Folk art covers all forms of visual art made in the context of folk culture . Definitions vary, but generally the objects have practical utility of some kind, rather than being exclusively decorative . The makers of folk art are typically trained within a popular tradition, rather than in the fine art tradition of the culture. There is often overlap, or contested ground with ' naive art '. "Folk art" is not used in regard to traditional societies where ethnographic art continue to be made.
52-406: Anna Mary Robertson Moses (September 7, 1860 – December 13, 1961), or Grandma Moses , was an American folk artist . She began painting in earnest at the age of 78 and is a prominent example of a newly successful art career at an advanced age. Moses gained popularity during the 1950s, having been featured on a cover of Time Magazine in 1953. She was a subject of numerous television programs and of
104-544: A 1950 Oscar-nominated biographical documentary. Her autobiography, titled My Life's History , was published in 1952. She was also awarded two honorary doctoral degrees . Moses was a live-in housekeeper for a total of 15 years, starting at age 12. An employer noticed her appreciation for their prints made by Currier and Ives , and they supplied her with drawing materials. Moses and her husband began their married life in Virginia, where they worked on farms. In 1905, they returned to
156-590: A Farm Wife Painted ", opened in New York in October 1940 at Otto Kallir 's Galerie St. Etienne . A meet-and-greet with the artist and an exhibition of 50 paintings at Gimbel's Department Store was held next on November 15. Her art displays included samples of her baked goods and preserves that won Moses prizes at the county fair. Her third solo show in as many months was held at the Whyte Gallery, Washington, D.C. In 1944, she
208-451: A beloved figure from American life. The directness and vividness of her paintings restored a primitive freshness to our perception of the American scene. Both her work and her life helped our nation renew its pioneer heritage and recall its roots in the countryside and on the frontier. All Americans mourn her loss." After her death, her work was exhibited in several large traveling exhibitions in
260-532: A display of “authenticity, excellence, and significance within a particular tradition” for the artists selected. (NEA guidelines) .” In 1966, the NEA's first year of funding, support for national and regional folk festivals was identified as a priority with the first grant made in 1967 to the National Folk Festival Association. Folklife festivals are celebrated around the world to encourage and support
312-620: A form of "hobby art". Lucy R. Lippard stated in "The Word in Their Hands" that she found "hobby art" to be "an activity so 'low' on the art lists that it still ranks way below 'folk art'". She found that hobby art often involves reuse of otherwise discarded objects. By the age of 76, Moses had developed arthritis , which made embroidery painful. Her sister Celestia suggested that painting would be easier for her, and this idea spurred Moses's painting career in her late 70s. Grandma Moses also told reporters that she turned to painting in order to create
364-454: A great deal, to say about what passes for acceptable folk art." Historically, the training in a handicraft was done as apprenticeships with local craftsmen, such as the blacksmith or the stonemason . As the equipment and tools needed were no longer readily available in the community, these traditional crafts moved into technical schools or applied arts schools. Teaching of the craft through informal means outside of institutions has opened
416-436: A known type. Similar objects can be found in the environment made by other individuals which resemble this object. Individual pieces of folk art will reference other works in the culture, even as they show exceptional individual execution in form or design. If antecedents cannot be found for this object, it might still be a piece of art but it is not folk art. "While traditional society does not erase ego, it does focus and direct
468-789: A late age was actually a manifestation of a childhood dream. With no time in her difficult farm life to pursue painting, she was obliged to set aside her passion to paint. At age 92 she wrote, "I was quite small, my father would get me and my brothers white paper by the sheet. He liked to see us draw pictures, it was a penny a sheet and lasted longer than candy." Moses painted scenes of rural life from earlier days, which she called "old-timey" New England landscapes. Moses said that she would "get an inspiration and start painting; then I'll forget everything, everything except how things used to be and how to paint it so people will know how we used to live." From her works of art, she omitted features of modern life, such as tractors and telephone poles. Her early style
520-512: A painting, depending upon its size, and as her fame increased her works were sold for $ 8,000 to $ 10,000. Her winter paintings are reminiscent of some of the known winter paintings of Pieter Bruegel the Elder , although she had never seen his work. A German fan said, "There emanates from her paintings a light-hearted optimism; the world she shows us is beautiful and it is good. You feel at home in all these pictures, and you know their meaning. The unrest and
572-570: A problem as a purposeful solution." Written by George Kubler and published in 1962, " The Shape of Time: Remarks on the History of Things " describes an approach to historical change which places the history of objects and images in a larger continuum of time. The purpose of folk art is not purely decorative or aimed to have duplicated handicraft. However, since the form itself was a distinct type with its function and purpose, folk art has continued to be copied over time by different individuals. The object
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#1732868797447624-410: A recognizable style and method in crafting its pieces, which allows products to be recognized and attributed to a single individual or workshop. This was originally articulated by Alois Riegl in his study of Volkskunst, Hausfleiss, und Hausindustrie , published in 1894. "Riegl ... stressed that the individual hand and intentions of the artist were significant, even in folk creativity. To be sure,
676-566: A sampling of different materials, forms, and artisans involved in the production of everyday and folk art objects. Listed below are a wide-ranging assortment of labels for an eclectic group of art works. All of these genres are created outside of the institutional structures of the art world, and are not considered "fine art". There is overlap between these labeled collections, such that an object might be listed under two or more labels. Many of these groupings and individual objects might also resemble "folk art" in its aspects, however may not align to
728-445: A traditional community. Intangible folk arts can include such forms as music and art galleries, dance and narrative structures. Objects of folk art are a subset of material culture and include objects which are experienced through the senses, by seeing and touching. Typical for material culture in art, these tangible objects can be handled, repeatedly re-experienced, and sometimes broken. They are considered works of art because of
780-402: Is less individual and more realistic or primitive, with a lack of knowledge of, or perhaps rejection of, basic perspective . Initially she created simple compositions or copied existing images. As her career advanced, she created complicated, panoramic compositions of rural life. She was a prolific painter, generating more than 1,500 canvasses in three decades. She initially charged $ 3 to $ 5 for
832-693: Is now the Bennington Museum in Vermont, which has the largest collection of her works in the United States. She was inspired to paint by taking art lessons at school. As a child, she started painting using lemon and grape juice to make colors for her "landscapes" and used ground ocher , grass, flour paste, slacked lime , and sawdust. At age 12, she left home and performed farm chores for a wealthy neighboring family. She continued to keep house, cook, and sew for wealthy families for 15 years. One of these families,
884-640: Is promote international understanding and world peace. In the United States, the National Endowment for the Arts works to promote greater understanding and sustainability of cultural heritage across the United States and around the world through research, education, and community engagement. As part of this, they identify and support NEA folk art fellows in quilting, ironwork, woodcarving, pottery, embroidery, basketry, weaving, along with other related traditional arts. The NEA guidelines define as criteria for this award
936-409: Is recognized as being exceptional in the form and decorative motifs. Being part of the community, the craftsperson is reflecting on the community's cultural aesthetics, and may take into consideration the community's response to the handicraft. An object can be created to match the community's expectations, and the artist may design the product with unspoken cultural biases to reflect this aim. While
988-498: Is usually developed in isolation or in small communities across the country. The Smithsonian American Art Museum houses over 70 folk and self-taught artists. Folk art objects are usually produced in a one-off production process. Only one object is made at a time, either by hand or in a combination of hand and machine methods, and are not mass-produced . As a result of manual production, individual pieces are considered to be unique and usually can be differentiated from other objects of
1040-473: The International Organization of Folk Art (IOV) . Their declared mission is to “further folk art, customs and culture around the world through the organization of festivals and other cultural events, … with emphasis on dancing, folk music, folk songs and folk art.” By supporting international exchanges of folk art groups as well as the organization of festivals and other cultural events, their goal
1092-514: The Moore College of Art and Design . President Harry S. Truman presented her with the Women's National Press Club trophy Award for outstanding accomplishment in art in 1949. Jerome Hill directed the 1950 documentary of her life, which was nominated for an Academy Award . In 1952, she published her autobiography, My Life's History . In it she said "I look back on my life like a good day's work, it
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#17328687974471144-420: The 1950s, her exhibitions broke attendance records around the world. Art historian Judith Stein noted: "A cultural icon, the spry, productive nonagenarian was continually cited as an inspiration for housewives, widows and retirees." Her paintings were reproduced on Hallmark greeting cards, tiles, fabrics, and ceramics. They were also used to market products, like coffee, lipstick, cigarettes, and cameras. In 1950,
1196-605: The Galerie St. Etienne gave her painting July Fourth (1951) to the White House as a gift in 1952. The painting also appears on a U.S. commemorative stamp that was issued in Grandma Moses's honor in 1969. The character Daisy "Granny" Moses ( Irene Ryan ) on The Beverly Hillbillies , was named as an homage to Grandma Moses, who died shortly before the series began. Norman Rockwell and Grandma Moses were friends who lived across
1248-577: The National Press Club cited her as one of the five most newsworthy women and the National Association of House Dress Manufacturers honored her as their 1951 Woman of the Year. When she reached 88, Mademoiselle magazine named her a "Young Woman of the Year". She was awarded two honorary doctoral degrees. The first was bestowed in 1949 from Russell Sage College and the second two years later from
1300-531: The Northeastern United States and settled in Eagle Bridge, New York . They had ten children, five of whom survived infancy. She embroidered pictures with yarn, until disabled by arthritis. In her 1961 obituary, The New York Times said: "The simple realism, nostalgic atmosphere and luminous color with which Grandma Moses portrayed simple farm life and rural countryside won her a wide following. She
1352-485: The United States and abroad. A 1942 piece, The Old Checkered House, 1862 , was appraised at the Memphis 2004 Antiques Roadshow . It was not as common as her winter landscapes. Originally purchased in the 1940s for under $ 10, the piece was assigned an insurance value of $ 60,000 by the appraiser, Alan Fausel. In November 2006, her 1943 work Sugaring Off became her highest-selling work at US $ 1.2 million. Otto Kallir of
1404-622: The Vermont–New York state border from each other. Moses lived in Eagle Bridge, New York , and after 1938 the Rockwells had a house in nearby Arlington, Vermont . She appears on the far left edge in the Norman Rockwell painting Christmas Homecoming, which was printed on The Saturday Evening Post ' s December 25, 1948, cover. This is a selection of the public collections of her work: Folk art The types of objects covered by
1456-627: The Whitechapel Gallery in London as part of the Festival of Britain . This exhibition, along with her publication The Unsophisticated Arts , exhibited folk and mass-produced consumer objects alongside contemporary art in an early instance of the popularisation of pop art in Britain. The United Nations recognizes and supports cultural heritage around the world, in particular UNESCO in partnership with
1508-639: The Whitesides, noticed her interest in their Currier and Ives prints and bought her chalk and wax crayons. At age 27, she worked on the same farm with Thomas Salmon Moses, a "hired man". They were married and established themselves near Staunton, Virginia , where they spent nearly two decades, living and working in turn on five local farms. Four of them are The Bell Farm or Eakle Farm, The Dudley Farm, Mount Airy Farm (now included within Augusta County's Millway Place Industrial Park), and Mount Nebo. To supplement
1560-660: The artist may have been obliged by group expectations to work within the norms of transmitted forms and conventions, but individual creativity – which implied personal aesthetic choices and technical virtuosity – saved received or inherited traditions from stagnating and permitted them to be renewed in each generation." Individual innovation in the production process plays an important role in the continuance of these traditional forms. Many folk art traditions like quilting, ornamental picture framing, and decoy carving continue to be practiced, and new forms continue to emerge. Contemporary outsider artists are often self-taught, and their work
1612-431: The choices that an individual can acceptably make… the well-socialized person will find the limits are not inhibiting but helpful… Where traditions are healthy the works of different artists are more similar than they are different; they are more uniform than personal." Tradition in folk art emerges through the passing of information from one generation to another. Through generations of family lines, family members pass down
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1664-437: The collective awareness of simple people. The concept of folk art is a distinctly 19th-century one. Today it carries with it a tinge of nostalgia for pre-industrial society." Folk arts , which include both performance and tangible arts, reflect the cultural life of a community associated with the fields of folklore and cultural heritage . Tangible folk art can include objects which historically are crafted and used within
1716-419: The culture is typically visible in the final product. Folk art is designed in different shapes, sizes and forms. It traditionally uses the materials which are at hand in the locality and reproduces familiar shapes and forms. The Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage has compiled a page of storied objects that have been part of one of their annual folklife festivals . The list below includes
1768-407: The defining characteristics outlined above. Folk artworks, styles and motifs have inspired various artists. For example, Pablo Picasso was inspired by African tribal sculptures and masks. Natalia Goncharova and others were inspired by traditional Russian popular prints called luboks . In 1951, artist, writer and curator Barbara Jones organised the exhibition Black Eyes and Lemonade at
1820-519: The family income at Mount Nebo, Anna made potato chips and churned butter from the milk of a cow that she purchased with her savings. Later, the couple bought a farm, Mount Airy, near Verona, Virginia ; it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012. Having bought the house in January 1901, it was the first residence the family owned. They lived there until September 1902. Five of
1872-491: The genre to artists who may face barrier to entry in other disciplines. Canadian folk artist Maud Lewis , for example, suffered from an undiagnosed congenital illness, making formal art schooling a challenge. Despite barriers to formal education, Lewis became one of Canada's most famous folk artists, creating thousands of paintings of life in Nova Scotia . The object is recognizable within its cultural framework as being of
1924-479: The knowledge, information, skills and tools needed to continue the creation of one's folk art. Examples are Leon “Peck” Clark, a Mississippi basket maker, who learned his skills from a community member; George Lopez of Cordova, New Mexico, who is a sixth-generation santos carver whose children also carve; and the Yorok-Karok basket weavers, who explain that relatives generally taught them to weave.” The known type of
1976-585: The neurotic insecurity of the present day make us inclined to enjoy the simple and affirmative outlook of Grandma Moses." During a visit to Hoosick Falls in 1938, Louis J. Caldor, an art collector who worked as an engineer in the state of New York, saw paintings made by Moses in the window of a drug store. He bought their supply and ten more from her Eagle Bridge house for $ 3 or $ 5 each. The next year, three Grandma Moses paintings were included in New York's Museum of Modern Art exhibition titled "Contemporary Unknown American Painters". Her first solo exhibition, " What
2028-402: The object must be, or have originally been, utilitarian; it was created to serve some function in the daily life of the household or the community. This is the reason the design continues to be made. Since the form itself had function and purpose, it was duplicated over time in various locations by different individuals. A book on the history of art states that "every man-made thing arises from
2080-499: The postman's Christmas gift, seeing as it "was easier to make [a painting] than to bake a cake over a hot stove". Being practical, painted works would last longer than her embroidered compositions made of worsted wool, which risked being eaten by moths. Judith Stein noted that "her sense of accomplishment in her painting was rooted in her ability to make 'something from nothing'". When her right hand began to hurt, she switched to her left hand. What appeared to be an interest in painting at
2132-529: The same type. In his essay on "Folk Objects", folklorist Simon Bronner references preindustrial modes of production, but folk art objects continue to be made as unique crafted pieces by folk artisans. "The notion of folk objects tends to emphasize the handmade over machine manufactured. Folk objects imply a mode of production common to preindustrial communal society where knowledge and skills were personal and traditional." Folk art does not need to be old; it continues to be hand-crafted today in many regions around
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2184-425: The shared form indicates a shared culture, innovation can enable the individual artisan to embody their own vision. This can be a representation of manipulating collective and individual culture, within the traditional folk art production. "For art to progress, its unity must be dismantled so that certain of its aspects can be freed for exploration, while others shrink from attention." This dichotomous representation of
2236-451: The technical execution of an existing form and design; the skill might be seen in the precision of the form, the surface decoration or in the beauty of the finished product. As a folk art, these objects share several characteristics that distinguish them from other artifacts of material culture. The object is created by a single artisan or team of artisans. The craft-person works within an established cultural framework. The folk art has
2288-475: The ten children born to them survived infancy. Although she loved living in the Shenandoah Valley , in 1905 Anna and Thomas moved to a farm in Eagle Bridge, New York , at her husband's urging. When Thomas Moses was about 67 years of age in 1927, he died of a heart attack, after which Anna's son Forrest helped her operate the farm. She never married again. She retired and moved to a daughter's home in 1936. She
2340-448: The term "folk art" vary. The art form is categorised as "divergent... of cultural production ... comprehended by its usage in Europe, where the term originated, and in the United States, where it developed for the most part along very different lines." From a European perspective, Edward Lucie-Smith described it as "Unsophisticated art, both fine and applied, which is supposedly rooted in
2392-405: The world. The design and production of folk art is learned and taught informally or formally; folk artists are not self-taught. Folk art does not aim for individualistic expression. Instead, "the concept of group art implies, indeed requires, that artists acquire their abilities, both manual and intellectual, at least in part from communication with others. The community has something, usually
2444-530: Was able to capture the excitement of winter's first snow, Thanksgiving preparations and the new, young green of oncoming spring ... In person, Grandma Moses charmed wherever she went. A tiny, lively woman with mischievous gray eyes and a quick wit, she could be sharp-tongued with a sycophant and stern with an errant grandchild." Moses's work has been a subject of numerous museum exhibitions worldwide and has been extensively merchandised, such as on greeting cards. In 2006, her 1943 painting titled Sugaring Off
2496-532: Was done and I feel satisfied with it. I was happy and contented, I knew nothing better and made the best out of what life offered. And life is what we make it, always has been, always will be." In 1955, she appeared as a guest on See It Now , a television program hosted by Edward R. Murrow . She was a member of the Society of Mayflower Descendants and Daughters of the American Revolution . Her 100th birthday
2548-408: Was known as either "Mother Moses" or "Grandma Moses", and although she first exhibited as "Mrs. Moses", the press dubbed her "Grandma Moses", and the nickname stuck. As a young wife and mother, Moses was creative in her home; for example, in 1918 she used housepaint to decorate a fireboard . Beginning in 1932, Moses made embroidered pictures of yarn for friends and family. She created quilted objects,
2600-649: Was proclaimed "Grandma Moses Day" by New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller . LIFE magazine celebrated her birthday by featuring her on its September 19, 1960, cover. The children's book Grandma Moses Story Book was published in 1961. Grandma Moses died at age 101 on December 13, 1961, at the Health Center in Hoosick Falls, New York. She is buried there at the Maple Grove Cemetery. President John F. Kennedy memorialized her: "The death of Grandma Moses removed
2652-855: Was represented by the American British Art Center and the Galerie St. Etienne, which increased her sales. Her paintings were exhibited throughout Europe and the United States over the next 20 years. Otto Kallir established the Grandma Moses Properties, Inc. for her. The paintings of Grandma Moses were used to publicize American holidays, including Thanksgiving , Christmas , and Mother's Day . A Mother's Day feature in True Confessions (1947) written by Eleanor Early noted how "Grandma Moses remains prouder of her preserves than of her paintings, and proudest of all of her four children, eleven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren." During
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#17328687974472704-478: Was sold at Christie's New York for US$ 1.2 million , setting an auction record for the artist. Anna Mary Robertson was born in Greenwich, New York , on September 7, 1860; she was the third of ten children born to Margaret Shanahan Robertson and Russell King Robertson. She was raised with four sisters and five brothers. Her father ran a flax mill and was a farmer. She briefly attended a one-room school . That school
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