Art
Silhouette Portraits from the Days Before Photography
Before photography, the silhouette was a popular form of portraiture more affordable than oil painting, where the outline of a face in profile was cut in black.
Folk Art
News
A Folk Art Desk Mourns the US Civil War's Bloodiest Day
The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Connecticut, announced this week the acquisition of a curious memorial from the US Civil War that stands eight feet tall and is embedded with bone.
News
Atlanta's High Museum Gets a New Folk Art Curator
On Wednesday the High Museum in Atlanta announced that it had hired Katherine Jentleson to be its next curator of folk and self-taught art.
Art
The State of Iberoamerican Folk Art
In 1995, Cándida Fernández de Calderón embarked on a remarkable expedition to support Mexican folk art.
Art
Where Folk and Fine Art Meet
What did John Frederick Kensett, a 19th-century artist who was part of the Hudson River School, have in common with Thomas Matteson, a blanket chest-maker from Vermont?
Art
In 'Self-Taught Genius,' a History of Label-Teasing Art Forms
In 1964, Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart famously noted, with regard to what exactly constituted “obscenity,” “I know it when I see it.” Similarly, among some art historians, collectors and other experts, just what can or should be considered “folk art” often has been a subject of criteria-ques
Art
Tom Sachs's Pointless Americana
PARIS — In a search for art that reacts to the inequalities of globalization, must art lose touch with the sort of grace that exceeds the hand, a grace that couldn’t be anything but artificial and technological?
Art
When Outsider Art and Christmas Collide
It's easy to get obsessive around the holidays, what with the frantic shopping and cheerful imbibing and decorations to be placed. But some take it a long step further.
Art
A Visit to an Overlooked Folk Art Cave of Crystals
MEMPHIS — Secreted in a cemetery in Memphis is a meditative work of 1930s folk art, a man-made cave created from five tons of quartz crystal and a unique process of turning concrete to wood.
Opinion
An Incredible Archive of American Folk Music
"If America disappeared off the face of the Earth today, the greatest single cultural loss would be blues, jazz, hip-hop, R&B, rock-and-roll … ”
Opinion
A Short But Succinct Survey of the Current Hand Turkey Stratosphere
Hand turkey. You know you've made one. And if you haven't, well, perhaps it's time you did.
Art
Folk Art Meets Global Aspirations in a Victorian Curiosity Shop
SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS — “Wow bizzarro!” I hear a visitor exclaim with a delighted grin as they walk out the front door of the San Angel Folk Art gallery. The venue is one of those quirky finds one relishes during an art tour in a new city. It offers a colorful breath of fresh air to a predominating whi