Folk Art (Spring/summer 2007)

MAGAZINE OF THE AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM *SPRING/SUMMER 2007 * $8.00

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Catalog Available

RICCO MARESCA

www.riccomaresca.com

AWN& CO LIE H CD IPE ANTIQUES, INC_

Patrick Bell / Edwin Hild P.O. Box 718, New Hope, PA 18938-0718

By Appointment 215-297-0200, Fax: 215-297-0300

Visit us on line at: www.OldeHope.com

Tall Case Clock Paint-decorated tall case clock. Maine, c. 1830. Movement signed S. Hoadley Plymouth" (Silas Hoadley 1786-1870) H 88", W 17", D 10 %"

MANIC() American Folk Art Quality American Folk Art for over 30 years

An outstanding hooked rug in both phrase and color. Early 20th century. mint condition and museum frame mounted. It measures 36" x 38".

Private collection.

This late 19th century hand wrought weathervane was destined to be in a great American folk art collection from the first day it was put atop the Pennsylvania barn it resided on over 100 years ago.

Museum mounted to enhance its iron artwork it measures 20" across x 29" height. Private collection.

Ken, Ida E9' Kate Manko, Proprietors (207) 646-2595 Visit our barn gallery in Moody. Maine, or our new website: www.mankoamericanfolkart.com

CUSHING & WHITE • Leaping Stag Weathervane • copper repousse Waltham, Massachusetts • circa 1870 • 25 inches high x 30 inches long

DAVID WFI HATC l' OFT Antiques 26 West Main Street • Westborough, MA 01581 • Tel: 508.366.1723

davidwheatcroft.corn

AMERICAN GARAGE PURVEYORS OF AMERICAN COUNTRY • FOLK ART • RUSTIC

gr. OLD

HICKORY

CIRCA 1920 LARGE FOLK ART WOOD CARNIVAL HEAD WITH APPLIED TIN EARS WEARING A LARGE WOOD AND TIN HAT, ALL IN BRILLIANTLY MULTI COLORED PAINT IN A SPECTACULAR WEATHERED AND UNTOUCHED SURFACE AND CONDITION. 19" HIGH X 13" DEEP X 13" WIDE.

7934 W. THIRD STREET • Los ANGELES • CALIFORNIA 90048 323.658.8100 • FAX: 323.658.8688 EMAIL: AMERICANGARAGE@EARTHLINK.NET • WWW.AMERICANGARAGEANTIQL1ES.COM

DIANA DOUGLAS

MICHAELj. OGLE

OON REEK

Antiques, L.L.C.

at Oley Forge George R. Allen • Gordon L. W9c1(0-iT Email: raccooncreek@msn.com • Website: www.raccooncreekanticiues.com Plione:(609) 689-2200

Carved roll< Art Eagle L)) Wilhelm Schimmel

THURSTON NICHOLS AMERICAN ANTIQUES

Watercolor Theorem Theorem painted on paper, with a woven basket filled with fruits and flowers and a large pineapple.

Exceptional detail. Beautiful work in original frame. New England. Circa 1840. Dimensions: 18.5 by 15 inches.

Thurston Nichols american

antiques

Thurston Nichols American Antiques LLC 522 Twin Ponds Rd, Breinigsville, PA 18031 phone: 610.972.4563 fax: 610.395.3679 thurston@thurstonnichols.com www.antiques101.com

JEFFREY TILLOU

TIQUES

www.tillouantiques.com

Large Eagle Weathervane• American, possibly Fiske(New York), ca. 1880-90 111 Full body copper with cast zinc head and feet Excellent condition, original surfaces with traces of old white paint and verdigris.• 30 in. h on stand x 29 1/2 in. wing span w x 39 in. arrow I Birth Record of John McIntire• Massachusetts, ca. 1825-50 II One banner inscribed "John McIntire was born in the year of our Lord, December 13th, 1825" and the other "Liberty." Watercolor on paper. Great condition, minor staining, in a period, black-painted frame. III 16 1/4 in. h x 20 1/2 in. w Rare Painted Blanket Chest 1111 Vermont, ca. 1810-20 it Eastern white pine with paint decoration. Excellent condition with very minor touch-ups to the painted surface.

Replaced hinges. Virtually identical to the example listed in The Vermont Furniture Book, p. 126, plate no. 76. N 31 1/2 in. h x 36 3/4 in. w x 18 3/4 in. d Cigar-Store Figure of an Indian Maiden U American, possibly New York or Midwestern States, ca. 1860-80•Carved pine with polychome paint Figure totally intact, with replacement base moldings and restoration of the painted surface.•62 1/4 in. h x 15 1/2 in. w x 19 in. d

JEFFREY TILLOU ANTIQUES Please visit our three-story gallery to view our extensive collection of American Furniture, Paintings, Folk Art and Decorative Accessories.

Located "On the Green" in Litchfield, Connecticut 39 West Street, Box 1609, Litchfield, Connecticut 06759 Tel: 860.567.9693 Fax: 860.567.8526 www.tillouantiquesicom email: jeffrey@tillouantiques.com Monday, Wednesday thru Saturday 10:30 AM - 5:00 PM,Sunday 11 AM - 4:30 PM

riewarc Jug, J&E Norton, Bennington,Vermont, circa 1850.

203.787.3851 1531/2 Bradley Street, New Haven, CT 06511 uction Brokering Appraisals Collection Management

FOLK ART VOLUME 32, NUMBER 2 / SPRING/SUMMER 2007

FE

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UP

ES

34

The Great Cover-up: American Rugs on Beds,Tables, and Floors Lee Kogan

Costumed by Hand: Yesteryear's Best-Dressed Paper Dolls

46

Francine Kirsch

The Telling Books of Gayleen Aiken

56

Lyle Rexer

Josep Pujiula i Vila's Labyrinthine Environment

64

Jo Farb Herm:index

DEPA

Cover: APPLIQUED CARPET (detail), artist unidentified, c.1860, American Folk Art

RIMEN

TS

Museum Information

12

Books ofInterest

82

Editor's Column

12

Museum Reproductions Program

84

Director's Letter

15

Museum News

88

Miniatures

20

Obituaries

98

Conversation

26

Public Programs

102

The Collection: A Closer Look

32

Index to Advertisers

104

Quilt Connection

78

Museum, promised gift of Ralph Esmerian, P1.2001.294, photograph by John Bigelow Taylor (see page 41)

COMER

In Folk Art is published three times a year by the American Folk Art Museum.The museum's administrative office mailing address is 49 East 52nd Street, New York,NY 10022-5905,Tel. 212/977-7170,Fax 212/977-8134.Prior to Fall 1992,Volume 17, Number 3,FolkArt was published as The Clarion. Annual subscription rate for members is included in membership dues.

Copies are mailed to all members. Single copy $8.00.Published and copyright 2007 by the American Folk Art Museum,45 West 53rd Street,New York,NY 10019-5401.The cover and miggi contents ofFolk 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 ofthe American Folk Art Museum.Unsolicited manuscripts or photographs should be accompanied by return postage. Folk Art assumes no responsibility for the loss or damage ofsuch materials.

Change ofaddress: Please send both old and new addresses to the museum's membership department at 49 East 52nd Street, New York,NY 10022-5905,and allow five weeks for change.

Advertising: FolkArt endeavors to accept advertisements only from advertisers whose reputation is recognized in the trade,but despite the care with which the advertising department screens photographs and texts submitted by its advertisers,it cannot guarantee the unquestionable authenticity ofobjects or quality ofservices advertised in its pages or offered for sale by its advertisers, nor can it accept responsibility for misunderstandings that may arise from the purchase or sale ofobjects or services advertised in its pages.The museum is dedicated to the exhibition and interpretation offolk art, and it is a violation ofits principles to be involved in or to appear to be involved in the sale ofworks of art. For this reason,the museum will not knowingly accept advertisements for FolkArt that illustrate or describe objects that have been exhibited at the museum within one year ofplacing an advertisement.The publisher reserves the right to exclude any advertisement.

SPRING/SUMMER 2007

FOLK ART

9

FOLK ART Tanya Heinrich Editor and Publisher Mareike Grover Managing Editor

AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM Maria Ann Conelli Director

BOARD OF TRUSTEES Executive Committee Laura Parsons President/Chair ofthe Executive Committee

Linda Dunne Deputy Director/ChiefAdministrative Officer

Barry D.Brislcin Vice President

Cara Zimmerman Assistant Editor Benjamin J. Boyington Copy Editor

ADMINISTRATION & FINANCE Robin A. Schlinger ChiefFinancial Officer

DEVELOPMENT Cathy Michelsen Director ofDevelopment

Eleanor Garlow Advertising Sales

Susan Conlon Assistant to the Director

Christine Corcoran Manager ofIndividual Giving

Madhulcar Balsara Assistant Controller

Pamela Gabourie Manager ofInstitutional Giving

Angela Lam Accountant

Katie Hush SpecialEvents Manager

Irene Kreny Accounts Payable Associate

Dana Clair Membership Manager

Danelsi De La Cruz Accounting Assistant/Illembership Assistant

Lara Allen Development Coordinator

Katya Ullmann Administrative Assistant/Reception

Matthew Beaugrand Membership and Special Events Assistant

COLLECTIONS & EXHIBITIONS Stacy C.Hollander Senior Curator/Director ofExhibitions

Wendy Barreto-Greif Membership Clerk

The Magazine Group,Inc. Jeffrey Kibler Design Mary Mieszczanski Production Manager Denise Butler Production Artist Anita Handy Advertising Trey* Coordinator

Publishers Press Printer

Brooke Davis Anderson Director and Curator of The Contemporary Center and the Henry Darger Study Center MUSEUM ADDRESS 45 West 53rd Street New York, NY 10019-5401 212/265-1040 www.folicartmuseum.org ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICES 49 East 52nd Street New York, NY 10022-5905 212/977-7170,Fax 212/977-8134 infoPfolkartmuseum.org BOOK AND GIFT SHOP 45 West 53rd Street New York,NY 10019-5401 212/265-1040, ext. 124 STAFF Assistant to the Director yiMuseum Shops: Sandy B.Yun Shop Managers:Dorothy Gargiulo,Louise B.Sheets,Pierre Szczygiel, Marion Whitley Book Buyer:Evelyn R. Gurney She Andrea Gilkey, Hiromi Kiyama,Sylvia Parker BRANCH LOCATION/BRANCH SHOP 2 Lincoln Square (Columbus Avenue between 65th and 66th Streets) New York,NY 10023-6214 212/595-9533 STAFF Weekend Gallery Manager.:Ursula Monti째 Security: Kenneth R.Bing, Bienvenido Medina

EDUCATION Diana Schlesinger Director ofEducation

Ann-Marie Reilly ChiefRegistrar/Director ofExhibition Production

Lee Kogan Curator ofPublic Programs and Special Exhibitions

Sue McGuire Assistant Registrar

Sara Lasser Manager ofSchooland Docent Programs

Elizabeth V.Warren Consulting Curator

Jennifer Kalter Museum Educator and Coordinatorfor School Partnerships and Programs

DEPARTMENTS Susan Flamm Public Relations Director Marie S. Di/Vlanno Director ofMuseum Shops Richard Ho Manager ofInformation Technology Nicole Whelan Manager ofPhotographic Services Jane Lattes Director ofVolunteer Services Caroline Kerrigan Lerch Executive Director of The American Antiques Show

Madelaine Gill Family Programs Coordinator FACILITIES Robert J. Saracena Director ofFacilities

Lucy Cullman Danziger Vice President Frances Sirota Martinson Vice President Edward V. Blanchard Jr. Measurer Taryn Gottlieb Leavitt Secretary Didi Barrett Joyce B.Cowin R.Webber Hudson Joan M.Johnson Michelle L. Lasser Selig D.Sacks Members Akosua Barthwell Evans David L.Davies Jacqueline Fowler Patricia Geoghegan Robert L. Hirschhom Kristina Johnson Nancy Karch Robert I. Kleinberg Terry Rakolta Margaret Z. Robson Bonnie Strauss Richard H.Walker L.John Wilkerson Trustees Emeriti Ralph 0. Esmerian Chairman Emeritus Joseph F. Cullman 3rd (1912-2004) Samuel Farber Cordelia Hamilton Cyril I. Nelson (1927-2005) George F. Shaskan Jr. Gerard C.Wertkin Director Emeritus

Alexis Davis Manager of Visitor Services Christine Rivera Assistant Manager ofVisitor Services Daniel Rodriguez Office Services Coordinator PUBLICATIONS Tanya Heinrich Director ofPublications Mareike Grover Managing Editor Cara Zimmerman Assistant Editor

AMERICAN

0 MUSEUM

10 SPRING/SUMMER 2007 FOLK ART

ALLAN KATZ Americana

Polychrome Carved and Painted Hanging Wall Box Dated 1878. Measures: IV h x 9 w Pennsylvania or Middle Atlantic States.

Photograph of General Robert Anderson, commander of the Union forces, Fort Sumter, S.C.

Allan & Penny Katz

By Appointment

25 Old Still Road

Woodbridge, CT 06525

Tel.(203) 393-9356

folkkatz@optonline.net

1111111.11 _J 0 MINIM

American Folk Art Museum 45 West 53rd Street New York City 212/265-1040 www.folkartmuseum.org

MUSEUM HOURS Tuesday-Sunday Friday Monday ADMISSION Adults Students/Seniors Children under 12 Members Friday evening 5:30-7:30 PM SHOP HOURS Saturday-Thursday Friday

10:30 AM-5:30 PM 10:30 Am-7:30 PM Closed

$9 $7 Free Free Free to all

10 AM-6 PM 10 AM-8 PM

EXHIBITION SCHEDULE Folk Art Revealed On continuous view Martin Ramirez Extended through May 13 The Great Cover-up: American Rugs on Beds, Tables, and Floors June 5—Sept. 9, 2007 Gilded Lions and Jeweled Horses: The Synagogue to the Carousel Oct. 2,2007—March 23,2008 TRAVELING EXHIBITION Martin Ramirez Mexican Heritage Plaza San Jose, California 408/928-5500; www.mhcviva.org and San Jose Museum ofArt 408/271-6840;www.sjmusart.org June 9-Sept. 9,2007 Milwaukee Art Museum 414/224-3220; www.mam.org Oct. 6,2007-Jan. 6,2008 BRANCH LOCATION/BRANCH SHOP 2 Lincoln Square(Columbus Avenue between 65th and 66th Streets), New York City 212/595-9533 Admissison: $3 suggested donation Hours:Tuesday-Saturday, noon-7:30 PM; Sunday, noon-6 PM Midwestern Amish Quilts: Selections from the Collection On continuous view

12 SPRING/SUMMER 2007 FOLK ART

EDI TOR'S

COLUMN

TANYA HEINRICH

D

as weren't a big part of my childhood,

much less paper dolls, which in the 1970s tended to be rather uninspiring: cheaply printed, edges perforated for easy removal, and poorly tabbed.The dresses never seemed to fit or stay put, and for me the element oftransport or fantasy was missing 4111 (Legos filled that void). But from the early 19th century through the 1930s, PAPER DOLL (double-sided) / artist unidentified / United States / paper dolls served a very meaningfiul n.d. / pencil and ink on paper with colored paper / 41 / 4 x 4,/8" / purpose in the lives ofwomen and girls collection of Jim Linderman in this country Those who could not afford imports from Europe made their own,and the act ofcreating was only the beginning— whole families ofpaper dolls could be made to engage in ongoing narratives in an era when entertainment was a less passive affair. In the late 19th century, newspapers and magazines began to supplement their pages with weekly editions ofpopular dolls and attire for snipping out and coloring in, as well as patterns to encourage handmade versions. Francine Kirsch offers an excellent history ofthe paper doll, beginning on page 46.

Vermont artist Gayleen Aiken populated her world with her own paper dolls, ofa sort—an irrepressibly cheerful group of24 cousins she called the Raimbilli family,whom she depicted in intimate drawings and paintings as well as life-size cutouts. Her topically sentimental narratives and fantasies, which frequently utilize the conventions of comic-book art, are imbued with a wonderful sense oflighting and mood,lending poignancy to her portraits of her life as an only—and often lonely—child. Aiken was also a faithful diarist, and over the course of her life she created hundreds ofcollaged books recording,in extremely tiny handwriting,specific details of her daily life. Lyle Rexer has contributed an insightful analysis ofthe artist and her books,beginning on page 56.

New England was also the locus for early American handcrafted rugs.The best examples transcend function through the graphic power oftheir color and design—many are quite monumental in scale and ambition. Rugs hooked on burlap date to the early 1850s,and several hooked-rug cottage industries were established later in the century. Patterns printed on burlap had also become widely available by that time, and extant rugs reveal interesting variations and adaptations, especially as abstraction was embraced in the early 20th century."The Great Cover-up: American Rugs on Beds,Tables, and Floors" opens at the museum on June 5. For a preview ofthis beautiful exhibition by curator Lee Kogan,please turn to page 34.

The sculptural environment created by Josep Pujiula i Vila in Spain over the course of30 years is another study in adaptation. Initially, Pujiula erected structures with tree branches beside a river as a quiet oasis to enjoy on weekends. Soon he was driven to build soaring towers and a growing compound of structures. As the site became more popular with picnickers, however,it began to attract vandals and vagrants. Dismayed and contemplating dismantling his vast creation, Pujiula instead decided to thwart interlopers by inhibiting easy access to the towers and buildings with a series oflabyrinthine tunnels made of bent boughs.These tunnels, stunningly gorgeous in their architecture, became an integral element ofthe environment,and the artist's adjustments in response to evolving public use is a fascinating part ofthe story Jo Farb Hernandez's account ofthe evolution and ultimate destruction ofPujiula's environment begins on page 64.

We'll be back in the fall with an introduction to the exhibition "Gilded Lions and Jeweled Horses:The Synagogue to the Carousel," which opens at the museum Oct.2.In the meantime, we at Folk Art wish you a lovely spring and summer.

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Pair of Heart and Crown side chairs ttributed to Andrew Durand of Milford. Connecticut 1725 - 1745

I

illi1111111ilj

ESTABLISHED 1920

NATHAN L1VERANT AND SON •ANTIQUES • 168 SOUTH MAIN STREET • PO Box 103• COLCHESTER, CT 06415 •(860) 537-2409 www.liverantantiques.com

FLEISHER OLLMAN GALLERY 1616 WALNUT STREET SUITE 100, PHILADELPHIA, PA 19103 TEL: 215 545 7562, WWW.FLEISHER-OLLMANGALLERY.COM

MASTERWORKS AVAILABLE FROM .

EDGAR TOLSON, BILL TRAYLOR, WILLIAK/ItDMONDSON, FELIPE JESUS CONSALVOS, MARTIN RAMIREZ AND OTHE'.9-6

DIRECTORS

LETTER

MARIA ANN CONELLI

anuary was an extraordinary month,starting with the American photography,Austrian lighting fixtures, and folk art.The gracious hosts Antiques Show(TAAS).A great selection ofobjects and a provided a glorious dinner, and the museum is most appreciative of beautiful setting were the perfect formula for a successful fair. their gesture. Outsider Art Week also featured several educational proTAAS plays an important role for the museum:It serves to grams,including the New York premiere ofPurvis ofOvertown, a underscore the variety and quality ofthe works that constitute documentary about artist Purvis Young.The annual Uncommon the field and,through the Gala Benefit Preview, provides the support Artists symposium was praised this year as one ofthe best. A program that helps sustain the museum's critically acclaimed exhibitions.This on vernacular photography rounded out the week and generated both year, the benefits ofthe highest ticket level included a visit to one ofthe intense and enthusiastic conversation. great private collections oftobacconist figures in the United States.The The month ofJanuary is a highlight ofthe museum's calendar, and it special evening's hosts were warm and welcoming,and spirits were high is also the busiest. Exhibitions open with great bravado, public programs as Americana Week began. My thanks to the museum staff; to Caroline hum,Folk Art Explorers day trips go offseamlessly, and the shop exKerrigan Lerch,executive director ofTAAS;to Karen DiSaia,the show's plodes with salesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;all because ofthe efforts of a great and diligent musemanager; and to trustees Barry D.Brislcin and Joan M.Johnson for their um staff The staff works out oflove for the institution and without any efforts, time,and good humor.I would especially like to thank the 45 expectation ofrecognition. But I would be remiss WI didn't praise them, TAAS exhibitors for making this event a triumph. congratulate them,and thank them for a job exceedingly well done.

Two days after TAAS dosed One ofthe most important its doors,"Martin Ramirez" roles ofthe museum is to lead and opened at the museum to packed promote scholarship. At the end galleries and critical acclaim.(A ofApril,the museum convened selection ofreviews is posted on an important two-day symposium, the museum's website.) Roberta Culture in Context: Self-Taught Smith,in the New York Times, Artists in the 21st Century. Papers called the exhibition "transportoffered by prominent scholars ing" and "one ofthe best shows of and curators considered issues the season," and Peter Schjeldahl, surrounding the field by looking in The New Yorker, hailed it as "a at past developments and examinmarvel and a joy." Within the first ing key concerns for the future. I ten days,3,358 people visited the applaud JPMorgan Chase,which museum,and they kept coming. recognized the importance ofthis JPMorgan Chase,the presenting dialogue and underwrote the symsponsor, underwrote the cost of posium. A full report will appear the exhibition,the educational in the fall issue. programming,and the show banThe museum is committed to ners that graced the block and making the study offolk art a vital other streets in Midtown. The part ofthe curriculum for New From left: JPMorgan Chase representatives Janet Rodriguez, Barbara Paddock, and Monica NewsHour withJim Lehrer, on York City schools.To this end, Mack, with director Maria Ann Conelli PBS,and CBS's Sunday Morning the education department recently broadcast wonderful profiles of produced two projects in associathe exhibition, and the catalog received terrific reviews in The New York tion with the ongoing collection installation. Folk Art Revealed:A CurReview ofBooks and Bookforum. Because ofthe show's overwhelming riculum Guide is a resource for educators designed to enhance learning popularity, it has been extended through May 13. Curator Brooke Davis across a school's curriculum,to nurture self-expression, and to introduce Anderson deserves high praise for organizing the major retrospective.I young audiences to a life-long appreciation ofthe arts.The museum also would also like to acknowledge the heroic efforts ofthe museum's direcdeveloped a prototype website that is a multilayered teaching and learntor of public relations, Susan Flamm.Thanks to her media outreach, ing resource for the study offolk art. Aimed at K-12 students, educators, Ramirez's name is now much more widely known,and the artist is reand administrators nationwide,the website serves as a carrier ofhistoriceiving much-deserved recognition. cal and cultural heritage.

Coinciding with the opening days ofthe Ramirez exhibition was the Following the Ramirez exhibition, the museum is pleased to present museum's Benefit Preview at the Outsider Art Fair.The event was very "The Great Cover-up: American Rugs on Beds,Tables, and Floors," well attended, and there was a happy buzz about the show.Purchase organized by curator Lee Kogan,beginning June 5.The first presentaofthe highest ticket level included an intimate reception in a museum tion entirely devoted to this topic since 1974,it is a stunning collection friend's home,featuring one ofthe largest and finest private collections ofrugs,some ofwhich have rarely been on public view. It's an exhibition ofBakelite in the country, as well as Aesthetic-style furniture, vernacular not to be missedâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;so I'll see you at the museum!*

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SPRING/SUMMER 2007

FOLK ART

15

Outsider Folk Art Gallery

JON SERL

"Perfumery", 30"x36", oil on board

George & Sue Viene Goggleworks Center for the Arts' 201 Washington Street, 5th Floor Reading, PA 1960 www.outsiderfolkart co 610 939 1737

AMERICAN PRIMITIVE GALLERY NEW YORK, NY 10012 594 BROADWAY # 205 (212) 966 1530 AARNE ANTON ART & ANTIQUES american.primitive©verizon.net -a

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Expressions of Innocence and Eloquence

Expressions pi• Innocence Eloquence

Selections from the Jane Katcher Collection of Americana

Selection% Jane Katcher (:ollection

Edited by Jane Katcher, David A. Schorsch, and Ruth Wolfe

Americana

An engaging and comprehensive look at early American folk art told through one of America's foremost private collections.

Published by Marquand Books, Seattle in association with Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 428 pages, 510 color illus. $75.

YALE

University Press • yalebooks.com

Fenimore Art Museum in Otsego Lake 0 Cooperstown,

Presents

FOLK ART ON FIRE 150 years ago, live fire was a staple of life, both a comfort and a constant danger. Celebrate the critical role of 19thcentury American volunteer fire fighters through a stunning display of more than 70 objects: tools and equipment, parade regalia, elaborately decorated hats, banners, buckets, and paintings.

Also on view this season: Visions of the American West; exhibits of works by Frederic Remington, Ansel Adams, and Plains Indian artists.

Exhibition Season begins April 1 Charles C. Henry, ca. 1850 Aunt)

Boston, MA. Collection of the Fenimore Art Muscu

18 SPRING/SUMMER 2007

FOLK ART

5798 State Hwy. 80, Lake Rd. Cooperstown, NY 13326 (888) 547-1450 • www.fenimoreartmuseum.org

THE HALLIDAY HOUSE ANTIQUES BARN AMERICAN COUNTRY FURNITURE AND FOLK ART

LEFT: 1960'S NEW YORK STATE CARVED BLACK CROW MOUNTED ON 19TH CENTURY NEWEL POST. UPPER RIGHT: BELLAMY-STYLE CARVED WOODEN EAGLE. NEW ENGLAND ORIGIN. LATE 1800 'S. LOWER RIGHT: BIRD OF PEACE. NEW ENGLAND ORIGIN CARVED AND PAINTED DOVE. EARLY 1800'S.

HALLIDAY HOUSE ANTIQUES OFFERS 18TH AND 19TH C. AMERICAN COUNTRY FURNITURE AND WHIMSICAL FOLK ART. LOCATED IN THE HEART OF THE BEAUTIFUL NAPA VALLEY, WE ARE OPEN FOR CASUAL APPOINTMENTS WHENEVER YOU PLAN TO VISIT.

OUR LATEST ARRIVALS ARE ALSO AVAILABLE ON OUR WEBSITE. PHONE:(707) 253-1092

EMAIL: MAIL@HALLIDAYHOUSEANTIQUES.COM

WWW.HALLIDAYHOUSEANTIQUES.COM

UNTITLED QUILT / artist unidentified / probably Pennsylvania / early 20th century / Shelburne Museum, Vermont, gift of Michael and Barbara Polemis

MINIATURES

BY CARA ZIMMERMAN

GORDON GIFT TO OLD DOMINION In early 2006,Ellin and Baron Gordon donated more than 300 works by self-taught artists from their collection to Old Dominion University(757/683-2355; www.odu. edu)in Norfolk, Va.The gift, which contains pieces by more than 70 artists, including Thornton Dial, Howard Finster, and Mose Tolliver, allows Old Dominion the opportunity to build academic study around works by self-taught artists, and academics at the institution believe the art will provide a fascinating point ofreference within the fields ofAfrican American studies, American history,folklore, and religion.

In order to properly present and preserve the works from the Gordon Collection, the university has built a new gallery that provides more than 5,000 square feet ofexhibition space. Expected to open in September 2007,the new facility will showcase Old Dominion's permanent collection and present changing exhibitions.

DOG / Jimmy Lee Sudduth (b. 1910)/ Fayette, Alabama / dirt, mud, sand, and vegetation on plywood / 24 x 16" / Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia, gift of Ellin and Baron Gordon

20 SPRING/SUMMER 2007

FOLK ART

STITCH ERS AND SHAKERS Striking Amish quilts, quilts by Rosie Lee Tompkins,and more than 50 examples of Shaker and Shaker-inspired works will be on view through mid-fall at the Shelburne Museum (802/985-3346; www.shelburnemuseum.org)in Shelburne, Vt. "Stars and Bars: A Gift ofAmish Quilts from Barbara and Michael Polemis," which opens May 20, highlights ten unusual quilts donated to the museum in 2006.These textiles, originally from Pennsylvania and the Midwest,were created in the first halfofthe 20th century; most ofthem are attributed to anonymous quilters.

"Something Pertaining to God:The Patchwork Art of Rosie Lee Tompkins" also opens May 20 and will include 15 quilts by the deeply spiritual artist, who died in December 2006(see Obituaries, page 98). On loan from collector Eli Leon,the textiles are marked by vivid, brightly colored,freeform designs.

"Out of This World: Shaker Design Past,Present, and Future"focuses on works inspired by Shaker spirituality and design.The furniture, spirit drawings,and other works in this show demonstrate the wide reach of Shaker communities within the American artistic landscape. A highlight of "Out of This World," which opens June 16,will be the inclusion ofobjects by contemporary artists and furniture designers Roy McMakin,Thomas Moser,and George Nakashima.

All three shows will remain on view through Oct.28.

DON'T FENCE HIM IN Daniel Watson's first solo exhibition,"'Don't Fence Me In': The Art ofDaniel Watson," will be on view at Intuit:The Centerfor Intuitive and Outsider Art (312/243-9088; www.art.org) in Chicago through June 23. A Vietnam veteran incarcerated within the California penal system,Watson creates images that depict both American cultural icons and his intimate friends. He works with vibrant colors and an intricate cross-hatching technique to create portraits that allow the real spirit of his subjects to confront the viewer.The exhibition also contains a series of sculptures fashioned from discarded citrus peels, which share imagery with Native American basket weaving.The drawings and sculptures in "Don't Fence Me In" have been created specifically for this show,which focuses not on the fact that Watson is incarcerated but on what he has done since being "fenced in."

V ICHAEL KOHLER ARTS CENTER

The Built Environments of Vernacular Artists To receive information about this project visit our web site, www.jmkac.org or email roadlesstraveled@jmkac.org

Emery Blagdon and Healing Machines, 1979, NE. Photo by Sally and Richard Greenhill.

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ta

608 New York Avenue Sheboygan, WI 53081 920.458.6144

MAJOR EXHIrIT1(Thm June 2007—January 2008 22 artists who transformed their homes, yards, or other available spaces into multifaceted works of art presented in a 13,000-square-foot exhibition.

BOOK Summer 2007 Essays on the culture, history, nature, and preservation of works by vernacular environment builders accompany richly illustrated chapters on each of the featured artists.

June 2007—January 2008

FEATURED ARTISTS: Levi Fisher Ames(1843-1923) Ernestl-Iiipeden (c. 1860-1911) Albert Zahn (1864-1953) Carl Peterson (1869-1969) Clarence Powell (1871-1945) Sam Rodia (1879-1965) Jacob Baker (c.1880-1939) James Tellen (1880-1957) Nick Engelbert(1881-1962) Peter Jodacy (1884-1971) Fred Smith (1886-1976) John Ehn (1897-1981) David Butler (1898-1997) Frank Oebser (1900-1990) Emery Blagdon (1907-1986) Loy Bowlin (1909-1995) Eugene Von Bruenchenhein

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE September 27-30, 2007 Taking the Road less traveled: Conversations on the Visual Vernacular Engage in conversations about the "visual vernacular" and its embodiment of cultural heritage.

(1910-1983) Mary Nohl (1914-2001) Stella Wattzkin (1920-2003) Nek Chand Saint (b. 1924) Tom Every (b. 1938) Dr. Charles Smith (b. 1940)

MINI

ATUR

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UNTITLED (Marie)/ Eugene Von Bruenchenhein (1910-1983)/ Milwaukee / C. 1940-1950 / 35 mm color transparency / John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, Wisconsin

ALABAMA FOLK ART The Birmingham Museum of Art(205/254-2565; www. artsbma.org) in Birmingham, Ala., is presenting"Alabama Folk Art"through Dec. 30. Featuring more than 100 works by selftaught Alabama natives Jimmy Lee Sudduth,Mose Tolliver, Bill Traylor, and the Quilters of Gee's Bend,to name a few,the exhibition examines culture, nature, and community within Alabama in an effort to explain how the state has fostered so many talented artists over the past century ENVIRONMENT BUILDERS From June through January 2008,"Sublime Spaces and Visionary Worlds: The Built Environments of Vernacular Artists" will be on view at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center(920/458-6144; www. jmkac.org) in Sheboygan,Wis. Focusing on vernacular environments,this exhibition will strive to examine the concept of"place," which is a pivotal construct to each of the 22 artists whose works are featured.The objects in the 13,000-square-foot exhibition are drawn from the Kohler's permanent collection, and the installation includes new and historical photographs.

A related conference,The Road Less Traveled: Conversations on the Visual Vernacular, to be held Sept. 27-30,will include presentations, exhibition tours, and optional site visits around Wisconsin."Sublime Spaces" will be accompanied by an exhibition catalog.

22 SPRING/SUMMER 2007

FOLK ART

UNTITLED (Fighting Couple)/ Bill Traylor (1854-1947)/ Montgomery, Alabama / 1939-1942 / Birmingham Museum of Art purchase, 2003.26

JANE'S CAROUSEL / Philadelphia Toboggan Company / 1922/ collection of Jane and David Walentas

COME TO THE CAROUSEL In October 1984,artist and collector Jane Walentas and her husband,David, purchased a 1922 carved wooden carousel made by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company.

Originally placed in Idora Park in Youngstown, Ohio,the classic 48horse and two-chariot carousel had been repainted and altered through its many years of use. After a year ofinitial research on the original condition of the piece,Walentas spent 22 years spearheading the restoration ofthe three-row marvel, slowly uncovering the original paint and intricate carving and replacing the wiring and mechanical systems. Now fully restored,Jane's Carouselis temporarily on view at 56 Water Street in the DUMBO neighborhood ofBrooklyn, N.Y.; Walentas hopes that the carousel will one day be housed in nearby Brooklyn Bridge Park, as a public location would make it more accessible to all.

DEVELOPING PHOTOGRAPHIC GREATNESS The first generation of American photography will be examined in "Developing Greatness:The Origins of American Photography, 1839 to 1885," on view at the Nelson-Atkins Museum ofArt(816/7511278; www.nelson-aticins.org) in Kansas City, Mo.,from June 9,2007, through Jan.6,2008. Drawn entirely from the museum's recently acquired Hallmark Photographic Collection, the works range from iconic photographs to images that have never been exhibited.

"Developing Greatness" is organized chronologically, with the 300 works displayed in two main categories: daguerreotypes and paper photography. Many ofthe images in the exhibition address issues surrounding the Civil War,the American West, CLOWN / artist unidentified / United and the entertainment industry, thus States / c. 1855 / daguerreotype, providing an interesting historical 1/6 plate / The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, gift of context for the "cutting-edge" techHallmark Cards, Inc. nology and attempts to record and reinvent the world.

NEW DISCOVERY: FOLK ART AND ARTIST Fred Bevans (1936-2005) was a truck driver and self-taught wood carver.

His creations—an estimated 150 pieces carved completely from wood—were discovered in a small shed/workshop behind his Rhode Island home. Bevans, who was one quarter Blackfoot Indian, worked in a wide range of subjects, including some Fred Bevans, C. 1960s

astonishing trompe l'oeil sculpture. He never sold a single one.

FB004 Still life with Civil War dragoon pistol, 30° X 9W X 15W

FB014 Cigarettes & lighter. 5

X4

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FB016. Crucifix. 24 ' h

FB045. Whimsey w/globe. 9/' h

FB007 Rose bouquet, 15" X 15' X 8'

Shown are just a few of many pieces. To read Bevans' biography and to view more of the remarkable Bevans collection, please visit www.FredBevans.com.

RICHARD'S Ath FB034. Revolver with holster belt, 16" X 12W X 3" RICHARD DONNELLY

•

401-245- 1060

SINCE 1988

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WWW.RICHANTIQUES.COM

MINI

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A NIGHTMARE / Louis Monza (1897-1984)! New York / 1968 / linoleum block print / High Museum of Art, Atlanta, gift of Lauri Martin and Susan Larsen Martin, 2000.212

NEW COVERLET MUSEUM The newly founded National Museum ofthe American Coverlet(814/623-1588; www. coverletmuseum.org) in Bedford,Pa., will celebrate the grand opening ofits building on May 26.

Special events for the occasion will include the annual meeting ofthe Coverlet Guild ofAmerica, a show-and-tell session, and lectures. More than 500 coverlets have been pledged to the museum since its establishment in March 2006,and the building, converted from the 1859 Bedford Common School,will house the textiles along with antique weaving equipment and research archives.

FOLK ART ON FIRE The bravery of 19th-century volunteer firefighters is the subject of "Folk Art on Fire,"on view at the Fenimore Art Museum (888/547-1450; www.fenimoreart museum.org)in Cooperstown, N.Y.,through Dec. 30. Featuring more than 70 painted and ornamented objects,induding tools and parade regalia, the exhibition observes the paraphernalia ofthe firehouse through themes ofequipment,brotherhood,artists, heroes, and commemoration."Folk Art on Fire"focuses on the choice ofsymbolism employed by firefighters to decorate objects, and many ofthe pieces on view are embellished with images from Greek legend,embodiments ofliberty, and scenes commemorating heroism.

MONZA AT THE HIGH More than 50 sculptures, drawings,and prints by Louis Monza are on view at the High Museum ofArt(404/733-4400; www.high.org)in Atlanta through Aug. 19."Louis Monza:From Politics to Paradise," with works drawn from the recent gift of Lauri Martin and Susan Larsen Martin,addresses social and political issues alongside Monza's vision of a peaceful world in which animals and humans coexist happily.

Monza,an Italian who immigrated to the United States at age 16,is best known for his politically inspired work.With age, however,he became increasingly concerned with the ecological impacts ofindustrial development; this exhibition focuses on his later work.

TIFFANY'S LAURELTON HALL AT THE MET Louis Comfort Tiffany's self-designed 84-room dream home,Laurelton Hall,is the subject ofan exhibition at New York's Metropolitan Museum ofArt(212/535-7710; www.metmuseum.org)through May 20."Louis Comfort Tiffany and Laurelton Hall: An Artist's Country Estate" brings to life the 600-acre property, which was destroyed by a fire in 1957, through 250 works by Tiffany that were rescued from,or previously on 4111141 —,• 74• view in,the damaged home.Highlights of the exhibition include the 4.16"..010e40110,)4 surviving fragments of the central Vets, alb Fountain Court,originally created t°' Siif...

45r a a**—ZitiV ob.,* itakaPANIP% prifik in homage to the Alhambra in Grenada,Spain,and a tribute to the •—or ,'116e7: estate's "forest room,"featuring its original stained-glass windows and lighting fixture.The exhibition is giv.21111111111 accompanied by a catalog.

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FIRE BUCKET / Benjamin Dodd /1822 / painted leather / collection of Robert and Katharine Booth

FLOWER, FISH, AND FRUIT WINDOW / Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933), Tiffany Glass Company (1885-1892)/ New York / 1885/ leaded Faille glass / 301/2 x 411 / 4"/ Baltimore Museum of Art

24 SPRING/SUMMER 2007

FOLK ART

THE

AMES

GALLERY AIM Early handmade Americana including quilts, carved canes, tramp art and whimseys.

Exceptional contemporary self-taught, naive, visionary, and outsider art.

Bonnie Grossman, Director 2661 Cedar St., Berkeley, CA 94708 Tel 5101845-4949 Fax 510/845-6219 Email infoŠamesgallery.com

20F119606. Carved Wood Head, c 1800. wood, I 3,5 x 7.5 x 5.5 inches

Laura Fisher's diverse well-edited selections of antique quilts, hooked rugs, rag carpet, coverlets, samplers, paisleys, Navajos, Beacon blankets, textiles, Mexican and Indian jewelry, and American folk art.

Superlative Retriever hooked rug, sheared yam on burlap, 19th century, New England. 3'x 7'8"; Inset: Circles hooked rug, woo/ an burlap, 19th century, New England. 2'11" x 4'5"

And introducing FISHERNEROTASV made-to-order large geometric hooked rugs, and folky pictorial and floral area rugs, all based on cherished originals.

FISH ERNERITASE 305 East 61st Street(Hayes Warehouse) New York, NY 10021 Monday through Friday 10:00-4:30 tel: 212/838-2596 212/866-6033 email: fisherheritage@yahoo.com web: www.laurafisherquilts.com

SPRING/SUMMER 2007

FOLK ART

25

CONVERSATION

EVIL-EYE PROTECTION! Turkey / c.1967 / collection of John and Maggie Maizels

BY TANYA HEINRICH

John Maizels founded Raw Vision magazine in London in 1989 as a forum for work he felt was overlooked and underappreciated—that of visionary self-taught artists. Initially published biannually and now as a quarterly, Raw Vision continues to contribute a vital and necessary dialogue to the international field, with all of its overlaps and subsets and quandaries of definition and criteria.

Enthusiasm pervades each page of the journal, and the sense of marvel that still sustains Maizels is evident in the conversation we conducted this past winter.

TH Your first formal encounter with art brut was with the 1972 publication of Roger Cardinal's seminal book Outsider Art. Were you already familiar with that kind of material from your travels in Europe? JM The book was an inspiration to me—it became my bible. I had been aware ofso many unusual things on the fringes ofconventional art but had never before been able to see them as something whole—a phenomenon oftheir own. My parents lived in Geneva and I was partly brought up there, so one of the first journeys of discovery we made was to Ferdinand Cheval's Palais Ideal in France. Later, when the Collection de l'Art Brut was opened in Lausanne, Switzerland, I was fortunate to be able to visit there for days at a time,even making my own personal guidebook. TH You have an art-school background, and you taught art for many years in a type ofschool known in England as a "public school"—which,in fact, is private and elitist—before devoting yourself full-time to Raw Vision in 1994. How has the mainstream dialogue impacted your involvement with the art ofthe selftaught and visionary? JM I was at

26 SPRING/SUMMER 2007

FOLK ART

Chelsea School of Art at the time ofstudent rebellion in the late sixties. It became the first educational establishment anywhere to abandon its syllabus, and one ofthe questions in the final exam was "How high was the Renaissance?"

All the same it was an insightful experience and left me with an open mind as well as a real love of art. At the time,I was enthusiastic about unusual expressions, such as F.X. Messerschmidt's heads, psychedelic paintings, or the imagery of magic and spirituality. Later, when I became an art teacher, it became difficult for me to reconcile the academic needs of drawing exams with the bold expressions ofsome of my"worst" students, whose work I really appreciated. TH What inspired you to begin collecting? JM In my student days, vacations were long and the world was safe and cheap. My wife, Maggie,and I used to travel around the Middle East, which we loved, especially the Arab lands with their unintelligible squiggly writing and exotic buildings. We used to collect cheap Islamic prints, which we often saw on coffee shop walls. Religious but dominated by kitsch and magic,they

later became an inspiration to my own work. TH This is evident in Zombie News,a one-issue magazine you published in 1987. Its sixteen pages are filled with unintelligible scrawls, and it appears to mimic a broadsheet. JM Yes,it was made in fun and was supposed to be a critique ofcontemporary art magazines such as Arorum that had articles that were also completely unintelligible. Originally,I was going to include outsider art, but I soon realized that a more serious forum was required. TH Your first issue ofRaw Vision appeared in January 1989.What made you decide to start a magazine? JM Following my own work on Zombic News,I immersed myselfin outsider art.

To me it was magic itself. A form ofcreation so strong and so spiritually charged that it was without doubt superior to any other. And yet it was virtually unknown, almost a secret, clandestine form of art. I felt like an early Christian or revolutionary—wanting to tell people about a great revelation that would change their perception.I became a fanatic, and outsider art ruled my world.The whole idea ofRaw Vision was that it should present the work in the best possible light, with large illustrations and clear text, all in a high-quality publication that could stand on its own with any

other in the contemporary art world. TH The first few issues included texts in French and German in addition to English, and you got the ball rolling with essays introducing the work of Nek Chand,Augustin Lesage, Friedrich Schroder-Sonnenstern, Oswald Tschirtner,Willem van Genk,and some European mediumistics, among others. Early contributors induded some luminaries ofthe field, and you've continued to present articles on a wide variety of artists, some of whom have since gained renown and others who remain obscure.

Now,with fifty-eight issues under your belt, has the magazine evolved in tone or direction? Do you ever find yourselfrunning out of material? JM We still have masses of material—itjust keeps coming,and if you believe that compulsive intuitive expression is a natural human occurrence,then it can never end.What has changed is the complexion and the intensity. Early issues were based on the works ofthe great collections ofthe twentieth century—ofJean Dubuffet and Hans Prinzhorn,especially—and it is very hard to see how the original quality ofthose great masters, such as AdolfWon or Aloise Corbaz,Johann Hauser or Carlo Zinelli, can be repeated.The big question is: How much are we

CON

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American Folk Art Sidney Gecker

looking at a historical phenomenon, and how much can we still expect to see such things in the future? Outsider art has a different complexion today. It is rarely as isolated and as inward,but it is still vibrant, irrepressible, and a manifestation ofextreme individuality. The magazine has changed, too, and now we have a broader remit and more of a world view.

TH Raw Vision has always devoted serious attention to book reviews.I think careful scholarship and editing is one of the most important ways to maintain rigorous standards in the field. In 1996,Phaidon published your book Raw Creation: Outsider Art and Beyond, a wonderfully written and beautifully designed synthesis ofthe history of the field that really holds up more than ten years later. I find it a terrific companion to your Outsider Art Sourcebook [2001; a new enlarged edition will be available later this year], which presents artist biographies,venues,and resources in a

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guidebook format.In addition to Cardinal's Outsider Art,what books have impacted you most?

JM I guess one would have to be Prinzhorn's Artistry oftbe Mentally Ill[1922], with its analytical diagrams and theories ofcreativity, as well as those incredible artists such as Karl Brendel, Peter Moog, August Netter, and so on. Michel Thevoz's book Art Brut[1976] was also very influential for me, especially the way he brought in sociological and psychological implications. TH Environments receive spectacular coverage and documentation in Raw Vision.

What is it about these constructions that you respond to most?

JM The first environments I visited in France,the PalaIdealand La Maison Picassiette, especially, completely blew me away. Here were creations that took over thirty years to make,singlehandedly,that couldn't be exhibited or sold—what professional artist would ever do that? It was that incredible feeling of actually being inside a creation, a whole world. Not looking into a world, through the window ofa painting, but actually being there. No photograph or exhibition can really do justice to the experience. When I first took the long walk around Nek Chand's Rock Garden in Chandigarh,India,I felt tears on my face, and I am not alone in that reaction. TH There is growing mainstream appreciation and acceptance ofthe work of self-taught artists in the United States and in Europe; what is the climate like in the U.K.?

UNIQUE ADVERTISING DISPLAY FOR THE SPALDING COMPANY. LIFESIZE SCULPTURES IN TERRACOTTA WITH POLYCHROME DECORATION.

226 West 21st Street New York, N.Y. 10011 (212)929-8769 • SGeekerl@yahoo.com Appointment Suggested Subject to prior sale.

MAGIC SQUARES AND DEVILS / Afghanistan / c.1966 / collection of John and Maggie Maizels

SPRING/SUMMER 2007

FOLK ART

27

CONVERSATION

JM Britain is good on new music and literature but historically has always been backward in art, unfortunately.The art scene is far too London-centric and dominated by exactly the worthless kind oftrends and fashions that so outraged Dubuffet. Like some other fields in England,it is conservative and snob-ridden, and outsider art has a tough time there.I think things are changing slowly, but outsider art also has the problem ofbeing too cheap to make big profits in a booming art market,so dealers are still rare.

TH Where do American selfZOMBIC NEWS!John Maizels / 1987 taught artists fit into your purview? JM In my early days of researching for the first few issues. involvement,I found the I made contact with the principal American material to be rather lightweight compared to the ofthe Chandigarh College of heavy European art brut that I Architecture, and one day this was so fond of. As time has gone huge cloth envelope covered in by,though,I have grown to really stamps on both sides arrived from love it. Apart from the great mas- India.I remember how excited we ters such as Finster and Traylor,I were as slides tumbled out on the am especially drawn to the rougher edges of artists such as Mose Tolliver, R.A. Miller, Z.B. Armstrong,and so on.The work is so natural,the materials are so simple,the expression so direct.

Personally,I am still not so attracted to the more craft-oriented areas, such as the Gee's Bend quiltmakers and other more decorative forms, but there is such a wealth of material in the whole field. TH You have long held the work ofNek Chand in the highest regard. When did you first become Nek Chand installation, 143,-"I'' aware of his extraordiLetchmore Heath, Hefts, England nary Rock Garden? JM It happened while I was

28 SPRING/SUMMER 2007 FOLK ART

floor and we rushed to project the images on the wall.

This,I knew,was something quite incredible, and one of Nek Chand's sculptures was the image on our very first cover. TH You have sixty ofhis figures installed on land adjacent to your home,just outside London. How did that come about? JM The English Arts Council organized an exhibition called "Edge 92" in Madrid and London [1992], mostly ofrather dull installations made by contemporary artists in various public locations in the two cities. I took little interest but then saw a poster in a tube station that listed the exhibitors,including, to

my amazement, Nek Chand.I called the exhibition office and they said he was there,so I grabbed some flowers and dashed over in the car. Nearing the office, I spotted Nek Chand,whom I had never met,just walking along the road. Screeching to a halt,I jumped out and embraced him.

To me he is—and always has been—a master, a genius,a man of extraordinary talents and deep spirituality. It was a very moving moment.I discovered that he was being treated very badly by the Arts Council,which not only paid him no exhibition fee but expected to keep all his sculptures and give them away to its employees, as had already happened in Madrid. After a huge battle,they eventually agreed to pay his fare home and gave me twenty-four hours to find a place to save the sculptures—otherwise they would take them. Luckily, a former student of mine found a huge empty

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office building in central London, and the sculptures were safely displayed there for over a year.

Eventually, they were moved to a little wooded copse behind our house,land owned by the nearby Hare Krishna temple. Nek Chand made them a sculpture of Krishna in thanks. Now they stay there except when they go offon vacation; last year they were exhibited in Finland most ofthe time.

TH You're closely involved with the Nek Chand Foundation, which will be presenting a conference at the Rock Garden on visionary environments this November.

What other environments rank high on your list of personal favorites? JM There is nothing in the whole world to really compare with the Rock Garden,but of the ones I have seen,Picassiette and the PalaisIdeal are pretty staggering.I have also been very fond of

the humor and innocence of Fernand Chatelain'sJardin Humoristique, now thankfully restored.The French are mainly very good at caring for their environments.I really regret never having been able to visit Finster's Paradise Garden in its prime or yet to have seen Leonard Knight's Salvation Mountain and Simon Rodia's Watts Towers. Although I did have the privilege ofexperiencing Tom Every's vast Forevertron, which is a truly monumental achievement. TH In addition to the vast amounts of material presented on the Raw Vision website, the magazine is now available in downloadable PDF form, by subscription. What led to your decision to offer each issue in this form? JM We noticed that we were getting hundreds of visits on the website every day from all over the world,

so we thought we could offer this service as a cheap and easy way for people to access the magazine wherever they are.The economics of magazine production changes, and nowadays distribution, freight, and postage are comparable to printing costs,so it will be interesting to see how things develop in the future. TH In 1998, you and Maggie organized "Love: Error and Eros"for the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore. With themes oflove true, unrequited, profane,lost, and divine, the exhibition delved deeply into the complexities of love with works by British, European,and American artists.

Do you have fantasy curatorial projects you'd like to organize or books you'd like to publish if you had the time and resources? J M I have always wanted to republish Cardinal's Outsider Art and still

hope to do so, and we are working on a special erotic Raw Vision publication. But really, my involvement in Raw Vision leaves me little space to fantasize of other projects.Just now my main ambitions are to secure the magazine into the future and to try and get some results from the endless struggle with authorities in Chandigarh to live up to their responsibilities in caring for the Rock Garden.*

For more information on Raw Vision and related publications, see www.rawvision.com. Information about the Nek Chand conference in November can be found at www.nekchandconference.org.

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29

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RAWVISION

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WINNER OF UTNE INDEPENDENT PRESS AWARDS BEST ARTS COVERAGE OF THE YEAR 2006

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THE

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BY STACY C. HOLLANDER AND BROOKE DAVIS ANDERSON

nfluenced by the philosophies ofthe Enlightenment, a revolution in American attitudes toward children erupted in the years following the War ofIndependence.

There was a growing recognition ofchildhood as a separate stage of development with its own psychological and material needs. Clothing designed specifically for children to play in and an increasing number oftoys and educational playthings were among the manifestations of the new culture ofthe child.These toys not only entertained but also prepared their young users for the roles they were to assume later in life. Horses,soldiers, hoops,and whips were appropriate for boys, while dolls, doll furniture, and other domestic props were clearly intended to guide young girls toward motherhood and keeping house. Some toys,such as games ofstrategy, were meant for the entire family. By the 19th century, playing board games bound parents and children together and reinforced the nuclear family that had emerged during this period. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;S.C.H.

UNTITLED (At Julio Callio via Norma They are captured by the Glandelinians) Henry Darger (1892-1973) Chicago Mid-twentieth century Watercolor, pencil, and carbon tracing on pieced paper 19/ 1 4 x 36/ 1 2" American Folk Art Museum purchase, 2001.16.3

I

enry Darger inhabited a vast imaginary world through his writing, drawing,and painting.The work shown above is one of more than 300 he created to illustrate his 15,000-page epic, The Story ofthe Vivian Girls in What is Known as the Realms ofthe Unreal, or The Glando-Angelinnian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion, which the artist began when he was 19 years old. Written first in longhand and later typed,In the Realms ofthe Unrealis a fictional story ofwar and peace,good against evil. The narrative,filled with death and destruction, follows the heroic efforts of a band ofseven young sisters, the Vivian Girls, to free enslaved children held captive by an army of adults, the Glandelineans.

In order to realize his aesthetic vision, Darger culled images from coloring books,comic strips, and newspaper illustrations and traced them using carbon paper,sometimes after having enlargements made at his local drugstore to achieve his desired scale. Once a scene was carefully composed,the artist altered certain elements,such as the positions oflimbs,to provide a sense of movement and added different details ofcostume,facial features, or expression to distinguish one character from another.

In this drawing,the Vivian Girls have been yoked tightly at the neck with a long rope by a machetewielding Glandelinian; his company ofsix mounted soldiers keep a stern watch over their young captives against a cheerful backdrop,their colorful flags waving against a pale blue sky with fluffy white clouds.* â&#x20AC;&#x201D;B.D.A.

H

Stacy C. Hollander is the museum's senior curator and director ofexhibitions. Brooke Davis Anderson is director and curator ofthe museum's Contemporary Center and Henry Darger Study Center.

PAPER DOLLS: HORSES AND SOLDIERS Artist unidentified Boston 1840-1850 Watercolor and ink on cut paper and card / 4"ea.

Horses: 4 41 Soldiers: 4 2" ea.

American Folk Art Museum, gift of Pat and Dick Locke, 1981.8.1-4

32 SPRING/SUMMER 2007 FOLK ART

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Portrait ofAmusta Maria Foster of Ridgefield, Connecticut,

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Great Cover-up

By Lee Kogan

KNITTED RUG (detail) Attributed to Elvira Curtis Hulett (c. 1805-1895) Probably Hancock, Massachusetts c. 1890-1895 Wool 50" diam.

American Folk Art Museum, promised gift of Ralph Esmerian, P1.2001295

"The Great Cover-up: American Rugs on Beds, Tables, and Floors" will be on view at the American Folk Art Museum June 5September 9, 2007.

Museum exhibitions are supported in part by the Gerard C. Wertkin Exhibition Fund and the Leir Charitable

he impulse to cover interior surfaces has historically been both utilitarian and decorative. Rugs in particular have been a ubiquitous presence in American interiors since the seventeenth century, whether displayed on the bed, the table, the floor, or, more recently, the wall. Because of their prominent placement and the physical area they occupied, rugs became opportunities for strong visual statements. As many surviving rugs beautifully attest, the best examples transcend function through their graphic power—color and design—and are now considered masterworks. Early American rugs were yarn sewn, shirred, appliquéd, and embroidered; later techniques included knitting, crocheting, and most notably hooking. Hand-sewn and -hooked rugs were once appreciated only within the intimate confines of the home. Today, their public enjoyment provides a fascinating glimpse into the private spaces of American life.

"The Great Cover-up: American Rugs on Beds, Tables, and Floors" is the American Folk Art Museum's first comprehensive rug exhibition since 1974, when Joel and Kate Kopp organized the seminal "American Hooked and Sewn Rugs: Folk Art Underfoot," which generated an enormous interest in the field that continues to this day'

Foundations in memory of Henry J. & Erna D. Leir.

SPRING/SUMMER 2007

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35

Bed Rugs Some of the earliest handcrafted American rugs were produced by women in their homes and used as bedcovers.

Known as bed rugs (derived from the Norwegian rugga or rogga and also the Swedish rug, referring to a coarse fabric or pile covering), these monumental textiles were typically yarn sewn, a technique executed in a running stitch.

Highly valued by their makers, they were often signed or initialed and dated. Bed rugs were symbols of wealth and status. Production was labor intensive, and examples were treasured by owners who used them during cold New England winters. Most surviving examples are from the Connecticut River Valley, but bed rugs also have been located in other parts of New England and elsewhere.'

Though no seventeenth-century examples of bed rugs survive, references appear in American inventories and other documents from this period. Fortunately, a small number of extraordinary eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century bed rugs exist, such as the superbly designed and executed Bed Rug made in 1803 by a member of the prestigious Fairbanks family of New Hampshire (right). Its predominant carnation motif, which is similarly incorporated in a significant group of about a dozen surviving bed rugs from the Connecticut River Valley, relates to stylized sixteenth- and seventeenth-century English and other European floral embroidery designs.'

Decorative elements of this kind were brought to America via embroiderypattern books printed in England; in some cases, these were translated from German, French, and Italian sources dating to the sixteenth century.'The carnation surrounded by a foliate arabesque appears on a page in Richard Shorleyker's 1632 pattern book,A Schole-housefor the Needle.'

Like the rose, the carnation is often emblematic of earthly and divine love; for this reason,it is often associated with brides, bridegrooms, and newly married couples.'This motif has persisted in needlework patterns for centuries and is prevalent in border patterns of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century English and American embroidered samplers. Varieties of the flower are found in needlework

36 SPRING/SUMMER 2007 FOLK ART

of other European countries as well. In the Fairbanks Bed Rug, the central carnation bouquet rises symmetrically from a graceful double-handled oval urn. The composition's similarity to that of numerous other textiles of the era and especially the presence of the oft-featured urn shape strongly suggest a common design source for the overall pattern.' Surrounding the central motif are graceful arcaded and meandering vines and leaves. Tulips and other blossoms fill the ground space between the central pattern and the prominent four-sided surround, adding rhythmic movement and strong patterning to the surface design.The few colorsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a palette of browns,gold, and some related red tonesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;vibrate dramatically on the black background.

BED RUG Attributed to Deborah Leland Fairbanks (1739-1791) and unidentified family member Littleton, New Hampshire 1803 Wool 101 96" American Folk Art Museum, gift of Cyril Irwin Nelson in honor of Joel and Kate Kopp, 2004.14.3

The Packard Bed Rug (opposite) inscribed N/BP/1806, is one of at least three bed rugs made by Packard family members of Jericho, Vermont.' The contained floral and geometric elements are reminiscent of strapwork, an ornamental scrollwork often seen in Mannerist decoration. The design, in flat, uncut pile with scallop motifs, also shows the influence of Transylvanian-type rugs with strapwork designs seen covering tables in some colonial portraits.'

Similarly designed hand-knotted pile carpets, called Turkeywork, were imported to the American colonies

PACKARD BED RUG Packard family member Jericho, Vermont 1806 Wool 94 x 90/ 1 2 " American Folk Art Museum, gift of Cyril Irwin Nelson in honor of Cary Forney Baker Jr., 2002.31.1

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37

from Europe. Designs were absorbed into the American sensibility and integrated in several of the decorative arts. The individual floral and leaf motifs of the PackardBedRugstronglyresemble some ofthe English crewel embroideries that mayhave had similar sources and decorative counterparts!' The scallop-pattern outer border, popular in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century decorative arts, relates to motifs within the design and neatly unites all the elements.

Table Rugs Rugs that were used to cover the surfaces of tables and chests were contemporaneous with bed rugs. These, too,

within the home.The spare elements feature a house with two gable-end chimneys and a nearby church linked by a double length of fencing that borders a path; this establishes in symbolic terms the close tie between home and church that was fundamental in American life at the time.

The unusual three-dimensional Schwenlcfelder Table Cover (opposite) from Pennsylvania features a table setting appliquéd and embroidered on a wool foundation.

Appliquéd table and hearth rugs became popular around 1840. Appliqué—a technique also used in quiltmaking—involves cutting elements from one fabric and stitching them onto another. It allows for much greater

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were indicative of status and material wealth and were prominently featured in eighteenth-century interior portraits by artists such as Robert Feke and John Smibert.

(The table rugs shown in these paintings were imported hand-knotted Oriental carpets, but the English imitation Turkeywork rugs were also used on tables.")

The elite practice of placing rugs on tabletops was adapted for popular use and continued into the nineteenth century One such example is the wool appliqué and embroidered Pictorial Table Rug (above) that is thought to depict the very home in Otisfield, Maine, in which it was made and used. The graphic architectural representation provided a dramatic background for social activities

38 SPRING/SUMMER 2007 FOLK ART

pictorial flexibility than can be attained in pieced textiles.The dimensional objects—four place settings and a platter with a neat arrangement of fruits and vegetables—may be likened to whimsical contemporary soft sculpture. The exuberant textile exudes some of the earthy spirit found in Schwenkfelder fraktur examples.

Floor Rugs In 1810, the Oxford English Dictionary defined a floor rug as "a little rug for your hearthstone."" Although examples of earlier provenance are known, large rugs for the floor rather than a bed or tabletop were rare and were likely expensive imported carpets. Hearth rugs were usually

PICTORIAL TABLE RUG Artist unidentified Possibly Otisfield, Maine c. 1840 Wool appliqué, gauze, and embroidery on wool 29 53" American Folk Art Museum, promised gift of Ralph Esmerian, P1.2001.293

TABLE COVER Artist unidentified Probably Montgomery County, Pennsylvania c. 1870 Wool embroidery and cotton appliqué on wool 31'/2" diam.

Schwenkfelder Museum, Pennsburq, Pennsylvania, 18.38.118

rectangular and, as the name suggests, were placed before the open fireplace to serve as dust covers during warm months and,some say, to protect larger carpets from sparks and soot during the winter.

The handmade masterpiece Embroidered Carpet (page 40), also known as the Caswell Carpet, was made between 1832 and 1835. It was intended for and placed on the floor of a rarely used parlor in the maker's house in Castleton, Vermont.' Zeruah Higley Guernsey designed and made the rug more than a decade before she married Memri Caswell in 1846, undertaking the laborious preparatory process of shearing the sheep, spinning and dyeing the yarn, and preparing the homespun-wool foundation.

Tradition suggests that she used a wooden needle her father, a maker ofspinning wheels, had fashioned!'

The carpet is composed of seventy-six blocks and additional blocks comprising a detachable hearth-size rug along one edge. The entire carpet was embroidered in chain stitch on a tambour frame.Its square-block construction is embellished with stylized leaves, birds, and baskets offruit that derive from earlier needlework traditions.' On the lower left, two blocks featuring cats and one featuring puppies are rendered in a more naturalistic manner, their sources traced to printed prototypes used in other mediums at the time.' The pair of courting figures in a block near the center of the rug lends a personal and humanizing

touch.(For some unexplained reason, the maker sewed another square over the couple.)

Zeruah Guernsey embroidered her initials and the year 1835 at the top of the rug.Two squares are known to have been designed by two Native American medical students at the local Castleton Medical College who lived for a time in the Guernsey household and demonstrated interest in the carpet. The square designed by one of the guests, Francis Bacon, bears the inscription By FB (sixth row, second from right). The square initialed LFM (top row, fifth from left) is thought to be by the other student!'

The extraordinary room-size Appliquéd Carpet (page 41) by an unidentified maker bears resemblance to smaller appliquéd and embroidered bed and floor rugs from Maine from about 1845 to 1870, but its monumental size, flawless condition, exquisite design, and technical virtuosity clearly identify it as a major nineteenth-century textile masterpiece. The composition may be described as a series of densely patterned borders surrounding a central medallion featuring trees, flowers, birds, and a whimsical blue rabbit. But in contrast to the rigid square or rectangular blocks that characterize many other examples from Maine, the repeated flower motifs separated by archshaped leafy branches give this carpet a distinguishing dynamic.

Exotic animals intrigued the American public in the early nineteenth century, and the maker ofBengal Tiger(page 42, center) may have seen a real tiger in a traveling menagerie. In 1809, Hachaliah Bally, an entrepreneur in Somers, New York, who was known for his commercial ventures organizing animal shows, bought an interest in Nero "the Royal Tiger" from the animal's owner, another Somers businessman, Benjamin Lent.The tiger may have been one of a pair shown in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1808.10 However, the visual source for this yarn-sewn rug and another nearly identical rug may be traced to an 1800 woodcut in Thomas Bevvick's A General History ofQuadrupeds.' During the 1820s and 1830s, tigers and other animals were advertised on posters as part of the Grand Caravan of Living Animals and the American Menagerie, among others." Yarn-sewn rugs such as Bengal Tiger were typically executed in a running stitch on a homespun woven wool or, occasionally, linen foundation using wool threads in large-scale, foliate patterns inspired by English embroidery.

In Waldoboro,Maine,descendants ofa group of Germans who immigrated during the early years of the nineteenth century; bringing with them knowledge of European crafts, developed a distinctive sculptural rug style.' Waldoboro rugs, including the 1860 Waldoboro-Type Hooked Rug (page 42, top), are characterized by densely piled cut loops and deeply saturated colors on black, cream, sage green, or sometimes gray linen foundations. The loops were cut at different heights, thereby creating a three-dimensional surface. Typical motifs were flowers, leaves, and fruits, as well as lush baskets of fruits and flowers within florid, often scrolled borders. A central oval carries ornamental design, as does the outlying border area. Birds, considered bad luck, were not part of original Waldoboro pictorial elements. However,

SPRING/SUMMER 2007 FOLK ART

39

EMBROIDERED CARPET Zeruah Higley Guernsey Caswell (1805-c. 1895) Castleton, Vermont 1832-1835 Chain-stitch embroidery on wool 156 x 147" The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, gift of Katharine Keyes in memory of her father, Homer Eaton Keyes, 1938(38.157)

40

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regulation governed by the Millennial Laws of 1821 and revised in 1845 allowed carpet use by Shakers, but they to be used with discretion and made plain.' It has been suggested that this rug may have been placed in an area where sales and business with the "outside world" took place."

The hooked rug is considered an indigenous American art form.' By the middle of the nineteenth century, hooking was the most popular technique for making handmade rugs, in both numbers and pattern variety.

" were

JOHN BIGELOW TAYLOR, COURTESY AMERICA HURRAH ARCHIVES, NEW YORK

the three-dimensional rug style became so pervasive that all rugs with reliefsurfaces, such as this one,which features several prominent birds, are termed "Waldoboro type" no matter where they originated or which motifs were used.

American floor rugs were also braided, crocheted, knitted, or woven, and sometimes their makers combined techniques. The striking Knitted Rug (page 34) attributed to Elvira Curtis Hulett is a tour de force of rugmaking. Hulett, a member of the Shaker community in Hancock, Massachusetts, used a glowing

APPLIQUED CARPET Artist unidentified Northeastern United States, possibly Maine c. 1860 Wool appliquĂŠ and embroidery on wool 112 158" American Folk Art Museum, promised gift of Ralph Esmerian, P1.2001.294

autumnal palette, and her rug is knitted in a complex construction of concentric rings patterned with crosses, stripes, diamonds, checkerboards, and strips of contrasting colored wool yarns, giving evidence of the maker's early experience as a weaver.(Hulett's name appears on an early nineteenth-century pattern draft for huckaback, a woven fabric.) It is further embellished on the outer ring with embroidered cross-stitching, forming chevrons, and bound with a braided edge. Strict

Burlap, a coarse woven fabric made of fiber from the sturdy jute plant, imported from India by about 1850, was commonly used for sacks to handle dry goods such as coffee, tea, tobacco, and grains, thus providing an inexpensive and readily available cloth to be used as a rug foundation.

Hooked rugs bear resemblance to yarn-sewn rugs in that both rugmaking techniques result in raised loops that can be left as they are or clipped to produce a pile. As

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41

opposed to the earlier technique of yarn-sewing, which employs a running stitch on a wool or linen foundation,rug hooking is accomplished by pushing a hook through the top ofa coarse foundation (such as burlap) and drawing the fabric from the underside to the top. A near endless variety of designs can be created by using raw materials as diverse as cut-up rags, fabric strips recycled from old clothes or linens, and yarn. Hooked-rug designs range from repeated simple geometries to detailed original pictorials.

Printed patterns had become available in the 1850s from Chambers and Leland, in Lowell, Massachusetts, which stamped embroidery patterns and prepared patterns on burlap. Capitalizing on the growing popularity of handmade rugs in the late nineteenth century, an enterprising Maine tin peddler, Edward Sands Frost, introduced preprinted hooked-rug patterns on burlap in the 1860s." In 1876, when Frost sold his business, he had about 180 patterns.

Today, 742 zinc stencils that made 113 different patterns survive.' Frost's subjects ranged from florals and animals to patriotic and fraternal designs and countless geometric patterns.

Frost's success led other individuals and companies to print patterns. In 1886, Ebenezer Ross, of Toledo, Ohio, invented the punch needle to replace the crochetlike rug hook, and he sold this new hook along with a catalog of fifty-six patterns, mostly Frost designs. By the early twentieth century, prepackaged kits were widely available. Creative rug hookers often altered the preprinted patterns to produce individualized results.

The Lion No. 7 pattern, in which a large lion reclines amid thin leafy foliage in front of a standing lion cub, was Frost's most successful pattern. Its popularity led other entrepreneurs to alter it somewhat and continue to market the design on preprinted burlap. In Ross's variation of the pattern, used for the Lion with Palms rug (right, bottom), the foliage is changed to palm trees. In a third marketed version, the palm trees remain but the lion cub is absent.'

The mass production of Edward Sands Frost's patterns set the stage for the development of cottage industries.

Among the most long-lived and successfil was that spearheaded by Dr. Wilfred Grenfell.' In 1892, Grenfell arrived in the Canadian province of Labrador and Newfoundland on a hospital ship and founded a mission to help the villagers there augment the subsistence income derived from fishing and trapping through the production and sale of handcrafts. For several months each year, the ferocity of the icy winters resulted in the citizens being landlocked.

Grenfell encouraged local women to make mats during these months of enforced idleness, and these mats were marketed throughout North America.

Grenfell himself made cartoon images for some of the rug designs, but it was Rhoda Dawson, who arrived in 1930 from England to assist Grenfell rugmaker M.A. Pressley-Smith prepare rug-hooking kits, who raised the artistic level of Grenfell mats by introducing bold abstraction. Executed in stocking material, Dawson's designs did not conform to popular taste. At one point, she wrote, I'm afraid my regular customers won't like my new mats.

They're too sophisticated."3° In Sealskin Drying (opposite), Dawson drew attention to the prized ring-seal pelt, recalling

WALDOBORO-TYPE HOOKED RUG / artist unidentified / Maine /1860 / wool on probably burlap / 26/ 1 2 363 / 4"/ collection of Jeff Pressman and Nancy Kollisch

BENGAL TIGER/artist unidentified / United States / c.1820 / yarn sewn on linen / 411 / 4 67"/ Š Shelburne Museum, Shelburne, Vermont, 9M-11

LION WITH PALMS / artist unidentified; pattern by E. Ross & Co. Manufacturers, Toledo, Ohio / United States / c.1880-1900 / wool on burlap / 321 / 2 62" I private collection

42 SPRING/SUMMER 2007 FOLK ART

the early years of the mission, when seal hunting was basic Council Fire of the Great Council of the United States" to the economy, providing food, clothing, dog harnesses, convened at Bon Ton Hall, in New York. The arrows and and household goods for the community.' ax are symbols of war,the white dove a symbol of peace.

Symbolic meanings are embedded into the seemingly The pictorial hooked rug Praying to the Moon (page cryptic early twentieth-century Degree ofPocahontas Hooked 44, bottom) epitomizes the originality of American folk Rug (page 44, top). The Degree of Pocahontas was the art. The unusual composition depicts a couple facing away female counterpart of the Improved Order of Red Men, from each other and separated by a bold geometric pata fraternal organization formed to promote freedom for tern embedded with hearts. The woman extends her arms the colonies that traces its origins to several secret groups longingly—or beseechingly—toward a wide-eyed full moon founded before the American Revolution, including the above a tree. The scene hints at romance, courtship, love, and marriage. In her appeal to the moon, often associated with a feminine aspect, the woman appears to be yearning to fulfill her desire for the handsome gentleman depicted on the left. The exact meaning remains open to interpretation, but this seems a safe reading, given that the universal subjects oflove and courtship have been identified with the moon and its reflected light in literary and musical works throughout the ages.

The Solitary Tree Hooked Rug (page 45) illustrates the subtlety of color and painterly effects that can be achieved in the hooked-rug medium. Its monochromatic color palette and formal, bold abstraction reflect the modern taste of the first decades of the twentieth century The flat pile is reminiscent of the densely hooked rugs produced around the same time at the Grenfell Mission.

There has been a resurgence of interest in handmade rugs by both amateurs and professionals. Some talented creators continue to design and make rugs for profit in the spirit of cottage industries. A larger number, however, comprise a community of rug hookers who support regional, national, and international guilds and associations, publications, and exhibitions of handmade rugs. Though their motivations may differ from those of their gifted predecessors, makers ofrugs, past and present,share a need for self-expression. Today, exceptional historical and contemporary rugs are displayed on walls and valued for their aesthetic and documentary qualities, as well as for their technical virtuosity.* Lee Kogan, the museum's curator ofpublicprogramming and special exhibitions, is the curator of"The Great Cover-up: American Rugs on Beds, Tables, and Floors."

Notes 1 In 1994,the museum presented the exhibition "Northern

SEALSKIN DRYING Designed by Rhoda Dawson (1897-1992) Grenfell Mission, Labrador, Canada In production 1930-1935 Dyed silk, rayon, and brin 25 20" Collection of Paula Laverty

Sons of Liberty (1765).' The ladies auxiliary, established in the late nineteenth century, took its name from the storied daughter of the chief of the Algonquin Indians who was held hostage by English settlers at Jamestown.

She became a pivotal figure in reestablishing peaceful relations between the settlement and the Indian nation after a period of hostility This hooked rug is replete with symbols relating to the nomenclature, implements, and tenets of the organization, whose motto was "Freedom, Friendship, and Charity"The inscription GSD.410(or AD 1902) commemorates the date that the "forty-fifth Great Sun

Scenes: Hooked Art of the Grenfell Mission," organized by Paula Laverty,which specifically explored the Canadian hooked mats produced in Labrador and Newfoundland.

2 J. Herbert Callister and William L.Warren,Bed Ruggs/17221833(Hartford, Conn.:Wadsworth Atheneum,1972), pp. 13-16.

3 Marguerite Fawdry and Deborah Brown, The Book ofSamplers (Guildford and London: Lutterworth Press, 1980), pp. 14,15.

4 Averil Colby, Samplers(London: B.T. Batsford, 1964), pp. 20, 23-24.

5 Lanto Synge,Antique Needlework (Poole, England: Blandford Press, 1982), p. 66.

6 J.C.J. Metford,A Dictionary ofChristian Lore and Legend (London:Thames 8c., Hudson,1983), p. 60.

7 See Marcus Huish,Samplers and Tapestry Embroideries(New York: Dover Publications, 1970), pl. 23; Fawdry and Brown,op. cit., pp. 14,15; and Callister and Warren,op. cit., which shows thirteen related examples—eight with the urn and five without.

SPRING/SUMMER 2007 FOLK ART 43

DEGREE OF POCAHONTAS HOOKED RUG Artist unidentified Probably New York Early twentieth century Wool and cotton 27 â&#x20AC;˘ 48" American Folk Art Museum, gift of Jacqueline Loewe Fo 2002.25.1

PRAYING [01HE MOON Artist unidentified Probably New York Stab, 1910-1920 Wool on burlap 29 50" Private collection

44

SPRING/SUMMER 2007

FOLK ART

al•••=•.•

SOLITARY TREE HOOKED RUG Artist unidentified United States c. 1910-1930 Wool on burlap 29 x 41" American Folk Art Museum, bequest of Ed Clein, 1988.6.1

8 According to descendants who donated another example to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich., Rachel Packard of Jericho, Vt., was 71 years of age when she spun, wove,and dyed the yarn used in that bed rug, dated 1805. See also Canister and Warren,op. cit., p.57.

9 See,for instance,Isaac Royal!and Family, a portrait painted in 1741 by Robert Feke (collection Harvard University),in Helene von Rosenstiel,American Rugs and Carpetsfrom the Seventeenth Century to Modern Times(New York: William Morrow & Co., 1978), p. 125.

10 For more information on this rug,see Stacy C. Hollander, "Packard Bed Rug,"in Stacy C.Hollander and Brooke Davis Anderson,American Anthem:Masterworksfrom the American Folk Art Museum (New York American Folk Art Museum in association with Harry N.Abrams,2001),p. 297.

11 Callister and Warren,op.cit., p.15. See also Margaret Swain,"The Turkey-Work Chairs ofHolyroocihouse,"in Upholstery in America & Europefrom the Seventeenth Century to World Warr,ed.Edward S. Cooke Jr.(New York W.W.Norton &Co.,1987),pp.51-64.

12 Marion Day Iverson,"The Bed Rug in Colonial America," The Magazine Antiques 50, no. 1(January 1964): 108.

13 Mary Gerrish Higley,"The Caswell Carpet," The Magazine Antiques 9, no.6(June 1926): 396-398.

14 Ibid., p. 397.

15 Joel Kopp and Kate Kopp,American Hooked and Sewn Rugs: Folk Art Underfoot(New York: Dutton, 1975), pp. 124-127; and Sarah B. Sherrill, Carpets and Rugs ofEurope and America(New York Abbeville Press, 1996), p.253.

16 Sherrill, op. cit., p. 253; and James Ayres,English Naive Painting,1750-1900(New York Thames &Hudson,1980), pl. 87,p. 162.

17 Higley,"The Caswell Carpet," op. cit.

18 Richard W.Flint,"Entrepreneurial and Cultural Aspects of the Early Nineteenth-Century Circus and Menagerie Business," in Itinerancy in New England and New York, ed. Peter Benes (Concord,Mass.: Boston University, 1986), p. 134.

19 Thomas Bewick,A GeneralHistory ofQuadrupeds, 6th ed.

(Philadelphia, 1810). See also curatorial files at the Shelburne

Museum,Vermont; and Blanche Cirker (ed.),1800 Woodcuts by Thomas Bewick and His School(New York Dover Publications, 1962), pl. 27,28, and 208 no. 3.

20 Flint, op. cit.

21 Kopp,op. cit., p. 135.

22 Mildred Cole Peladeau,Art Underfoot: The Story ofWaldoboro Hooked Rugs(Lowell, Mass.: American Textile History Museum, 1999), p.5. This catalog contains the most complete and accurate discussion ofWaldoboro rugs.

23 Sherrill, op. cit., p.261.

24 Ibid. For more information on the use ofShaker rugs, see Gerard C.Werdcin,"Knitted Rug,"in Stacy C. Hollander, American Radiance: The Ralph Esmerian Gfft to the American Folk Art Museum(New York American Folk Art Museum in association with Harry N. Abrams,2001),pp.523-524.

25 Nancy Carlisle,"Introduction," in 19th Century Maine Rugs (Lewiston, Me.: Bates College Treat Gallery, 1980).

26 Maine State Museum,Augusta,"Now Open: RugsAll Marked Out'at the Maine State Museum,http://www.maine.gov/ museum/exhibits/Rugs.html (accessed Feb. 21,2007).

27 Ibid.

28 Jane Radcliffe, registrar, Maine State Museum,Augusta,telephone conversation with the author, December 2006. For more information on the Lion pattern and its variations, see William Winthrop Kent, The Hooked Rug:A Record ofIts Ancient Origin, Modern Development, Methods ofMaking, Sources ofDesign, Value as a Handicraft, the Growth ofCollections, Probable Future in America, and Other Data(New York Dodd,Mead & Co., 1930), p. 153; and William Winthrop Kent,'A Yankee Rug Designer," The Magazine Antiques 38, no.8(August 1940): 72,73.

29 For the most complete discussion ofthe missionary work of Dr.Wilfred Grenfell and the hooked mats of the Grenfell Mission, see Paula Laverty, Silk Stocking Mats:Hooked Mats ofthe Grenfell Mission (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press,2005).

30 Ibid., p. 35.

31 Ibid., p. 80.

32 Tracy Goodnow,letter to Ann-Marie Reilly, Sept. 18,2002, registrar's files, American Folk Art Museum,New York.

SPRING/SUMMER 2007 FOLK ART

45

Costumed by Hand:

46

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FOLK ART

PHOTOGRAPHY BY GAVIN ASHWORTH EXCEPT WHERE NOTED OTHERWISE

Yesteryear's Best-Dressed Paper Dolls

By Francine Kirsch

aper dolls have been wearing fancy frocks for centuries. While a few were professionally costumed, many more were homemade and home-clothed by amateurs who followed either printed instructions or their own creative star.

And the results were often anything but amateurish.•Embellished paper figures date back to eighteenth-century France, where engraved fashion plates were "dressed up" by gluing silk, muslin, ribbon, or colored metallic foil behind areas cut out of the printed costume. The prints themselves had a commercial purpose— disseminating dressmakers' latest styles—but dressing them up quickly became a court diversion. A luxurious variant were crèche angels, created to hover above opulent nativity scenes. Ten to twelve inches tall, with hand-drawn, watercolored faces and silk-chenille or feather wings, they were dressed in brocade trimmed with silver and gold passementerie to mimic the costumes worn by male ballet dancers during the reigns of Louis XV and Louis XVI. Wires and dowels along their backs allowed these paper angels to "fly," evoking another French creation, the pantin, a marionette. Around 1725, affordable, printed-paper pantins depicting characters such as Pierrot and Harlequin had become so popular in France that people hung them in drawing rooms or carried them in their pockets—and were constantly on the lookout for new "models."

p

FAMILY OF PAPER DOLLS AND OUTFITS(seven dolls not illustrated) 1907-1909 Pencil, ink, and watercolor on paper Dolls: Pk x %3¼ x Pk" All pieces collection of Jim Linderman, New York

SPRING/SUMMER 2007 FOLK ART 47

In the early 1800s, the concept of activated paper figures reached America, where they were dressed by hand and called Amelias. Eliza Leslie, in her 1831 American Girl's Book Or, Occupationfor Play Hours, gave detailed instructions for their construction and costuming.' While not all dressed paper dolls from this period were made to move, extant examples show that they generally ranged between six and fourteen inches tall; had mostly hand-drawn and hand-colored faces, arms, and legs; and were dressed in tarlatan or netting, possibly because these fabrics were so well-suited to the Empire-style dresses and ballerina tutus of the era. Artificial flower garlands, often disproportionately large, were the most common trim.

Tinsel pictures, a nineteenth-century outgrowth of embellished fashion plates and contemporaries of Amelias, reached their apogee as a home craft from the 1820s through the 1840s in England, where there was a thriving trade in small cardboard theaters. Little boys in particular

introducedâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;not only in silver, gold, and bronze metallic paper but also in peacock blue, emerald green, and red. One publisher,J. Webb, had five thousand different steel punches and dies to produce these trims.' A truly elaborate figure might have boasted two hundred metallic paper bitsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and cost a small fortune. In the second half of the nineteenth century, the embellished theatrical print was superceded by celebrity paper dolls and photographs of stage stars.

Paper dolls appear to have been introduced in England in 1810 with a story booklet titled The History of Little Fanny: Exemplified in a Series ofFigures.4 English paper dolls were often accompanied by tales of virtue for a child's moral guidance. Most of the dolls available in America were imported from England, France, and Germany, but in 1812, J. Belcher, a Boston company, published The History and Adventures ofLittle Henry, a story booklet with paper dolls undoubtedly modeled on the popular 1810 English booldet.5 The first American paper-doll set not included in

TWO PAPER DOLL DRESSES n.d.

Tissue paper and colored paper on paper 51/2 x5/ 1 4"and 5/ 1 4x

were fans of these toy theaters, which were cut out and assembled at home. They also played with printed-paper soldiers and collected prints of contemporary military heroes and royal personages, so prints of actors were a natural next stepâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;uncolored prints of actors and actresses in their stage costumes were sold or simply handed out during performances. Toy-theater publishers began to sell handcolored versions, too, as Robert Louis Stevenson's 1884 essay"A Penny Plain and Twopence Coloured" attests.'

As with fashion plates, scraps of silk or satin could be glued onto these prints for further enhancement.

Around 1820, publishers realized that embossed metallicpaper trims would look dramatic on the silk and satin costumes. Tinsel prints fast became an enduring hobby.

Because of the "heroic," even martial, nature of the actors' roles, helmets, breastplates, shields, plumes, scepters, swords, daggers, pistols, and even chain mail were quickly

48 SPRING/SUMMER 2007 FOLK ART

a story book, however, was Fanny Gray, which was printed

by Crosby, Nichols & Co., a Boston publisher, in 1854.

Fanny Gray was packaged with an explanation that the doll was a child's plaything rather than a fashion plate for adults.'

Godey's Lady's Book was the first American magazine to feature paper dolls when it printed a two-page spread (six figures of boys and girls and six costumes, uncolored) in its November 1859 issue.' Dressed prints had evolved into a diversion enjoyed by women on both sides of the Atlantic, and the magazine had been featuring English and French fashion plates (and simpler reinterpretations to suit American fashion) since around 1837! Unlike dressed eighteenth-century plates, however, the fabric decoration on these prints was topical. Some of the most ornate extant examples have bits of colored glass and even seed pearls and precious stones attached to them.

Godey's published paper dolls only in that one issue, but several other magazines picked up on the idea, and paper dolls became a regular feature for decades.

Newspapers followed suit, beginning in 1895, when the Boston Herald created color Sunday supplements with paper dolls to promote the sale of clothing patterns by the G.H. Buck Co. of New York and to increase circulation. Two dolls and more than fifty costumes were printed over the course of about a year.' The "Boston Herald Ladies," as they were known,were picked up by several different newspapers,which published them under their own banners. The famed Gibson Girls began to appear in newspapers in 1905, with illustrations and paper dolls functioning as promotions for fashion trends as well as trimmings."

At the same time, manufacturers of items unrelated to dressmaking also saw potential in

tissue-paper outfits from the illustrated patterns. By 1905, major American paper products manufacturer Dennison offered 130 shades oftissue paper, 31 of solid crepe paper, and 40 printed crepe papers.

Not surprisingly, Butterick, the first American publisher of paper sewing patterns, offered an instructional booklet in 1896 that recommended dressed paper dolls as Christmas gifts for little girls because they were easy and inexpensive to mail.

It included a female figure to trace and instructions for making costumes, including two crepepaper "morning gowns"(one with leg-of-mutton, one with fluted sleeves), an "afternoon costume" (which, with lace trim and painted flowers, could become an "evening dress"), and a nautical-looking "yachting dress," because "no feminine wardrobe is counted complete nowadays unless it contains a sailor suit." Butterick also noted,

PAPER DOLL WITH FOUR DRESSES (double-sided) n.d.

Pencil, ink, and watercolor on paper with colored paper Doll: 21/4 x 11 / 2"

411miim

the paper doll, and sets began to be offered as a premium with various food packaging and patent medicines.The Pope Manufacturing Company promoted their Columbia bicycles to women in 1895 with a series of six paper dolls (mailed in exchange for five two-cent stamps) dressed in cycling costumes designed for riding comfort; the paper dolls advertised both the bicycles and the cycling attire, which was described in detail.'

But the real revolution in embellished paper prints and paper-doll dressing occurred with the introduction of tissue paper (in the 1870s) and crepe paper (in 1890). Tissue paper, originally used for factory-printed homesewing clothes patterns, was soon called upon to dress dolls. An 1870s article in Aunt Myra's Magazine, for example, provided instructions for how to create very detailed

Almost any of the gowns illustrated in fashion plates may be imitated in paper for the doll's wardrobe. The woman who possesses manual dexterity and some originality and ingenuity can, if she chooses, make a considerable income by constructing dolls or "models" for dressmakers to show their patrons who are eager to know how their gowns will look when made up.

As color printing became less expensive and manufacturers provided ready-made paper dolls, attention could now be concentrated on their costuming. Germany dominated the paper-doll scene between 1880 and 1915. Some dressable dolls were made by the Berlin firm Kutzner & Berger, but the lion's share came from another Berlin

SPRING/SUMMER 2007 FOLK ART

49

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publisher, Littauer & Boysen. Their dolls had articulated Although the materials were prepackaged, the need limbs, attached to white cardboard bodies with grommets for expertise remained. As Dennison stated in its booklet, or tiny paper fasteners. They often came in multiples, con- "Directions for making crepe paper doll costumes would nected by paper "ladders," to be cut apart. seem superfluous for what girl is there but that has had Dennison distributed European paper dolls as well some experience in the work." Among the costuming ideas as a wide variety of its own dolls, in boxed or enveloped pictured in Dennison publications were two lady dolls, one sets, which gave the company an outlet for the paper dressed as maid, the other as mistress in a bustle-backed it manufactured. Dennison's Little Mother's Outfit of gown; a lady doll in a "bloomer" outfit, ready to take part Crepe and Tissue Paper and Dolls (c. 1900) contained in the new bicycling craze; and exotic outfits that boasted two dolls, four sheets of crepe paper, six sheets of tissue turbans,flaring dresses, and,in the case of"harem dancers," paper, doilies, a copy of its Art and Decoration in Crepe fringed hip sashes and toques. The best-dressed girl dolls and Tissue Paper booklet, and samples of every shade of wore leghom hats spectacularly trimmed with doily paper tissue and crepe paper that it made. The manufacturer's and artificial flowers. larger Complete Outfit also included supplies to make When World War I began and German imports ceased, paper flowers. The supplement to the Nursery Outfit of- domestically printed dolls, some of them advertised as fered parts for a dozen paper dolls. (For the all-thumbs having "American faces," appeared with greater frequency. customer, Dennison also carried ready-dressed dolls.)

By the mid-1920s, however, the fancy quality of the

FOUR PAPER DOLL DRESSES (double-sided) Late nineteenth century Embossed paper, bakingsoda packaging, and watercolor on paper 23 / 4 .• 3"

PAPER DOLL WITH SEVEN DRESSES n.d.

Pencil, watercolor, and crayon on paper with paper collage Doll: 51 / 4 x 4"

50 SPRING/SUMMER 2007 FOLK ART

costuming declined, perhaps because the shapeless che- bodies and embellish the dolls with items ranging from vinmise was the preferred dress at the time. The costumes tage photographs for faces to hand-painted butterfly wings. got to be so flat that their outlines were printed right onto • • • the crepe paper, to be simply cut out—no sewing, gluing, or gathering required. The paper-doll dressing sets New York collector Jim Linderman has assembled more sold by American publishers such as Milton Bradley and than a hundred sets of handmade paper dolls and cosMcLoughlin Brothers into the 1940s required less and tumes over the course of ten years.' Handmade paper less skill. By the 1950s, paper dolls were sold in booklets dolls flourished when materials were improvised because of perforated figures to punch out, with tabbed clothes of the scarceness and high cost of paper in the early nineto cut out. But it was also in the 1950s that old Littauer & teenth century, or when shortages in the Depression era Boysen stock—including articulated paper dolls— forced people to scrimp and make do. A wide variety of resurfaced in New York City shops such as Burton's and paper repurposed from everyday items, such as covers of Brandon Memorabilia. Their German Jewish publishers pamphlets, backs of greeting cards, telephone directories, had sent inventory overseas for safekeeping before World recipe booklets, dry-goods packaging, and candy wrappers, War II but never reclaimed it. The 1970s decoupage re- was routinely pressed into dressmaking service. Dollmaking vival renewed interest in dressed dolls and pictures. Today's as a possible source ofextra income was promoted by Edith paper hobbyists sometimes use rubber stamps to create Flack Ackley in her books Dolls to Make: For Fun and

SPRING/SUMMER 2007

FOLK ART

51

"MR. AND MRS. PENNY" 1909 Pencil and watercolor on paper with cardboard patterns 1 4 x 2/ 1 2 " Male doll: 3/ Female doll: 3% x 2%"

-

, PAPER DOLL WITH EIGHT OUTFITS c. 1950s Pencil and crayon on paper and ruled newsprint Doll: 77/8 x 3"

PAPER DOLL Early twentieth century Pencil and crayon on ruled newsprint 71 / 4 x 21 / 2 "

Profit and Paper Dolls: Their History and How to Make Them!'

As with doll quilts and standard doll clothes, the making of paper dolls and their costumes was a socialization process that taught little girls how to assume their place as women and was sometimes done alongside their mother or an older sister. The slower pace of leisure time— missing from today's peripatetic play environment—was also an integral element, with hours of concentration going first into the actual making of dolls and costumes,then into playing with them.

There also was the "waste not,want not" element so dear to the Victorian heart. A popular 1856 book titled Paper Dolls. and How to Make Them:A Bookfor Little Girls stated,"If, after your first doll is finished, you should say'what a horrid looking thing'. .. do not destroy it but make a dress for it and give it to your little sister. .. then try again and make another.""

Possibly because of this effort, paper-doll projects were often treasured. Fashionistas would particularly appreciate the detail found in many homemade costumes, especially when it was achieved with bits of fabric or fancy paper.

Several costumes in Linderman's collection boast trim using tissue paper, crepe paper, paper doilies, or lace, indicating the influence of instructional manuals and paper companies such as Dennison.

Linderman's delicate, centuryold tissue-paper cheerleader outfit

(page 54) pairs a white skirt with a green letter sweater appliquéd with minute paper details.

The paper dolls in Linderman's collection range from the tiny to a two-foottall example; bigger paper dolls were popular in the 1910s and 1920s. A set of fourteen figures, some as small as an inch high and inscribed with various dates from 1907 to 1909, comes with more than two hundred outfits, including wedding attire (see pages 46-47). Families of paper dolls were common at the turn of the century and weddings were a popular subject. Ladies' HomeJournal, for example, published a series drawn by Sheila Young titled "Lettie Lane's Paper Family," which appeared in the magazine between October 1908 and June 1911; boxed sets were also sold beginning in 1909.' The paper dolls included Lettie's friends, her family, and her family's servants, and each installment was accompanied by a story— one such episode was dedicated to Lettie's sister's wedding. The July 1909 issue of the magazine even featured Lettie's own paper dolls, which could be fitted with their own diminutive hats and dresses!'

Enacting scenes and establishing ongoing narratives was an important part ofthe paper-doll ritual. Linderman's collection also includes a scrapbook into which ornate blackand-white illustrations of furniture were pasted to create

SPRING/SUMMER 2007

FOLK ART

53

backdrops for dozens of"rooms." Some of the bedcovers Christmas Collectibles: Tree Ornaments and Memorabilia include slits or flaps under which a doll could be tucked. (Lombard, Ill.: Wallace-Holmstead, 1985)and in articles A letter found with the scrapbook written by Bessie R. writtenfor a wide range ofmagazines.

Richardson in 1880 details the names, characteristics, and personal histories of her dolls, some of whom, she wrote, Notes were inspired by Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. "In 1 Eliza Leslie,"Amusing Work," in American Girl's Book Or, case I should forget who all these important personages Occupationfor Play Hours(Boston: Munroe and Francis/New are I think I will write their names down, as we were York C.S. Francis, 1831). apt to play with them,though sometimes the girls would get 2 Robert Louis Stevenson,"A Penny Plain and Twopence other lovers and things would be changed around generally," Coloured,"in Memories and Portraits(London: Chatto and she wrote."I used to think ifthe house caught fire the paper Windus,1887),ch. 13.The uncolored prints cost a penny, while doll house would be my first care, for was not Joe there.... the colored versions sold for two.

3 The company's 1836 sample book contained [lit was indeed a beautiful story 13,000 individual tinsel items; see Ten we made out of those scraps Chimneys Foundation,"All That of paper and I value them Glitters: 19th Century Tinsel Prints for what they have been from the Ten Chimneys Collection, to me."

1800 to 1870," http://vvww.ten Some of the handchimneys.org/annual-exhibition/ made paper dolls in the 2005 (accessed Feb. 21,2007).

4 The booklet was produced by SJ. collection, especially those Fuller and Co.,London,and infrom the twentieth cencluded seven dressed figures into tury, were probably which a separate head and neck traced from commercial could be inserted. examples, such as Rose 5 Judy M.Johnson,"History O'Neill's Kewpie ofPaper Dolls," The Doll Kutouts, which Sourcebook (Cincinnati: first ran in Woman's Betterway Books,1996).

Home Companion

in 1912.' The doll drawn in pencil and crayon on ruled newsprint (page 53) is likely copied from the extremely popular series of Dolly Dingle paper dolls

by Grace Drayton that were first introduced in Pictorial Review Magazine in

1913 and appeared almost continuously from 1916 to 1933.15 Quite a few examples in Linderman's collection were drawn from scratch, however. The maker of one set dated 1909 traced the edge of a penny to create the dolls and outfits (page 53, top). Others display imaginative patterns and details of fashion that place them squarely in the 1930s through 1950s, an era that saw a surge in the popularity of paper dolls. Others still bear dresses that are rendered with bold simplicity of form and color application, vigorously belying the need for decorative embellishment.*

Francine Kirsch writes extensively about crafts, collectibles, and culinary arts. She has concentrated on paper antiques in her books Chromos: A Guide to Paper Collectibles (San Diego, Calif:AS.Barnes/London: Tantivy Press, 1981)and

54 SPRING/SUMMER 2007 FOLK ART

6 Amy A.Weinstein, "Children's Toys," Magazine Antiques 167, no. 1(January 2005): 188-193.

7 A Showing ofPaper Dolls and Other Cut-out Toysfrom the Collection ofWilbur Macey Stone (Newark,NJ.: Newark Museum, , 1931), p. 9.

8 "The Art of Fashion Plates and Paperdolls," TheJane Austen Magazine,http://www.jane austen.co.uldmagazine/page. ihtml?pid=349&step=4(accessed Feb. 21,2007).

9 Cynthia Erfurt Musser with Joyce D.McClelland,Precious Paper Dolls (Cumberland,Md.:Hobby House Press, 1985), pp. 30-50.

10 Ibid., pp. 75-79.

11 Ibid., pp. 26-29.

12 Jim Linderman,interview by the author, March 20,2006.

13 Edith Flack Ackley,Dolls to Make:For Fun and Profit (Philadelphia and New York J.B. Lippincott Co.,1938) and Paper Dolls: Their History and How to Make Them (Philadelphia and New York:J.B. Lippincott Co., 1939).

14 Anson D.F. Randolph,Paper Dolls and How to Make Them: A Bookfor Little Girls(New York A.D.F. Randolph & Co.,1856).

A subsequent volume appeared the following year: Randolph, Paper Dolls'Furniture and How to Make It, or, How to Spend a CheerfulRainy Day in 1857(New York A.D.F. Randolph & Co.,1857).

15 Musser,op. cit., p. 130.

16 Ibid., p. 149.

17 Ibid., pp. 192-209.

18 Ibid., pp. 167-168.

TWELVE PAPER DOLL DRESSES n.d.

Pencil and ink on paper and colored paper with crepe paper, wallpaper, ribbon, felt, and yarn Approx. 4 x 2/ 1 2 "ea.

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he Telling Books of

ENTERTAINING / Gayleen Aiken (1934-2005)1 Barre, Vermont /19651ballpoint pen, crayon, and china marker on paper in spiral-bound notebook / 10 7/ 1 2 "(closed)

GAY

56 SPRING/SUMMER 2007 FOLK ART

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By Lyle Rexer

Like Funes the Memorious, the Borges character who could not forget anything, Gayleen Aiken seems not to have been able to live her life without recording everything.â&#x20AC;˘The books of Gayleen Aiken (19342005) display a mind asserting control of its experience by every means possible. They are sure to change dramatically the perception of an artist whose work most collectors deemed (and critics often dismissed as) ((charming." Mind you, there are enough people who will see in these books the same strengths that always marked Aiken's cartoonlike drawings and paintingsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the narrative drive, the compulsion to catalog the elements of her life that meant the most to her, and the vivid glimpses of her native rural Vermont. There is, too, the indomitable sense of color in all things. Indeed, people will see in these books, dating back to the early 1950s, the same artist with the same talent that would be displayed over the ensuing fifty years.

An books collection of Grass Roots Art and Community Effort (GRACE), Hardwick, Vermont SPRING/SUMMER 2007

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57

But the tendency has always been to look solely at these qualities and to minimize the power and complexity of Aiken's art by calling it sentimental, local, and—horror of horrors—sweet. With her large constellation of imaginary characters, known as the Raimbilli cousins, and the consistently upbeat memory texts that adorn most paintings (and the books), she has seemed the very archetype of the folk artist.

These books should help dispel that characterization by reaffirming it. And reaffirming it. And reaffirming it. In essence, Aiken compulsively replayed a repertoire of scenes throughout her career, and the books—more than three hundred of them—show her gathering and revisiting them again and again, in small scale, reprising pleasures that look simple and carefree on the surface but are, in fact, hard-won and tenaciously defended by fantasy. She called on a talent for rendering that was fully formed probably before she was 10. Her work is shot through with darkness and ritual, with transgression and a deep feeling for moments of transcendence. She was intensely aware of the potential for disaster that lurks in the landscape.

She had grown up in the midst of America's granite capital, Barre, Vermont, and the fires and accidents that plagued the industry were vivid realities for her, bound up with the fascinating and attractive power ofthe sheds and stone-cutting machines.

All this is in the paintings, of course, visually developed to a high level. Just as much takes place in the dark as in broad daylight. Her Green-Light Clock, a Westdox face, casts a glow over the porch where she and her imaginary alter ego, Gawleen Raimbilli, cavort in the dark (see Entertaining, pages 56-57). Out behind her house, as she imagined it, was a huge Wurlitzer organ that provided moonlit midnight accompaniment to the rituals of abandon.

What gives the books special intensity is their sense of this artist's continuous dialogue with herself, a ceaseless process of specifying and organizing the world into a story. Cartoonists—at least those who deal in comic art—are not like other artists. They traffic in a half-world of words and images, confined in a narrow space. Sometimes the word drives the image, and sometimes the images, indeed the entire story, seem to have sprung up visually and demanded a text. Additionally, the images are animated by the momentum of time, by the constant movement toward the next in a series.

This can proceed in many ways, and great cartoonists have evolved strategies or innovations to get from one panel to another, to keep their stories from getting stuck.

Her books show Aiken proceeding in a different way, or rather several different ways. With a few important exceptions, her "comics," as she called them, are more like assemblages or collages than comic narratives. The individual panels represent

58 SPRING/SUMMER 2007 FOLK ART

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bursts of discontinuous information: scenes, inventories, collections of objects, memories. In this sense, they resemble books of hours, devotional books to be consulted (in Aiken's case produced, recited) repeatedly, not for new knowledge but for cosmic repetition and reaffirmation.

The sheer volume of cataloging is dizzying.

In a stenographic notebook labeled 1959 (page 58), Aiken gathered a vast collection of anecdotes, memories, descriptions and transcriptions of letters, tiny illustrations, and even a Crayola color chart, all done in a hand so minute it is almost microscopic.

She listed the visitors to her house and what music they listened to, as well as whether the source was a Victrola or the radio. And with fantastic visual precision, she inventoried the houses she herself visited, detailing rooms and their contents.

For Borges's character Funes, absolute memory overwhelms him in a tide of triviality, flattening everything into meaninglessness. For Aiken, everything that happened to her seems to have been meaningful and, prima facie, worth recording. The most concentrated example is a notebook labeled Met(page 59,top), with the subtitle Newfriends we met,people dealed with. In it she provides thumbnail sketches of everyone she met between 1968 and 1975, along with an annotated checklist of questions she asked and things she did with them. In every case,she made sure to show her picture books and in some cases the Met book. She related to everyone solely in terms of the conditions of her world and showed little interest in people for their own sake. This went along with Aiken's ability to render objects, interiors, and landscapes with amazing specificity but people's faces only stereotypically.

They are either projections or props, either happy or sad,and nothing in between.

Based on comparisons to the work of other "outsider" artists, we would be safe in characterizing Gayleen Aiken's art as the product of a personality disorder. However, unlike, say, Adolf Wolfii's art, it proposes no delusional system and is fully aware of its own narratives. Yet this description hardly does justice to its relentless energy or to the vistas the books in particular open up. A compilation like Met, for example, casts a new light on many of the conceptual projects of the 1960s, work that would seem to be totally unrelated. I am thinking especially of Vito Acconci's Following Piece (1969), in which the artist followed people at random wherever they went until he was prevented by some physical barrier.

The political and social aspects of so many conceptual projects tended to obscure what Aiken's work foregrounds, that is, the monstrousness, not to say madness, of any act, no matter how innocent, when repeated endlessly or taken to an extreme degree.

Visually, the most impressive gift represented by these books is Aiken's ability to scale her art up or down at will. Comic artists usually cannot do this.

They may break the frame and reconfigure the page

SPRING/SUMMER 2007

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61

or spread but cannot work in a different frame of reference. The restrictions of size and format are the very thing that mobilizes their talent and grants them the freedom to transgress. Working from the tiniest images in her "telling books" to the larger scale of her pastels and paintings (which always contain small panels of cartoon information), Aiken knew how to reinforce effects of color and light and how to expand geometry. She could combine remembered and fantasized elements with equal dexterity and manage the transition from interior to exterior space no matter how big or small the setting, although she rarely painted a picture that measured more than four square feet. A small book from 1958 titled Telling Pictures:A Book That Talks for Its Self(right) is a masterpiece of miniature design, and most ofit was done in three colors.

The cataloglilce, accumulative nature of Aiken's work militates against the psychologizing interpretations so common in discussions of "outsider" art (and now all but vanished from mainstream art criticism). After all, it is the scope and persistence of the act of artmalcing that are so impressive, not its delusions or symbolic transformations. And yet, in these books, as nowhere else, we catch sharp glimpses of Aiken's inner world and the forces she grappled with.

Her mother is constantly referred to throughout the hundreds of pages of the books—the mother who took care of her, encouraged her, showed off her art, and protected her. But protected her from what?

There is another character who appears in several sequences in these early books named Queer Old Qparterhead. He is irascible, violent, foolish, and hates his little daughter. He mocks everything that Aiken herself cared for, including music, and he is depicted in ways that indicate he represented a father figure. Aiken's early experience, at least as she depicts it in books such as Some Fun land Mama Had Together (pages 60-61), revolved constantly around the poles of threat and nurture, danger and security, the familiar and the unknown. Often those poles are contained in the very same image, as in the case where she refers to the Green-Light Clock as "religious," one ofthe few times she uses the word.Pagan awe and good clean fun are all there on the porch.

Gayleen Aiken's feelings for these polarities were as intense as any in art, as vividly felt as in Vincent van Gogh's paintings, William Blake's poems, or Franz Schubert's songs. Her books are a ceaseless incantation to keep beloved things near and change at bay. In the little world of art she could explore darkness because it was so easy for her, with the stroke of a pen,to turn on the light.*

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Lyle Rexer is the author ofmany books and catalog essays on art andphotography, including several that concentrate on self-taught artists. He contributes regularly to the New York Times,Art in America, Art on Paper,and Aperture. He lives in Brooklyn.

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or almost twenty years, a spectacular art environment rose alongside a curve in the Fluvia River in northwestern Catalonia. Nestled among the medieval villages, this fantastic, sprawling construction, known locally as poblat salvatge (wild village), at once harmonized and collided with the well-worn stones, deep valleys, and verdant dormant volcanic cones of its surroundings.

Seven soaring towers, innumerable bridges, shelters, walkways, stairwells, and, above all, a labyrinthmore than a mile long comprised the most extensive incarnation of the labors of Josep Pujiula i Vila.

The entire intricate construction covered about two-and-a-half acres of land, and the towers soared to almost one hundred feet, jauntily capped by Catalan flags and banners. It had been the world's best jungle gym, the most unaffected open-air sanctuary, the most devilishly enjoyable mazeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the "Sagrada Familia of Art Brut," in a Madrid newspaper's appropriate aesthetic and conceptual reference to one of Spain's most recognizable architectural treasures,the Barcelona cathedral designed by Antoni Gaudi.1

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Early Work ducks would add to the charm. He magazine, significantly increasing his Josep Pujiula i Vila was born on soon realized, however, that the ducks audience.

A friend of Pujiula's soon offered May 31, 1937, in the village of would need to be protected from their Argelaguer, a tiny hamlet tucked into natural predators, so in the early 1970s him truckloads ofunneeded doors,winthe foothills of the Catalan Pyrenees he constructed a little building where dows, tables, and other wooden objects in Spain's northeastern corner. Leaving the ducks could eat and grow. from a building he had purchased. The school at age 13, Pujiula became a Pujiula scavenged wood from the wood and fixtures formed the basis for metal turner in local textile factories surrounding area and improvised the Pujiula's first building for humans on and married in his late 20s. Although little duck shed without sketches, this site. He rigged up away to level the working long hours and spending plans, models, or permits. Indeed, floor, utilizing two old electric-line posts time with his wife and, soon, a baby he had to keep everything well cam- as a base for support, and developed daughter would seem to provide suf- ouflaged so that the mayor did not the structure into a three-story house. ficient activity to fill a young man's become aware of these illegal "im- He built extemporaneously:"Millen days, Pujiula wanted to do something provements." After an accident with I began one thing, I never knew how it exciting, entertaining, and yet edify- one of the horses, he decided to give would end up. I always worked by iming, with the"maximum possible action up on them completely, to "dedicate provising with the amount and type of and in the fresh air."' Unlike creators himself only to the ducks, and to con- wood that I had." Pujiula added a deck of art environments who have con- struct a park." Immediately thereafter, and an area for outdoor cooking, and structed their monuments to retell local his efforts expanded exponentially; he his wife, daughter, and friends would histories, comment on social or po- began to work a couple of hours after come out on weekends for a swim and a litical issues, or glorify religious belief, leaving the factory each day and five barbecue. Not surprisingly,the owner of Pujiula had no initial intent other than hours on Saturdays. the land soon heard about what Pujiula to entertain himself and occupy his was doing and came to investigate, but free time. Builders of such environcontrary to Pujiula's fears, he encourments rarely conceptualize the entirety aged further construction efforts. With of their labors in advance, and Pujiula this nagging concern relieved, Pujiula was no exception. In fact, his earliest continued on: At its most expansive, projects were not even architectural or the environment consisted of twelve sculptural but a variety of imaginative, small buildings of locally gathered or retrofitted aquatic and all-terrain scavenged wood, roofed with heather vehicles. Specifically designed for selfbranches. amusement, conveyances such as his As more and more people learned amphibious Vespa were a natural outof and began to visit the park, and he growth ofhis machinist background,and saw their pleasure in his work, Pujiula were developed over a ten-year period. started constructing new amenities A chance discussion in which a specifically with the visitors in mind. friend offered Pujiula the right to ride He added a covered picnic area with his horses tempered but did not put tables and benches that could coman end to these activities; although fortably accommodate twelve people, Pujiula enclosed an arena in which balancing several hammocks above. to run and stable the horses, he also Groups of young people would come bought another motorbike for when with their guitars and linger for hours. he tired of horseback riding. Pujiula As Pujiula's construction grew, it Happy at the increasing numbers built a rancho for the horses at the edge became visible from the road, and peo- of visitors, Pujiula decided to install a of a small pond formed naturally by ple began stopping by to see what he donations box so that people who a spring known as Font de Can Sis was doing. He added a goat, pigeons, wanted to leave a few coins for the conRals, whose clear waters were caught chickens, geese, and quail, each species tinued maintenance ofthe ever-growing and held by the slow meandering of with its own safety enclosure. "I con- "attractions" could do so. Because he the shallow Fluvia River. Although tinued to construct more cabins," he scavenged most of the construction mathe property was owned by the family said, "now with one excuse, now with terials, his expenses were few, yet the of the mayor of Argelaguer, with their another." With the enclosed animals increasing numbers of animals and his home contiguous to the site, Pujiula and the pristine pond,the site began to continuous building required more decided to make a mud-and-stick dam achieve some degree of local renown. money than his small salary could proto create a nicer swimming area and to He added a little cabin assembled from vide. The extra funds enabled him to pipe some ofthe spring water out for a scavenged materials and then a hang- buy items that he otherwise would not natural shower. Ignoring any problems ing bridge across the duck pond be- have been able to afford, and were therethat might predictably arise from his tween the cabins on either side of the fore essential to the expansiveness of his trespassing, he mulled over potential water, with yet another small house on creations.' improvements to this beautiful area top of the bridge itself Publicity about Pujiula envisioned his first tower and decided that bringing in some his constructions appeared in a local as a spire from which he could

66 SPRING/SUMMER 2007 FOLK ART

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Pujiula in the process of constructing a tower, 2001

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observe the surrounding foothills of the Pyrenees, above the trees where he could enjoy the sun. He built this and two subsequent towers on top of existing trees, with no part of the towers touching the ground. High on top of the first tower he installed a truck wheel; people who managed to scale the heights would bang on it, ringing it as ifit were a bell.

Increasing Challenges Visitors' enjoyment of Pujiula's efforts motivated him to continue to build. Yet along with the increased attendance came associated problems.

By the mid-1980s, he began to find garbage left over from people's picnics, induding beer bottles and, more disturbingly, syringes and even human feces. His retreat became a draw for "undesirables" and vagrants who, without oversight or prohibition,freely indulged in extended orgies of sex, drugs, and alcohol. Pujiula estimated that over time, more than three hundred visitors spent the night in his installation without his permission.

He realized that he needed to be more vigilant about the visitors, and he soon found himself spending his time policing the area rather than enjoying himselfby expanding his constructions.

At times, Pujiula felt like he was being specifically targeted by all the "current tribes" oflowlifes:"those that don't give a damn, pill-poppers, thugs with sticks or razorblades, skinheads, hobos, and others." They stole money from his donations box and broke into visitors' cars; "good" people stopped coming to the park, wary of being robbed. Pujiula was depressed because instead of making a lovely park where people would have a good time, he had created the "perfect trap" where thieves could operate easily while visitors were viewing his constructions.

Furthermore,because the undesirables had ripped out many of the niceties there, the entire site became much less inviting.

One morning, ready to continue building with the full load of acacia branches that he had cut and brought up to the site the previous day, he saw that the wood had been used to start a bonfire, which had been further fueled by a bench he had constructed for visitors' use. Pujiula surprised four young

68 SPRING/SUMMER 2007 FOLK ART

men who had clearly spent the night at the site; startled, one pummeled Pujiula in the face before running off. Pujiula reported the incident to the Guardia Civil but was told that they could not help him because it had not happened on his property He decided to burn the structures down and then bury themâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the only way, he thought, to terminate the hooliganism once and for all. He began to do so on what he thought was the last"bum day" of the

Pujiula's problems continued. In the early 1990s, he received an official notice that his construction was dangerously close to the high-tension wires that stretched over the property and thus constituted a public danger that had to be removed. He thought he could head off these concerns by putting up a "private property" sign, and he removed a small piece of the house to lower it slightly, dismantled one tower, and made several other

Labyrinth with three-level ladder, 2000

Interior of labyrinth with movable trick door,2000

season, but he had miscalculated, and the police soon came and made him extinguish the fire. He told them his story, hoping to garner their help and sympathy, but again they told him that they could not help him. Pujiula began to feel as if no matter what happened, he would bear the difficulties and suffer the consequences, and that the true perpetrators of any misdeeds would escape scot-free.

minor modifications. Pujiula heard nothing else about the matter until a year later, when he received a letter telling him that he had eight days to level the three-story house,photograph the demolition, and submit the photos to the industrial delegation in Girona, the regional capital. Frustrated and disappointed, he swore that he would build no further improvements. He put up a sign to say good-bye to the many

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people who had helped and inspired him:"This park has broken me....I don't want people to come any more because something bad might happen to them. Thanks to the people who have visited and who have respected my work.Private property"

enthusiastic responses, and he delighted when people asked if they could enter, chuckling to himself that the real question was whether they would also be able to leave.

Only about one in twenty visitors could figure out how to reach the towers, and as he had predicted, The Labyrinth and Towers the undesirables were not inclined to Despite his vows, Pujiula found that exert enough energy to discover the he could not stop working at the access path. Pujiula had a secret way site: Eight days after demolishing of climbing to the top that circumthe house, he was back at work. He vented the labyrinth, enabling him decided to make a tunnel within the to easily reach the towers for further hedges to facilitate his passage to the construction. With the site more searea where he had hidden his self- cured by the obstacle of fabricated vehicles in the days when the labyrinth, Pujiula he was keeping his work there secret. returned once more to He gathered long, slim acacia and the heights, building the willow branches, bending them and fifth, sixth, and seventh linking them with wires. The hedge towers, again using the grew up over the entwined branches, oak trees as a base so covering the construction. Pujiula that none ofthe supports then realized that he could utilize that touched the ground. He technique to make it more difficult strung covered walkways for vagrants to reach the remaining between sixty-five and towers. He decided he would build a eighty feet in the air to labyrinth with a single entrance and provide access between a single exit that would serve to guard the highest points and access to the heights. ornamented the towers Pujiula rather feverishly began add- with found objects and ing more "tunnels," completely enclos- gifts. The structure rose ing the pathways with ovoid arches. high among the supportSome ten years after he had begun this ing trees, leafy with foliphase of the project, an average-size age during the summer, adult could pass upright through some and provided a fine view sections where footsteps had worn deep of the surrounding footruts into the earth, but most of the sec- hills ofthe Pyrenees. tions ofthe mile-long labyrinth required people to walk bent over, sometimes The Creative Process almost crouching. The labyrinth was Pujiula worked carefully, complex,with intertwined paths,yet the bringing each load of openness of the construction enabled raw materials up into the visitors to see contiguous pathways trees and then measuring and cutting as well as nearby bridges, stairs, and the wood with a bow saw, dropping the towers, now numbering four. The the scraps down to the ground to be convoluted and intricate nature of the gathered later. He filled his pockets construction, however, often prevented with nails that he used to join the people from figuring out how to reach branches together to shape the strucadjacent points. The cagelike warrens tures, adding further reinforcement twisted and turned back on themselves, by lacing the cross timbers together dead-ended, and forced people up and with wire. As he built, he regularly down ladders and through doorways. pulled and prodded the supports to It was easy to get disoriented and lost. test for strength, adding supplemenPujiula indulged his puckish sense of tary horizontal and vertical timbers as humor by placing chairs at some of the needed. He knew that his construction dead ends, with signs telling visitors was solid, he said, because he had seen that if they couldn't get out, at least fifty people at a time in the heights, they could rest. He found that the and the work remained sturdy and labyrinth generated visitors' most stable.' Unlike at the factory, where

70

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everything was controlled and planned out in advance, Pujiula's work at the Font de Can Sis Rals was completely improvised. He worked forcefully and intuitively, moving from one area to another as ideas struck him, resulting in a somewhat erratic stream-ofconsciousness creation that could be appreciated best as a whole despite the interest and intrigue of small nooks and crannies and the impressive details oftechnical construction.

After retiring from his job in 1999, at age 62, Pujiula came to the park every morning, working five or six

Lower sections of labyrinth, 2000

hours before breaking for lunch and siesta. If the weather was mild, he often returned in the late afternoon, gathering wood from down near the river and loading it into his car, repairing, renovating, or cleaning into the shadows of the early evening.As he walked through the various parts of the structure, he was constantly checking them,picking up stray leaves or bits of garbage and noting what needed repairing or replacing."My work is never done," he commented, but he never acted as if these ongoing labors burdened him.

Like any working artist, Pujiula was less concerned with his past creations than with the work lying just ahead.

Western view of towers after removal of turret at far left, 2002

Despite the various setbacks and official rebukes, visitors from all over the world remained entranced by his efforts and provided continual encouragement through direct comments as well as notes left in his donations box, many written in languages Pujiula did not understand. He occasionally would stand to the side, surreptitiously listening in on visitors' opinions of his work as a means ofgetting"a more authentic reaction," and he was usually pleased with what he heard.' His intense curiosity to understand the effect of his constructions on anonymous viewers nourished his muse and was essential to his continued creation.

Pujiula never thought of himself as particularly special: "I am a normal man like any other, in that in my free time I do what I feel like doing," he said."Well, okay, I am a little peculiar.

To work for twenty years on land that isn't mine, very few people would do that.. ..I do this as a hobby. I didn't start doing this for people to visit. But when people started to come it made me excited to see how they enjoyed it.... Everyone that is here is in their own house."'

Ironically, the local government officially disavowed any knowledge of the structure, a situation made particularly curious because the mayor owned the land and lived so dose to the site.

Following the lead of many other small Catalan villages, Argelaguer published a small tourist brochure describing its local attractions; it omitted any mention of the art environment described as one of the "largest spontaneous works of art in the world."'Pujiula was

annoyed and frustrated that his work was respected and appreciated by tourists from afar but not by locals.

Additional trouble lay ahead. The Font de Can Sis Rals site, situated on a bend in a major thoroughfare, was under review by the road authorities, the electric company(due to the hightension wires overhead), and the forest authorities,who were interested in protecting the spring and the surrounding environment. Rumors flew that the highway would soon be rerouted to reduce the dangers of a semiblind curve (dangers that were increased by drivers craning to see Pujiula's construction); the plans would take the road directly through the park.

Demolition of the Masterpiece It is unlikely that, left alone, Pujiula would have ever "finished" with his work on the site. Yet on June 18, 2002,he began the process ofdismantling the entire construction as a result of a meeting held the week before with representatives ofthe Generalitat of Catalonia and the mayor of Argelaguer.The mayor and his family were concerned about public safety and liability issues. Furthermore, the department of public works had indeed determined that the highway needed to be rerouted and widened to eliminate the dangerous curve; its new route would cut across Pujiula's environment, thus necessitating its demolition.

At the meeting officially confirming the directive to dismantle the monument, some discussion occurred about the possibility of preservation.

However, the complex and apparently insurmountable liability issues, exacerbated by the varied ownership, proprietary, and access claims on the property made preservation seem unattainable. In addition, Pujiula could not visualize his work without public participation and interactionâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;he did not want a fence around the construction that allowed people to view it solely from afar.

With an almost visceral understanding that it would ultimately be impossible to win the battle to preserve his work, Pujiula took up the simple tools he used for creation and turned them to destruction. Building the work had been an adventure, he said; so, too, was taking it down. From mid-June through October 2002, Pujiula worked every day. He started with only his handsaw, wire clippers, and hammer but soon sped up the process with a pickax and chain saw, dismantling "gracefully," hoping that at least some portion would be saved.

As he cut, Pujiula tossed the large parts of the installation over the side to the ravine below. From there, he dragged them by hand up to street level. The first week of the demolition, legions of visitors came each day to the site. As he cut down more sections, he encircled the remaining structure with a new fence built from the dismantled pieces. However, even this fence did not prevent visitors from entering and climbing onto what remained of the structure. Predictably, they picked up discarded pieces and took them as souvenirs; people wanted a tangible memento ofits existence.

To save the site, an ad hoc organization, Amics de les Cabanes (Friends of the Cabins), was formed, with a website that advertised the demolition and requested international support for opposition to the removal of Pujiula's work. Letters opposing the destruction were received from interested parties from all over the world, then forwarded to the authorities in Girona as well as to the village mayor. This international outcry had little effect: On November 5, 2002, Pujiula lit a fire and watched as it consumed what was left of this monumental and spectacular art environment.

SPRING/SUMMER 2007 FOLK ART

71

orms of

Jo Farb Herndndez is the director and curator ofthe Natalie andJames the site where the art environment had Thompson Art Gallery, School of been, Pujiula still goes down to the Art and Design, at San Jose State he relationship that artists have with their culture is often spring every morning, and below the University, California, andprincipalof the first among the many determinants oftheir aesthetic road he has built a small tower for visi- Curatorial and Museum Management creations. In most cases, the "sense of place" that infuses tors to climb after taking a quick swim. Services. Also, she has recently become an artist's work may be decipherable on a variety oflevels, Along with refining and enhancing this director ofthe national organization whether the work "mirrors" certain aspects ofthat culture tower and surrounding passageways, he SPACES:Saving &Preserving Arts or,in contrast, is evident primarily in its challenge to them.The is also working on a more private cre- & CulturalEnvironments, based in relative levels ofabsorption or disregard are different in each indiation, a place that contains his memenvidual,whether one studies artists typically defined as part ofthe tos and will someday hold his ashes. international contemporary mainstream,those more immersed in a It remains to be seen whether this Editor's Note traditional society, or those somewhat outside ofeither. site will be sufficiently accessible to This essay was adapted from Jo Forms ofTradition in Contemporary Spain, by Jo Farb Hernandez the public to enable Pujiula to en- Farb Hernandez, Forms of Tradition (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi and San Jose State gage in the playful yet earnest aes- in Contemporary Spain (Jackson: University,2005),a groundbreaking study of artists working today thetic dialogue with his viewers that University Press of Mississippi and in Spain,examines these varying relationships by exploring the had become crucial to his work. With San Jose State University, 2005). All myriad influences upon the work offour artists. Significantly differphenomenal intensity of effort and rights reserved.The book is the winner ent approaches to the creation oftheir art is revealed,as is the use of purpose as well as an admirable tenac- of the 2006 Chicago Folklore Prize. and/or investment in it by community members.By including both ity that allowed him to keep working For more information, go to www. visual arts and performance events, a broader vision can be engaged despite the repeated need to disman- upress.state.ms.us. beyond that which is bounded by media or genre categories; by tle or demolish components of his studying groups of artists as well as individuals, shared qualities as work, Pujiula created a special place Notes well as idiosyncratic personal discourse can be evoked. of his own that he eagerly shared with 1 Enric Casasses,"Bulliment del Pais,"El In addition to Josep Pujilua i Vila,the book profiles a potter, Mundo(May 5,2001). others. He reveled in the fact that by 2 The author conducted Evelio Lopez Cruz;sculptors David Ventura and Neus Hosta; and a series ofinterperformance troupe Les Gargoles de Foc. views with Pujiula during the sumEpilogue Now, with a straight new road through

mers of2000,2001,2002,and 2004.

All otherwise unattributed quotations by the artist are the author's translations from interviews in Spanish or from Josep Pujiula i Vila, L'Home dc/es Cabanes(Argelaguer, Spain: self-published,2001),which was written in Catalan.

3 Pujiula i Vila, op. cit., p.56.

Additional items purchased with the donations included two burros,two goats, more than a hundred ducks, n at least fifteen sacks of oats for the burros,two carts, and a tractor.

Encouraged by public response to the informal tours he spontaneously Pujiula dismantling the last of the environment with a offered to visitors, and to document bonfire, November 5, 2002 his construction activities in the event offuture demolition,Pujiula inviting visitors into his space, they published this account of his experiences at became part of itâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;as viewers, inspi- the park with the help of the group Lluna ration, and cocreators. Given that Plena (Full Moon).The small paperback is Pujiula's masterpiece at the Font de replete with anecdotes about his adventures Can Sis Rals resulted at least partially and some ofthe events and efforts that from his being energized and inspired marked his time at the park.In the book, by public visitation and response to Pujiula makes it clear that the most imporhis work, it is ironic that the same tant aspect of this project, at least in later public visitation was used as an ex- years, was his relationship with his visitors. cuse to destroy it. Further irony lies 4 R.Ponsati,"Josep Pujiula i Vila: I2Home in the fact that during the same year de les Cabanes," L'Argelaga 7(May 2000): 10. in which Spain celebrated the ses- 5 Iolanda Batalle Prats,"ElTaman quicentennial of the birth of Antoni d'Argelaguer," Diari de Girona Dominica/ Gaudi, the work of another Catalan (April 22,2001). architectural innovator was demol- 6 Ibid. ished in the name of progress.* 7 Casasses,op. cit.

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SPRING/SUMMER 2007

FOLK ART

Evelio Lopez Cruz working on a coiled vessel, La Mancha, Spain, 2004

Tradition in Ontemporary Spain zoi-q• ivid Ventilra with one is qeganjs at theye.s9v:,:i,,I, ajor,

JO FARR HERNANDEZ

Evelio Lopez Cruz,who learned his craft from his mother, makes unglazed earthenware vessels in an area in La Mancha where ceramics have been made for more than a thousand years, primarily by women. Bucking historically stringent socio-sexual mores to be able to follow his family's tradition, he has little interest in innovation in any aspect of his technology or production. Lopez Cruz digs

his clay by hand,builds his vessels on a pre-Christian-style wheel that does not use centrifugal force for turning, produces only styles of ware that have been locally customary, and fires his kiln with wood. Grounded in the creation of modest objects inspired by and responsive to the needs ofdaily life as they have been manifested for generations, he is proactively and unswervingly dedicated to preserving the time-honored aspects of his ancestral lifestyle and artistic production.

David Ventura and Neus Hosta are cartroners, or sculptors in press-molded paper, who construct monumental gegants(figures) and capgrossos(heads) for use in public festivals and processions.They learned their craft through oral transmission and self-teaching, and they produce traditional images that respond to community standards within the framework ofrituals and festivals as well as innovative aesthetic variants that nevertheless remain linked to Catalan tradition. Function is important to the artists—the heads and figures must be light enough to be worn and danced in the streets—but they are also able to be inventive and concentrate fully on aesthetic and expressive value. Folktales, legends, and myths vie with images from contemporary culture or local events to enliven performance events with their expressive and eloquent creations.

Participants dancing with devils from Les Ggrgoles de Foc, Festa Major, Banyoles, Spain 2003

Les Gargoles de Foe,a group of masked folk street-theater performers, lead correfics, night processions whose now widely known forms retain relics ofpre-Christian cults as well as later medieval elements sanctioned by the Catholic Church as it incorporated them into its own ritual framework.

These "devils," dressed in homemade costumes and masks,waving wands with elaborate pyrotechnics and accompanied by a fire-spitting "dragon" float, simulate the misrule ofsatanic disorder, pitting Evil against Good as they fleetingly capture and reign over Catalan villages. Les Gargoles at once continue a tradition and creatively adapt it with innovative theatrical elements and technological advances.The flow ofthe procession is primal and visceral; the elements combine to create an immense—albeit fluid—work ofart that can be neither completed nor consummated without community involvement.

DVDs of each of the featured artists have been produced. For information, contact Jo Farb Hernandez at Natali( and James Thompson Art Gallery, School of Art and Design, San Jose State University, San Jose, CA 95192-0089; 408/924-4328; or jfh@cruzio.com.

John Harvey

Anne Bourassa www.homeportfolio.corn www.annebourassa.com e-mail: abourassa@prexar.com (207) 872-5236 (215) 842-2168

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NAME... and inspire others to do the same. Join the FOLK ART CIRCLE and see your name in the museum and in Folk Art. With a gift of $2,500 to $25,000, you can sponsor the display of an object, or underwrite an exhibition or publication.

To join the museum's quickly expanding circle of friends or for other named-giving opportunities, please contact Christine Corcoran, manager of individual giving, at 212. 977. 7170, ext. 328, or ccorcoran@folkartmuseum.org.

AMERICAN

0 MUSEUM

LIEBESBRIEF (detail) / Christian Strenge / East Petersburg, Pennsylvania / c. 1790 / watercolor and ink on cut paper / American Folk Art Museum, gift of Ralph Esmerian, 2005.8.37 / photo by Schecter Lee

76 SPRING/SUMMER 2007 FOLK ART

Pafit-C-ad. THE „AI/A/HISTORIC DEERFIELD ANTIQUES SHOW SATURDAY, OCTOBER 6TH,11AM-6PM SUNDAY, OCTOBER 7TH,11AM-5PM DEERFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS FROM THE SOUTH: TAKE 1-91 NORTH TO EXIT 24N. GQ,6,MILES NORTH ON ROUTES 5 & 10 AND FOLLOW THE SIGNS TO THE SHOW. FROM THE NORTH: TAKE 1-91 SOUTH TO EXIT 26. TaE ROUTE 2A E‘sri 10 ROUTES 5 & SOUTH. Go 3.5 MIL% SOUTI-IN 5 & 10 AND .I4OLLOWIHE SRAS ‘S. TNEHE SH4e.

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For more information call: 413.775.7214 • www.adadealers.com

QUILT

CONNECTION

BY ELIZABETH V. WARREN AND SHARON L. EISENSTAT

atriotic themes have been common in American quilts since the early years ofthe nation. Quiltmakers have expressed their nationalistic pride through the use ofspecific motifs such as eagles,flags, and shields, as well as various combinations ofthe stars and stripes, and by incorporating printed commemorative fabrics into their bedcovers.

A political campaign was the most likely inspiration ofthe Grover Cleveland Quilt. The portrait of Cleveland in the center ofthis quilt may have been taken from a flag banner that was used in his 1884 presidential campaign.

p

has not been foundation pieced, The same portrait, however,was and it has not been constructed part ofa red pocket handkerchief or bandanna,one ofthe symbols of in blocks, or "cabins." Instead, many small squares, sometimes Cleveland's 1888 reelection camcalled "postage stamps," have been paign. Cleveland's running mate, arranged to create the "light" and Allen G.Thurman,had a habit of "dark" sections. A number ofvery using a red bandanna after taking similar quilts in the same Barn a pinch ofsnuff.The Democratic Raising set have been identified, Party campaign managers made including one with a souvenir the most ofthis picturesque prachandkerchief of the 1876 Philatice, publishing a campaign bookdelphia Centennial in the center let titled Our Bandanna and using and one featuring portraits of "Wave High the Red Bandanna" George Washington and Benjamin as their campaign song.

Harrison. A quilt with a slightly This bedcover has been pieced different arrangement of pieced in a light-and-dark pattern that triangles includes a commemoraresembles the "Barn Raising" set tive handkerchief with pictures of ofsome Log Cabin quilts. Unlike James A.Garfield and Chester A. the Log Cabin quilts, however,it

Arthur, Republican candidates in 1880,in the center.* Elizabeth V Warren is consulting curator ofthe American Folk Art Museum. Sharon L. Eisenstat is an author and has served as cocurator of several exhibitions at the American Folk Art Museum.

Adapted from Elizabeth V. Warren and Sharon L. Eisenstat, Glorious American Quilts: The Quilt Collection of the Museum of American Folk Art(New York: Penguin Studio in association with the Museum of American Folk Art, 1996).

Quilt and Textile Exhibitions COMPILED BY ELEANOR BERMAN Pasadena, Calif.

Pasadena Museum of History African American Quilts from the Robert and Helen Cargo Collection May 12—Aug.5,2007 626/577-1660 www.pasadenahistory.org

Golden,Colo.

Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum Ellen Anne Eddy:Thread Magic May 1—July 28,2007 303/277-0377 www.rmqm.org

Sacramento, Calif.

California Museum for History, Women &the Arts Treasures from a Trunk: California Pioneers'Quilts and Textiles Through May 2007 916/653-7524 www.californiamuseum.org

Wilmington,Del. Winterthur Museum Quilts in the Material World:Selections from the Collection Through Sept. 16,2007 302/888-3883 www.winterthimorg

San Jose, Calif.

San Jose Museum of Quilts &Textiles American Tapestry Biennial6 ThroughJuly 8,2007 408/971-0323 www.sjquiltmuseum.org

78

SPRING/SUMMER 2007

Washington,D.C. The Textile Museum Red ThroughJuly 8,2007 Architectural Textiles:Tent Bands ofCentral Asia Through Aug. 19,2007 202/667-0441 www.textilemuseum.org

FOLK ART

New Albany,Ind. Carnegie Center for Art & History Journeys and Memories:Art Quilts by Marti Plager May 25—July 14,2007 Yearning to Be Free:Penny Sisto's Immigrant Series Art Quilts July 20—Sept. 8,2007 812/944-7336 vvww.carnegiecenterorg Paducah,Ky. Museum ofthe American %niters Society 4 Guys&Their Quilts May 16—Aug. 12,2007 270/442-8856 www.quiltmuseum.org Baltimore, Md. The Walters Art Museum Gee's Bend:The Architecture ofthe Quilt June 15—Aug.26,2007 410/547-9000 www.thewalters.org

Lowell, Mass.

New England Quilt Museum Uncovered in New Hampshire June 14—Aug. 19,2007 Expressions ofBeauty, Objects ofUtility Aug.23—Nov. 11,2007 978/452-4207 www.nequiltmuseum.org

Shelburne, Vt. Shelburne Museum Recently Acquired Amish Quilts and Something Pertaining to God:The Patchwork Art ofRosie Lee Tompkins May 20—Oct.28,2007 802/985-3346 www.shelburnemuseum.org

Tillamook, Ore. Latimer Quilt &Textile Center Valerie Kitchen:Silk Sails May 15—July 15,2007 503/842-8622 wvvw.latimerquiltandtextilekom

Harrisonburg, Va. Virginia Quilt Museum Jamestown Challenge Quilts: Come Home to Virginia Through May 28,2007 Homespun Quilts and Cloth June 2—Oct.1,2007 540/433-3818 www.vaquilimuseum.org

Doylestown,Pa. James A. Michener Art Museum Wild by Design:200Years of Innovation and Artistry in American Quilts Through June 3,2007 215/340-9800 www.michenermuseum.org

Eleanor Berman is a volunteer at the American Folk Art Museum.

GROVER CLEVELAND GUILT Artist unidentified New York State 1884-1890 Cotton 85/ 1 2x 851 / 2 " American Folk Art Museum, gift of Made in America-Margy Dyer, 1982.17.1 SPRING/SUMMER 2007

FOLK ART

79

A Da

KENTUCKY'S ORIGINAL FOLK ART SHOW

11/7

-

Morehead, Kentucky

June 2,2007 9 a.m.- 4 p.m.

Flock to folk art.

Founded by Minnie Adkins in the 1980s, A Day in the Country is the region's premier folk art event. Visitors will have the opportunity to purchase works directly from 60 of America's finest folk artists . The fair is now held indoors at the new Morehead Conference Center, located across the street from KFAC.

Km.41,,W Kentucky Folk Art Center • 102 W.First Street • Morehead,KY 40351

Held in conjunction with Bluegrass 'n More: A Celebration of American Music

606.783.2204

KFAC is a cultural, educational and economic development service of Morehead State University.

www.kyfolkart.org

PRIVATE EVENTS AT THE AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM Host a private event in the museum's award winning building at 45 West 53rd Street in midtown Manhattan.

Cocktail receptions for up to 250 guests Seated dinners for up to 100 guests Auditorium with full range of audio/visual technology for meetings and conferences AMERICAN

MUSEUM

For more information and to arrange a site visit, please contact Katie Hush, special events manager, at 212. 977. 7170, ext. 308, or khush@folkartmuseum.org.

80 SPRING/SUMMER 2007

FOLK ART

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BOOK

S

OF

INTEREST

BY EVELYN R. GURNEY

he following titles are available at the American Folk Art Museum's Book and Gift Shop at 45 West 53rd Street, New York City To order, please call 212/265-1040. Museum members receive a 10 percent discount.

T

Mingering Mike: The Amazing Career of an Imaginary Soul Superstar Dori Hadar, Neil Strauss, and Jane Livingston, Princeton Architectural Press, 2007,192 pages, $24.95 Digging through crates of records at a Washington, D.C., flea market one day, Dori Hadar stumbled into the elaborate world of Mingering Mike—a soul superstar of the 1960s and '70s who released an astonishing 50 albums and at least as many singles in just 10 years. But Hadar had never heard of him, and on closer inspection he realized why: Every album in the crates was made of cardboard and came complete with gatefold interiors, extensive liner notes, and grooves drawn onto the "vinyl."

A criminal investigator by day and a DJ by night, Hadar put his detective skills to work and tracked down the man responsible for this alternate universe of funk. Mingering Mike soon revealed to him the story of his life and his many "record releases." In his early teenage years, he had lost himself in the world of his own imaginary superstardom, basing songs on his and his family's experiences. Later, these themes gave way to the larger issues of the day; it was, after all, the turbulent era of civil rights protests and political upheaval. In Mingering Mike, the artist's best LPs and 45s are presented in full color, finally bringing him the adoring audience he always imagined he had.

—Mareike Grover African American Vernacular Photography: Selections from the Daniel Cowin Collection, Brian Wallis

••

and Deborah Willis,International Center ofPhotography/Steidl, 2005,120 pages,$25

82 SPRING/SUMMER 2007

FOLK ART

American Anthem: Masterworks from the American Folk Art Museum, Stacy C.

Hollander, Brooke Davis Anderson,and Gerard C. Wertkin, American Folk Art Museum/Harry N.Abrams,2001, 432 pages,$65

American Radiance: The Ralph Esmerian Gift to the American Folk Art Museum,

Darger: The Henry Darger Collection at the American Folk Art Museum,

Stacy C. Hollander, American Folk Art Museum/Harry N.Abrams,2001, 572 pages, $75

Brooke Davis Anderson, American Folk Art Museum/ Harry N.Abrams,2001, 128 pages,$29.95

Art Brut: The Origins of Outsider Art

Designs on the Heart The Homemade Art of Grandma Moses,

(revised edition), Lucienne Peiry and James Frank, Flammarion,2006, 320 pages,$24.95

Karal Ann Marling, Harvard University Press,2006,290 pages,$35 Donald Mitchell: Right Here, Right Now, Cheryl

Blackstock's Collections: The Drawings of an Artistic Savant, Gregory L.

Rivers, ed., Creative Growth Arts Center, 2005,92 pages,$24.95

Blackstocic,Princeton Architectural Press, 2006,144 pages, $19.95

Forms of Tradition in Contemporary Spain,

Clementine Hunter: The African House Murals, Art

Jo Farb Hernandez, University Press of Mississippi,2005, 256 pages,$35

Shiver and Tom Whitehead,eds., Association for the Preservation of Historic Natchitoches,2005,75 pages, $29.95

From Shaker Lands and Shaker Hands: A Survey of the Industries,

The Colorful Apocalypse: Journeys in Outsider Art,

M.Stephen Miller, University Press of New England,2007,176 pages, $29.95

Greg Bottoms, University of Chicago Press,2007, 200 pages,$20

Home-Made: Contemporary Russian Folk Artifacts,

Create and Be Recognized: Photography on the Edge,John

Turner and Deborah Klochko, Chronicle Books,2004, 156 pages, $40

Vladimir Arlchipov, Fuel Publishing,2006, 304 pages,$32 How to Look at Outsider Art, Lyle

Rexer, Harry N. Abrams,2005, 176 pages,$22.95

Ell

BOOKS

OF

INTEREST

In Flagrante Collecto (Caught in the Act of Collecting), Marilynn tifit Gelfman Karp, Harry N.Abrams,2006, 368 pages,$60

Martin Ramirez, Brooke Davis Anderson, Marquand Books/American Folk Art Museum,2007, 192 pages,$55

.

Ty T YU James Castle/ ti NIUE Walker Evans: Word:EEE N E A play, Signs and ILNEJE DE DE Symbols,Stephen LitigillYi Wastfall, Knoedler &â&#x20AC;˘ de 23101 Company,2006, 60 pages,$20

Miracles of the Spirit: Folk, Art, and Stories of Wisconsin, Don Krug and Ann Parker, University Press of Mississippi,2005, 336 pages,$65

Just Above the Water: Florida Folk Art, Kristin G. Congdon and Tina Bucuvalas,University Press of Mississippi, 2006,368 pages,$65

Monika's Story: A Personal History of the Musgrave Kinley Outsider Collection, Monika Kinley, Musgrave Kinley Outsider Trust, 2005,240 pages,$32

Just How I Picture It in My Mind: Contemporary African American Quilts from the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts,Joey Brackner and Mark M.Johnson, Montgomery Museum ofFine Arts/River City Publishing,2006, 109 pages,$29.95

The Perfect Game: America Looks at Baseball, Elizabeth V Warren,American Folk Art Museum/ Harry N.Abrams,2003, 150 pages,$29.95

Pr"

LaPorte, Indiana, Jason Bitner, Princeton Architectural Press, 2006,192 pages, $19.95 The Life and Art of Jimmy Lee Sudduth, Susan Mitchell Crawley, Montgomery Museum ofFine Arts in association with River City Publishing,2005,96 pages, $29.95

ii

A Place in Time: The Shakers at Sabbathday Lake, Maine, Stephen Guion Williams and Gerard C.Wertkin, David R. Godine,2006, 96 pages, $18.95 The Potter's Eye: Art and Tradition in North Carolina, Mark Hewitt and Nancy Sweezy, University of North Carolina Press,2005, 336 pages,$39.95

.Y.FECT

Quilts in a Material World: Selections from the Winterthur Collection, Linda Eaton,Winterthur Museum/Harry N.Abrams,2007, 208 pages, $40

DARGER Sound and Fury: The Art of Henry Darger, Edward M. Gomez,Andrew Edlin Gallery,2006,74 pages, $50

Real Photo Postcards: Unbelievable Images from the Collection of Harvey Tulcensky, Laetitia Wolff, ed., Princeton Architectural Press, 2005,192 pages,$19.95

Thornton Dial in the 21st Century, Paul Arnett et al., Tinwood Books/ Museum of Fine Arts, Houston,2005,324 pages, $65

Sacred and Profane: Voice and Vision in Southern Self-Taught Art, Carol Crown and Charles Russell, eds., University Press of Mississippi, 2007,312 pages, $50

Threading the Generations: A Mississippi Family's Quilt Legacy, Mary Elizabeth Johnson et al., University Press of Mississippi,2005, 119 pages,$28

The Shipcarvers' Art: Figureheads and Cigar-Store Indians in Nineteenth-Century America, Ralph Sessions, Princeton University Press, 2005,240 pages,$75 Silk Stocking Mats: Hooked Rugs of the Grenfell Mission, Paula Laverty, McGill Queen's University Press, 2005, 192 pages,$44.95 On/

Snapshot Chronicles: Inventing the American Photo Album, Barbara Levine, Princeton Architectural Press, 2006, 200 pages, $40

Tools of Her Ministry: The Art of Sister Gertrude Morgan, William A. Fagaly, American Folk Art Museum/Rizzoli,2004, 120 pages, $35 Windsor-Chair Making in America: From Craft Shop to Consumer, Nancy Goyne Evans, University Press of New England 2006,508 pages, $65 Wos Up Man? Selections from the Joseph D. and Janet M. Shein Collection of Self-Taught Art,Joyce Henri Robinson,Penn State University Press,2005,139 pages, $34.95

SPRING/SUMMER 2007

FOLK ART

83

MUSEUM

FOLK ART COLLECTION

REPRODUCTIONS

PROGRAM

Representing more than 300years of American design,from the late 1600s to thepresent, the American Folk Art Museum Collectionn"brings within reach ofthepublic the very best ofthepast to be enjoyedforgenerations to come.

* Galison Bring a peaceable kingdom home!

Galison has created a series of products showcasing the museum masterpiece Peaceable Kingdom,

by Edward Hicks.The boxed set of12 note cards will delight any recipient, and the note pad is a perfect accessory for an art lover.

You can also create your own version of the painting by assembling the 500-piece jigsaw puzzle.

Peaceable Kingdom puzzle, note pad, and note cards by Galison

* Fotofolio Ramirez to keep or share! To coincide with the museum's C exhibition "Martin Ramirez," Fotofolio produced a new line ofboxed note cards featuring five Ramirez drawings. Each set contains 20 cards and 20 envelopes, housed in a decorative case.

Dear Customer Your purchase of museumlicensed products inspired by objects in the museum's collection directly benefits the exhibition and educational activities ofthe museum.Thank you for participating in the museum's continuing efforts to celebrate the style, craft, and tradition of American folk art. If you have any questions or comments regarding the museum reproductions program, please call 212/977-7170.

Family of Licensees

Martin Ramirez note cards by Fotofolio

Andover Fabrics(800/223-5678) printed fabric by the yard and prepackaged fabric craft kits. Bespoke Books (212/228-2772) needlepoint pattern book. Chronicle Books(800/722-6657) note cards.* Fotofolio (212/226-0923) art postcard books and boxed note cards.* FUNQuilts(708/445-1817) limited-edition quilt collection.* Galison (212/354-8840) portfolio and boxed note cards.* Impact Photographics (916/939-9333) Magic Cubes.* Liberty Umbrella(212/244-6067) umbrellas, rain totes, and rain hats. MANI-G 'Raps(800/510-7277) decorative gift wrap and coordinating accessories.* Mary Myers Studio (757/481-1760) wooden nutcrackers, tree ornaments,and table toppers.* Museum Store Products (800/966-7040) magnets.* Sunham Home Fashions(212/695-1218) quilts, comforters, duvets, and sheet sets.

Takashimaya Company,Ltd.(212/3500550) home furnishings and decorative accessories (available only in Japan).

Waterford Wedgwood USA(800/2235678) holiday decor.* *Available in the American Folk Art Museum Book and Gift Shop. Members receive a 10 percent discount on all shop items. Visit the museum's website and online store at www.folkartmuseum.org.

84 SPRING/SUMMER 2007 FOLK ART

THE HOOK ED RUG

INTERIOR BY LEAH LENNEY

Stephen T Anderson offers the finest heirloom-quality hand-hooked rugs made in America today. Since 1985 Stephen has taken hand-hooked rug making â&#x20AC;&#x201D; one of America's only indigenous folk arts â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and moved it into the forefront of modern design.

Clients are offered the highest level of customization.

Each rug is designed for the individual buyer. Patterns may be chosen from Stephen's extensive repertoire of designs or clients may create their own unique rug design.

Each rug is prepared from wool fabrics hand-hooked into a linen base in Stephen's NYC studio. Offering the advantages of custom sizing, from the quite small to the renowned

"mansion size," each rug possesses the nuances of coloration and textural subtleties usually found only in antiques.

Self-taught as a restorer of hooked rugs, Stephen gained his first critical acclaim in 1983, when his expert craftsmanship garnered him the title of "the most respected hooked rug restorer in New York" by The New York Times.

Leading designers, architects and collectors from around the world have commissioned Stephen's work. In addition to being featured in some of the worlds finest homes, his work has appeared in the pages of Architectural Digest, House Beautiful, House and Garden, Thum and Country, Forbes FYI, The New York Times and on CNN.

CERTIFICATE PROGRAM IN AMERICAN FOLK ART STUDIES THE AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM'S certificate program offers a concentrated study of American folk art and related subjects to help students become specialized in the field without having to meet the extended requirements of a standard degree program.

Each series of courses is designed to provide a deep understanding of subject matter and issues surrounding an aesthetic approach to the field. Definitions, connoisseurship, and historical contexts are considered through

REQUIRED COURSES American Folk Painting I & II American Folk Pottery I & II American Folk Sculpture I & II American Folk Textiles I & II Collectors and Collecting: Public and Private I & II Religious Folk Art I & II Twentieth Century and Beyond I & II

lectures, discussions, examination of artwork on view in the galleries, and field trips. Since courses taken toward this certificate are not applicable to any degrees, they are considered non-credit. To receive a certificate in American Folk Art Studies, a total of 140 hours must be completed: 100 hours in required coursework and an additional 40 hours in special topics.

Each class meets five times for two hours for a total of ten hours.

ELECTIVE SPECIAL-TOPICS COURSES The Artist The Exhibition Folk Art Traditions in Eastern Pennsylvania The Painted Surface Quilts

CLASSES BEGIN FALL 2007 For more information or a Folk Art Studies brochure, please contact the Education Department at 212. 265.1040, ext.105, or education@folkartmuseum.org.

AMERICAN

American Folk Art Museum 45 West 53rd Street New York City

0 MUSEUM

212. 265.1040 www.folkartmuseum.org

MUSEUM

NEWS

BY CARA ZIMMERMAN

THE AMERICAN ANTIQUES SHOW 2007 he museum's much-anticipated annual American Antiques Show(TAAS),held at the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York in January,once again lured patrons and impressed critics. Phenomenal artworks,displayed by 45 dealers, contributed to the most successful run in the show's six-year history.

Roberta Smith,ofthe New York Times, summed up the show:"Art fairs can put some fairly magnificent obsessions on display, where they function like traps. Step into a booth,and an unfamiliar area of visual culture suddenly exerts an irresistible force,changing your life.

Few art fairs do this as seductively as the American Antiques Show" Hundreds of museum friends, including Martha Stewart, Ken Burns, Harvey Fierstein, and Bette Midler, helped kick offthe four-day show at the festive and exciting Gala Benefit Preview.

Sumptuous food was provided by Canard,Inc.The embroideries, quilts, paintings,furniture, decoys, and weathervanes on display throughout TAAS embodied the finest examples of American art and decorative objects.

In conjunction with the show, the museum organized a number ofeducational programs: a walking tour with Stacy C. Hollander, the museum's senior curator; a Folk Art Explorers day trip to view private collections in the city; an event for young collectors focusing on how to build and showcase a collection, sponsored

by Country Home; and appraisals by experts Helaine Fendelman, David Gallager, and Jane Willis.

Two special receptions were held in conjunction with TAAS: Laura and Mark Goldman hosted a cocktail party for platinumlevel ticket buyers to view their impressive collection oftrade

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88 SPRING/SUMMER 2007 FOLK ART

figures in their downtown loft, and Elizabeth and Irwin Warren hosted a cocktail party for TAAS regional chairs and members of the museum's National Council at their home,where guests enjoyed viewing their beautiful collection ofearly American folk art.

TAAS 2007 was organized by cochairs Barry D.Briskin and Joan Johnson; executive chairs Edie and Barry Briskin, Lucy and Mike Danziger,Joan Johnson, and Laura and Richard Parsons; show manager Karen DiSaia; and executive director Caroline Kerrigan Lerch.

From left: trustee Barry Briskk,

Catherine Brawe'?'

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Jeffrey Pressman anprustee Joan M. Johnson

From left: Dinah Lefkowitz, Ronald Bourgeault, and trustee Kristina Johnson

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Susen and Jerry Lauren

bara Wilkerson, trustee John Wilkerson, and Arthur Hoffman

R. Scudder Smith (left) and Vic

From left: Haydee Caroline Kerrigan Lerch, and Zelia Lerch

Phyllis Kossoff and Jan Willem van Bergen Henegouwen

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAMES KOCH

From left: Nina Zagat, director Maria Ann ConeIli, ancilT

Chairman emeritus Ralph Nrifierian and Bonnie Se

Trustee Joyce B. Cowin (left) and Jane Lattes

From left: trustee Selig Sacks, a

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Sarah Savage and trus, Ninty Blanchard

Edgar.. Cullman and Louiskullman

Marilyp,Friedman (left) and Pe

'Robson and 'Sick Button

Richard Parsons and Edie Briskin

MUSEUM

NEWS

RAMiREZ RECEPTIONS ore than 450 members and friends gathered at the museum for the opening ofthe widely celebrated exhibition "Martin Ramirez" at a lively reception in January.The evening's food and entertainment were inspired by Ramirez's Mexican heritage. Guests enjoyed jalapefio cornbread,sangria, and tortilla chips with tomatillo salsa while listening to the music of a meandering band,consisting of guitar, violin, and vocals,from Veracruz, Mexico.Throughout the event, Brooke Davis Anderson,director and curator ofthe museum's Contemporary Center and curator ofthe exhibition, was on hand to discuss the 97 Ramirez works on view.

Special guests included lenders to the exhibition and lead sponsor JPMorgan Chase representatives Crystal Diaz,Monica Mack, Barbara Paddock,and Janet Rodriguez.In addition, the museum trustees and staff were honored to have many of Ramirez's descendants, representing three generations ofthe family,in attendance.The 12 family membersâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; grandchildren Maria de Jesus Reyes Ramirez,Maria de la Luz Ramirez Salinas, Maria Elsa Ramirez Salinas and her husband, Zotico Gil, and Maria Rosa Ramirez Salinas;great-grandchildren Socorro Alonso,Josefina Alonso de Levy,Elba B. Alonso de Ortega, Martha Bell, Ella Diaz, and Maria Martinez; and great-great-grandchild Cynthia Levyâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;flew to New York from California and Mexico for the show's opening,to see the work, and to reconnect with the patriarch they never knew.

An exclusive,intimate reception for patron members to view the exhibition was held in March,

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90 SPRING/SUMMER 2007 FOLK ART

and guests were treated to a tour ofthe installation with curator Brooke Davis Anderson.

To thank patron members for providing the support that is so vital to the museum's daily operations,the museum offers curatorled exhibition tours, private home collection visits, and other enhanced membership benefits. For more information about patron membership and sponsorship opportunities, please contact Christine Corcoran, manager of individual giving, at 212/9777170,ext. 328,or ccorcoran@ folkartmuseum.org.

Margaret Andera (left) and Brooke Davis Anderson

Members of Martin Ramirez's family

Trustee Joyce B. Cowin an Sheldon Lubar

Monica Mack (left) and Crystal Diaz

PHOTOGRAPHY BY MATT FLYNN

RAMiREZ EXHIBITION PRESS COVERAGE rom the day the "Martin Ramirez"retrospective opened,the museum has enjoyed soaring attendance and phenomenal coverage in the media. Within its first week on view,the show was reviewed by The New Yorker and the New York Times, as well as several Spanish-language periodicals.

Substantial coverage also appeared on television, websites, and blogs.

Critics raved about the artist's work and the museum's installation:"Martin Ramirez ...is my favorite outsider artist. Come to that, he's one of my favorite artists, period" (Peter Schjeldahl, The New Yorker) and "[The] exhibition ...should render null and void the insider-outsider distinction. Ramirez... is simply one ofthe greatest artists ofthe 20th century" (Roberta Smith,New York Times). Smith also hailed the exhibition as"[w]ell selected and beautifully installed." A sampling ofthe reviews is posted on the museum's website (www.folkartmuseum.org).

F From left: Audrey Heckler, Barbara Paddock, and director Maria ArtiConelli

Trustee Laura Parsons .

ge Johnson (left) and Ann-Marie Reilly

Marian Friedmann (left) and Rosemary Gabriel

Trustee emeritus Samuel Farber

Robert Grover(left) a

Ken Schne

t1rOM left Arlene and obert Kreisler and Shirley Lindenbaum

Dan Carlson (left) and David Mitchum

MARTiN RAMiREZ ALIERICAN FOLK ART h.L1,1- 0,, .1+1811-0,1 TRROuGli

Exhibition lamppost banner

Victor M. Espinosa

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MUSEUM

NEWS

OUTSIDER ART WEEK utsider Art Week,the museum's annual weeklong series ofevents designed to coincide with the Outsider Art Fair in January, began this year with the festive opening ofthe exhibition "Martin Ramirez."

Educational programs included a sold-out premiere ofPurvis of Overtown, a documentary about Miami artist Purvis Young,which was followed by remarks from William Arnett; the annual Anne Hill Blanchard Symposium, Uncommon Artists XV;and a panel discussion on vernacular photography.

Presenters at Uncommon Artists, organized by Lee Kogan, included Victor M.Espinosa,who shared his research into the life of Martin Ramirez; Nina Katschnig, who introduced new developments at the Art/Brut Center in Maria Gugging,Austria;John Oilman,who discussed the masterful collage works of Felipe Jesus Consalvos; and Adrian Swain,who offered insights into the work of Charley, Noah,and Hazel Kinney.The vernacular photography panel featured John Foster and Frank Maresca,who spoke about their personal collections, and Brian Wallis, who highlighted the Daniel Cowin Collection of African American photography in the collection ofthe International Center of Photography,New York.

Other festivities included a sumptuous dinner for collectors hosted by Robert Lerch and Elizabeth Tapper in their magnificent home,and a Folk Art Explorers day trip to three private collections ofcontemporary works.

The highlight ofthe week was the 15th annual Outsider Art Fair at the Puck Building,

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which provides a place for artists, scholars, collectors, and dealers from all over the world to reunite, look at art, and discuss the field.

The opening-night preview, a benefit for the museum,featured honorary chairs Harry Smith, of CBS News's The Early Show, and Andrea Joyce,a reporter for NBC sports, and offered guests a chance to peruse the 33 dealer booths before the fair opened to the public. Larry T.Clemons donated 60 limited-edition Purvis Young prints as a benefit for high-level ticket buyers.The delicious food at the event was catered by Great Performances.

Following the preview,the museum hosted an after party in the VIP room at nearby BLVD nightdub, courtesy ofowner Ed Brady.

Southern Wines&Spirits provided wine and cocktails for guests, and Scratch Academy donated a DJ for the night,allowing for a fabulous time on the dance floor.

The museum also maintained a Fair booth,which featured a fine selection ofbooks for sale. Artist Gregory Blackstock was on hand one afternoon to sign copies of his book,BlackstocEs Collections. A sampling ofthe artworks that were auctioned in February by Slotin Folk Art Auction to benefit the museum were also on display(see opposite).

Director Maria Ann Conelll and Sanford L. Smith

Geoffrey Holder and Brooke Davis Anderson

From left: Folk Art staff Mareike Grover, Tanya H

h, Cara Zimmerman,

. .

.

92 SPRING/SUMMER 2007

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY MATT FLYNN

I Trustee %. ' tfb Frances S. MaOinson

leanor Garlow

Evelyn Gurney (left) and Sandy Yun in the museum's Outsider Art Fair booth

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left: Paige and Todd Johnson and nie Smithers

L. rustee J Wilkerson and Des Wilson

Trustee Taryn Leavitt and t

k 'eavitt

Pamela Gabourie (left) and trustee Didi Barrett

From left: Karen Light-Pi単a, artist Gregory lackstock, and Dorothy Frisch at the booksigning From left: vernacular photography panelists John Foster and Brian Wallis with Lee Kogan and trustee Joyce B. Cowin

From left: Lee Kogan with Uncommon Artists panelists Victor NI. Espinos , Nina Katschnig, John Oilman, and Adrian Swain

BENEFIT AUCTION benefit auction for the museum,containing more than 40 donated works,was held by Slotin Folk Art this February.

Proceeds from the auction support museum exhibitions and educational programs.

The museum is grateful to trustee Selig Sacks and trustee emeritus Sam Farber, who spearheaded the auction; to Steve and Amy Slotin for their generosity in running the benefit auction and for donating 100% of the proceeds, as well as their buyer's premium for each item,to the museum; and to all of the bidders who helped make the auction a huge success.

The museum thanks the following individuals and galleries for their generosity in donating artworks: Andrew Edlin Gallery, Russell Bowman Art Advisory,and the estate of Charles Steffen; Aame Anton; Didi and David Barrett; Edward V. Blanchard Jr.;Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz; Daniel Aubry Gallery; Sam and Betsey Farber; Galerie Bonheur; Bonnie Grossman!

The Ames Gallery; Carl Hammer; Marion Harris; Audrey Heckler;Thomas Isenberg;James Castle Collection;Tim Keny; Phyllis Kind;Taryn and Mark Leavitt; Luise Ross Gallery; Maxwell Projects; Ricco/Maresca Gallery; Margaret Z.Robson; Selig and Angela Sacks;Jennifer Pinto Safian; Sandra Sheehy and Cavin-Morris Gallery; and Stephanie Smither.

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THE GALLERY AT HAI 548 Broadway • New York, NY 1001 (212) 575-7696 • www.hospaud.org

Forbes & Turner Antiques Shows Saturday, July 14 • Dorset, VT

The Dorset Antiques Show 140 outstanding dealers exhibiting on the marble sidewalks and tree-shaded lawns in this charming historic town where Vermont's Independence was first declared.

The Dorset Library Association, Sponsor

Tues.-Thurs., Aug. 7-9 • Manchester, NH

The 15th Riverside Antiques Show During Antiques Week in New Hampshire One of the cornerstones of this important summer antiques event, featuring quality exhibitors from the Eastern, Mid-Atlantic and Midwestern States Executive Court Banquet Center, next to the Best Western Executive Inn 13500 South Willow Street

Sat. & Sun., Oct. 20 & 21 • Hartford, CT

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CT Expo Center 265 Rev. Moody Overpass Inquiries: Linda Turner 207-767-3967 LindaTgmainear.com • www.forbesandturner.com

MARTIN RAMiREZ rissimmummo Published by Marquand Books, Inc., Seattle, in association with the American Folk Art Museum, 2007, 192 pages, 137 full-color illustrations, 6 black-and-white illustrations, hardcover, $55

AMERICAN

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223

By Brooke Davis Anderson, with essays by Victor M. Espinosa and Kristin E. Espinosa, Daniel Baumann, and Victor Zamudio-Taylor, a foreword by Maria Ann Conelli, and an introduction by Robert Starr

' matt oir

Published in conjunction with the exhibition MARTIN RANItREZ presented January 23 to May 13, 2007, at the American Folk Art Museum, New York, June 9 to September 9, 2007, at the Mexican Heritage Plaza and San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, California, and October 6, 2007, to January 6, 2008, at the Milwaukee Art Museum, Wisconsin

• 111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111

[MUSEUM

AVAILABLE EXCLUSIVELY AT THE AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM SHOP OR THROUGH THE PUBLISHER WWW.MARQUANDBOOKS.COM/ RAMIREZ

94 SPRING/SUMMER 2007

MARTIN RAMiREZ

FOLK ART

1/11.1111111-

MUSEUM

NEWS

CONTINUING EDUCATION FOR MUSEUM DOCENTS

The museum's docents at Gracie Mansion

ast fall, the museum's docents participated in an exchange with Gracie Mansion as part of their continuing professional development program. Docents from Gracie Mansion,which has served as a home for several New York mayors,visited the American Folk Art Museum for guided tours of"Folk Art Revealed" and "A DeafArtist in Early America:The Worlds ofJohn Brewster Jr.," and the museum's docents were treated to guided tours of the historic house,where they explored the history of New York through the architecture and decorative arts on display.

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Over the past year, the museum's docents have enjoyed curatorial tours, a session on giving guided tours with signlanguage interpreters, and a workshop on teaching artmaking projects to school groups.

For more information on the museum's docent program, please contact Sara Lasser, manager of school and docent programs, at 212/265-1040,ext. 119, or slasser@folkartmuseum.org.

To learn about other volunteer opportunities, please contact Jane Lanes,director ofvolunteer services, at 212/977-7170,ext. 330, or jlattes@folkartmuseum.org.

FOLK ART EXPLORERS DAY TRIPS art displayed in a pristine, he day before the museum's minimalist environment.The day sculpture symposium last ended with a visit to the historic November, museum patrons Craftsman Farms,the former enjoyed visits to two exemplary home of noted turn-of-theprivate home collections of century designer Gustav Stickley. sculptural objects in rural New Two other outstanding Folk Jersey.The first was at a home Art Explorers day trips to view ofoutstanding contemporary private collections were offered architecture, whose owners led this January,in conjunction with an informal tour through their the museum's American Antiques remarkable collection ofJonathan Show(TAAS)and Outsider Art Howard weathervanes, painted Week. For more information furniture, carousel animals, and about Folk Art Explorers and works by Bill Traylor. At the other patron-member privileges, second breathtaking modern contact Christine Corcoran, home,which has been featured in manager ofindividual giving, Architectural Digest, the museum's at 212/977-7170,ext. 328,or host guided the group through a ccorcoran@folkartmuseum.org. major collection ofcontemporary

Uniorgettable events start from the ground up.

The art of homegrown produce, from our own organic farm, with remarkable flavors and unique presentation.

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GREAT PERFORMANCES CELEBRATE

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greatperformances.com 212.727.2424

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FOLK ART

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MUSEUM

NEWS

HAVE YOU

REMEMBERED THE AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM

IN YOUR WILL?

CHILDREN AND FOLK ART ast December,children enrolled in programming at Nelson Avenue Family Residence, which provides transitional housing for families in the Bronx, concluded Children and Folk Art, a seven-week course at the museum. A collaboration among the museum, New York Cares, and the residence, the multisession program brought children age 6 to 13 to the museum to learn about folk art and create original works of art in response to objects they

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Join the CLARION SOCIETY. Through a bequest, you can provide enduring support for the American Folk Art Museum. To make an unrestricted bequest to the museum, the following language is suggested:

encountered in the galleries.

During each session, students explored themes such as narrative and portraiture. Children and Folk Art was funded in part by New York Cares, which also organized a group of dedicated volunteers who helped facilitate the program.

For more information on collaborative educational programs, please contact Sara Lasser, manager of school and docent programs, at 212/265-1040, ext. 119, or slasser@folkartmuseum.org.

A young artist at work following a tour of the museum galleries

I give dollars/ percentage or all of the residue of my estate to the American Folk Art Museum, 45 West 53rd Street, New York, NY 10019, for its general purposes.

The bequest may be funded with cash, bonds, marketable securities, or property. The museum is a not-for-profit tax-exempt 501 (c)(3) entity.

The museum's CLARION SOCIETY recognizes individuals who have remembered the museum in their wills and through other planned gifts. For more information or to make a specific bequest, please contact Christine Corcoran, manager of individual giving, at 212. 977. 7170, ext. 328, or ccorcoran@folkartmuseum.org.

AMERICAN

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DONORS TO THE COLLECTION he museum is grateful to the following friends who have donated objects to the permanent collection: Charlotte Adelman and Bernard L. Schwartz; Marilee Asher; Riva Castleman; Peter Cecere; Lucy and Mike Danziger; Jackie Elder; Kathy Slaughter Fleshman; Lewis and Jean Greenblatt; Andrew Guarino; Susan and Jerry Lauren; Frances Martinson; Wendy Morris; Susan

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and Leonard Nimoy; Mr. and Mrs. Robert C. Nolan; Laura and Richard Parsons; Margaret Parsons; Margaret Robson; Heather and Sherwin A. Rodin; Michael Roland; Sean Roland; Tim Roland; Lois and Richard Rosenthal; Helen Slaughter; Edward Thorp and Susan Brundage; Richard Trump; Susan Wendel; and Thea Westreich and Ethan Wagner.

MUSEUM

CORRECTION ELEPHANT WEATHERVANE (detail)/ artist unidentified / probably Bridgeport, Connecticut / late nineteenth century / paint on pine with iron /19 1/2 x 481/4 x 1" / American Folk Art Museum, gift of Ralph Esmerian, 2005.8.55 / photo 0 2000 John Bigelow Taylor, New York

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In the Quilt Connection column in the winter issue (vol. 32, no. 1), two quilts were misidentified. Ocean Waves Variation Quilt is illustrated on page 82, and Nine Patch Crib Quilt is shown on page 83 (right).

MUSEUM

NEWS

IN MEMORIAM: JEREMY BANTA he folk art community recently mourned the loss of one ofits champions,Jeremy Banta,who died on Oct. 31, 2006.The entire museum family was moved by the news that the longtime museum patron and advocate left a generous bequest to the museum. Banta's gift will help to ensure the continued excellence ofthe exhibitions and programs that have been created with his support.

A keen businessman and avid collector, he was first exposed to American folk art when decorating his family's chain ofrestaurants. His decor discernment quickly grew into connoisseurship, particularly ofstoneware pottery.

Banta built one ofthe country's biggest private collections largely from pieces he discovered at the museum's American Antiques

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Show and other events.In the words of dealers and museum patrons Mary Benisek and Don Walters,"There are some collections that have value only because ofthe objects that are in them,and there are others that have a valueadded feature because ofthe character ofthe person who formed them." Banta was an early member ofthe museum's Jean Lipman Fellows; in 1986,he donated the Sarah Morre11411bum Quilt(1843) to the museum's collection.

The museum's Clarion Society recognizes individuals who have remembered the museum in their wills and through other planned gifts.To join the Clarion Society, or to make a specific bequest, please contact Christine Corcoran, manager ofindividual giving, at 212/977-7170,ext. 328,or ccorcoran@folkartmuseum.org.

GEE'S BEND STAMP DEDICATION n Nov. 16,2006,the United States Postal Service (USPS)dedicated a set of stamps in the American Treasure Stamp Series featuring images of dynamic quilts by the celebrated women of Gee's Bend,Ala. The event, held in the Strivers Gardens Gallery in Harlem, was a joyous testimony to the contribution these quiltmakers have made to American art and culture. Following an invocation

by Reverend Eboni K. Marshall ofthe Abyssinian Baptist Church and a gospel selection by the group Refining Faith,the stamps were unveiled by Vinnie Malloy, the postmaster/district manager of the USPS's New York district.

Three quilters from Gee's Bend—Mary Lee Bendolph, Loretta Pettway, and Louisiana

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Pettway Bendolph—came to add their voices to the morning's appreciation.The museum was pleased to participate in the heartfelt program. Senior curator Stacy C.Hollander offered remarks tracing the history of American quiltmaking and placing the Gee's Bend quilts within this larger context,and Lee Kogan, curator ofpublic programs and special exhibitions, was also in attendance. Other participants were Monica Hand of USPS public affairs and Michelle Bishop of Harlem Girls Quilting Circle.

An exhibition of quilts by members of the Quilting Circle provided a vibrant backdrop for the event, and the morning closed fittingly with a moving rendition of"Lift Every Voice"

by Refining Faith.

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Monday,August 6 Early Buying: 9am - I lam, S25 General Admission: I I am - 4pm,$8 (re-entry with hand stamp) Start your week with a great antique! Now the first show of Antiques Week in NH, this fast-paced, one day show offers 111 fresh dealers in Country and formal furniture, folk art, garden and more. Fully air-conditioned, outdoor barbecue, on-site shipper and free parking.

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Russell Carrell's Original

Antiques In A Cow Pasture Sunday, September 9 Early-buying, 9am - 11 am, $15 General admission, 1 lam - 5pm, $7 Come rain or shine to join over 65 dealers and relive a tradition start d almost half a century o by the at the highly respecte _ Mr. Russell Carrell. Loca Road Homestead at 92 Cana Carrell original (Rte 44)Salisbury. CT. FRANK GAM"MANAGER

Show Details:(845) 876-0616 www.barnstar.com

SPRING/SUMMER 2007 FOLK ART 97

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RIES

BY LEE KOGAN

ROSIE LEE TOMPKINS (1936-2006) cclaimed African American quiltmaker Effie Mae Howard,who worked under the pseudonym Rosie Lee Tompkins,died of natural causes at her home in Richmond,Calif, on Dec. 1,2006.Tompkins's graphic patchwork quilts earned great praise from New York Times art critic Roberta Smith:"Unerring and intuitive in their sense ofcolor,shape,and scale, Ms. Tompkins's quilts are formidably joyful visual events that ignore the usual boundaries between cultures, histories, and mediums."

Tompkins was born in southeastern Arkansas,one of15 children. When she was a child, she picked cotton to supplement the family income.In 1958,she settled in the Bay Area of northern California and worked as a

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BEVERLY KAYE 15 LORRAINE DRIVE WOODBRIDGE, CT

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practical nurse in area convalescent homes. Married and divorced twice,she raised five children and stepchildren.

Having learned the craft from her mother,Tompkins began to quilt consistently in the late 1970s; in the years that followed,she created hundreds ofpatchwork quilts.

She was deeply religious, believing that she was God's instrument and that her hand was guided by a higher power.In addition to cotton,she used cut-up feed sacks, wool,silk, velvet, rayon, polyester, and fake fur.

Tompkins's quilts are in the permanent collections ofthe Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and the Oaldand Museum of California. Her work will be on view at the Shelburne Museum in Vermont from May 20 to Oct.28 (see page 20).

such as Johann Hauser, Oswald Tschirtner, and August Walla, are in the Collection de l'Art Brut in ustrian psychiatrist and Lausanne, Switzerland. author Dr. Leo Navratil Navratil died of a stroke on Sept. 18, also en2006,in Vienna. He championed couraged the examination and appreciation patients to ofthe art ofthe mentally ill from create poetry the point ofview oftheir personal and helped artistic expression rather than them get it their particular disorders. published.

Navratil founded the House His pioneerof Gugging Artists(now part of ing research is presented in his Art/Brut Center) at the psychinumerous books, most notably atric hospital in Maria Gugging, Schizophrenie und Kunst just outside Vienna,in 1981.The (Schizophrenia and Art, 1965) opening ofthe House as a place and Zwischen Wahn und Wirklichkeit: where talented artists could live Kunst, Psychose, Kreativitat and work was the culmination of (Between Madness and Reality: Navratil's vision of many years.

Art,Psychosis, Creativity, coauWorks by 15 Gugging artists, thored with Alfred Bader,1976).

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98 SPRING/SUMMER 2007 FOLK ART

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OBITUARIES

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Berenberg Gallery

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Clarendon Street Boston, MA 02116

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MOSE TOLLIVER (C. 1920-2006) rolific painter Mose Ernest Tolliver died of pneumonia in Montgomery,Ala.,on Oct. 30,2006.Tolliver was the last surviving artist among 20 featured in the seminal 1982 exhibition "Black Folk Art in America, 1930-1980" at the Corcoran Gallery ofArt,Washington,D.C. Tolliver was born in the Pike Road community southeast of Montgomery to tenant farmers; at age 16,he moved to Montgomery with his mother.In the early 1940s, he married Willie Mae Thomas; after his wedding, he served in the army for six months. Over the next 25 years, to support his wife and children, Tolliver worked intermittently for the Carlton McClendon family, mostly in the shipping and delivery department ofMcClendon's Furniture Company.In the late 1960s,a crate of marble fell from a forklift onto Tolliver, injuring his legs. After a period ofdepression following the disabling accident, and encouraged by Raymond McClendon,manager ofthe company and an amateur painter himself; he began to paint.

"I paint to keep my head together,"Tolliver said in an interview in the late 1980s. He created as many as ten pictures a day,offigures, animals, birds, and flowers, using house paint on any available surfaceâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;cardboard, Masonite,even a discarded television picture tube.In some of his best works, he produced myriad magical hues that danced around the surface by applying a spare palette ofjust two or three colors wet on wet.

Early in his painting career, Tolliver hung his lyrical paintings, each with imaginative titles,

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on trees or lines or placed them around the front porch of his home. Neighbors were the first to buy his paintings. A sociable person,Tolliver greeted a steady stream ofvisitors over many years, and,over time, he became one of the most sought-after self-taught artists ofthe South. He completed thousands ofworks; many were created in a workshop tradition, with members ofhis family.

Tolliver's spirited and personal paintings communicate a wide range ofemotions from terror to outrageous humor. Although he was not a civil rights activist, he honored the movement with his popular series depicting empty buses,recalling Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycott.

Tolliver's work is in the museum's permanent collection and other public collections throughout the country. He is survived by nine children,twentyfive grandchildren, and ten greatgrandchildren.

Wood-Fired Folk Pottcry Specialists

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100 SPRING/SUMMER 2007

FOLK ART

EVA LAZOREK FASANELLA (1920-2006) va Lazorek Fasanella, the wife of social activist artist Ralph Fasanella(19141997), died on Nov.21,2006,in White Plains, N.Y., after a long illness.

Born in Hanover,Pa., Eva Fasanella attended Brooklyn College and taught in the Yonkers, N.Y.,school system for 30 years.

In the early 1940s,she met Ralph Fasanella at a camp run by the Trade Union League.They were married in 1950 and had two children, whom they raised in Ardsley, N.Y. Fasanella had an excellent understanding of her husband's artistic motivations and was instrumental in all aspects of his career. According to Ralph Fasanella's biographer Paul S.

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EDITH CROFT WISE (1907-2006) dith Croft Wise,who served as the museum's librarian from 1982 to 1992,died on May 19,2006,in Bethlehem,Pa., of natural causes.

Wise held a master's degree in library science from Rutgers University. Over the course of her long life, she worked at the Library of Congress,Washington, D.C.; the United Nations, New Yorlc; New York University; and the New York Port Authority.

At the museum,Wise worked closely with director emeritus Gerard C.Wertkin to expand the Shirley K Schlafer Library.The collection was cataloged using the

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D'Ambrosio,she provided "incalculable contributions in acting as her husband's business manager, advisor, and social advocate."

The Fasanellas made important gifts to the museum,among them Subway Riders, which is on display in Manhattan's 53rd Street subway station. In addition, Eva Fasanella gave the museum's Shirley K Schlafer Library her husband's archives, which include personal papers, videos, slides, and transparencies.

Fasanella is survived by two children, Gina Mostrando and Marc Fasanella, and five grandchildren.

Library ofCongress dassification system,and the library expanded from one thousand to ten thousand volumes.

Wise provided research and bibliographic assistance to staff, students, visiting scholars, and collectors, and she advocated the adoption ofnew technologies to ensure the library's continued success.

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riless otherwise specified, all programs are held at the American Folk Art Museum,45 West 53rd Street, New York City. Programs are open to the public. Admission fees vary; program tickets include museum admission. For more information, please call the education department at 212/265-1040, ext. 105,view the museum's website at www.follcartmuseum.org, or pick up the museum's public programs flyer. To purchase tickets, call 212/265-1040,ext. 160.

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756 N. Milwaukee Avenue Chicago, Illinois 60622 T 312.243.9088 www.art.org

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Mr & Mrs. Harold Healy Symbolically Sketched/ First Prize, First Anniversary, (detail) 1936, Ink on Rag Paper, 36 x 25 ,n.

Courtesy of The Ames Gallery, Image copyright of The Ames Gallery

Uniuersity Press af Mississippi

SACRED AND PROFANE

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Edited by Carol Crown and Charles Russell A sustained critical assessment of southern folk art and self-taught art and artists; includes 32 color and 60 black-and-white illustrations $50 hardback

COMING HOME! Self-Taught Artists, the Bible, and the American South

Edited by Carol Crown Foreword by Lee Kogan A fascinating examination of the Bible's influence on seventy-three self-taught artists and 122 works of art; includes 142 color illustrations $65 hardback,$30 paperback

unuw.upress.state.ms.us â&#x20AC;˘ 800-737-77118

102 SPRING/SUMMER 2007

PROGRAMS

FOLK ART

TALK AND PREVIEW TOUR SATURDAY, JUNE 2 FREE WITH MUSEUM ADMISSION

wool fabric, yarns, roving, velvets, fleece, and felt. All materials will be provided by the instructor.

Please bring sharp fabric scissors.

CONTEMPORARY HOOKED RUGS: THEMES AND MEMORIES NOON SPEAKER: LINDA RAE COUGHLIN

WALK-IN WEDNESDAYS WEDNESDAYS AT 1:30 PM $10; FREE TO MEMBERS, SENIORS, STUDENTS

Many noted fiber artists have completed thematic series of hooked rugs. Coughlin will introduce her new book, Contemporary Hooked Rugs: Themes and Memories(2007), and hold a discussion with several artists featured in the book.

COLLECTING HOOKED RUGS MAY 23 SPEAKER: KRISTINA JOHNSON

THE GREAT COVER-UP: AMERICAN RUGS ON BEDS, TABLES, AND FLOORS 2:15 PM SPEAKER: EXHIBITION CURATOR LEE KOGAN WORKSHOP BEAT THE HEAT BY RUG HOOKING WEDNESDAYS, JUNE 13, 20, AND 27, AND JULY 11 10 AM-NOON WORKSHOP:$50 MATERIALS FEE: $20 INSTRUCTOR: MARILYN BOTTJ ER

Create a three-dimensional, 5"square box using traditional rug hooking, proddy hooking, creative hooking stitches, and penny-rug embellishments with hand-dyed

Johnson's extensive rug collection, frequently cited in rug-hooking books, is but one important area of her collecting interests.

A CENTURY OF MAINE RUG HOOKING JUNE 6 SPEAKER: MILDRED COLE PELADEAU

Peladeau will share some of her research on the fascinating history of Maine rug hooking.

CAN THIS RUG BE SAVED? JUNE 20 SPEAKER: TRACY JAMAR

Jamar will discuss common conservation problems that occcur with hooked rugs.

GAVIN ASHWORTH

THE PARDEE COLLECTION

"M.M." HOOKED RUG / Artist unidentified / United States / c.1885 / Wool on burlap /40 x 60"/ American Folk Art Museum, promised gift of Elizabeth, Irwin, and Mark Warren, P2.1998.1

TAKE A BREAK FOR FOLK ART INFORMAL LUNCHTIME TALKS WITH MUSEUM CURATORS TUESDAYS AT NOON FREE WITH MUSEUM ADMISSION INVESTIGATING THE GREAT COVER-UP" JUNE 26, JULY 17, AUG.14 SPEAKER: LEE KOGAN CONSIDERING "FOLK ART REVEALED" MAY 8 SPEAKER: STACY C. HOLLANDER JUNE 5 SPEAKER: BROOKE DAVIS ANDERSON FAMILY ART WORKSHOPS SUNDAYS,2-4 PM $10 PER FAMILY; $5 PER MEMBER FAMILY (INCLUDES MUSEUM ADMISSION) GO FISH JUNE 10 BUGS & BUTTERFLIES JULY 8 FAR AWAY AUG.5

CAMP PROGRAMS Summer campers will explore the museum's exhibitions through hands-on projects with themes based on objects on view in the museum: Animals Are Everywhere, Forming the Figure, and The Great Cover-up.Interactive tours and workshops for camp groups are offered in July and August and are appropriate for children ages 5 and up. Programs begin at 10:45 AM,Tuesdayâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; Friday. For more details or to make a reservation, please call 212/265-1040,ext. 381,or e-mail grouptours@folkartmuseum.org.

Major supportfor education is provided by the Leir Charitable Foundations in memory ofHenryj &Erna D.Leir, the William Randolph Hearst Foundations, and the Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Fund.

Thefollowing programs are made possible through the generous support ofmuseum donors:Free Friday Nights byJerry and Susan Lauren;Family Art Workshops by Mrs. Ralph Meerwarth and Tracy Meerwarth;and Afternoon Programs by Su-Ellyn Stern.

Additionalfundingfor education is provided by Ray Simon in honor ofLinda Simon, Time Warner, Citigroup, Consolidated Edison Company, the New York City Department ofCulturalAffairs, and the New York State Council on the Arts.

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CONTEMPORARY ART FROM AFRICA AND THE AFRICAN DIASPORA

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Welcoming the mother-in-law by Joe Cartoon 1 8X30 5, acrylic on canvas

SPRING/SUMMER 2007 FOLK ART 103

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AUGUST 4,2007 MANCHESTER)NEW HAMPSHIRE

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Stack of 11 paint decorated and graduated pantry boxes, all with original surface. Largest is 15" diameter; smallest 5" diameter. 49" tall.

Cut paper and pastel portrait mounted on black paper.

Attributed to Ruth Henshaw Bascom,(1772-1848) Circa 1830.

12 3/4" x 17 3/4" sight, 16 1/4" x 211/2" framed.

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