American Folk: Folk Art from the Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, BostonFolk art has been part of the American idiom for nearly as long as America has been a nation. Today it remains one of the best-loved and most fervently collected forms of American art, a diverse and authentic vernacular expression. American Folk presents over 60 remarkable objects from one of the country's most prominent collections of folk art, many of them never before published. Included are paintings, carvings, textiles, prints, frakturs, furniture, and utilitarian objects, dating from the late 18th to the early 20th century. They include such masterpieces as Erastus Salisbury Field's lush The Garden of Eden, E.L. George's surrealistic Child in a Rocking Chair, a complex, monumental quilt by the former slave Harriet Powers, and Wilhelm Schimmel's extraordinary carved animals--as well as a remarkable assortment of whirligigs, windmills, decorated chests, figurines, and even carousel animals. The introductory essay by curator Gerald W.R. Ward discusses the elusive notion of ''folk art'' itself and presents the history of its acquisition by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Published in conjunction with a major exhibition at the MFA, American Folk is a vibrant and engaging introduction to one of our proudest cultural traditions. |
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Abby Aldrich Rockefeller academic active late nineteenth active mid-nineteenth century active nineteenth century American Decorative Arts American Folk Art American Paintings American Watercolors Ammi Phillips appliquéd artist active late artist active nineteenth Arts and Sculpture Atwoods birds Boston carousel carved catalogue Caverly Chalkware chest Collection of American collectors color Connecticut County created Curator decoys depicted E.P. Dutton eighteenth Elie Nadelman embroidered with silk Erastus Salisbury Field example exhibition flowers frakturs furniture Gift of Maxim Graham Gund graphite pencil Harriet Powers immigrant included John Karolik Collection late nineteenth century maker Mary Massachusetts Massachusetts Silk Maxim Karolik Museum's collection needlework Nina Fletcher objects Oil on canvas Painted pine Painted wood Pennsylvania German Pictorial quilt plain weave plain weave embroidered popular prints Robert Bishop schoolgirl sgrafitto stencils teenth century tion tradition Unidentified artist active watercolor on paper Watercolors and Drawings weather vanes Wilhelm Schimmel William Willson Winterthur wool York