All American Folk Arts and Crafts

Examines paintings, sculpture, embroidery, scrimshaw, toys, rugs, quilts, and weather vanes that make use of American symbols and ideals

A child's sled with an American flag painted on it, the Penn Fire Insurance Company's cast-iron bust of William Penn, a lithograph of the Statue of Liberty on a cookie boxall are examples of familiar American symbols reworked into daily objects. This survey demonstrates how common images of home, freedom, religion and patriotism pop up in folk art. It also digresses widely into other areas to uncover serendipitous delights. There's a New England "mourning picture," circa 1850, idealizing woman as keeper of the dead; a colorful 1973 painting of an Orthodox Jewish wedding; a swift, a gadget made of whale-ivory and bone, used to wind skeins of spun yarn. What this smorgasbord lacks in unity, it more than makes up for in exploring byways of folk art. Ketchum is author of American Folk Art of the Twentieth Century.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Probably no two people agree on the answer to the question "What is American Folk Art?" For his survey, Ketchum has chosen 19th and 20th Century paintings, sculpture, and decorative arts which represent particularly-American symbols and themes such as the Statue of Liberty, the Eagle, Stars and Stripes, Home Sweet Home, and Building the Nation. The author's more controversial selections include some European toys as well as mass-produced ceramics, ironware, glass, and lithographs. This handsomely-illustrated introduction to the popular subject of American folk art provides novice collectors with examples of "masterpieces" and more affordable objects such as American holiday novelties. Suitable for public libraries. Kathleen Eagen Johnson, Sleepy Hollow Restorations, Tarrytown, N.Y.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.