AmesNews: No. 29, Fall 2010
GALLERY NEWS
“Twice Upon a Time”
The Creative Reuse of Scraps and Throw-Aways
The current gallery show is a favorite of ours. Twice Upon a Time, features close to 100 items that have been created from scrap materials. Both functional and decorative, the exhibited pieces range from a funnel made out of a Folgers coffee can and a collection of pin cushions made on the stems of broken glass goblets and vases, to the very popular collaged art works of Deborah Barrett, which incorporate fabric bits, old journals, wire and a myriad of salvaged materials in her inspired “paintings.”
The show includes two scrappy quilts. One, a snowball pattern from the 1930s, was pieced over a quilt from the late 1800s. The other is a quilt using assorted early fabric quilt blocks that were salvaged and striped with more modern material.
Also among the fabrics exhibited is a linen table runner with a decorative stitched border that, in reverse, reveals that the cloth was from a salvaged Butter Salt sack. A cotton flour sack dating to 1914 that has been beautifully embroidered and embellished, it was originally filled with 49 pounds of flour and shipped to the hungry and beleaguered Belgians during WWI. The women there carefully embroidered every mundane word printed on the sack, including guarantees and weight. Some sacks were then sold as souvenirs to raise money for war victims; many were sent back to the United States, to the relief organizations, in gratitude for their aid. Also on display is a pair of snow shoes made from old wooden boxes, a lamp in the shape of a cabin made from spent 22 caliber cartridges and a selection of baskets, some made from baling wire and one made from old license plates.
Rich in creativity, the exhibition runs the gamut of materials and methods from metal to cloth, from utilitarian to decorative.
What is American about American Folk Art?
For almost 40 years, I have been a dealer in American Folk Art, but for some time now I’ve been trying to figure out what’s American about this folk art. America is a nation of immigrants, multi-racial, multi-ethnic, and multi-cultural. At what point did the artistic efforts of these immigrant settlers or their descendants, efforts clearly based in their cultural traditions, become “American.” My purpose is not to disown American art, but to understand it and become informed.
My library is full of books on American folk art —- American Folk Sculpture, The Flowering of American Folk Art, How to Know American Folk Art, and All American Folk Art, to name just a few. But they’re all about the folk art, and not what makes it American. And neither the dictionaries nor even Google could help me define “American Folk Art.”
Few art objects truly originated in our nation. Of collectible folk art items, only hunting lures (e.g. duck decoys) were here. It was the Native Americans who introduced decoys to the settlers along with corn, tobacco, canoes, and moccasins. All other craft or art, including most materials from which they were made, was imported. Quilts were found in Europe as early as the 12th century, and even earlier in Asia. It was the Asians who first conceived of layering cloth and filling it to add warmth. Ship figureheads date back to the Greeks and Romans; trade and shop signs to early England; weathervanes to 100 B.C. in Athens.
Though quilts date back to ancient Greece, China, and India, centuries before the Christian Era, they have played a prominent role in early America. Quilts were made in all regions of the New World, mostly but not exclusively by women. A quilt not only provided warmth, but it was a bit of artistry and decoration that brightened the lives of pioneer families living in a harsh and colorless world.
As these pioneers moved across the American continent, their quilts went with them. The names of the quilt patterns reflect life in the new world: the Log Cabin and its many variations, Barn Raising, Plowed Furrows, Straight Furrows, Road to California, Evening Star, and even Drunkards’ Path.
Closely related to quilting was the making of tramp art. The vocabularies of the two crafts are the same, since in both instances scrap material (in the latter case wood) is cut into geometric shapes, arranged in patterns, pieced together, and layered. The fineness of the chip carving defines one quality of the tramp art object and is comparable to the fineness of the quilting stitch. Tramp art came to us from Austria and Germany. It thrived in America between 1870 and 1930 in the largely German communities of Pennsylvania and Texas. Our word “tramp” most probably is derived from the German “trameln” — to trample. Related to, but not really tramp art, are objects referred to as Crown of Thorns, formed by interlocking wooden links. These items bear a vague resemblance to woven fishing nets and came to America from seafaring communities of Scandinavia.
Another category of American Folk Art is memory ware which has more than one explanation. Some believe that these pieces belong in the category of European Victorian-era scrap-booking. Others claim that they are simply the product of rainy day activity to busy the hands. And still others relate them to African-American tradition as grave markers for the deceased, to take or keep with them the objects of special meaning to “the after-life,” reminiscent of the tombs of the kings of ancient Egypt. There is reason to believe that all three of these theories have some measure of truth.
And there is wood-carving — truly an international craft. In addition to utilitarian items, i.e. spoons, bowls cups, etc., caged balls, puzzles, and chains were common designs. Carved and whittled chains made from a single piece of wood originated in both Europe and Africa. Swedish and Welsh young men carved “love spoons”...two spoons linked by chain and often incorpo-rating a caged ball. The Welsh and Chinese carved fans, and interlocking wooden puzzles had their origins in ancient China.
Bottle whimseys were an adjunct of whimsey carving. Here the carved item was reassembled painstakingly inside a glass bottle. Similar in concept to the ship-in-a-bottle, these carefully constructed whimseys required enormous patience and a very steady hand. These whimseys are also found in Europe.
And finally, canes and walking sticks. Their history goes back many centuries, but as a dealer in American Folk Art, I have clients who ask me for American sticks. The best I can do is to look for the signs and symbols that represent America — the snakes and alligators from the swamps of the South, the eagles and shields of colonial American, and other historical embellishments.
So here we are, descendants of the myriad of cultures joined together to form an exciting and vibrant well of creativity. Quilting, wood-carving, tramp art, canes, and whimseys did not originate in America, but with the passage of time and the adaptation and incorporation of New World images, became American. I guess that I will concede that whatever the root, the art produced in the United States has evolved into American Folk Art.
I’d welcome your comments.
Rizzoli at Lille Museum
We are pleased to announce that a number of A.G. Rizzoli’s works have been selected for inclusion in the re-opening exhibition of the Lille Metropole Museum of Modern Art in Lille, France.
The LaM, as it is now called, offers large collections of modern, contemporary, and outsider art, and is one of the only museums in Europe to feature all three of these categories in one facility. After extensive renovations, it will reopen on September 25, 2010, with a special exhibit entitled habiter poetiquement (The World as Poem).
The Ames Gallery has participated by lending several pieces of Rizzoli’s work; also shown will be additional works of his, borrowed from private collections. If you are in France this winter, this will be a chance to see some works not often on view, as well as a chance to see the magnificent new museum in its sculpture park at Villeneuve d’Ascq near Lille.
For more information about the LaM, or the exhibition, go to www.musee-lam.fr
GALLERY NOTES
This past April marked the 40th anniversary of The Ames Gallery. Though we slide quietly into our 41st year, we did have a stimulating Spring and Summer. We attended Canemania 2010, the International Cane/Walking Stick Conference that was held this year in Milan, Italy. I was privileged to be a speaker and pursued the question, “What’s American about American Folk Art?”— a question that I’ve addressed before, but one that continues to plague me.
From Milan we traveled on to Paris where, along with our daughter and grandson, we spent some very pleasant hours with Bruno Decharme and Barbara Safarova of ABCD. We took a day trip north by train to Lille, where we were greeted by the staff of LaM — Lille Metropole Museum of Modern Art. After seeing the newly renovated facility and viewing much of their permanent collection, we were even more enthusiastic about the planned loan of works by A.G. Rizzoli for their reopening exhibition.
We then drove by car to Gent, Belgium to visit the Museum Dr Guislain which was an amazing discovery for us. There, the director guided us through their exhibition of the extraordinary ABCD collection, which includes a major work by A.G. Rizzoli. We look forward to a continuing relationship with this facility.
--Bonnie Grossman, Director
