A classic reference to the rise in popularity of folk artists in America, this book presents 258 photos of early folk art pieces, including decoys, whirligigs and carvings, and tells the history of the folk art movement from the early 20th century and the founding of the Museum of American Folk Art in New York. Anecdote is blended with history as pioneer collector Earnest shares her experiences and folk art treasures with readers.
Forms from African and American popular arts, photojournalism, advertising, voodoo and the landscape reflect oral traditions of black culture: rural legends, popular history, Biblical stories, revivalism. No index. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
"Richly illustrated with over 260 color plates, Folk Art in American Life presents a broad sampling of the wealth and variety of American folk art from the late seventeenth century through the late twentieth century. Its scope includes objects from many diverse subject areas - from paintings to household furnishings of many kinds, to textiles, to sculpture, to environments."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Fans of Charles Wysocki, Mary Engelbreit, Grandma Moses, and folk art in general will fall in love with this guide to painting, organized by seasons. Featuring projects that instruct artists of all skill levels how to draw and paint subjects that include quaint homes, pretty patterns, colorful gardens, picturesque farms, beautiful birds, and textured florals, this book features American-themed folk art infused with a modern twist. Beginning with an overview of what folk art is, followed by introductory topics like color, tools and materials, and drawing and painting techniques, Folk Art Fusion: Americana also includes sixteen simple step-by-step projects done in approachable and popular mediums. Rounding out the book is a gallery of folk-art pieces sure to inspire lovers of all things Americana. Simultaneously fresh and nostalgic, Folk Art Fusion: Americana draws on America’s rich artistic tradition and heritage and provides a fun, accessible take on creating beloved scenes from the heartland.
This book presents watercolor renderings along with a selection of the artifacts in the Index of American Design, a visual archive of decorative, folk, and popular arts made in America from the colonial period to about 1900. Three essays explore the history, operation, and ambitions of the Index of American Design, examine folk art collecting in America during the early decades of the twentieth century, and consider the Index's role in the search for a national cultural identity in the early twentieth-century United States.
For the new or seasoned collector, this groundbreaking guide reveals how to evaluate contemporary American folk art as well as where to see it, buy it, and what to spend on it. The highly informative text is organized by region and features more than 181 biographies of both new and established artists. Color photos of more than 155 works as well as 44 black-and-white portraits of the artists are included.
A celebration of the symbols of liberty, ingenuity, and refuge within American folk art from colonial days to the present is culled from the collection of the American Folk Art Museum.
American Weathervanes: The Art of the Winds, published to coincide with an exhibition at the American Folk Art Museum, reveals the beauty, historical significance, and technical virtuosity of American vanes fashioned between the late seventeenth and early twentieth centuries. This American art form has long been an enduring part of the country's skylines. Early church steeples were graced with weathercocks, following a European tradition that dates to the MiddleAges. America's first documented vane maker, metalsmith Shem Drowne of Boston, crafted a number of surviving vanes, including the iconic golden grasshopper that has topped the city's Faneuil Hall since 1742. Farmers, blacksmiths, and other craftsmen proudly fashioned roosters, cows, horses, and other forms for country barns, and as the tradition and public demand expanded over the course of the nineteenth century, so did the diversity of forms, which grew to fill the mail order catalogs of commercial manufacturers in Boston, New York, and other cities. Today, weathervanes hold a well-established place in the canon of American folk art and American Weathervanes celebrates this artistry in the most up-to-date and authoritative work on the subject. Lavishly illustrated with masterworks from prominent private and public collections, this is a book to be treasured by anyone who collects or simply admires American vernacular art and sculpture.
An unparalleled introduction to American folk art, accompanying a major traveling exhibition. A handsome and insightful survey of American folk art, this book includes paintings, sculptures, furniture, and household objects made by untrained—or minimally trained—folk artists in New England, the Midwest, and the South between 1800 and the 1920s. This richly illustrated volume includes rare and very fine portraits, radiant still lifes and landscapes, a mature version of The Peaceable Kingdom by Edward Hicks, playful animal sculptures and trade signs, and ornately painted German American furniture. With newly researched texts by leading scholars, this publication makes an important contribution to the field.
