues and raw imagery was often too difficult for the average person in southern California to take.

Postwar southern Califomia was a booming region devoted to the exploitation of real estate, agriculture, and most of all, technology. During the 1950s, the aviation industry began to transform the quiet way of life Monza had enjoyed for just a few years. His paintings and

Slowly but surely, Monza stopped addressing present problems and set his sights upon a transcendental Edenic future... seillaise" at the end of the war. Feeding his mind and imagination with newspaper accounts, photographs, and radio reports of the war, Monza participated in the only way he knew, by painting it and surrounding the images with his own political commentary. In time, Monza's hand grew more confident and his color brighter. Monza the self-taught painter was surely teaching

ticed by De Chirico, Magritte, and other contemporaries favored by Janis and many art critics in New York during the early 1940s.

While struggling to make a living, finding new purpose in his art, and still suffering from his debilitating spinal injury, Monza became acquainted with a charming Swiss woman, Heidi Gloor, who lived

drawings of the 1950s began to be filled with rockets and missiles and jet airplanes leaving Vandenberg Air Force Base and streaking across the bay over King Harbor Marina. Greedy industrialists, their pockets filled to overflowing with cash, appear in his drawings as demented ogres feeding off the human population. Some of his imagery looks like science fiction but

WINTER 1996/97 FOLK ART 41

is actually derived from his observation of missile tests conducted in the harbor Monza frequented while collecting seashells and sketching. In his art, the forces of greed are to blame and the gods of technology are mocked. It is not surprising that Monza's neighbors, many of whom were employed in the aerospace industry, found his work puzzling or even subversive, The core of his imagery from the 1950s through the mid-1980s is to be discovered in his drawings and prints, which are more explicit, private, and complete than most of the later paintings. Here, he expressed his anticlerical feelings in images of priests functioning as potentates or else caught in compromising sexual situations. Here too he would discover new dimensions of emotion as his anger turned to love for humanity as it might be in some future time. Slowly but surely, Monza stopped addressing present problems and set his sights upon a transcendental Edenic future where man and beast would dwell in timeless harmony.

thing like the act of love, which achieves communion amidst feverish desire. The linoleum block prints of 1969 are the work of a man then seventy-two suddenly in step with the young by virtue of his extraordinary imagination and his profoundly unconventional spirit.

Reminiscent of the wartime series of thirty years before is the group of twelve paintings entitled In Our Times. More enigmatic and allegorical than their predecessors, these paintings predict a future of harmony achieved by the active reconciliation of discord. Figures balance upon one another, and oddly acrobatic postures express force, anger, affection, wisdom, and even love. Created in pastel tones of pink, lime green, peach, and sea blue, these images convey the

plicity. It proved relatively easy to repair any small broken pieces and Monza displayed them everywhere in his house. Over the years he worked with several colors of clay, ranging from pale pink to earthy brown. Most of his terra-cotta sculptures are of tabletop scale, but he also created a few garden fountains of surprising proportions. Comparing the outlines

INDUSTRIALISTS c. 1955 Ink on paper 9 x 14" The Monza Archive

Inspired perhaps by the era of the "flower children"... [Monza] looked to a new age of reconciliation and peace.

One of the most fortunate discoveries Monza made in this period was his ability to do surprisingly powerful work in the humble medium of linoleum printing. It enabled him to exploit all the subtlety of carving he had learned in Italy and released a flood of complex imagery in a series of large-scale prints made in 1969. In these, mankind is completely intertwined with nature in an erotic dance of ecstatic wholeness. Wind and water flow throughout these prints as living creatures are swept up together in a dreamlike state. Intricate, accomplished, and very beautiful, these images are the pinnacle of his achievement with line and shape to describe a private world so rich that it is overwhelming in its detail and completeness. During the summer of 1969, Monza worked in a whirlwind of creativity unlike anything in his entire life. Inspired perhaps by the era of the "flower children" and the political climate of 1968 and 1969, he looked to a new age of reconciliation and peace. He describes this period as turbulent and passionate, some-

42 WINTER 1996/97 FOLK ART

countercultural renaissance that occurred in California during the late 1960s and early 1970s. A few of these paintings survive; several others were damaged by mold beyond repair while in storage, but are known through extant drawings. Together, they are a glimpse of an optimistic moment that is now fading into history.

Accompanying the 1969 linoleum prints and Monza's In Our Times series is his prodigious output in the medium of terra-cotta. Monza's sculpture is certainly derived from the imagery of his childhood. It is filled with nymphs, satyrs, centaurs, acrobats, dancers, architectural follies, and caricatural portraits. Terra-cotta is known as a fragile medium, but Monza loved it for its color, elasticity, and sim-

of the terra-cotta sculptures and Monza's drawings of the same period, one finds a state of virtual congruence. The imagery he pursued in all mediaâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;drawings, prints, paintings, and sculptureâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;is clearly continuous. Toward the end of his career.

Louis Monza evolved from a preacher into a poet.

THE OBSERVATION THROUGH SKYLIGHT 1955 Linoleum block print on paper 12 15" Courtesy Luise Ross Gallery, New York

IN OUR TIMES #6 1961 Oil on canvas 24 36" Courtesy Luise Ross Gallery, New York

The final years of Monza's artistic life were both satisfying and troubling. A retrospective exhibition at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery in 1980 gave him a joyous, unexpected moment in the spotlight.

The virtually unknown Monza proved to be an inspiration to many contem-

Since the 1970s, more subtle but very real changes were happening in his beloved Redondo Beach harbor.

The ecology movement and scientific research into the often precarious health of plants and animals were making people aware of environmental pollution. Monza made a stunning

cynicism. His fish appear at the end of the Vietnam War and at the very moment when industrial pollution and political corruption occupied center stage on the national scene.

During the 1980s, Louis Monza continued to work at his dining room table, receiving an increasing number

porary artists who marveled at his apparent freedom to move from painting to sculpture to printmaking at will and to address timely issues without fear. Although self-taught and uninvolved with the issues of contemporary criticism, style, and fashion, he was a full-time artist in every sense of the word and a man of enormous dedication and seriousness.

series of drawings and a print featuring ever-more grotesque fish deformed by pollution. Relentlessly, these images bring us closer and closer to the open mouth of his spiny, scaly fish whose final appearance is as an enormous frightening head glaring outward and chanting, "Lies, Lies, Lies." The Watergate scandal reaffirmed Monza's long-held political

of visitors attracted by the growing fame of his art. His colored drawings maintained a richness of detail and intensity of vision until his death in 1984 at the age of eighty-six. Monza was a genial personality, soft-spoken and warm, but he never explained his art. It was essentially as mysterious to him as it was to others. Some of his work speaks frankly and polemically,

WINTER 1996/97 FOLK ART 43

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but it is always infused with a strange, almost primitive and impolite intensity. As an artist, Monza was an extravagant personality who was unafraid of taboo, political persecution, or personal unpopularity.

Monza is best known for his early work of the 1940s, which is now part of collections at the Smithsonian Institution and the Museum of American Folk Art. Monza's early work, with its directness of purpose and expression, has the brusque conviction of a self-directed personality. It is in

Toward the end of his life, Monza saw the world as whole and full of pleasures and dangers. It was even more marvelous, sensuous, and full of fantasy as the one he had learned to describe as a child. Through his art, we can see that in the end this gifted, often angry man loved the world with a great and intense passion.*

Susan C. Larsen taught American art historyfor many years at the university level and has created numerous art exhibitions.

She is co-author, with her husband, Lauri Robert Martin, ofPioneers in Paradise: Folk and Outsider Artists of the West Coast(The Long Beach Museum ofArt, 1984)and is a contributor to Pictured in My Mind: Contemporary American SelfTaught Art(Birmingham Museum ofArt, 1996). Dr. Larsen is the chiefcurator of The Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Maine.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Fels, Catharine. Graphic Work ofLouis Monza. Los Angeles: The Plantin Press, 1973.

Gibbs, Josephine."Louis Monza, Primitive," The Art Digest, vol. 18(15 November 1943), p. 14.

Hartigan, Lynda Roscoe. Made With Passion: The Hemphill Folk Art Collection.

Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1990, p. 139.

Larsen, Susan. Louis Monza: Paintings, Drawings, Prints, Sculpture. Los Angeles: University of Southern California Atelier Gallery, February 9—March 10,1985, brochure text.

THE GOSSIPEFIS 1966 Terra-cotta 9/ 1 2 - 9/ 1 2 x 4/ 1 2" Courtesy Luise Ross Gallery, New York

the later metaphysical work, however, especially the drawings and prints of the 1960s and 1970s, that we discover the true outcome of his artistic journey. He learned that an artist could clothe his aspirations in physical form and in so doing create a visionary heaven on earth.

Monza did at last find his own terrain, and it is an experimental world more exciting and just as historically relevant as his early war paintings. It embodies the hope and the youthful naïveté, the joy and the disillusionment of the 1960s in America.

Larsen-Martin, Susan, and Lauri Robert Martin. Pioneers in Paradise: Folk and Outsider Artists ofthe West Coast. Long Beach, Calif.: The Long Beach Museum of Art, 1984, pp. 47-48.

Larsen-Martin, Susan, and Lauri Robert Martin. Three California Primitives: Andrew Block, Louis Monza, Jon Seri. San Pedro, Calif.: Los Angeles Harbor College, February 1983, brochure text.

Maresca, Frank, and Roger Ricco. American Self-Taught: Paintings and Drawings

by Outsider Artists. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993, pp. 152-154.

Rosenak, Chuck and Jan. Museum of American Folk Art Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century American Folk Art and Artists. New York: Abbeville Press, 1990, pp. 216-218.

WINTER 1996/97 FOLK ART 45

N:7, The Unreality of

By Stephen Prokopoff

ruing about outsider art is comparatively new in the history of art, just as exhibitions of this material have only recently begun to appear in American museums. Earlier discussions bravely defended the aesthetic legitimacy of naives, often citing their important influence on such notable twentieth-century practitioners of "high art" as Max Ernst, Paul Klee, and Jean Dubuffet. However, over the last decade or so, the entry of outsider artists into the stylistic pantheon of art made it necessary for critics and historians to begin to seriously examine the production of masters such as Henry Darger with the same care that they have long given to mainstream artists. Happily, this process has already resulted in exhibitions and thoughtful texts about a number of major outsiders, and additional projects are under way.

Discussions of outsider art challenge the historian to address a number of problems that differ in emphasis and substance from those posed in traditional critical practice. In criticism of outsider art, questions of influence, artistic and broad cultural contexts, stylistic development, and criteria ofjudgment still seek a general consensus: in other words, an appropriate critical language is only in the early stages of definition.

W

44 WINTER 1996/97 FOLK ART

â&#x20AC;˘ Beirl

On Preparing, Organizing, and Mounting a Darger Exhibition

UNTITLED (2,000 Feet Below), Chicago, n.d., watercolor, pencil, and carbon tracing on pieced newsprint, 17./4

47'4". Collection of Robert M. Greenberg

How does one make sense of a large body of work by an artist such as Henry Darger who labored with no thought of a future audience and who did not keep records that would aid in illuminating his intentions and methods? A long familiarity with Darger's work was useful to me in formulating a sense of its thematic and artistic dimensions. On that base it was possible to sketch the broad design of a coherent stylistic development. The accuracy of this concept will almost certainly be subject to future debate, modification, and elaboration. As I suggest in the catalog to the exhibition "Henry Darger: The Unreality of Being," Darger's production began with the military portraits; their approximate dates are founded on the evidence of the newspaper and magazine photographs that provided the artist with his core of images. The chronology of his work beyond this point, however, is a matter of conjecture. A reasonable guess, based on the characteristics of style, is that the portraits gave birth to progressively more complex narratives, first combining and then

WINTER 1996/97 FOLK ART 47

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UNTITLED (Episode 3 Place Not Mentioned), Chicago, n.d., watercolor, Pencil, and carbon tracing on pieced paper, 24

75". Museum of American Folk Art, gift of Nathan and Kiyoko Lerner, 1995.23.1

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Henry Darger.The Unreality of Being On view at the Museum of American Folk Art from January 18 through April 27, 1997

A ver a

period of almost forty years, reclusive Chicago Henry Darger (1892-1973) created turbulent worlds of good and evil in his epic narrative The Realms of the Unreal. He illustrated this 15,000-page saga with several hundred mural-size collaged watercolors and smaller pencil drawings that contrast the innocence of little girls, sometimes depicted as hermaphrodites, with the

k / artist

violence perpetrated by evil adults. In horrific battle scenes, seven virtuous heroines—the Vivian sisters— struggle against adult male warriors to free child slaves.

Eerily beautiful and laden with sexual undercurrents, Henry Darger's spellbinding art emerged from the damaging experiences of his own childhood. When Darger was four years old, his mother died after giving birth to a baby sister, whom Darger never saw. When he was eight, his father, no longer able to take care of him, placed him

UNTITLED (Battle Scene and Approaching Storm—reverse of painting described as Episode 3 Place Not Mentioned), Chicago, n.d., watercolor, pencil, and carbon tracing on pieced paper, 24 Museum of American Folk Art, gift of Nathan and Kiyoko Lerner, 1995.23.1

in a Catholic home for boys; he lived in various juvenile homes and institutions until he ran away at age sixteen.

Henry Darger spent the next sixty-one years alone, working at a series of low-paying jobs and living out his frightening fantasies through the powerful creation of worlds filled with beauty, valor, and heartbreaking catastrophe.

The exhibition "Henry Darger: The Unreality of Being," consisting of 58 paintings and drawings, was organized by The University of Iowa Museum of Art. The installation at the Museum of American Folk Art, designed

by Frank Maresca, includes additional material.

UNTITLED (Two Spangled Blengins), Chicago, n.d., watercolor and collage on paper, 14 x 17". Kiyoko Lerner, 542 B4I

TS".

eliding single images into larger narrative structures. This led to expanded formats and the incorporation of collage and, subsequently, to the use of traced images. Internal evidence in the collage material dates it to the 1930s and 1940s. In Darger's art the impulse is to an increasing realism, always defined in the artist's own idiosyncratic terms. It is because of this impulse that he was attracted to tracing, a procedure he saw as overcoming his weakness in drawing the figure. His very latest pictures, however, take an interesting turn away from realism and toward a free fantasy in which carefully judged size relations characteristic of previous pictures are mixed with outsize figures and a wonderful collection of disproportionately large and very decorative flowers, insects, and several utterly magical balloons.

In these works, artful invention joins hands with story-telling in a truly exhilarating fusion.

In preparing the exhibition, I was fortunate in being able to draw from the collection of Nathan and Kiyoko Lerner. Nathan Lerner, a distinguished photographer and, by happy circumstance, Darger's landlord, discovered Darger's artistic and literary remains after the artist's death. Without Lerner's appreciation, Darger's entire oeuvre would almost certainly have disappeared. The Lemers' collection, containing much of Darger's finest work, is the primary source for the study of his art. It was Nathan Lerner who suggested that this exhibition include, in addition to the admired pictures in extended format, groups of the military portraits and the captivating Blengin (dragon)images, none of which have ever been exhibited before.

Designing the exhibition's installation at The University of Iowa Museum of Art posed some interesting challenges. One was the preparation of very large works on paper, many of them in fragile condition, for exhibition and subsequent travel. Another was the special complication presented by pictures painted on both sides of sheets that often reach 8 or 10 feet in length; there are usually qualitative differences from side to side, and such works are framed to show the best image. In some exceptional instances, both sides of the sheet are so fine that each demands to be seen. This required the construction of special double-sided frames mounted on columns that were joined to freestanding walls displaying normally framed pictures. The galleries were painted deep brick-red in an approximation of the time-darkened walls in the room in Chicago that Darger inhabited for some four decades; this allowed the brilliant colors of Darger's art to be seen as radiant jewels in a mysterious treasury. The exhibition was carefully laid out in a fashion that let the visitor follow the course of the artist's development from picture to picture, offering a continuous sequence of discovery such as Darger himself might have experienced over the length of his career. The goal of these installation strategiesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and of the exhibition itselfâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;was to provide viewers with a vivid sense of the power, ingenuity, and beauty of Darger's exceptional vision. * Stephen Prokopoffis the director ofThe University ofIowa Museum ofArt.

WINTER 1996/97 FOLK ART 53

The Image D

uring the height of their popularity, carved wooden figures advertising a wide variety of goods and services were a common sight on the streets of urban and small-town America. Tens of thousands of shop

figures were carved in the United States and Canada in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Images of Native Americans were by far the most popular, but any character that caught the public's imaginationâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;especially after about 1860â&#x20AC;&#x201D;could and would be skillfully personified, from the more traditional Turks and Scotsmen to up-to-date baseball players and fashionable ladies. The carvers themselves coined the phrase "the image business" to characterize the wide range of figures that they were called upon to create.' Whether rendered in detailed realism or a more stylized and individualized fashion, shop figures represent one of the largest and most expressive of all American sculptural traditions. As reflections of their era, they also speak volumes about several important aspects of American social history, including racial and gender stereotyping, the emergence of a national popular culture, and the birth of modern commercial advertising.

54 WINTER 1996/97 FOLK ART

INDIAN PRINCESS WITH CROSSED LEGS Incised "S.A. Robb, Carver, 114 Centre St." on base New York City 1888-1903 Polychromed wood

7r high Collection of Allan and Penny Katz

Business Shop and Cigar Store Figures in America

By Ralph Sessions

FATHER TIME Artist unknown Mohawk Valley, New York c. 1910 Polychromed wood, metal, and hair 52 " high Museum of American Folk Art, gift of Mrs. John H. Heminway, 1964.2.1

56 WIN I I,R luunm7

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Shop figures were so much a part of the American scene that no one thought to make note of them until they were threatened with extinction in the final decades of the nineteenth century. In 1892, a Philadelphia journalist wrote:

tures made during this time were created by shipcarvers trained in traditional Anglo-American woodcarving techniques who operated through a network of workshops in port cities and towns along the East Coast and, to a lesser extent, the Great Lakes.

Besides producing shop figures, they So familiar in times past has also created figureheads and other everyone become with the cigar maritime carvings, as well as a wide store Indian that we have forrange of architectural and church gotten to look for them. Thus work, and, after the mid-nineteenth the majority of pedestrians century, circus wagon figures. Their have failed to notice the disapmajor contribution to the art was the pearance of these figures from development of life-size shop figures, most of our cigar stores which came to be known as show throughout the city. To-day not figures. In this, they were again folone in twenty cigar stores is so lowing English precedent, as full-size designated, while in times past representations of Scotsmen had been every cigar store, large and used as tobacconists' signs in the small, was decorated with some British Isles in the eighteenth century. character of Pompey....2 The British figures were relatively few, however, compared to the burst A few decades later, they were of creativity that was about to ensue decidedly out of favor, most having on this side of the Atlantic. already been destroyed, relegated to Patterned after figureheads, cellars and back rooms, or donated to life-size shop figures emerged in the local historical societies. As a result, United States around 1840, at a time their numbers are much reduced when shipcarving was entering its last today, and their origins and history major phase of activity. Freestanding have become obscure. figureheads carved in the round were As with many things American, themselves a relatively new developthe tradition of shop figure carving ment here, having first been copied originated in Europe. By the first quar- from French vessels fifty or sixty ter of the seventeenth century, crafts- years earlier. The Philadelphia sculpmen and merchants had made the link tor and shipcarver William Rush between Native Americans and (1756-1833) is generally credited tobacco. The earliest known represen- with introducing the French style of tation of a tobacconist figure appeared full-length figureheads into the Amerin 1617 in The Smoaking Age, or The ican carvers' repertoire. According to Life and Death of Tobacco, a long, an early nineteenth-century account, rambling tale of the origins of tobacco he first saw them in the early 1780s on that ridiculed the extravagance of fash- two French frigates that were repairionable English smokers. The fron- ing in a Philadelphia shipyard.3 Rush's tispiece of the book is an illustration of innovative designs in the following the interior of a tobacco shop. On the years were very influential and helped counter is a small, vaguely African change the course that figurehead and figure in a feathered skirt with a to- shop figure carving was to take in the bacco roll under his left arm and nineteenth century. several clay pipes at his feet. Known Shipcarvers were a tight-knit variously as a blackamoor, black boy, group, bound by both family and or Virginian, the type remained popu- master-apprentice relationships. lar in England into the nineteenth cen- Among Rush's apprentices, for examtury. By that time, it had been joined ple, was Daniel Train, one of the leadby Scotsmen, Turks, sailors, and other ing shipcarvers in New York at the human types, most rendered in quarter turn of the nineteenth century; records to half life size. show that he actively worked at his Shop figure carving reached its trade between 1799 and 1812. Simeon height in America from about 1840 to Skillin, Jr. (1756/7-1806) and his 1890. The vast majority of the sculp- brother John Skillin (1746-1800) of

the Boston shipcarving dynasty executed Rush's design for the frigate Constitution in 1797, and a few years later their nephew Simeon SkiIlin III (1766-1830) was a partner with the prominent New York City carver Jeremiah Dodge (c. 1780-1860). Given the success of Rush's designs and this itinerant and highly competitive professional network, it is not surprising that by the early nineteenth century the full-length figure, usually dramatically posed on a scroll, was one of the most popular figurehead types in America, along with portrait busts, eagles, and decorative scrolls. These images remained the major styles until the demise of the figurehead tradition in the later part of the century.

By merging the tradition of full-size figureheads with that of the generally smaller shop figures, early nineteenth-century shipcarvers created an imposing sculptural form that was readily adaptable to the rapidly expanding and increasingly competitive American business environment.

By mid-century, the phenomenon had reached the dimensions of a fad and show figures had become an essential part of many shopkeepers' operations.

The carvers responded by producing a remarkable variety of figures suitable to a wide range of commercial enterprises. The cigar-store Indian was the most popular and prominent type, but new characters reflecting the latest fashions or public opinions were continually created. Portraits of politicians, popular entertainers, and sports heroes were commissioned, from

George Washington to Buffalo Bill to John L. Sullivan. Fictional characters were represented as well, especially Punch of Punch and Judy fame.

According to contemporary accounts, he was particularly popular in the 1870s and 1880s.

Due to the innumerable and often brief partnerships of master shipcarvers, the frequent relocation of even the most stable workshops, and the itinerant nature of the profession, the attribution of figures to a specific carver or even a specific shop remains largely speculative. Dating is more certain, as a stylistic chronology that roughly parallels developments in the fine arts can be applied to figureheads and shop figures. From the mideighteenth to early nineteenth centuries, shipcarvers like William Rush and the Skillins combined traditional baroque-inspired figurehead design with an overlay of neoclassical dress and accessories. The result was a tendency toward dramatic movement, deep carving, and generalized faces with idealized features. At the end of this period, neoclassical elements often dominated, as seen in the Mercury carved around 1830 and attributed to William Rush. As the god of commerce and the messenger of the gods, Mercury was an appropriate choice for a tobacconist's sign. Then again, the store owner may have simply wanted a distinctive figure carved in the latest style. The details of Mercury's costume, including winged helmet and armor, are crisply rendered, while the attention to anatomical features seen in the musculature of the neck and legs mark it as the work of a master like Rush.

As the nineteenth century progressed, elements of romanticism were adopted by the carvers, particularly in the stereotypical depiction of Native Americans in the "noble savage" mode. Carving was somewhat shallower than before, but ornamented surface remained the rule, as did idealized faces with eyes that searched the horizon in the manner of their figurehead ancestors. Among the men most responsible for the development and production of the type were four New York City shipcarvers: John Cromwell (1805-1873), Thomas Brooks (18281895), Thomas White (1825-1902),

MERCURY Attributed to William Rush Philadelphia c.1830 Polychromed wood 38" high Maryland Historical Society, 26.11.1

AFRICAN AMERICAN INDIAN Attributed to lob Freehold, New Jersey c. 1850 Polychromed wood 46" high New York State Historical Association, Cooperstown, New York, N-145.61

WINTER 1996/97 FOLK ART 57

DUDE or RACE TRACK TOUT Artist unknown Probably New York City c. 1880 Polychromed wood 72" high Heritage Plantation of Sandwich, Massachusetts

58 WINTER 1996/97 FOLK ART

and Samuel Robb (1851-1928).

Thanks to the work of Frederick Fried, Robb's workshop is the most familiar.

His was the largest and most successful operation in the final decades of the nineteenth century, producing many of the finest examples of New York show figures known to us today.

It is also true, however, that Robb inherited many elements of his style from his predecessors, as was typical in all of the old craft traditions.

Beginning with Cromwell and one or two of his contemporaries, three generations of New York shipcarvers worked in a similar style, producing thousands of figures that are largely variations on a relatively small number of themes. With the exception of special commissions, upon which carvers would indulge their imaginations in highly individualized conceptions, the majority of figures were created using a standard repertoire of poses, expressions, and accessories.

That is not to say that they were either devoid of originality or indistinguishable from one another. The number of combinations of the various elements was seemingly endless, and the best carvers imparted an individualized touch to their work. Even in the case of the most popular types of figures, no two pieces were exactly alike.

One of the finest surviving examples of the New York show figure style is illustrated here, a female Indian with "S.A. Robb, Carver, 114 Centre St." incised on the top front edge of the base. The piece is remarkably well preserved, from its carved detail to an original paint surface that shows almost no evidence of retouching. This may be because it spent much of its working life indoors, possibly in a store window, and therefore escaped the exposure to the elements and other types of wear and tear that resulted in many figures needing to be routinely repaired and repainted. In any event, the figure's expressive face and cross-legged pose give it a casual, almost jaunty air that is much more lifelike than many of its more static contemporaries.

In the latter part of the nineteenth century, the emphasis on detailed realism and contemporary dress favored for public monuments and commemorative sculpture influ-

enced the depiction of many characters. The best figures were carved with much attention to detail, while faces were frequently handled more naturalistically. At the same time, these tendencies were often mixed with a strong element of caricature that was also seen in newspapers and the popular press. One typical urban type, known at the time as a Dude or Race Track Tout, was particularly popular.

As one carver explained in 1886, "Dudes had quite a go for a while. I have got fully twenty-five dudes planted around Brooklyn and New York now, though dudes are on the wane......4 Nattily dressed, this ultimate city slicker is rendered as a slightly disreputable character who would no doubt be happy to sell you anything. He is skillfully carved, but it is the bold use of paint, which in this case has been carefully restored, that is especially important in creating the overall effect.

In large part, these stylistic parallels with the fine and graphic arts resulted from the fact that the carvers were creating works for an American public thatâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;due to the proliferation of civic monuments, commercial galleries, and art fairs after mid-century, as well as the availability of inexpensive prints and illustrated magazinesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;was increasingly aware of current developments in the arts. A few carvers even received some academic training, including Samuel Robb, who attended night classes at Cooper Union and the National Academy of Design in New York City.

Despite the changing styles and details, however, the figures continued to be made in the traditional manner.

The preferred material was white pine, usually three- to seven-foot sections of masts purchased at spar yards in the maritime district. The larger carving shops consisted of one or two master carvers, a few apprentices, and one or more itinerant journeyman carvers who were engaged on a daily or weekly basis, depending upon the number of orders to be filled. Other master carvers worked alone, with perhaps only a single apprentice. The work proceeded by hand. "While the carving is mostly done by eye, chalk or pencil lines are drawn on the log for general contour," as a reporter noted

in 1883.5 For the more popular types that were often repeated, a paper pattern was used as a guide. The carvers' tools were axes, mallets, and chisels.

While the inspiration for a particular figure might come from any number of different sources, industrialization never made much headway in a craft that demanded so much handwork. For this reason, show figures made by shipcarvers represent a fascinating blend of folk, fine, and popular art.

At the other end of the folk art continuum are those self-taught carvers who fashioned figures for local markets, often in smaller inland towns and rural areas. Throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, carpenters, cabinetmakers, and part-time woodworkers in all parts of the country produced shop figures on demand or for personal enjoyment. Little can be said about common training or techniques of these generally unidentified artists, other than what can be inferred from their work. They represent a diverse collection of individuals who usually operated independently of one another, often creating one-of-akind pieces patterned after those produced in the seaport shops. In all, they produced far fewer figures than did the shipcarvers, and again survival rates for the figures are low. As a result, their work is extremely rare today.

Their artistry speaks for itself, however, and among the surviving examples are some of the most dynamic and engaging pieces of American folk sculpture.

One of the most distinctive of these is a figure of a woman believed to have been carved in Freehold, New Jersey, around mid-century by an African American named Job. A powerful stylization, this figure has an abstracted presence stripped of ornamentation and yet presented in a typical pose with the left leg raised and supported by a bunch of cigars. The carver was obviously aware of the figures being made some forty miles to the north in New York City. This is particularly evident in his handling of the two bunches of cigars and the use of scored fringe at the bottom of the skirt and on the sleeves, as well as in the revealing cut of the dress, a rare but not unknown feature among urban show figures designed to catch the eye

of male customers. This highly individualized interpretation is a unique combination of an eroticized body and a bold, masklike face that has been noted for its formality and an "iconic intensity" suggestive of African sculpture.6 The third and smallest group of carvers were those academically trained artists who responded to the growing demand for show figures in the second half of the nineteenth century. Included with them are woodcarvers trained in the European system, mainly Germans and French-Canadians, who as apprentices had followed a course of study that included instruction from recognized sculptors. Among these artists is Caspar Buberl (1834-1899), a Czechoslovakian-born sculptor best known for his Civil War memorial groups. Around 1875, he modeled a figure of Puck (a character made famous by the English satirical magazine of the same name), which was cast in zinc holding a large pen in one hand and a bunch of cigars in the other. The original figure was probably not carved in wood. More likely Buberl worked in clay and other artisans translated his figure into metal.

Unlike Buberl, Julius Melchers (1829-1909), a German sculptor and woodcarver who settled in Detroit in 1855, worked in several different mediums, including wood, plaster, and stone. He had apprenticed with a sculptor and master woodcarver in his native Prussia and studied with two leading academic sculptors at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. For more than forty years, his Detroit workshop produced architectural sculpture, church carvings, patterns for decorative castings, and shop figures.

Melchers also conducted classes in drawing and modeling, and so made a major contribution to Detroit's fledgling artistic community. His best shop figures are sensitively rendered, with a naturalism that is quite convincing.

The Fur Trapper attributed to him has several conventional features, including a feathered skirt, catamount pelt, and left leg supported by a box, but is nevertheless far from typical. The masterful carving seen in the handling of form, as well as in the modeling of the face and other details, raises it to the level of the extraordinary.

The Museum of American Folk Art presents

The Image Business: Shop and Cigar Store Figures in America On View May 11 through October 19, 1997 Heritage Plantation of Sandwich Sandwich, Massachusetts November 1, 1997, through January 25, 1998 Museum of American Folk Art New York, New York February 18 through April 12, 1998 Baltimore Museum of Art Baltimore, Maryland hop and tobacco store figures represent a major sculptural tradition within the history of American art."The Image Business: Shop and Cigar Store Figures in America," organized by guest curator Ralph Sessions, examines the origins, sources, and practice of shop figure carving and traces its development from the earliest English and American examplesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;through its most active period from the 1840s to the 1890s, during which thousands of figures were produced by shipcarvers in urban workshopsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;to its decline in the early 20th century. Sessions has selected more than sixty figures from major public and private collections for the first comprehensive presentation of this important sculptural tradition in more than 25 years.

S

Generous grants were provided for the exhibition by the General Cigar Co. and the National Endowment for the Arts.

VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTER Columbian Engine Co. 14 Incised S.A. Robb, 195 Canal St." on base New York City 1876-1888 Polychromed wood 2r high New York City Fire Museum This firefighter is probably a commemorative figure, carved 15 or 20 years after the Columbian Engine Co. 14 had ceased to exist. The figure is wearing a uniform that was typical of New York City volunteer companies around 1860. Professional firefighting companies replaced the volunteers in 1865. Columbian Engine Co. 14 was located at the corner of Vesey and Church Streets until that time.

WINTER 1996/97 FOLK ART 51

After 1860 show figures were marketed nationally by a few large tobacco products distributors. The most successful of these was William Demuth & Company, a New York firm that offered a full line of figures through catalog sales. Demuth also sent salesmen across the country and set up elaborate displays in major national expositions and industrial fairs, including the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. Among the firm's major innovations was the introduction of zinc figures, an idea that Demuth developed with Moritz Seelig, a fellow German immigrant who operated a foundry in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. Demuth's 1875 catalog offered thirty different zinc figures, from several varieties of Indians to Buberl's Puck. He also sold countless wooden figures through the mail. Both Samuel Robb and Thomas White worked for him, and other New York carvers probably did as well. Together they established New York City as a center of show figure production and distribution, spreading the New York style across the country.

Show figures had found a niche in the rapidly evolving arenas of commercial art and popular culture. They remained quite popular for a time, as carvers continually created new models that reflected the latest fashions and public opinions. The vogue did not last long, however. For a variety of reasons, including oversupply, changing tastes, and new modes of advertising, the production of new figures virtually ceased by 1900. They were increasingly seen as old-fashioned, symbols of an era that was rapidly passing away.

Most of the traditional shipcarvers were out of business anyway, their craft having been doomed by the advent of metal-hulled ships several decades earlier. After the turn of the century, the lessened demand for shop figures was easily met by repainting and recycling older ones.

While the art of the shipcarver gradually faded from the American scene, however, shop figures have never disappeared. The work of selftaught artists has continued unabated, made all the more visible in our time by the demise of many of the old craft traditions. An outstanding example

80 WINTER 1996/97 FOLK ART

from earlier in this century is Father Time, a counter-size figure from the Mohawk River Valley region of upstate New York that was carved around 1910. Although his original purpose is not certain, he is presumed to have been used in a shop, probably as a doorbell of sorts. The figure was once articulated so that the right arm moved and the sickle hit the suspended bell. He may also have originally been more modestly attired in a robe, which would seem to be appropriate for so venerable a character. As found, he is a sleek stylization with a strong vertical thrust that accentuates the idea of an otherworldly being who marks the inevitable passage of time.

As such, he is an appropriate piece with which to end this survey.

Father Time represents a direct link with the type of self-taught work that has become so popular today. He and his kind have always been a part of the shop figure tradition. Once vastly outnumbered by their urban workshop counterparts, they now stand as the sole heirs, as well as a vital form of contemporary expression.*

FUR TRAPPER Attributed to Julius Melchers Detroit c. 1865 Polychromed woad 46" high New York State Historical Association, Cooperstown, New York, N-144.61

Ralph Sessions is an independent curator and art historian. He has worked as chief curator ofthe Museum ofAmerican Folk Art, director ofthe Abigail Adams Smith Museum in New York City, and director of the Historical Society ofRockland County, New York. Sessions is currently a doctoral candidate in art history at the City University ofNew York.

Selected Bibliography Apperson, G.L. The Social History of Smoking. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1916.

Brewington, Marion V. Shipcarvers of North America. Barre, Mass.: Barre Publishing Co., 1962.

Fried, Frederick. Artists in Wood. New York: Clarkson Potter, 1970.

Lipman, Jean. American Folk Art in Wood, Metal and Stone. Meriden, Conn.: Pantheon, 1948.

Pendergast, A.W., and W.Porter Ware.

Cigar Store Figures in American Folk Art. Chicago: Lightner, 1953.

Pinckney, Pauline A. American Figureheads and Their Carvers. New York: Norton, 1940.

Sanborn, Kate. Hunting Indians in a TaxiCab. Boston: Richard G. Badger, 1911.

NOTES 1 "Designed by Whittling Yankees," Tobacco 1 (May 14, 1886), P. 7.

2 E. Leslie Gillams,"Cigar-Store Indians," Philadelphia Times, December 18, 1892, p. 18.

3 John F. Watson,Annals ofPhiladelphia (Philadelphia: E.L. Cary & A. Hart, 1830), p.551.

4 "Designed by Whittling Yankees," op. cit., p. 7.

5 "Wood-carving," Harper's Weekly 27 (January 6, 1883), p. 13.

6 John Michael Vlach, The AfroAmerican Tradition in the Decorative Arts (Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978), p. 37; Frederick Fried, Artists in Wood(New York: Clarkson Potter, 1970), p. 20.

oN Lfrr HISTORICAL SOCIETY

ANTIQUES SHOW March 15 & 16,1997 Wilton High School Field House Route 7, Wilton, Connecticut

WILTON,the acclaimed venue for the most exciting antiques shows in the country, brings together more than 100 distinguished dealers offering country and high-style period furniture, American and European decorative arts, folk and fine art for its 30th annual antiques show.

Comprehensive in scope, it offers wonderful objects from the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, handsomely presented and at a range of prices. It is planned to serve both advanced collectors and those beginning to acquire authentic antiques.

Managed by Marilyn Gould

Early buying and continental breakfast Saturday 8:30 - 10 a.m., Admission $25

Saturday & Sunday 10 to 5 Admission $8 with ad $7 Easy to reach by major highways and Metro North R.R. to Cannondale station and only 50 miles from New York City.

• 5 1/2 miles north of Exit 39B Merritt Parkway • 8 miles north of Exit 15.1-95 • 12 miles south of Exit 3,1-84 •

Wilton Historical Society, 249 Danbury Road, Wilton, Conn. 06897, 203 762-7257

aoffc, Arts of Toiand "The Finest Collection in America" Santa Fe, New Mexico

L to R Nativities: A.Wojtczak, E.Peksowa, T. Kacalak & Boleslawiec Ceramics

"WE ARE AMERICA'S SOURCE FOR THE BEST OF POLAND'S FOLK ART." Wood Sculptures, Reverse Paintings on Glass, Paper Cut-Outs, Boleslawiec Ceramics,Embroidered Clothing.

Mailing Address: FOLK ARTS OF POLAND P0Box 113 Tesuque,NM 87574

Gallery (505)- 984-9882 Fax 989-7580

"Travelogue by self-taught American artist

ii\orm Magnusson a pictorial journal of an artist's voyage to New Zealand and the Pacific (catalogue available)

Feb. 13 - March 15, 1996 Tues. - Sat., 12- 6PM

kaidiewaterlLather: GALLERY

"Devil" 1996 Acrylic on canvas 29" x 26"

02 WINTER 1996/97 FOLK ART

560 BROADWAY SUITE 204 NEW YORK. N.Y. 10012 (212) 941-6355, fax (212) 941-7712

Tired of Singing the Blues?

Come to MISSISSIPPI with the Museum of American Folk Art April 8 - 13, 1997

Photo by Mike McCoy: Courtesy of The Attic Gallery, Vicksbure, Miss.

Enjoy four days of touring in central and southern Mississippi with the Museum's Folk Art Explorers' Club. The trip will include visits to Mississippi artists, collectors, galleries, museums and historic sites. Based in the capital city of Jackson, the trip will also include day trips to Vicksburg and Natchez and a drive along the historic Natchez Trace.

The Folk Art Explorers' Club is a travel program for Museum of American Folk Art members and their guests. To receive a detailed itinerary, cost information and application form, call Beth Bergin or Chris Cappiello in the Museum Membership Office, 212/977-7170. Folk Art Explorers' Club tours fill up quickly - call now!

Four blocks in Chicago's Old Town are filled with fine art and craft.

CALL FOR ENTRIES for June 14 a 15, 1997 exhibition for a prospectus, send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to: WELLS STREET ART FESTIVAL Old Town Chamber of Commerce 1545 N. Wells Street, lower level Chicago, IL 60610-1307

Entry Deadline: February 14, 1997

the source for what's new in today's quilts...

THE VERY SPECIAL ARTS GALLERY FEATURES

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the magazine devoted to the art quilt. the quilts, the artists, the shows, the issues, the reviews...

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ive-, outsider, Se4.44341

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the Art of the

FEATURING THE WORKS OF: RALPH Aur PER HEIDE

Quilt.

Special for Folk Art readers: 1 year(4 quarterly issues) for $28. Sample copy $7($1OUS overseas) Nancy Crow at the Renwick poster(shown above)$8 pp Exhibit catalog: Nancy Crow Improvisationsal Quilts $21.95 pp Great Booksfor Great Gifts

***AtT/Qau 1Book Serrice*** *** Send SASE for our list of books and goodies.*** To subscribe, send check for $28($38US for overseas) to: esgItT/Qully Magazine / Folk Art Offer PO Box 630927 / Houston,TX 77263-0927 / fax 713/975-6072 (MC/V accepted)

84 WINTER 1996/97 FOLK ART

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"The Beaver" Here's Looking at You Dog. CHEERS!

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HOUSE PAINT ON PLYWOOD

Visit your local Folk Art Galleryfor The Beaver's" Paintings.

WANDA'S QUILTS P.O. Box 2012â&#x20AC;˘ Oldsmar, Florida 34677 (813) 855-1521

A Place for Them

Delightful Bird Ornaments Find Their Homes in Birdhouses on the Museum of American Folk Art's 1996 Holiday Trees

08 WINTER 1996/97 FOLK ART

o coincide with the Museum's current exhibition,"A Place For Us: Vernacular Architecture in American Folk Art," members of the Shenandoah Chapter of the Historical Society of Early American Decoration(HSEAD) have made and donated 150 hand-painted birdhouse and bird ornaments to decorate the Museum's holiday trees. The charming wee domiciles have been embellished with stenciling, marbling, penwork, metal leaf, and freehand designs; the birdsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;of many feathersâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; are made from wood, paper, metal, and glass, and display freehandpainted decoration, fraktur designs, reverse glass painting, and punched or impressed metal techniques.

The Shenandoah Chapter of HSEAD was formed in 1976 in response to the growing number of members residing in the metropolitan Washington, D.C., area. Recent projects undertaken by Shenandoah include stenciling in the foyer and main hallway of The Fisher House at Walter Reed Army Hospital; exhibiting and demonstrating at a local historic tavern and museum in Old Towne Alexandria, Virginia; and co-organizing and participating in "Restoration '96," a decorative arts trade show in Baltimore. For information about an HSEAD chapter in your area, write to Beverly McCarthy at the Museum of American Folk Art,61 West 62nd Street, New York, NY 10023 or call 212/977-7170.

The holiday trees are on view now through January 5 at the Museum's Eva and Morns Feld Gallery on Columbus Avenue between 65th and 66th Streets. Museum hours are Tuesday through Sunday, 11:30 A.M. to 7:30 P.M. Admission is free.

T

SIMPLY THE FINEST IN AMERICAN CRAFTSMANSHIP TODAY...

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I•IINNIft

_

*boor

Sheraton Valley Forge Ballrooms King ofPrussia, Pennsylvania

Showcasing 75 Distinguished Artisans!

THE DESIGNER CRAFTSMEN SHOW offers the serious collector the "best ofthe best"in American craftsmanship.

Thisjuried, invitationalshow features the highest quality in traditional crafts, contemporag.folk art, museum quality replicas, original artworks andfinefiniiture reproductions.

FEATURING: Chester County Historical Society Masterworks Collection — and — Early American Homes Exhibit SIDE BY SIDE A unique way to look at old and new craftsmanship SHOW TIMES: A One-Of-A-Kind Preview and Gala Party Friday,January 31st: 5:00pm - 9:00pm ADMISSION:$20.00 per person Saturday, February 1st: 10:00am - 5:00pm Sunday, February 2nd: 10:00am - 5:00pm GENERAL ADMISSION:$10.00 per person Produced by Goodrich & Company Promotions, Inc. 717-796-2380.

For travel and hotel accommodations, call Commerce Travel at 1-800-862-7538.

ALICE J. HOFFMAN AND MARYANN WARAKOMSKI

441

MUSEUM OF AMERICAN FOLK ART COLLECTION

The Lane Company

Representing over 300 years ofAmerican design,from the late 1600s to the present, the Museum ofAmerican Folk Art CollectionTM brings within reach ofthe public the very best ofthe past to be enjoyedfor generations to come.

New Directions The Museum welcomes its newest licensee: * Hermitage Des Artistes These five artisans, all recovering alcoholics, have recaptured their lives and formed a collective to revive the inventive craft of tramp art. We admire these men for turning their lives around and are proud to include them in our family of licensees. Picture frames and boxes featuring cigar label art from the Museum's collection will be available soon.

News from Museum Licensees Look for the many new products from our family of licensees, featuring new designs inspired by the Museum's collection. * American Pacific introduced "Art of Embellishment" quilts, coordinating pillows and shams featuring decorative flowers, leaves, and classic swirls and swags at the New York Textile Show in October. The preview of these products was a smashing success. * Carvin Folk Art Designs add a touch of whimsy to your wardrobe. A complete line of goldplated and enamel jewelry for both men and women features favorite objects from the Museum's collection. * Enesco Corporation has created a collection of quilt-inspired mugs and trivets decorated with traditional and contemporary folk art designs. * The Lane Company brings American PortfolioTm designs to a store nearest you. Ring in the

68 WINTER 1996/97 FOLK ART

New Year with a touch of the past designed for today. Reinterpreted American classic design elements bring versatility to any setting— new finish and woods include maple solids, cherry, and bird'seye maple veneers.

Special Events Happy Anniversary! The Museum and QVC celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Museum's charter with an hour-long television show on October 28.

The Museum's director, Gerard Wertkin, once again was the "onair" guest host. Testimonies were heard from viewers who first met Gerry and were introduced to the Museum on July 4, when QVC aired its first Museum ofAmerican Folk Art Hour. Gerry received numerous calls from satisfied buyers during the hour welcoming him back and letting him know how much they were enjoying the licensed products they had purchased from the last show. We thank all of you, new friends and old, who called and purchased items during the October show.

Your purchase of Museumlicensed products directly benefits the exhibition and educational activities of the Museum.

Opening Night! On September 25 at the Fall Antiques Show at the Armory, James Hastrich, IGMA artisan and Museum licensee, displayed for the first time a miniature reproduction of the Museum's Tall-case Clock.

Sharing a table with Membership Director Beth Bergin, James was able to meet and talk to many

11 ' • _

046.

Carvin Folk Art Designs

The Lane Company

lames Hastrich

beam Corporation

friends of the Museum. He is now taking orders for this very limited edition—only 5 timely collectors will be able to own one of his meticulously crafted miniature reproductions.

Dear Customer 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 CollectionTm please contact us at 212/977-7170.

Family of Licensees Abbeville Press (212/888-1969) gift wrap, book/gift tags and quilt note cube.* American Pacific Enterprises(212/944-6799) quilts, shams, and pillows. Andrews & McMeel (816/932-6700) traditional folk art songbook.* Carvin Folk Art Designs,Inc.(212/7556474)gold-plated and enameled jewelry.* Concord Miniatures(800/888-0936) 1"-scale furniture and accessories.* Dakotah,Inc. (800/325-6824) decorative pillows, woven throws, wall art, and totes.* Danforth Pewter-

em,Ltd.(800/222-3142) pewter jewelry and accessories, buttons, ornaments, keyrings.* Dynasty Dolls(800/736-4438) collectible porcelain dolls.* Enesco Corporation (800/436-3726) decorative home giftware collection. Gallery Partners, Ltd.(718/7972547) silk, cotton, and chiffon scarves, wool shawls, and pill boxes.* Hermitage Des Artistes(212/243-1007)tramp art objects.* Imperial Wallcoverings,Inc.(216/464-3700) wallpaper and borders. James Hastrich (800/962-2932) miniature painted furniture reproductions in limited editions. 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.* Saunders & Cecil(212/662-7607) paper and stationery products, photo albums, calendars, and journals. Sullins House(219/495-2252) peghook 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.(800/7568359)fine art reproduction prints and posters.*

*Available in Museum of American Folk Art Book and Gift Shops.

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

SHELTON GALLERY & FRAME/BRUCE SHELTON KATHY MOSES,GALLERY DIRECTOR STANFORD SQUARE 4239 HARDING RD.,NASHVILLE,TN 37205(615)298-9935

XEW YORK PENING `..07

isA ET HE 4RTISTS PARTY 1TIF. Saturday,January 25,1997 6-9 pm Contemporary Folk Art/Outsider Art Exhibition at Cast Iron Gallery, 159 Mercer Street, 1st floor (2-1/2 blocks from Puck Building, between Houston & Prince),Soho,NY 10012.

Meet outsider artists Tim Lewis,Bobby Williford & Jesse Mitchell.

Visit us in New York City during the Outsider Art Fair Friday,January 24-Saturday,February 2,1997.

We'll be there Fri. Jan.24 & Sat. Jan 25 from 11-6 prior to our Saturday night opening.

Gallery hours Mon.-Sat., 11-6,Sun. 1-6 & by appointment.

Phone 212-274-8624 and fax 212-925-0342 during exhibition.

Jesse Mitchell - 3-D "Witch Dance"

Linvel Barker - Buckeye

Tim Lewis - Sandstone "Devil"

Minnie Adkins Linvel Barker Ronald Cooper G.C. DePrie Mr. Eddy Roy Ferdinand Denzil Goodpaster

Homer Green Helen LaFrance Junior Lewis Tim Lewis Jesse Lee Mitchell Dow Pugh Royal Robertson

Sulton Rogers older works by Jimmy Lee Sudduth Olivia Thomason Mose Tolliver Troy Webb Bobby Williford Wesley Willis & others

ADVERTISEMENT

FOLK FEST '96 NEWS

W

hat a smashing success! Folk Fest '96 was billed as "The World's Greatest Folk Art Show and Sale" and it sure lived up to its reputation. Over 80 prestigious galleries and dealers from around the nation filled the hall of The North Atlanta Trade Center with an amazing array of self-taught art.

Visitors mingled with artists such as Myrtice West, Archie Byron, Charlie Lucas and Woodie Long at the Meet the Artist party and even collected a signature and a sermon from the legendary Rev. Howard Finster. Folk Fest has exploded onto the scene and become intensely popular.

Diana Nadel from San Diego, CA cherishes her signature and sermon by Howard Finster during his annual visit to Folk Fest.

"Folk Fest voted year's best visual arts exhibit.

A rousing and smashing success!"

Roff Graves commissioned famous folk artist Sam McMillian to personalize his tailgate. The work was done in the parking lot of Folk Fest 96.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Atlanta Journal Constitution

N

ow in its fourth year, this show was a collector's dream, an opportunity of a lifetime. Visitors saw the entire range of self-taught art from masters in the field, to recent discoveries, to Southern folk pottery, to the best in African-American Art and Quilts, to Anonymous works. No where else in the country could folk art aficionados find such quality and selection.

Black Jesus by Clementine Hunter at Gilley's Gallery, Baton Rouge, LA

Folk Fest is the 'granddaddy' of all Folk Art shows. A host to over 8,000 visitors and 85 booths in the entire range of Folk, Self-taught, Outsider and Southern Folk Pottery. This all-inclusive show sports tremendous variety and high-quality. What a success! This is the first and only show of its kind that combines important old masters and recently discovered artists under one roof! â&#x20AC;&#x201D;20th Century Folk Art News

Sherry Pardee from The Pardee Collection, Iowa City, IA, greets collectors at Folk Fest '96.

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"The best Folk Art Show to date!"

Folic Fest 96—the only show in the country which features Southern Folk Pottery along with Self-taught and Outsider art.

Lanier Meaders, Rock Tooth Jug

—R. L. Wenstrup, Collector New Richmond, OH

Folk Fest '96—full of quality works such as this amazing Sam Doyle painting on Board. Offered

by The LaRoche Collection, Bluffton, SC

SLOTIN FOLK ART AUCTION Now Accepting Consignments For Early Spring 1997 Auction.

T

he Folk Fest philosophy of "Folk Art for ALL Folks" provided a forum for every type of self-taught art the public craved. The record-breaking crowd ofover 8,000 attendees reflected the excitement for the show and the popularity of the art.

"I enjoyed the Outsider Fair in New York, but Atlanta's Folk Fest '96 was TEN TIMES BETTER. Can't wait 'till next year!"

—Patt Madlener, Show Visitor Springfield, VA This rare 4' x 4' Howard Finster exhibited by the Hacldey Gallery,KY was offered for sale at Folk Fest '96.

Now accepting Self-taught Art, Southern Folk Pottery, Anonymous and African-American Quilts and other treasures.

A

s a fellow collector, I highly recommend that you make plans to attend next year's show. Bring your friends, family, neighbors and co-workers. I am sure they will thank you.

otzpi

Folk Fest '97

The World's Greatest Self-taught Art Show & Sale Atlanta, Georgia WHEN: August 15,5 p.m.-10 p.m.($15) (free catalog and readmission) August 16, 10 a.m.-7 p.m.($5) August 17, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.($5)

WHERE: The North Atlanta Trade Center (l-55 & Indian Trail Road, Exit 35) For more information or a FREE copy of the 20th Century Folk Art News: Steve 5lotin •5967 Blackberry Lane• Buford, GA 30518 (770)932-1000• FAX (770)932-0506

For more information on the Auction, please call or write: Steve Slotin • 5967 Blackberry Lane • Buford, GA 30518 (770)932-1000 • FAX:(770)932-0506

TRUSTEES/DONORS

MUSEUM

OF

AMERICAN

FOLK

ART

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 L. John Wilkerson, Ph.D Treasurer Jacqueline Fowler Secretary Anne Hill Blanchard

RECENT

MAJOR

$100,000 and above Estate of Daniel Cowin Mr.& Mrs. Joseph Cullman 3d Ralph 0.Esmerian Ford Motor Company Estate of Laura Harding The J.M. Kaplan Fund,Inc. The Henry Luce Foundation, Inc. Philip Morris Companies Inc. Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in conjunction with Norwegian Visions David C. 8t Jane Walentas Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund L. John & Barbara Wilkerson Anonymous $50,000499,999 The Coca-Cola Company Lucy Cullman & Frederick M. Danziger General Cigar Co. Howard and Jean Lipman Foundation, Inc. David L. Davies & Jack Weeden Johnson & Johnson NYNEX Corporation Anonymous

72 WINTER 1996/97 FOLK ART

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

DONORS

The Museum of American Folk Art greatly appreciates the generous support of the following friends:

$20,000â&#x20AC;&#x201D;$49,999 Arista Records, Inc. Peter M.& Mary Ciccone Raymond C.& Susan Egan Virginia S. Esmerian Jacqueline Fowler Joan M.& Victor L. Johnson Joseph Martinson Memorial Fund National Endowment for the Arts Julie K. & Samuel Palley Restaurant Associates Industries, Inc. The Smart Family Foundation Inc. Barbara and Thomas W.Strauss Fund Time Wainer Robert N.& Anne Wright Wilson Anonymous

Members Edward Lee Cave Joyce Cowin David L. Davies Samuel Farber Vira Hladun Goldman Susan Gutfreund Kristina Barbara Johnson, Esq. Susan Klein George H. Meyer, Esq. Cyril I. Nelson Julie K.Palley David C. Walentas

S10,000419,999 William Arnett Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. Anne Hill & Edward Vermont Blanchard Bristol-Myers Squibb Company Edward Lee Cave Virginia G. 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 Vira Hladun Goldman Susan & John H. Gutfreund Kristina Barbara Johnson, Esq. Susan & Robert E. Klein The LEF Foundation Kiyoko & Nathan Lerner Vincent & Anne Mai Merrill Lynch George H. & Kay Meyer Morgan Stanley Foundation The New York Community Trust The Peter Norton Family Foundation The Pinkerton Foundation Schlumberger Foundation, Inc. $4,00049,999 The American-Scandinavian Foundation ARTCORP The Beacon Group Big Apple Wrecking & Construction Company The Blackstone Group Michael R. Bloomberg H. Steve & Clarissa Burnett John R. and Dorothy D. Caples Fund Christie's Cravath, Swaine & Moore Debevoise & Plimpton Department of Cultural Affairs, City of New York Duane, Morris & Heckscher Ernst & Young The FINOVA Group Inc. Gallery 721

Goldman, Sachs & Co. Ellen E. Howe David & Barbara ICrashes Mr.& Mrs. Ronald S. Lauder Naomi Leff and Associates,Inc. MBNA America, N.A. Marstrand Foundation Christopher & Linda Mayer Mr.& Mrs. Kenneth J. McAlley New York State Council on the Arts The New York Times Company Foundation Park Avenue Cafe Leo & Dorothy Rabkin Frank Richardson William D. Rondina The William P. and Gertrude Schweitzer Foundation, Inc. Joseph E. Seagrams & Sons,Inc. George F. & Myra Shaskan Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher,& Flom Sanford L. Smith & Associates, Ltd. Sotheby's Lynn Steuer 82,00043,999 ABC,Inc. American Folk Art Society David & Didi Barrett Patrick Bell & Edwin Hild Bergen Line, Inc. Ellen Blissman Robert & Kathy Booth Richard Braemer & Amy Finkel Marvin & Lois P. Broder Edward J. & Margaret Brown Mr.& Mrs. John K. Castle Lily Cates Laurie Churchman Cigna Barbara & Joseph Cohen Mr.& Mrs. Edgar M. Cullman Allan & Kendra Daniel Richard M.& Peggy Danziger Davida & Alvin Deutsch (continued on page 74)

Self Taught, Visionary, Folk Art Fair COMES TO

CHICAGO May 30 - June 1,1997 847 West Jackson Saturday 10 - 8 and Sunday 10 - 6 Opening Night Preview Party Friday 5 - 10

RETURNS TO

HARBERT August 29 - 31, 1997 .judith Ilaclit Gallery 13707 Prairie Road, Harbert, MI 49115

JUDITH

Saturday 10-6 and Sunday 10-5 Opening Night Preview Party Friday 6-10

RACHT

FOR INFORMATION CALL (616) 469-1080

GALLERY

RECENT

MAJOR

DONORS

Continuedfrom page 72 Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Michael & Janice Doniger Nancy Druckman John L.& Margot Ernst Burton M & Helaine Fendelman Scott & Lauren Fine Jay & Gail Furman Fred & Kathryn Giampietro Peter & Barbara Goodman Ellin & Baron J. Gordon Bonnie Grossman Warren & Sue Ellen Haber Ann Harithas Pamela J. Hoiles Pepi & Vera Jelinek Harry Kahn Steven & Helen Kellogg Jerry & Susan Lauren Mel & Wendy Lavitt Patrick M.& Gloria M. Lonergan Macy's East Maine Community Foundation Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc. Michael & Gael Mendelsohn Keith & Lauren Morgan Cyril I. Nelson The Overbrook Foundation Drs. Jeffrey Pressman & Nancy Kollisch Norwegian Tourist Board Paige Rense Frederic A.& Jean S. Sharf Joseph & Janet Shein Raymond & Linda Simon Louise M.Simone R. Scudder & Helen Smith Richard & Stephanie Solar Peter J. Solomon Donald & Rachel Strauber Stanley & Doris Tananbaum Jim & Judy Taylor David Teiger Lynn & Peter Tishman Vesterheim Norwegian American Museum Don Walters & Mary Benisek Irwin H.& Elizabeth V. Warren Peter & Leslie Warwick Susan Yecies Anonymous $1,000—$1,999 Alconda-Owsley Foundation Marna Anderson R. Randolph Apgar & Allen Black Mr. James A. Block Mr. 8t Mrs. Thomas Block Jeffrey & Tina Bolton William F. Brooks, Jr. Lawrence & Ann Buttenwieser Michael J. & Meredith 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 Judy Cowen Cullman St Kravis, Inc. Marion Dailey Mr.& Mrs. David Dangoor

74 WINTER 1996/97 FOLK ART

Michael Del Castello Oscar de la Renta Marian & Don DeWitt Mr.& Mrs. Charles Diker The Echo Design Group,Inc. Mr.& Mrs. Alvin H. Einbender Sharon & Theodore Eisenstat Fairfield Processing Corporation Mr.& Mrs. Charles Fabrikant Fortgang Ken & Brenda Fritz Mr.& Mrs. Bruce Geismar Dr. Kurt A. Gitter & Ms. Alice Yelen Anne & Eric J. Gleacher Barbara Goldsmith Mr.& Mrs. Robert Goodkind Barbara L. Gordon Howard M. Graff Anne Groves Mr.& Mrs. Walter W.Hess, Jr. Stephen M. Hill Fern K.& Robert J. Hurst Richard H. Jenrette Linda E. Johnson Harvey 8t Isobel Kahn Charmaine & Maurice C. Kaplan Allan Katz Barbara S. Klinger Robert A. Landau Ricky & Ralph Lauren Mark Leavitt Fred Leighton Barbara S. Levinson Nadine & Peter Levy Ellen & Arthur Liman Lynn M.Lorwin Sylvia Kramer & Dan W.Lufkin Robert & Meryl Meltzer John E. Oilman Mr.& Mrs. Jeffrey Peek Anthony J. Petullo Guy Peyrelongue J. Randall Plummer Susan & Daniel Pollack Ricco/Maresca Gallery Grace Jones Richardson Trust Betty Ring Marguerite Riordan Amy & Howard J. Rubenstein Cynthia V.A.& Robert T. Schaffner Mr.& Mrs. David Schneider Stephen Score Mr.& Mrs. Michael P. Schulhof H. Marshall Schwarz June & Ronald K. Shelp Cecille Barger & Myron Benit Shure Nell Singer Mr. & Mrs. Elliot K. Slade Susan & George Soros Mr.& Mrs. Stanley G. Mortimer, III Ellen & David Stein William W. Stahl Patricia A.& Robert C. Stempel Maureen Taylor Mr.& Mrs. Raymond S. Troubh Sue & Edgar Wachenheim,III Margot Grant Walsh Sue Ann & John L. Weinberg Bennett & Judie Weinstock Herbert Wells G. Marc Whitehead

Merilyn Sandin-Zarlengo Marsha & Howard Zipser Anonymous $500—$999 Joe C. Adams The Ames Gallery in memory of Alex A. Maldonado Ingrid & Richard C. Anderson Tina & Aarne Anton Deborah & James Ash The Bachmann Foundation, Inc. Dorothy Harris Bandier June & Frank Barsalona Henry Barth Bergdorf Goodman Mr. St Mrs. Peter Bienstock Helen & Peter Bing 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. 8t Mrs. Stephen H. Cooper Monica Longworth & Michael F. Coyne Mr.& Mrs. Lewis Cullman Susan R. Cullman Judy & Aaron Daniels Gary Davenport Keith De Lellis Lynne W.Doss Marjorie Downey Debbie & Arnold Dunn Howard Drubner Mr. & Mrs. Frederick Elghanayan Epstein Philanthropies Mr. & Mrs. Anthony B. Evnin Mr.& Mrs. Robert H. Falk Samuel & Betsey Farber Mr. & Mrs. Howard P. Fertig Daniel M. Gantt Peter Georgescu The Howard Gilman Foundation, Inc. Frank Frawley Mildred & William L. Gladstone Harriet & Jonathan Goldstein Marilyn A. Green Dr. & Mrs. Stanley Greenberg Mr. Peter Greenwald & Nancy Hoffman Grey Advertising Nancy & Michael Grogan T. Marshall Hahn, Jr. Cordelia Hamilton Robert Harleman Pria & Mark Harmon Ellen & Brian C. Harris John Hays Audrey B. Heckler Herbert Waide Hemphill, Jr. Mr.& Mrs. Richard Herbst Arlene & Leonard Hochman Gerry & Robert D. Hodes Carter Houck (continued on page 76)

American Folk Art Sidney Gecker

A SAMPLING OF PENNSYLVANIA FOLK ART

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WINTER 1996/97 FOLK ART 75

RECENT

MAJOR

DONORS

Continuedfrom page 74 Imperial Wallcoverings, Inc. Laura N.& Theodore J. Israel Guy Johnson Penny & Alistair Johnston Jaclyn & Gerald P. Kaminsky Cathy M. Kaplan Dr. & Mrs. Arthur B. Kern Diane D.& Jerome H. Kern Mary Kettaneh Jacqueline & Jonathan King Sharon & Ivan Koota Mr.& Mrs. Theodore A. Kurz Evelyn & Leonard A. Lauder Mr.& Mrs. John A. Levin Mr.& Mrs. Roger Levin Frances & James Lieu Mimi Livingston Helen E. Luchars Earle & Carol Mack Gloria & Richard Manney Michael T. Martin Virginia Marx Mr.& Mrs. John A. Mayer Judith McGrath

RECENT

DONORS

Gifts James Benson Roger Cardinal David L. Davies Ralph & Eva Fasanella Jacqueline Fowler Louise E. Francke Edwin F. Gamble Ruth 0. Gildesgame Ellin & Baron J. Gordon T. Marshall Hahn,Jr. Cordelia Hamilton Herbert W. Hemphill, Jr. Evelyn & Magdalena Houlroyd

JEAN

Joyce & Robert Menschel Grete Meilman A. Forsythe Merrick Ira M. Millstein Susan & Victor Neiderhoffer Mr.& Mrs. Bruce Newman David Nichols Paul L. Oppenheimer Dr. Burton W.Pearl Terry & William Pelster Dale Precoda Eugenie A.Propp Mr. & Mrs. F.F. Randolph, Jr. Mr.& Mrs. Milton S. Rattner Irene Reichert John & Margaret Robson Mr.& Mrs. Peter C. Rockefeller Alyce & Roger Rose Fran Kaufman & Robert C. Rosenberg Marion Harris & Dr. Jerry Rosenfeld John Rosselli Mr.& Mrs. Winthrop Rutherford, Jr. Selig D. Sacks Diane H. Schafer

LIPMAN

Co-Chairmen Keith & Lauren Morgan Don Walters & Mary Benisek Founding Members Marna Anderson David & Didi Barrett Patrick Bell & Edwin hid Robert & Kathy Booth Richard Braemer & Amy Finkel Lois P. Broder Edward J. & Margaret Brown Virginia G. Cave Allan & Kendra Daniel Michael Del Castello Michael & Janice Doniger Nancy Druckman Scott & Lauren Fine Jay & Gail Furman Wendell Garrett

76 WINTER 1996/97 FOLK ART

TO

THE

Mr.& Mrs. Richard J. Schwartz Mrs. Stewart Seidman Randy Siegel Francisco F. Sierra Elizabeth A.& Geoffrey A. Stern Mr.& Mrs. Myles Tanenbaum James Adams & Ruben Teles Barbara & Donald Tober Anne D. Utescher Anne Vanderwarker Sue & George Viener Mr.& Mrs. R.A. Wagner Karel F. Wahrsager Gayle & Clifford Wallach Eve Weinstein Daniel Weiss Anne G. Wesson Jane Q. Wirtz Honey Wolosoff Thomas K. Woodard Mr. & Mrs. William Ziff Rebecca & Jon Zoler Mr.& Mrs. Donald Zuckert

COLLECTIONS

Kiyoko & Nathan Lerner Jean Lipman Frances Sirota & Paul Martinson Gad Mendelsohn Holly Metz Steven J. Michaan Joy Moos Shari Cavin & Randall Morris Museum of Modern Art from the collection of Gordon & Nina Bunshaft Margery Nathanson Cyril I. Nelson Leo & Dorothy Rabkin Mr.& Mrs. F.F. Randolph, Jr.

Marion Harris & Dr. Jerry Rosenfeld Martin E. Segal Betty Sterling Leslie Sweedler Agnes Lester Wade Susan Yecies Shelly Zegart Bequests Mildred Hart Bailey Trust Laura Harding Anne S. Marsh

FELLOWS

Fred Giampietro Peter & Barbara Goodman Barbara L. Gordon Howard M.Graff Bonnie Grossman Anne Groves Warren & Sue Ellen Haber Pepi & Vera Jelinek Linda E. Johnson Harvey Kahn Allan Katz Steven & Helen Kellogg David & Barbara Krashes Jerry & Susan Lauren Patrick M.& Gloria M. Lonergan Frank Maresca Gad Mendelsohn John E. Oilman J. Randall Plummer Drs. Jeffrey Pressman & Nancy Kollisch

Leo & Dorothy Rabkin Betty Ring Marguerite Riordan Stephen Score Frederic A.& Jean S. Sharf Joseph & Janet Shein Raymond & Linda Simon R. Scudder & Helen Smith Richard & Stephanie Solar Lynn Steuer Donald & Rachel Strauber Stanley & Doris Tananbaum Jim & Judy Taylor David Teiger Sin von Reis Irwin H.& Elizabeth V. Warren Peter & Leslie Warwick G. Marc Whitehead Susan Yecies

V RO9fIL ROBERTSOR A S.L. IMES A BILL

MELISSA PALI-MMUS A JAMES HAROLD JEIMMGS A BERKELEU BROWTIE A SARAH RAKES 1 = '..; tiN C

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CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN fOLK ART & SHE-TAUGHT ART Mike Smith • At Home Gallery

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3916 Pondfield Court • Greensboro, North Carolina 27410

By Appointment Only

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910/664-0012

"O rn E 4 KATI-ERWI fIRITETT A \ BEMPJ CARTER A CLIIDE JORES A 1B. MURR'J A MI:Mg T. SMITH A

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GALERIE SUSI BRUNNER

GALLERY

—Since 1973— We are the only Gallery in Switzerland specializing in

Spitalgasse 10 8001 Zurich Tel 41 (1) 251 23 42 Fax 41 (1) 261 23 49

WORKS OF ART

ART NAIF & ART BRUT CONTEMPORARY SELF-TAUGHT ARTISTS

self-taught artists

Exhibiting

Published catalogues from G. RIGOT, N. BRECQ, M. SANGBERG MOEN, "ART BRUT EUROPA"(19 artists) F. FRISCHKNECHT (english translation)

PURVIS YOUNG DAMIAN ROJO JAMIE NATHENSON BARBARA CLARK-FLEMING HARRY BERTSCHMANN CANADIAN FOLK ART Visit us: Outsider Art Fair, NYC January 24-26, 1997 355 NE 59th Terrace, Miami, Florida 33137 Tel: (305) 754-9373 • Fax: (305) 757-2124

Represented at ART BASEL, FIERA D'ARTE BOLOGNA, OUTSIDER ART FAIR, NEW YORK and others Our artists: ALANORE, BLEIKER, DE BUEREN, HUEBER, SCHULZ-RUMPOLD, NEDJAR, SEKULIC, WEY, WITTLICH, artists from GUGGING, RAFFLER, RABUZIN, FEJES, HOMONAJ, MARK, NIKIFOR, ERNOUT Please contact us!

WINTER 1996/97 FOLK ART 77

MUSEUM

NEWS

Fall Antiques Show Benefit he Fall Antiques Show opened to the public at the Park Avenue Armory in New York on Thursday, September 26. On Wednesday evening, September 25, nearly 1,000 guests turned out for the gala Museum of American Folk Art Opening Night Benefit Preview. Guests joined American folk music icons and honorary chairpersons Peter, Paul & Mary, Museum Director Gerard C. Wertkin, and Museum Trustees, staff, and friends to leisurely preview the show, while enjoying the soft music of a live jazz combo and wonderful hors d'oeuvres catered by Taste.

The Museum's Board of Trustees and staff wish to thank Benefit Chairmen Mr. and Mrs. John H. Gutfreund; Honorary Chairpersons Peter, Paul & Mary; Vice Chairmen Richard H. Jenrette, Mr. and Mrs. Stanley G. Mortimer III, Mr. and Mrs. Peter C. Rockefeller, William D. Rondina, Mr. and Mrs. Winthrop Rutherfurd, Jr., Mr. and Mrs. Elliott K. Slade, Bunny Williams, and Mr. and Mrs. Eugene H. Zagat, Jr.; and Advisory Chairmen Lucy C. Danziger and Wendy Lehman Lash for making this preview such a wonderful success.

Special thanks go to Fall Antiques Show Educational Chairmen Kathy Booth, Vera Jelinek, Anne Mai,and Julie Palley, who coordinated "In Search of an American Style," a breakfast symposium held on Thursday, September 26,in the armory's Tiffany Room. The symposium panel consisted of Brock Jobe, Jack Lindsey, and Nancy Vignola and was moderated by Gerard C. Wertkin.

The Benefit Committee acknowledges with gratitude the

T

71 WINTER 1996/97 FOLK ART

Back row: Honory Chairpersons Peter, Paul & Mary with Ken Fritz. Front row: Museum Trustee and Advisory Chairman, Lucy C. Danziger, and Benefit Chairmen John Gutfreund and Museum Trustee Susan Gutfreund.

Vice Chairmen Mary Rutherford, Sin Mortimer, and Win Rutherford with Emily Rafferty

Mee Mimeo Mott and Dolma Slade

steadfast support of Country Living magazine, who provided this year's spectacular lobby design; Joseph E. Seagram & Sons,Inc., for contributing the wine and liquor for the evening; Christie's, for contributing the printing of the Preview invitation; Ellen Blissman,for the invitation design; and everyone who participated in this important event.

Museum Director Gerard C. Wertkin with Fall Antiques Show Producer Sanford L. Smith

We're Onlineâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; http://www.folkartmuse.org

es! The Museum of

y

American Folk Art is now online. Our home page is up and running and provides a virtual window into the Museum. Through the efforts of our web site designer, Jeffrey Kibler of The Magazine Group, and our web site manager,Folk Art's production editor, Tanya

Heinrich, you can log on and see what's new. Our site includes more than a dozen images from our permanent collection and each time it is revised, we will include different artworksâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;some of which have never been exhibited before. See announcement on page 36 and please visit us at http://www.folkartmuse.org.

Dealers' Party embers of the Museum's Board of Trustees, Director Gerard C. Werticin, and the Folk Art magazine staff hosted an informal party for Fall Antiques Show dealers on the evening of "set-up day," Tuesday, September 24. Museum Trustee Susan Klein and her husband, Robert Klein, most graciously underwrote the event.

The party, which was held in the armory's Tiffany Room,

Photography by Man Flynn

M

offered a light buffet supper to dealers and their crews, who had been working hard all day in preparation for the show and the Museum's Benefit Preview. It gave us at the Museum the opportunity to thank them all for their contributions to folk art study, for the advertising support they give Folk Art magazine, and for presenting an unparalleled array of wonderful objects to our delighted Museum public.

Don Walters and Mary Benisek

Trustee Susan Klein and her husband, Robert Klein, hosts of the Dealers' Party

Sandy and Sidney Seeker

Save the Date nSunday, April 20, 1997, the Museum of American Folk Art will hold its second Benefit Country Auction at Sotheby's, 1334 York Avenue, New York City. The cocktail reception and silent auction will begin at 6:30 P.M.,followed by a live auction at 7:30. Dinner will be served at 8:30. Previews of all auction items will take place at Sotheby's on Friday, April 18, and Saturday, April 19,from 10:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M.

O

Tickets for the Benefit Country Auction are $1,000 for Benefactors, $500 for Patrons, and $350 for Donors. Supporter tickets for the cocktail reception and silent and live auctions only are available for $150. Benefactor tables of 10 are available for $10,000 and Patron tables of 10 for $5,000. For more information and for reservations for the Benefit Country Auction, please call Jennifer Waters at the Museum's administrative offices, 212/977-7170.

ESTATE OF LOUIS MONZA LUISE ROSS GALLERY 568 BROADWAY

NEW YORK

212 343-2161

WINTER 1996/97 FOLK ART 79

MUSEUM

NEWS

N EW YORK U NIVERSITY School of Education

For K-12 teachers and prospective teachers of art, social studies, and language arts and for museum and community educators. Folk Art—the indigenous and expressive activities of a people—offers you an exciting tool for teaching and learning!

Our summer conference brings teachers together with leading folk artists, folklorists, and folk art educators to explore ways of integrating American folk art into the classroom.

• Explore folk art as a dynamic student-centered approach to cultural and multicultural education • Examine field-tested models for effective teaching • Learn art forms from Native American, African American, and Latin American educators and how they teach their art to young people • Tour the Museum of American Folk Art and other New York City galleries Call for Model Curriculum Projects Submission Deadline: April 1, 1997 Submit the written plan for your context-based study of an American folk art form(s) and a description of its implementation and the results. Educators whose work is selected receive a full scholarship and honors at the conference.

Early registration fee: $225; after May 30, 1997: $280.

Find out how you can earn 3 graduate credits.

Call(212)998-5090 or fax (212)995-4923.

New York University is an affirmative action/ equal opportunity institution.

80 WINTER 1996/97 FOLK ART

Cooperstown Tour n October 2, the Museum of American Folk Art's Explorers' Club set off for Cooperstown to visit the New York State Historical Association, where they were given a private tour of the exhibition "Uncommon Quilts: Treasures from the New York State Historical Association" and the Thaw Collection of Native American art.

The next stop was Toad Hall, a gallery that specializes in antiques, folk art, and decorative items. Owners Randy Van Syoc and Allen Coit Ransome served refreshments and invited the group back to their home, a 165year-old farmhouse and bed and breakfast. The Explorers spent the night at the Otesaga hotel.

The next morning, after shopping in Cooperstown, the group headed south to visit Sharon

0

Folk Fest'96 tlanta's third annual Folk Fest was held at the North Atlanta Trade Center on August 16, 17, and 18. Producer Steve Slotin was pleased to announce that the show hosted more than 8,000 visitors during the three-day event. In addition to the popular Southern potters and other Folk Fest favorites, artists such as Sam Doyle, Minnie Evans,Clementine Hunter, and Bill Traylor were represented.

Slotin commented that the show was top-notch and that variety was the key.

A

Koota, a former Museum docent and outreach coordinator, and her husband,Ivan. Their hilltop home, which commands a 360degree view of beautiful countryside, houses their impressive collection of contemporary folk art.

The group's last stop was Chestnut Hill Farm,the weekend home of the Museum's deputy director, Riccardo Salmona, and Hall Willkie. After lunch the Explorers were served dessert in the barn and introduced to the farm's magnificent draft horses.

Very special thanks goes to Paul D'Ambrosio and the staff of the New York State Historical Association, Randy Van Syoc and Allen Coit Ransome of Toad Hall, Sharon and Ivan Koota, and Hall Willkie and Riccardo Salmona for helping to make this a truly memorable trip.

The Museum of American Folk Art's Book Shop booth carried a range of titles relating to the work of 20th-century selftaught artists. The Museum's Claudia Andrade and Chris Cappiello were on hand to greet Museum members and old friends. If you missed the show or were unable to stop at the Museum's booth, you can request a book list of available titles by calling Beverly McCarthy at the Museum at 212/977-7170.

A Sweetheart of a Program

lan ahead for a heartwarming place to be on a wintry Sunday afternoon. At 4:00 P.M. on Sunday, February 9,the Museum of American Folk Art will present a Valentine's Day celebration at New York City's historic Merchant House, located at 29 East 4th Street. The program

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includes a slide lecture,"If Music Be the Food of Love: Music and Food in Folk Art," and a concert provided by musicians from the Manhattan School of Music.

Refreshments will be served. For information and reservations, call 212/777-1089 or 212/475-2802.

CRAIG FARROW Cabinetmaker Consultant Norman Weiss and Curator Stacy C. Hollander

"A Place for Us" Opens he Museum held a members' reception on Monday, September 16, to celebrate the opening of"A Place for Us: Vernacular Architecture in American Folk Art." This inclusive and beautiful exhibition, _organized by curator Stacy C. Hollander, brings together major artworks in almost every medium and from every period. Those members whose interest is primarily in the field of traditional folk art were delighted to see many early "house portraits," such as The White House at Sunset(1850-1860), by an unknown Pennsylvania artistâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and a favorite in the Museum's permanent collection. Enthusiasts of 20th-century material enjoyed a close-up view of Empire State Building (c. 1931), a 7-foot 10inch wood construction made of thousands of hand-cut interlock-

T

Call for Volunteers he Museum's Docent and Volunteer Program offers rewarding opportunities for people interested in serving the public and, at the same time, enhancing their knowledge and appreciation of American folk art. Docents and volunteers

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ing pieces, on loan from the collection of Frank Maresca, as well as works by Bill Traylor.

William Hawkins, and other contemporary masters. Stacy Hollander was on hand, as was the historical consultant for the exhibition, Norman Weiss of Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation, to discuss and interpret the many diverse works in this important exhibition.

In conjunction with this exhibition, the Museum's education department presented a series of seven free lectures relating to architecture and art."A Place for Us: Vernacular Architecture in American Folk Art," will be on view through January 12, 1997.

receive free tuition for one course per semester at the Museum's Folk Art Institute and 15% discount on all purchases at the Museum's shops.

For information, please call Arlene Hochman or Pamela Brown at 212/595-9533.

History and Artistry in Wood 17th and 18th Century American Furniture Reproductions P.O. Box 828 Woodbury, CT 06798

Please call 203-226-2076

WINTER 1996/97 FOLK ART 81

WINTER

P

11 I•R

PROGRAMS

E A

' Al Art Is Mit -1 imitation Of attire . SENECA Epistles

Blue Spirals presents outstanding contemporary folk art by the following artists: Cyril Billiot Ivy Billiot Patrick Cardiff Judith Cheney Rev. Russell Gillespie Bessie Harvey Jim Havner R.A. Miller Jimmie Lee Sudduth Mose Tolliver Parks Townsend Hubert Walters and a selection of southern folk pottery and hooked rugs

BILLIOT - Red Winged Blackbirds, carved and painted wood,5"H x 8"W x 2'D

Open Mon-Sat,loam-5pm 38 Biltmore Avenue Asheville, NC 288o1 704/25543202

FINE ART • CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN CRAFT • CONTEMPORARY SOUTHERN FOLK ART

MILNE AN APPLE

Uncommon Artists V A symposium presented by the Museum of American Folk Art and New York University Uncommon Artists V: A Series of Cameo Talks Saturday, January 25, 1997 2:00-4:00 P.M. New York University 100 Washington Square East, Main Building, Room 701 New York City Museum members $30.00 Non-members $35.00 Welcome Dr. Judith Weissman, Director of Folk Art Studies, Associate Professor ofArt, New York University Greetings Gerard C. Wertkin, Director, Museum ofAmerican Folk Art Introduction Lee Kogan, Director ofthe Folk Art Institute, Museum ofAmerican Folk Art Sam Doyle Dr. Regenia A. Perry,Art Historian and Author Sister Gertrude Morgan William A. Fagaly,Assistant Director, New Orleans Museum ofArt Cellblock Visions: Art from the Inside 1511, I Kornfeld, Curator and Author

"Garden of Eden"

Artist Carolyn Hall

Tempting folk art by Kentucky's most exciting artists The Museum Store of Kentucky Folk Art Center, Inc. 119 West University Boulevard Morehead, Kentucky 40351 606/783-2204 OPEN MON-FRI 8:30-4:30 SAT 9:00-5:00

82 WINTER 1996/97 FOLK ART

Ken Grimes Roger Ricco and Frank Maresca, Directors, Ricco/Maresca Gallery Symposium to accompany the exhibition "Henry Darger: The Unreality of Being" Sunday, January 26, 1997 9:30-11:30 A.M. Museum of American Folk Art Columbus Avenue between 65th

and 66th Streets, New York City Museum members $10.00 Non-members $15.00 Henry Darger: The Reality of an Exhibition Dr. Stephen Prokopoff, Director, The University ofIowa Museum ofArt and Curator ofthe Exhibition The Mind of Henry Darger: On the Evolution of Blengins Dr. John MacGregor,Art Historian and Author Moderator Lee Kogan, Director ofthe Folk Art Institute, Museum of American Folk Art and Symposium Coordinator For information, call the Folk Art Institute at 212/977-7170.

Inside Outsider Art in New Yogic A Museum of American Folk Art Explorers' Club Day Trip Thursday, January 23, 1997 10:30 A.M.-4:30 P.M. Museum members $75.00 Non-members $90.00 Lunch included The trip begins at the Museum of American Folk Art, where coffee and pastries will be served. The group will have a guided tour of the exhibition "Henry Darger: The Unreality of Being." By special invitation, the group will visit two private collections of contemporary self-taught art.

Continental breakfast, lunch, and motor coach transportation is included. Enrollment is limited.

For reservations, call the membership office at(212)977-7170.

TRAVELING

EXHIBITIONS REPRESENTING

AMERICAN AND EUROPEAN OUTSIDER ART Mark your calendars for the following Museum of American Folk Art exhibitions when they travel to your area during the coming months: November 10, 1996— February 2, 1997 Norwegian Folk Art: The Migration of A Tradition Minnesota Museum of American Art Saint Paul, Minnesota 612/292-4380 January 17—March 16, 1997 Quilts from America's Flower Garden New York State Museum Albany, New York 518/473-8574

January I9—March 2, 1997 Amish Quilts from the Museum of American Folk Art Arkansas Art Center Little Rock, Arkansas 501/372-4000 February 27—May 31, 1997 Norwegian Folk Art: The Migration of A Tradition Nordic Heritage Museum Seattle, Washington 206/789-5708

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, New York 10023, 212/977-7170.

WORKS BY (CLOCKWISE FROM BOTTOM LEFT) HOWARD FINSTER, HUNTER, CLEMENTINE WALTER ANDERSON,HOWARD FINSTER AND BILL TRAYLOR.

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Artist Chuckie Sainte-James Boudrot Burgess Dulaney Sybil Gibson Rev. J.L. Hunter S.L. Jones Reginald Mitchell Royal Robertson Xmeah ShaEla'ReEl Isaac Smith Jimmy Lee Sudduth Mose Tolliver and more

1510 South Congress Austin, Texas 78704 (512) 912 1613 www.yarddog.com

Reginald Mitchell, "Capitol Building," 1 996, acrylic on posterboard, 32 x 40"

WINTER 1996/97 FOLK ART 83

MAIN STREET ANTIQUES and ART Colleen and Louis Picek Folk Art and Country Americana (319)643-2065 110 West Main, Box 340 West Branch, Iowa 52358 On Interstate 80

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America Oh Yes 30 American Pie 18 American Primitive Gallery 25 The Ames Gallery 8 Art/Quilt Magazine 64 At Home Gallery 77 Beacon Hill Fine Art 10 Blue Spiral 1 82 Anne Bourassa 35 Bridgewater/Lustberg Gallery 62 Don Cadoret 34 Robert Cargo Folk Art Gallery 17 Cavin-Mon-is Gallery 15 Christie's 2 Country Living Inside Back Cover Epstein/Powell 21 Craig Farrow 81 Fassbender Gallery 14 Folk Arts of Poland 62 Galerie Bonheur 12 Galerie Susi Brunner 77 Gallery 121 Henry,Inc. 32 Garth's Auctions, Inc. 29

84

A unique tramp artframe dated 1896.

WINTER 1996/97 FOLK ART

Sidney Gecker 75 Giampietro Back Cover Gilley's Gallery 18 Goodrich & Company Promotions,Inc. 67 Anton Haardt Gallery 28 Carl Hammer Gallery 4 Hedgerow House 75 John C. Hill 75 Hustontown 16 Dean Jensen Gallery 14 Tom Kennaugh 33 Knoke Galleries 21 Kurt W. Knudsen 32 Main Street Antiques and Art 84 Steve Miller 1 The Modern Primitive Gallery 13 Joy Moos Gallery 77 El Museo del Barrio 24 The Museum Store of Kentucky Folk Art Center, Inc. 82 Leslie Muth Gallery 20 New York University School of Education 80

William Peltier 16 J.E. Porcelli 26 Pottery Plus 34 Judith Racht Gallery 73 Ricco/Maresca Gallery Inside Front Cover Rosehips 28 Luise Ross Gallery 79 Judy A. Saslow Gallery 83 Shelton Gallery and Frame 69 Steve Slotin 70,71 Sanford L. Smith & Associates 27 Sotheby's 7,9 The Splendid Peasant, Ltd. 3 Jef Steingrebe 31 Very Special Arts Gallery 64 Wanda's Quilts 65 Marcia Weber/Art Objects 19 Wells Street Art Festival 64 David Wheatcroft 23 Wilton Historical Society 61 Yard Dog 83 Ginger Young Gallery 12 The Zetter Collection 30

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