The American Folk Art Museum is showing Perspectives: Forming the Figure on view through August 21, 2011.
The idea of character is thematically relevant to a deeper exploration of traditional folk art and the work of contemporary self-taught artists, a far-reaching field that pervades a broad spectrum of American culture and reflects many different communities. This exhibition, the second installment of the “Perspectives” series organized by the museum’s education department, examines some of the many facets of figure in works from the permanent collection. From 19th-century miniatures to a larger-than-life 20th-century circus banner, the figures presented in the artworks on view serve as a sampling of the vast diversity of depictions of people in folk art.
“Perspectives: Forming the Figure” is supported in part by the Leir Charitable Foundations in memory of Henry J. & Erna D. Leir; the Gerard C. Wertkin Exhibition Fund; the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; and with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, celebrating 50 years of building strong, creative communities in New York State’s 62 counties.
The American Folk Art Museum is the premier institution devoted to the aesthetic appreciation of traditional folk art and creative expressions of contemporary self-taught artists from the United States and abroad. The museum preserves, conserves, and interprets a comprehensive collection of the highest quality, with objects dating from the eighteenth century to the present.
Image: Consuelo “Chelo” González Amézcua (1903–1975) Del Rio, Texas
1962 Ballpoint pen on paper 28 x 22 in. American Folk Art Museum, Blanchard-Hill Collection, gift of M. Anne Hill and Edward V. Blanchard Jr., 1998.10.1
www.folkartmuseum.org