American Primitive: Discoveries in Folk Sculpture
The authors, dealers and collectors of American-folk art, here focus on creations that are macabre, visionary, offbeat, often fetish-like in their raw power. Many of the pieces are anonymous; most have never been exhibited or illustrated anywhere. The polychrome wood Baby in a Chair (found in upstate New York, late 19th cent.) has the magical potency of an African totem. Other compelling works are the phantasmagorical Janus-Faced Root Fantasy and a gaunt, Giacometti-like Scarecrow. The illustrations show amazing weathervanes, shop signs, decoys, face jugs, whirligigs, ships' figureheads, busts, canes, ballot boxes. Calling these pieces "folk" art obscures their significance, the authors insist, and this revelatory surveya major act of cultural restorationbrings to light a body of native American art with affinities to the primitivist-inspired modernism of European artists.Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.