Unexpected Eloquence: The Art in American Folk Art - Softcover

Howard Rose

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1878352016 ISBN 13: 9781878352019

Publisher: McPherson & Co, 1990

Synopsis

An art collector and dealer by profession, Howard Rose developed a passionate interest in American folk art in the 1960s. Concerned by the lack of serious art criticism on the subject, and disturbed by the condescension with which folk art is generally treated by fine art critics and connoisseurs, in the late 1970s he wrote Unexpected Eloquence, the first chapter of which appeared in Art in America."Just what is the nature of our variant on embellished handicrafts," Rose asks, "that we should explore it for a complexity and ambition which Western cultures have always reserved to the sphere of mainstream art?" In answer, he begins by narrowing the subject to exclude mere Americana and focuses instead on a small but significant body of works with the same set of evaluative measures that are applied to mainstream art. His intent is to discover distinctive aspects of the American experience that might account, beyond individual genius, for these extraordinary achievements. Rose describes a revision of conventional preconceptions about the multi-faceted American heritage, and in doing so he challenges the art establishment and opens up the field to the larger audience of art lovers. Throughout, his writing is elegant, carefully argued, occasionally impassioned. The final chapter, presented as an appendix, details the various conceptual problems in folk art criticism.

About this title

About the Author

Howard Rose was born in Chicago in 1922. He received a fine arts degree from the Art Institute of Chicago, and, after military service during World War II, he moved to New York City where he worked for the Alan, Downtown, and Kennedy galleries. In addition to art criticism, Howard Rose was an accomplished novelist; his four novels are also published by Saroff Editions. Mr. Rose died in Olive Bridge, New York, in 1987.

Edition details

• Publisher: McPherson & Co
• Publication date: 1990
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1878352016
• ISBN 13: 9781878352019
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 160