BESSIE HARVEY AFICAN AMERICAN FOLK ARTIST VINTAGE ORIGINAL DRAWING ON PAPER MEASURING
Bessie Harvey was an American artist best known for her sculptures constructed out of found objects, primarily pieces of wood. A deeply religious person, Harvey's faith and her own interest in nature were primary sources for her work.
Bessie Harvey (born Bessie Ruth White; October 11, 1929 – August 12, 1994) was an American artist best known for her sculptures constructed out of found objects, primarily pieces of wood. A deeply religious person, Harvey's faith and her own interest in nature were primary sources for her work.
Early life and family
Born Bessie Ruth White in Dallas, Georgia, she was the seventh of 13 children born to Homer and Rosie Mae White. At the age of 14, Bessie married Charles Harvey and settled in Buena Vista, Georgia.[1][2] She divorced Harvey in 1968 and relocated independently to Alcoa, Tennessee, where she was raising 11 children by the age of 35.[3][1] As a child, she recalls making "something out of nothing," often creating her own toys and dolls.[4]
In addition to having 11 children, Harvey had 28 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.[1]
Career
In 1977, Harvey began working at Blount Memorial Hospital as a housekeeper. For extra income, at night while everyone was asleep Harvey would make dolls.[2] She entered one of her sculptures, a work entitled "Banda", into the hospital's yearly art show which then sold, beginning her artistic career.[5] One of the staff doctors introduced her to the directors of the Cavin-Morris Gallery in New York City, which continued to sell her work exclusively for several years.[3]
Works
Harvey's sculptures are made of found materials, predominantly wood branches and roots, which she then decorated with paint, glitter, jewelry, and other materials. Though she worked primarily with wood, Harvey also created sculptures from clay and some works on paper.[6] She began creating art in 1974, shortly after her mother, Rosie White, passed away.[7]
Harvey's work belongs to a larger tradition of black vernacular art created in the American South. The assemblage aspect of her work, the use of found materials, and emphasis on religious themes are common to the black vernacular art tradition. As a creator of visionary art, she often claims that God is the main source for her work, even to the extent that He is working through her: "I’m really not the artist. God is the artist in my work; nature and insects, they shape my work for me, because they belong to God. I belong to God, and all things belong to God, because it’s in his Word that all things are made to him, that without him there’s not anything made."[8] According to Harvey, God allowed her to see anthropomorphic forms within the wood she worked with, and with that help she could give physical shape to the spiritual presences within these tree roots, limbs, and pieces of driftwood. Her interest in nature was due in part to her belief that she could access or see the spirit of her ancestors within trees, for example, and her general belief in transcendentalism.[citation needed]
Her work often reflected specific biblical stories, including stories from Genesis and Revelation.[9] She also created a series of works inspired by the African-American experience in the United States.[10] When naming her works, she frequently used an African-English dictionary to provide a direct connection to her African heritage.[1]
Exhibitions, holdings, and influence
Harvey's work has been included in over 50 exhibitions, including a posthumous inclusion in the 1995 Whitney Biennial. Her work Cross Bearers was subsequently purchased by the Whitney Museum for its permanent collection.[11] She was also the subject of a major retrospective in 1997 at the Knoxville Museum of Art.[12] Her works are in the permanent collections of the Knoxville Museum of Art[13] the American Folk Art Museum, New York, and KMAC Museum in Louisville, Kentucky.[14][15][16] Some of Harvey's works were also purchased from the Souls Grown Deep Foundation by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco as part of an acquisition of the works of African American artists from the Southern United States.[17] This work was displayed in an exhibition called Revelations: Art from the African American South from June 3, 2017 through April 1, 2018.[17] Her work is in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, and included in the exhibit of Black American Artists of the American South Called to Create.[18] Harvey's work continues to be featured in exhibitions in museums such as the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Turner Contemporary in England as part of exhibitions on African American artwork from the American South.[19][20]
Harvey has been cited as an influence by Alison Saar,[21] and a street in Alcoa has been named after her.[22]
Harvey, Bessie Ruth White. (Dallas, GA, 1928-Alcoa, TN, 1994)
Bibliography and Exhibitions
MONOGRAPHS AND SOLO EXHIBITIONS:
New York (NY). Cavin-Morris Gallery.
BESSIE HARVEY.
September 17-October 24, 1987.
Solo exhibition.
Wicks, Stephen.
Awakening the Spirits: Art by BESSIE HARVEY.
1998.
In: Folk Art Messenger Vol. 11, No. 2 (Spring 1998). 4to, wraps.
GENERAL BOOKS AND GROUP EXHIBITIONS:
ARNETT, PAUL and WILLIAM, eds.
Souls Grown Deep: African American Vernacular Art of the South Vol. 1: The Tree Gave the Dove a Leaf.
Atlanta: Tinwood Books, 2000.
544 pp., 756 color plates, 55 b&w illus. Texts by 37 major scholars and African American writers (including a brilliant piece by Amiri Baraka), bibliog., index. Artists include: Jesse Aaron, Leroy Almon, Sr., Benny Andrews, George Andrews, Steve Ashby, Eldren M. Bailey, Hawkins Bolden, Richard Burnside, Vernon Burwell, Archie Byron, Ulysses S. Davis, Arthur Dial, Thornton Dial, Sr., Thornton Dial, Jr., Sam Doyle, William Edmondson, Minnie Evans, Nora Ezell, Ralph Griffin, Dilmus Hall, Sandy Hall, James Hampton, Alyne Harris, Bessie Harvey, William Hawkins, Theodore Hill, Lonnie Holley, Clementine Hunter, Anderson Johnson, Frank Jones, Joe Light, Ronald Lockett, Charlie Lucas, J.T. McCord, Joe Minter, Sister Gertrude Morgan, J. B. Murry, Elijah Pierce, Harriet Powers, Royal Robertson, Juanita Rogers, Nellie Mae Rowe, Lorenzo Scott, Herbert Singleton, Mary Tillman Smith, Georgia Alice Speller, Henry Speller, Jimmie Lee Sudduth, James Son Thomas, Mose Tolliver, Bill Traylor, Luster Willis, Joseph E. Yoakum, Dinah Young, Purvis Young, and others. Large sq. 4to, cloth, d.j. First ed.
ASHEVILLE (NC). African Images in American Craft.
Southern Highland Handicraft Guild.
1992.
Unpaginated exhibition brochure, illus. Curated by Andrew Glasgow. Text by Willis Bing Davis. Artists include: Bill Capshaw, Deborah Green, James Green (fiber artist), Jesse Guinyard, Jr., Bessie Harvey, Lonnie Holley, Rosie Hurst, Alvin Jarrett, Anita Knox, Andrew McCoy, Sammie Nicely, Lomia Nunn, Charles Pinckney, Eddie Smith, Vannoy Streeter, Curtis Tucker, Yvonne Tucker, Marcella Welch, Richard T. Williams.
ATHENS (GA). Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia.
Amazing Grace: Self-Taught Artists from the Mullis Collection.
September 29, 2007-January 6, 2008.
160 pp. exhib. cat., color illus. of all 90 works in the exhibition, biogs. of 60 (mostly African American) artists. Curated by Paul Manoguerra; texts by collector Carl Mullis and Carol Crown. Included: Jesse Aaron, Richard Burnside, David Butler, Ulysses Davis, William R. Dawson, Thornton Dial, Sam Doyle, William Edmondson, Minnie Evans, Sandy Hall, Otesia Harper, Alyne Harris, Bessie Harvey, John Harvey, Gerald Hawkes, Lonnie Holley, Willie Jinks, Anderson Johnson, Joe Light, Charlie Lucas, Annie Lucas, Willie Massey, Sister Gertrude Morgan, J. B. Murry, Leslie Payne, Leroy Person, Elijah Pierce, Mary Proctor, Prophet Royal Robertson, Sultan Rogers, Nellie Mae Rowe, O.L. Samuels, Lorenzo Scott, Xmeah ShaEla'ReEl, Herbert Singleton, Mary T. Smith, Henry Speller, Jimmie Lee Sudduth, Mose Tolliver, Purvis Young, Chuckie Williams, et al. Sq. 4to (12 x 12 in.), boards, d.j.
ATLANTA (GA). High Museum of Art at Georgia-Pacific Center.
Outside the Main Stream: Folk Art in Our Time.
May-August, 1988.
Group exhibition. Artists included: Jesse Aaron, Leroy Almon, Sr., Zebedee Armstrong, Jr., Richard Burnside, Charles Burwell, David Butler, Ulysses Davis, Richard Dial, Dan Dial, Thornton Dial, Sr., Thornton Dial, Jr., Sam Doyle, William Edmondson, Minnie Evans, Ralph Griffin, Dilmus Hall, Bessie Harvey, Lonnie Holley, Clementine Hunter, Joe Louis Light, Charlie Lucas, Sister Gertrude Morgan, J. B. Murry, Leroy Person, Daniel Pressley, Juanita Rogers, Nellie Mae Rowe, Mary T. Smith, Henry Speller, Georgia Speller, Mose Tolliver, Bill Traylor.
AUBURN (AL). Biggin Gallery, Auburn University.
Her Story: Self-Taught African-American Women Artists.
February 9-March 5, 2004.
Survey exhibition of self-taught African American women artists over four decades. Artists include: Clementine Hunter, Mary T. Smith, Sister Gertrude Morgan, Minnie Evans, Sarah Mary Taylor, Yvonne Wells, Bessie Harvey, Beverly Buchanan, Annie Lucas, Mozell Benson, Annie Tolliver, Bernice Sims, Betty Sue Matthews, Sister Mary Proctor, Juanita Rogers, Mary Whitfield, Nellie Mae Rowe and Inez Nathaniel Walker.
AUGUSTA (GA) Morris Museum of Art.
Stories to Tell, Memories to Keep: Folk Art in the South.
May 16-August 30, 2009.
Group exhibition from the Museum's collection. Included: George Andrews, Minnie Evans, Lonnie Holley, Bessie Harvey, Mary L. Proctor, Nellie Mae Rowe, Clementine Hunter, Lorenzo Scott, Bill Traylor.
AUSTIN (TX). Archer M. Huntington Art Gallery, University of Texas at Austin.
Sniper's Nest: Art That Has Lived With Lucy R. Lippard.
1996-97.
Exhib. cat., illus. Ed. by David Frankel. Texts by (partial list): Lucy Lippard, Maurice Berger, and interview with Lippard by Neery Melkonian; reminiscences by Julie Ault, Rudolph Baranik, Judy Chicago, Jimmie Durham, Leon Golub, Harmony Hammond, Suzanne Lacy, Nancy Spero, Michelle Stuart, and Kathy Vargas. Exhibition of small works by over 100 artists. Curated by Lucy Lippard. Includes among others: Bessie Harvey, Lyle Ashton Harris, Noah Jemison, Howardena Pindell, Faith Ringgold, Tim Rollins and K.O.S., Juan Sanchez, Lorna Simpson and Grace Williams. [Traveled to six venues, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe where it remained as a gift to the museum.] Oblong 4to, wraps.
BATON ROUGE (LA). Gilley's Gallery.
Outsiders Looking In: Memories, Visions, and Fantasies.
1989.
Exhib. cat., illus. Group exhibition. Includes: David Butler, Sam Doyle, Bessie Harvey, Clementine Hunter, Sister Gertrude Morgan, Juanita Rogers, Mary T. Smith, Jimmie Lee Sudduth, James "Son" Thomas, Mose Tolliver, Luster Willis. 4to (28 cm.), wraps.
BEAUMONT (TX). Art Museum of Southeast Texas.
By the Bayou: Self-Taught Art from the AMSET Collection.
2001.
16 pp., illus. Text by Lynne Adele. Includes: Ralph Griffin, Bessie Harvey, Carl Nash, James Henry "Son" Ford Thomas and Mose Tolliver. 4to (6 x 9 in.), wraps.
BIRMINGHAM (AL). Birmingham Museum of Art.
Pictured in My Mind: Contemporary American Self-Taught Art from the collection of Dr. Kurt Gitter and Alice Rae Yelen.
Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1995.
247 pp., 203 excellent quality color plates, many full-page, bibliog. Ed. by curator Gail Andrews Trechsel, with contributions by Roger Cardinal, Lee Kogan, Susan Larsen, Tom Patterson, Regenia Perry, et al. Over 200 paintings, drawings, mixed media sculptures, and assemblages by 53 artists, including 8 women artists and many artists of color. Includes: Steven Ashby, David Butler, Archie Byron, Thornton Dial, Sr., Sam Doyle, William Edmondson, Ralph Griffin, Bessie Harvey, William Hawkins, Clementine Hunter, Rev. John L. Hunter, Clyde Jones, Eddie Lee Kendrick, Joe Louis Light, Charlie Lucas, Willie Massey, Reginald Mitchell, Mark Mulligan, J. B. Murry, Sister Gertrude Morgan, Elijah Pierce, Nellie Mae Rowe, James P. Scott, Herbert Singleton, Isaac Smith, Mary T. Smith, Jimmie Lee Sudduth, Rev. John Swearingen, Mose Tolliver, Bill Traylor, Hubert Walters, Purvis Young. [Traveled to numerous venues: De Cordova Museum, Lincoln, MA, February 8-May 26, 1997.] 4to (11.3 x 8.9 in.), cloth, d.j. First ed.
BROOKVILLE (NY). Hillwood Art Museum, Long Island University.
Original Sin.
January 16-March 3, 1991.
48 pp. exhib. cat., 2 color plates, over 30 b&w illus. Text by Cassandra Langer. Feminist art exhibition with contemporary work by over 40 artists containing representations of Eve. Includes: Camille Billops, Bessie Harvey, Coreen Simpson, Lorna Simpson, and Clarissa Sligh. 4to, black wraps. First ed.
CLINTON (NJ). Hunterdon Art Center.
Not by Luck: Self-Taught Artists in the American South.
Milford (NJ): Lynne Ingram Southern Folk Art, 1993.
(61 pp.) exhib. cat., b&w and color illus., portraits. Group exhibition. Included: Bessie Harvey, Lonnie Holley, Clyde Jones, Charlie Lucas, Royal Robertson, Herbert Singleton, Mary T. Smith, Jimmie Lee Sudduth, and Mose Tolliver. 8vo (24 cm.), wraps.
COGSWELL, ROBERT.
Two Tennessee Visionaries: Bessie Harvey and Homer Green.
1991.
In: Folk Art Messenger Vol. 4, No. 4 (Summer 1991). 4to, wraps.
CONWAY (SC). Rebecca Randall Bryan Art Gallery, Coastal Carolina University.
Self Taught: Seven African American Vernacular Artists.
January 11-February 8, 2007.
Group exhibition co-curated by collector George Jacobs and artist/professor Dan Powell features a variety of works by Bessie Harvey, Purvis Young, Thornton Dial, Sr., David Butler, Jimmie Lee Sudduth, Mose Tolliver and Mary T. Smith. [Traveled to Salve Regina University, Newport, RI.]
CROCKER, SCOTT and TOSHIAKI OZAWA.
Boneshop of the Heart: Folk Offerings from the American South (Video).
Small Change Productions, 1990.
Video interviews with six American folk artists: Enoch Tanner Wickham, Charlie Lucas, Vollis Simpson, Thornton Dial, Sr., Bessie Harvey, Lonnie Bradley Holley 1/2 in. videocassette. sd., col., with b&w sequences.
DALLAS (TX). Museum of African American Life and Culture.
The Souls of Black Folk: Selections of African American Folk Art from the Museum's Permanent Collection.
November 28, 2004-ongoing.
Rotating exhibitions of the Museum's permanent folk art collection which contains works by David Butler, Roy Ferdinand, Ralph Griffin, Alma Gunter, Bessie Harvey, Clementine Hunter, Rev. John L. Hunter, Reginald (Reggie) Mitchell, Deacon Eddie Moore, Sister Gertrude Morgan, Emma Lee Moss, J.B. Murry, Royal Robertson, Sulton Rogers, James (J.P.) Scott, Xmeah, ShaEla'ReEl, Herbert Singleton, Isaac Smith, Mary T. Smith, Jimmie Lee Sudduth, Johnnie Swearingen, James (Son) Thomas, Mose Tolliver, Henry Speller, Willard (The Texas Kid) Watson, George White, Chuck (Artist Chuckie) Williams, and many others. The collection includes over 500 works and a reference collection.
DARTMOUTH (MA). University Art Gallery, University of Massachusetts.
Gifted Visions: African American Folk Art.
January 27-February 24, 1990.
Group exhibition curated by Sal Scalora. Included: Leroy Almon, Zebedee B. Armstrong, Steve Ashby, William Dawson, Walter Flax, Ralph Griffin, Bessie Harvey, Lonnie Holley, Inez Nathaniel-Walker, J. B. Murry, Royal Robertson, Mary T. Smith, Henry Speller, Jimmy Lee Sudduth, Mose Tolliver, and Luster Willis.
FARRINGTON, LISA E.
Creating Their Own Image: The History of African-American Women Artists.
New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
354 pp., 150 color plates, 100 b&w illus. A history of African American women artists, from slavery to the present day. Draws on numerous interviews with contemporary artists. The following are included with illustration(s): Laylah Ali, Emma Amos, Xenobia Bailey, Camille Billops, Betty Blayton, Chakaia Booker, Kay Brown, Vivian E. Browne, Beverly Buchanan, Selma Burke, Carole Byard, Carol Ann Carter, Nanette Carter, Elizabeth Catlett, Yvonne Parks Catchings, Barbara Chase-Riboud, Luiza Francis Combs, Josie Covington, Renée Cox, Sarah Mapps Douglass, Sharon Dunn, Gaye Ellington, Minnie Evans, Meta Warrick Fuller, Ellen Gallagher, Deborah Grant, Alyne Harris, Bessie Harvey, Robin Holder, Margo Humphrey, Clementine Hunter, May Howard Jackson, Martha Jackson-Jarvis, Marie Johnson-Calloway, Lois Mailou Jones, Barbara Jones-Hogu, Elizabeth Keckly, Pamela Jennings, Jean Lacy, Ruth Lampkins, Edmonia Lewis, Samella Lewis, Valerie Maynard, Dindga McCannon, Geraldine McCullough, Vicki Meek, Sister Gertrude Morgan, Lorraine O'Grady, Mary Lovelace O'Neal, Winnie Owens-Hart, Howardena Pindell, Adrian Piper, Stephanie Pogue, Georgette Seabrooke Powell, Harriet Powers, Debra Priestly, Nancy Elizabeth Prophet, Helen Evans Ramsaran, Nellie Mae Rowe, Betye Saar, Gail Shaw-Clemons, Mary T. Smith, Faith Ringgold, Alison Saar, Betye Saar, Joyce J. Scott, Lorna Simpson, Sylvia Snowden, Renée Stout, Freida High W. Tesfagiogis, Alma Thomas, Annie E. Anderson Walker, Kara Walker, Adell Westbrook, Laura Wheeler Waring, Carrie Mae Weems, Joyce Wellman, Philemona Williamson, Deborah Willis, Beulah Ecton Woodard. Others such as Margaret Burroughs, Catti, Tana Hargest, Kira Lynn Harris, Cynthia Hawkins, Jennie C. Jones, Adia Millett, Julie Mehretu, Camille Norment, Aminah Robinson, Nadine Robinson, Gilda Snowden, Ann Tanksley, Shirley Woodson, are briefly mentioned in passing. [Review: April F. Masten, Illuminating the Color Line Artist by Artist," Reviews in American History Vol. 35, No. 2 (June 2007):265-272; Renée Ater, "Creating Their Own Image: The History of African-American Women Artists," NWSA Journal Vol. 19, No. 1 (Spring 2007):211-217.] 4to (11 x 8 in.), cloth, d.j. First ed.
FINE, GARY ALAN.
Everyday Genius: Self-Taught Art and the Culture of Authenticity.
Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2004.
340 pp., illus., notes, index. Includes over fifty African American artists: Jesse Aaron, Leroy Almon, George Andrews, Steve Ashby, Amiri Baraka, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Roger Brown, David Butler, Archie Byron, Ulysses S. Davis, William Dawson, Thornton Dial, Sam Doyle, William Edmondson, Minnie Evans, Walter Flax, Tyree Guyton, Dilmus Hall, James Hampton, Bessie Harvey, Gerald Hawkes, William L. Hawkins, Lonnie Holley, Clementine Hunter, Willie Jinks, Frank Albert Jones, Eddie Lee Kendrick, Ronald Lockett, Charlie Lucas, Sister Gertrude Morgan, J. B. Murry, Inez Nathaniel-Walker, Leslie Payne, David Philpot, Elijah Pierce, Horace Pippin, Nellie Mae Rowe, Kevin Sampson, Earl Simmons, Bernice Sims, Herbert Singleton, Charles Smith, Mary T. Smith, Jimmie Lee Sudduth, James (Son) Thomas, Mose Tolliver, Bill Traylor, Gregory Warmack (Mr. Imagination), George White, George Williams, Luster Willis, Joseph Yoakum, Purvis Young. Small 4to (9 x 6.3 in.), cloth, d.j. First ed.
GATES, HENRY LOUIS and EVELYN BROOKS HIGGINBOTHAM, eds.
African American National Biography.
2009.
Originally published in 8 volumes, the set has grown to 12 vollumes with the addition of 1000 new entries. Also available as online database of biographies, accessible only to paid subscribers (well-endowed institutions and research libraries.) As per update of February 2, 2009, the following artists were included in the 8-volume set, plus addenda. A very poor showing for such an important reference work. Hopefully there are many more artists in the new entries: Jesse Aaron, Julien Abele (architect), John H. Adams, Jr., Ron Adams, Salimah Ali, James Latimer Allen, Charles H. Alston, Amalia Amaki, Emma Amos, Benny Andrews, William E. Artis, Herman "Kofi" Bailey, Walter T. Bailey (architect), James Presley Ball, Edward M. Bannister, Anthony Barboza, Ernie Barnes, Richmond Barthé, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Cornelius Marion Battey, Romare Bearden, Phoebe Beasley, Arthur Bedou, Mary A. Bell, Cuesta Ray Benberry, John Biggers, Camille Billops, Howard Bingham, Alpha Blackburn, Robert H. Blackburn, Walter Scott Blackburn, Melvin R. Bolden, David Bustill Bowser, Wallace Branch, Barbara Brandon, Grafton Tyler Brown, Richard Lonsdale Brown, Barbara Bullock, Selma Hortense Burke, Calvin Burnett, Margaret Taylor Goss Burroughs, John Bush, Elmer Simms Campbell, Elizabeth Catlett, David C. Chandler, Jr., Raven Chanticleer, Ed Clark, Allen Eugene Cole, Robert H. Colescott, Eldzier Cortor, Ernest T. Crichlow, Michael Cummings, Dave the Potter [David Drake], Griffith J. Davis, Thomas Day, Beauford Delaney, Joseph Delaney, Thornton Dial, Sr., Joseph Eldridge Dodd, Jeff Donaldson, Aaron Douglas, Sam Doyle, David Clyde Driskell, Robert S. Duncanson, Ed Dwight (listed as military, not as artist); Mel Edwards, Minnie Jones Evans, William McNight Farrow, Elton Fax, Daniel Freeman, Meta Warrick Fuller, Reginald Gammon, King Daniel Ganaway, the Goodridge Brothers, Rex Goreleigh, Tyree Guyton, James Hampton, Della Brown Taylor (Hardman), Edwin Augustus Harleston, Charles "Teenie" Harris, Lyle Ashton Harris, Bessie Harvey, Isaac Scott Hathaway, Palmer Hayden, Nestor Hernandez, George Joseph Herriman, Varnette Honeywood, Walter Hood, Richard L. Hunster, Richard Hunt, Clementine Hunter, Bill Hutson, Joshua Johnson, Sargent Claude Johnson, William H. Johnson, Lois Mailou Jones, Ann Keesee, Gwendolyn Knight, Jacob Lawrence, Hughie Lee-Smith, Edmonia Lewis, Samella Lewis, Glenn Ligon, Jules Lion, Edward Love, Estella Conwill Majozo, Ellen Littlejohn, Kerry James Marshall, Lynn Marshall-Linnemeier, Richard Mayhew, Carolyn Mazloomi, Aaron Vincent McGruder, Robert H. McNeill, Scipio Moorhead, Archibald H. Motley, Jr., Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe, Mr. Imagination (Gregory Warmack), Lorraine O'Grady, Jackie Ormes, Joe Overstreet, Carl Owens, Gordon Parks, Sr., Gordon Parks, Jr., C. Edgar Patience, Howardena Pindell, Adrian Margaret Smith Piper, Rose Piper, Horace Pippin, William Sidney Pittman, Stephanie Pogue, Prentiss Herman Polk (as Prentice), James Amos Porter, Harriet Powers, Elizabeth Prophet, Martin Puryear, Patrick Henry Reason, Michael Richards, Arthur Rose, Alison Saar, Betye Saar, Raymond Saunders, Augusta Savage, Joyce J. Scott, Addison Scurlock, George Scurlock, Willie Brown Seals, Charles Sebree, Joe Selby, Lorna Simpson, Norma Merrick Sklarek, Clarissa Sligh, Albert Alexander Smith, Damballah Smith, Marvin and Morgan Smith, Maurice B. Sorrell, Simon Sparrow, Rozzell Sykes, Henry Ossawa Tanner, Alma Thomas, J.J. Thomas, Robert Louis (Bob) Thompson, Mildred Jean Thompson, Dox Thrash, William Tolliver, Bill Traylor, Leo F. Twiggs, James Augustus Joseph Vanderzee, Kara Walker, William Onikwa Wallace, Laura Wheeler Waring, Augustus Washington, James W. Washington, Jr., Carrie Mae Weems, James Lesesne Wells, Charles White, John H. White, Jack Whitten, Carla Williams, Daniel S. Williams, Paul Revere Williams (architect), Deborah Willis, Ed Wilson, Ellis Wilson, Fred Wilson, John Woodrow Wilson, Ernest C. Withers, Beulah Ecton Woodard, Hale Aspacio Woodruff.
GUNDAKER, GREY, ed.
Keep your Head to the Sky: Interpreting African American Home ground.
Charlottesville and London: University Press of Virginia, 1998.
viii, 344 pp., illus., list of illus., map, bibliog., notes, index. A collection of broad interdisciplinary texts. Most do not relate directly to the visual arts, with four notable exceptions: Grey Gundake: "Introduction: Home Ground"; Robert Farris Thompson: "Bighearted power: Kongo presence in the landscape and art of Black America"; Judith McWillie: "Art, healing, and power in the Afro-Atlantic-South"; and Ywone D. Edwards: "Trash revisited: a comparative approach to historical descriptions and archaeological analyses of slave houses and yards." 8vo (25 cm.), cloth, d.j. First ed.
HARTIGAN, LYNDA ROSCOE.
Made with Passion: The Hemphill Folk Art Collection in the National Museum of American Art.
Washington, DC: Smithsonian, 1990.
240 pp., 191 works, all illus. (most in color) with numerous additional text illus., full catalogue description and essay on many works, bibliog., index. Texts by Hartigan, Andrew L. Connors, Elizabeth Tisdel Holmstead, Tonia L. Horton. Dozens of pieces in all media from carving to sewing to neon shop lights by unidentified artists, some famous self-taught artists, Native American tribal art, and a choice collection of 20 African American artists: Steve Ashby, Patsy Billups (only mentioned in passing), David Butler, William Edmondson, Minnie Evans, Josephus Farmer, James Hampton, Bessie Harvey, William Hawkins, Clementine Hunter, Frank Jones, Sister Gertrude Morgan, Inez Nathaniel-Walker, Leslie Payne, Elijah Pierce, Horace Pippin, Simon Sparrow, Mose Tolliver, Bill Traylor, Joseph Yoakum. 4to, cloth, d.j. First ed.
HOY, ANNE, ed.
Testimony: Vernacular Art of the African American South: The Ronald and June Shelp Collection.
New York: Abrams, 2001.
192 pp., 101 excellent quality color plates, 70 b&w illus., list of plates, notes, bibliog., index. Texts by Kinshasha Conwill, Arthur C. Danto, Edmund Barry Gaither, Grey Gundaker, Judith M. McWillie. Thematically organized show with paintings, drawings, and sculptures by 27 self-taught artists including: Leroy Almon, Hawkins Bolden, Richard Burnside, Archie Byron, Arthur Dial, Richard Dial, Thornton Dial, Sr., Thornton Dial, Jr., Ralph Griffin, Bessie Harvey, Lonnie Holley, Joe Light, Ronald Lockett, Charlie Lucas, Joe Minter, J.B. Murry, Mary Proctor, Lorenzo Scott, Herbert Singleton, Mary Tillman Smith, Georgia Speller, Henry Speller, Jimmie Lee Sudduth, James (Son) Thomas; Mose Tolliver, Felix Virgous, Purvis Young, and others. [Published in conjunction with the exhibition held at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts and four other museums, Sept. 15, 2000-Jan., 2004.] Small sq. 4to (27 cm.), pictorial papered boards, d.j.
KING-HAMMOND, LESLIE and bell hooks.
Gumbo Ya Ya: An Anthology of Contemporary African American Women Artists.
New York: Midmarch Arts Press, 1995.
351 pp., over 300 illus. (11 in color), photo and /or illus., biogs., exhibs., and brief critical text for each artist, index. Intro. by Leslie King-Hammond. Essential reference listing of 152 women artists with brief entries by African American scholars and curators; more than a dozen others are mentioned in passing (see below primary list.) It should be mentioned that most performance artists, filmmakers, video artists, folk artists, quilters, most photographers, illustrators, and other categories such as the entire new generation of artists established in the decade preceding publication are omitted. Artists included in the primary listings: Emma Amos, Rose Auld, Xenobia Bailey, Mildred Baldwin, Ellen Banks, Trena Banks, Phoebe Beasley, Camille Billops, Betty Blayton, Lula Mae Blocton, Kabuya P. Bowens, Brenda Branch, Kay Brown, Vivian E. Browne, Beverly Buchanan, Selma Burke, Millie Burns, Margaret Burroughs, Carole Byard, Carol Ann Carter, Nanette Carter, Yvonne Pickering Carter, Yvonne Catchings, Elizabeth Catlett, Catti, Robin Chandler, Barbara Chase-Riboud, Marie Cochran, Virginia Cox, Pat Cummings, Mary Reed Daniel, Juette Day, Nadine DeLawrence, Julee Dickerson-Thompson, Marita Dingus, Yanla Dozier, Tina Dunkley, Malaika Favorite, Violet Fields, Ibibio Fundi, Olivia Gatewood, Jan Spivey Gilchrist, Michele Godwin, Gladys Barker Grauer, Renée Green, Ethel Guest, Cheryl Hanna, Inge Hardison, Bessie Harvey, Maren Hassinger, Cynthia Hawkins, Janet Henry, Candace Hill-Montgomery, Adrienne Hoard, Robin Holder, Jenelsie Holloway, Jacqui Holmes, Varnette Honeywood, Mildred Howard, Margo Humphrey, Irmagean, Suzanne Jackson, Martha Jackson-Jarvis, Marie Johnson-Calloway, Marva Lee Pitchford Jolly, Lois Mailou Jones, Barbara Jones-Hogu, Kai Kambel, Margaret Slade Kelly, Gwendolyn Knight, Ruth Lampkins, Artis Lane, Viola Leak, Dori Lemeh, Mary Le Ravin, Rosalind Letcher, Edmonia Lewis, Samella Lewis, Marcia Lloyd, Fern Logan, Lynn Marshall-Linnemeier, Valerie Maynard, Dindga McCannon, Geraldine McCullough, Vivian McDuffie, Joanne McFarland, Vicki Meek, Yvonne Meo, Eva Hamlin Miller, Corinne Howard Mitchell, Evangeline Montgomery, Norma Morgan, Lillian Morgan-Lewis, Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe, Deborah Muirhead, Sana Musasama, Marilyn Nance, Senga Nengudi, Lorraine O'Grady, Mary Lovelace O'Neal, Winifred Owens-Hart, Sandra Payne, Janet Taylor Pickett, Delilah Williams Pierce, Howardena Pindell, Adrian Piper, Rose Piper, Stephanie Pogue, Georgette Seabrooke Powell, Debra Priestly, Mavis Pusey, Helen Ramsaran, Patricia Ravarra, Faith Ringgold, Malkia Roberts, Aminah Robinson, Sandra Rowe, Alison Saar, Betye Saar, Eve Sandler, Joanne Scott, Joyce J. Scott, Cheryl Shackleton, Yolanda Sharpe, Gail Shaw-Clemons, Jewel Simon, Coreen Simpson, Lorna Simpson, Clarissa Sligh, Gilda Snowden, Sylvia Snowden, Shirley Stark, Janet Stewart, Renée Stout, Elisabeth Sunday, Ann Tanksley, Vivian Tanner, Anna Tate, Evelyn Terry, Freida High Tesfagiorgis, Alma Thomas, Barbara Thomas, Mildred Thompson, Renée Townsend, Yvonne Tucker, Ruth Waddy, Denise Ward-Brown, Fan Warren, Bisa Washington, Mary Washington, Joyce Wellman, Adell Westbrook, Linda Whitaker, Pat Ward Williams, Philemona Williamson, Deborah Willis, Shirley Woodson, [OTHERS mentioned in passing or in footnotes include the following: May Howard Jackson, Meta Warrick Fuller, Nancy Elizabeth Prophet, Annie Walker, Laura Waring, Irene Clark, Clementine Hunter, Harriet Powers, Gladys-Marie Fry, Cuesta Benberry, Rosalind Jeffries [as Roslind], Sister Gertrude Morgan, Inez Nathaniel-Walker, Nellie Mae Rowe, Mary T. Smith, Grannie Dear Williams. Mentions artists the editors hoped to include, but who weren't for various reasons: Amalia Amaki, Jacqueline Bontemps, Ora Williams Carter, Marva Cremer, Pat Davis, Kira Harris, Ruth Beckman Holloman, May Howard, Dolores Johnson, Jean Lacy, Toni Lane, Laurie Ourlicht, Virginia Smit, Ming Smith, Phyllis Thompson, Deborah Wilkins, and Viola M. Wood.] 4to (11 x 8.5 in ), wraps. First ed.
KNOXVILLE (TN). Bennett Galleries.
Bessie Harvey, Sammie Nicely.
1989.
Two-person exhibition.
LAFAYETTE (LA). University Art Museum, University of Southeastern Louisiana.
Baking in the Sun: Visionary images from the South: selections from the collection of Sylvia and Warren Lowe.
June 13-July 31, 1987.
146 pp. exhib. cat., b&w and color illus., sections for individual artists with photo and discussion of each, bibliog., checklist of 180 works. Substantial overview texts by co-authors Andy Nasisse and Maude Southwell Wahlman which include discussion of many artists not in the exhibition: David Butler, Sam Doyle, William Edmondson, Arester Earl, James Hampton, Bessie Harvey, J. B. Murry, Royal Robertson, Juanita Rogers, Nellie Mae Rowe, Mary T. Smith, Sarah Mary Taylor, Henry Speller, James "Son" Thomas, Mose Tolliver, Lizzie Wilkerson, George Williams, Luster Willis, Joseph Yoakum. [Traveled to: Meadows Museum of Art, Shreveport, LA, September 1-November 1, 1988: Alexandria Museum Visual Art Center, LA, March 26-April 30; Beaumont Art Museum, TX, May 7-July 10; Mississippi State Historical Museum, Jackson, MI, July 24-September 11; Georgia Museum of Art, September 25-November 27 and other venues.] 4to (28 cm.), wraps. First ed.
LIPPARD, LUCY R.
Mixed Blessings: New Art in A Multicultural America.
New York: Pantheon, 1990.
viii, 278 pp, illus., notes, bibliog., index. [Reissued in 2000 with new introduction.] African American artists include: Charles Abramson, Emma Amos, Benny Andrews, Trena Banks, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Romare Bearden, Willie Birch, Fred Brathwaite, Beverly Buchanan, Carole Byard, Albert Chong, Robert Colescott, Houston Conwill, Aaron Douglas, Beauford Delaney, Joseph Delaney, Murry DePillars, Thornton Dial, Melvin Edwards, Meta Warrick Fuller, David Hammons, Bessie Harvey, Maren Hassinger, William L. Hawkins, Candace Hill-Montgomery, Lonnie Holley, Clifford Jackson, Martha Jackson-Jarvis, Rosalind Jeffries, Noah Jemison, William H. Johnson, K.O.S., Ben Jones, Jacob Lawrence, James Lewis, Joe Lewis, Samella Lewis, Tyrone Mitchell, Keith Morrison, Lorraine O'Grady, John Outterbridge, Joe Overstreet, Lorenzo Pace, Howardena Pindell, Adrian Piper, Willie Posey, Martin Puryear, Faith Ringgold, Nellie Mae Rowe, Alison Saar, Betye Saar, Juan Sanchez, Joyce Scott, Coreen Simpson, Lorna Simpson, Clarissa Sligh, George Smith, Mary T. Smith, James (Son Ford). Thomas, Danny Tisdale, Kaylynn Sullivan TwoTrees, Christian Walker, Pat Ward Williams. Numerous others named in passing or mentioned briefly in the footnotes. Sq. 8vo, cloth backed boards, d.j. First ed.
London (UK). Raw Vision.
Raw Vision 37 (Winter 2001-2).
2002.
Includes feature article by Jenifer Borum on Bessie Harvey; substantial article by John Maizels sketching the history of the definition of outsider art from the art brut era use of the term to contemporary American usage of the terms self-taught or naïve art. Brief mention of Mr. Imagination, Tyree Guyton, Hawkins Bolden, Lonnie Holley (as Holly) and Charlie Lucas. Also includes an article on Watts Tower by Jo Farb Hernandez. 4to, wraps.
MACON (GA). Museum of Arts and Sciences.
Stories of Community: Self-Taught Art from the Hill Collection.
August 12-October 30, 2004.
Exhibition of work loaned by the Mary Brogan Museum of Art and Science, Tallahassee, Florida. 34 works by 19 self-taught artists including: Jessie J. Aaron, Archie Byron, Arthur Dial, Richard Dial, Thornton Dial, Sr., Bessie Harvey, Lonnie Holley, Charlie Lucas, J.B. Murry, Mary Proctor, O.L. Samuels, Mary T. Smith, Georgia Speller, Henry Speller, Jimmy Lee Sudduth, James (Son) Thomas, Mose Tolliver, Luster Willis, and Purvis Young. [Also exhibited at The Wiregrass Museum of Art, Dothan, AL; Center for Cultural Arts, Gadsden, AL; The Appleton Museum of Art, Ocala, FL; Department of Art Gallery, Mississippi State University, MS, 2005.]
MAIZELS, JOHN.
Raw Creation: Outsider Art and Beyond.
Phaidon, 1996.
240 pp., illus., appendices, bibliog., index. Intro. by Roger Cardinal. Includes: Gabriel Bien-Aimé, Hawkins Bolden, Thornton Dial, Sr., Sam Doyle, William Edmondson, Minnie Evans, Bessie Harvey, William Hawkins, Hector Hyppolite, Felix LaFortune (as LaFortune Felix), Wifredo Lam, Stivenson Magloire, J.B. Murry, André Pierre, Chéri Samba, Twins Seven-Seven, Robert St.-Brice, Mose Tolliver, Bill Traylor, Joseph Yoakum. 4to (11.8 x 10.2 in.), cloth, d.j. First ed.
MARTIN, ELIZABETH and VIVIAN MEYER.
Female Gazes: Seventy-five Women Artists.
Toronto: Second Story Press, 1997.
176 pp., 75 color plates, bibliog., list of illustrations, index of artists. The text includes journal entries, letters, and excerpts from autobiographies of several women artists. The art of seventy-five European and North American women. A collection of work done by artists in Canada, Europe, the United States and Mexico. Includes: Edmonia Lewis, Grace Channer, June Clark, Meta Warrick Fuller, Bessie Harvey, Lois Mailou Jones, et al. 4to (10.5 x 9.5 in.), cloth, d.j.
McCONNELL, CHRISTINE (Dir.).
Kindred Spirits: Contemporary African American Artists (Video).
North Texas Public Broadcasting Inc., TX, 1992.
Based on the exhibition Black Art Ancestral Legacy organized by the Dallas Museum of Art. Includes interviews with seven artists from the exhibition, John Biggers, Bessie Harvey, Lois Mailou Jones, Jean Lacy, Ed Love, Charles Searles, and Renée Stout and also poet Maya Angelou. Produced by KERA-TV and North Texas Public Broadcasting; distributed by PBS Video. [Originallly issued with 7 envelopes with art prints + teacher guide.] VHS-NTSC: color, sd.; 30 min.
McEVILLEY, THOMAS.
The Missing Tradition - African American art, Atlanta City Hall; Thornton Dial, Michael C. Carlos Museum, Atlanta, Georgia.
1997.
In: Art in America (May 1997). Extensive review of two exhibitions: Thornton Dial: Remembering the Road and Souls Grown Deep. Wide-ranging discussion of the place of Black vernacular art in the larger art world. Artists discussed include: J. B. Murry, Thornton Dial. Also mentioned: Nellie Mae Roe, Lonnie Holley, Eldren Bailey, Bessie Harvey, Mary T. Smith, Ronald Lockett, Charles Williams, Purvis Young, Sam Doyle, Joe Light, Vernon Burwell, Charlie Lucas, Ralph Griffin. 4to, wraps.
MCWILLIE, JUDY and GREY GUNDAKER.
No Space Hidden: The Spirit of African American Yard Work.
Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2005.
264 pp., 197 illus. (19 in color.) Presents an invaluable amount of new material both in the number of artists discussed and the analysis of their common imagery and concerns. Includes: Zebedee B. Armstrong, E.M. Bailey, Hawkins Bolden, Cyrus Bowens, Clarence Burse, Henry Craig, Henry Luke Faust, Florence Gibson, Charlie Greer, Ralph Griffin, Dilmus Hall, Estelle Hamler, James Hampton, Bishop Washington Harris, Bessie Harvey, Sam Hogue, Lonnie Holley, Olivia Humphrey, Rev. George Kornegay, Bennie Lusane, Victor Melancon, Robert Montgomery, J.B. Murry, Mary Tillman Smith, Annie Sturghill, Eddie Williamson, Robert Watson, and others. 8vo (26 x 21 cm.; 10 x 8 in.), wraps.
MILWAUKEE (WI). Blutstein Brondino Fine Art.
The Passion of the Self-Taught Artist.
January 20-March 10, 2012.
Group exhibition. Included: Prophet William Blackmon, Blanche Brown, Cheryl "Cyndaar" Banks, William R. Dawson, Rev. Josephus Farmer, Anwar Floyd-Pruitt, Rhonda Gatlin-Hayes, Bessie Harvey, George McCormick, Richard Mynor, Jimmie Lee Sudduth, John Toney, Inez Walker. Exhibition announcement card, printed on both sides, 5 color illus.
MILWAUKEE (WI). Dean Jensen Gallery.
Naives, Seers, Lone Wolves and World Savers XXI.
February 19-April 10, 2010.
Group exhibition of self-taught/outsider artists. Included: William Dawson, Thornton Dial, Bessie Harvey, Mary Maxtion, Joseph Yoakum, Purvis Young.
MILWAUKEE (WI). Patrick and Beatrice Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University.
Contemporary American Folk Art: The Balsley Collection.
1992.
72 pp. exhib. cat., 15 color and 35 b&w illus., bibliog. Ed. Curtis L. Carter; texts by Roger Manley, Didi Barrett. Includes Prophet William J. Blackmon, Bessie Harvey, William Hawkins, Hanry Speller, Joseph Yoakum, et al. 4to (27 x 23 cm.; 10.4 x 8.8 in.), wraps. First ed.
MOSES, KATHY.
Outsider Art of the South.
Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 1999.
240 pp., 444 color and 12 b&w illus., price guide, bibliog., index, exhibs. Discusses the lives and work of thirty-four self-taught artists, two folk art environments, and one museum. Includes: Rev. H. D. Dennis, Thornton Dial, Sr., William Edmondson, Roy Ferdinand Jr., Bessie Harvey, Lonnie Holley, Helen Lafrance, Ronald Lockett, Sister Gertrude Morgan, Prophet Royal Robertson, Sulton Rogers, O.L. Samuels, Lorenzo Scott, Bernice Sims, Herbert Singleton, Henry Speller, Vannoy Streeter, Jimmie Lee Sudduth, Reverend Johnnie Swearingen, Mose Tolliver, Rev. Albert Wagner, Purvis Young. 4to (11.1 x 8.5 in.), cloth.
MURFREESBORO (TN). Tennessee State Museum.
A Creative Legacy: African American Arts in Tennessee.
Thru August 31, 2014.
Group exhibition of 46 works by 16 artists who were born/and or worked in Tennesee. Included: Aaron Douglas, Joseph and Beauford Delaney, William Edmondson, Bessie Harvey, Greg Ridley, Barbara Bullock, David Driskell, Samuel Dunson, Alicia Henry, George Hunt, Simon Jackson, Ted Jones, Michael McBride, James Threalkill, and Vannoy Streeter.
MURFREESBORO (TN). Tennessee State Museum.
Visions of My People: Sixty Years of African American Art in Tennessee.
Nashville African American Arts Association (N4ART), 1997.
48 pp. exhib. cat., color illus. Text by curator Gregory Ridley, Jr. Included Barbara Bullock, Joseph Delaney, Aaron Douglas, Samuel Dunson, Donald Earley, William Edmondson, Ashley Dolores Harris, Bessie Harvey, George Hunt, Nina Lovelace, Michael McBride, Minnie Miles, Sammie Nicely, Frances Euphemia Thompson, Everett Charles Yates, et al. [Review: David Ribar, NashvilleScene, October 20, 1997.] Oblong 4to (22 x 28 cm.), wraps.
NEW ORLEANS (LA). Gasperi Folk Art Gallery.
Bessie Harvey and Lonnie Holley.
1991.
Two-person exhibition. Curated by Richard Gasperi.
NEW YORK (NY)..
The New York Public Library African American Desk Reference.
Wiley, 1999.
Includes a short and dated list of the usual 110+ artists, with a considerable New York bias, and a random handful of Haitian artists, reflecting the collection at the Schomburg: architect Julian Francis Abele. Josephine Baker, Edward M. Bannister, Amiri Baraka, Richmond Barthé, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Romare Bearden, John T. Biggers, Camille Billops, Bob Blackburn, Betty Blayton, Frank Bowling, Grafton Tyler Brown, Selma Burke, Margaret Burroughs, David Butler, Elizabeth Catlett, Barbara Chase-Riboud, Edward Clark, Robert Colescott, Ernest Crichlow, Emilio Cruz, William Dawson, Roy DeCarava, Beauford Delaney, Joseph Delaney, Aaron Douglas, John Dowell, Robert S. Duncanson, John Dunkley, William Edmondson, Melvin Edwards, Minnie Evans, Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller, Sam Gilliam, Henry Gudgell, David Hammons, James Hampton, William A. Harper, Bessie Harvey, Isaac Hathaway, Albert Huie, Eugene Hyde, Jean-Baptiste Jean, Florian Jenkins, Sargent Johnson, William H. Johnson, Joshua Johnston, Lois Mailou Jones, Lou Jones, Napoleon Jones-Henderson, Ronald Joseph, Jacob Lawrence, Hughie Lee-Smith, Edmonia Lewis, Georges Liautaud, Seresier Louisjuste, Richard Mayhew, Jean Metellus, Oscar Micheaux, David Miller, Scipio Moorhead, Archibald J. Motley, Abdias do Nascimento, Philomé Obin, Joe Overstreet, Gordon Parks, David Philpot, Elijah Pierce, Howardena Pindell, Horace Pippin, James A. Porter, David Pottinger, Harriet Powers, Martin Puryear, Gregory D. Ridley, Faith Ringgold, Sultan Rogers, Leon Rucker, Alison Saar, Betye Saar, Raymond Saunders, Augusta Savage, William Edouard Scott, Senegalese filmmaker Ousmane Sembene, Ntozake Shange, Philip Simmons, Lorna Simpson, Moneta J. Sleet, Vincent D. Smith, Micius Stéphane, Renée Stout, SUN RA, Alma Thomas, Neptune Thurston, Mose Tolliver (as Moses), Bill Traylor, Gerard Valcin, James Vanderzee, Melvin Van Peebles. Derek Walcott, Kara Walker, Eugene Warburg, Laura Wheeler Waring, James W. Washington, Barrington Watson, Carrie Mae Weems, James Lesesne Wells, Charles White, Jack Whitten, Lester Willis, William T. Williams, John Wilson, Hale Woodruff, Richard Yarde. 8vo (9.1 x 7.5 in.), cloth, d.j.
NEW YORK (NY). Alternative Museum.
Syncretism: The Art of the Twenty First Century.
1991.
25 pp. exhib. cat., illus. 7 of the 18 artists are African American artists including: Houston Conwill, Willie Leroy Elliott, Jr., Bessie Harvey, Frank Jones, Ouattara Watts, Philadelphia Wireman, Alison Saar. 4to, wraps.
NEW YORK (NY). Artists Space.
5000 Artists Return to Artists Space: 25 Years.
1998.
352 pp., interviews with selected curators and former directors of Artists Space, testimonials by numerous artists (including Adrian Piper), index of names, list of publications. Claudia Gould and Valerie Smith, eds. One of the best known of the new contemporary museums that sprang up across America during the '70s, because it was controlled by artists and located in the heart of Soho. As the record indicates, however, Artists Space was also one of the least inclined to include artists of color in their exhibitions; fewer than 1% of the 5000 artists exhibited in 25 years of group exhibitions were African American and most of these were shown during the 2+-year period when Connie Butler was curator at Artists Space. Group exhibitions included the following artists: Jane Alexander, Emma Amos, Benny Andrews, Xenobia Bailey, Amiri Baraka, Camille Billops, Willie Birch, Prophet William Blackmon, Fred Brathwaite, Kaucyila Brooke, James Andrew Brown, Ed Clark, Willie Cole, Renée Cox, Melvin Edwards, Fab 5 Freddy, Futura 2000, Ellen Gallagher, Tony Gray, Renée Green, David Hammons, Bessie Harvey, Lyle Ashton Harris, Cynthia Hawkins, Janet Henry, Marilyn Nance, Senga Nengudi, Lorraine O'Grady, Joe Overstreet, Paul Pfeiffer, William Pope.L., Marlon Riggs, Gary Simmons, Lorna Simpson, Kara Walker, Carrie Mae Weems, Tim Whiten, Pat Ward Williams, Fred Wilson, Purvis Young, and a few others. 4to (11 x 8.4 in.), boards.
NEW YORK (NY). Artists Space.
Art's Mouth.
May 16-June 29, 1991.
Exhib. cat., b&w illus. Curator Connie Butler; texts by Butler and Gregory Amenoff. 6 artists including: Prophet William Blackmon, Freddie Brice, Bessie Harvey.
NEW YORK (NY). Baruch College, CUNY.
Black History and Artistry: Work by Self-Taught Painters and Sculptors from the Blanchard-Hill Collection.
February 5-March 3, 1993.
43 pp. exhib. cat., 14 color plates, 22 b&w illus., biogs. of artists, checklist of 51 works by 33 artists. Curated and text by Sandra Kraskin. Artists included: Leroy Almon, Richard Burnside, Charles Burwell, William Dawson, Thornton Dial, Sr., Sam Doyle, Willie Leroy Elliott, Jr., Minnie Evans, William O. Golding, Bessie Harvey, William Hawkins, Mr. Imagination (Gregory Warmack), Frank Jones, Annie Lucas, Charlie Lucas, Willie Massey, Daniel Pressley, Ellis Ruley, Herbert Singleton, Mary T. Smith, Simon Sparrow, Jimmie Lee Sudduth, Rev. Johnnie Swearingen, James "Son" Thomas, Louis E. Thompson, Mose Tolliver, Bill Traylor, Inez Nathaniel-Walker, Arliss Watford, Derek Webster, Joseph Yoakum. 4to (28 x 22 cm.), pictorial wraps. First ed.
NEW YORK (NY). Baruch College, CUNY.
Wrestling with History: A Celebration of African American Self-Taught Artists from the collection of Ronald and June Shelp.
1996.
72 pp., 71 excellent color plates, 5 b&w illus., checklist of 69 works, bibliog., exhib. checklist. Text by Sandra Kraskin. Focus on the four artists of the Dial family with the addition of approximately 21 others (including 3 women artists): Leroy Almon, Hawkins Bolden, Richard Burnside, Archie Byron, Arthur Dial, Richard Dial, Thornton Dial, Jr., Thornton Dial, Sr., Ralph Griffin, Bessie Harvey, Lonnie Holley, Joe Light, Ronald Lockett, Charlie Lucas, J.B. Murry, Lorenzo Scott, Herbert Singleton, Mary T. Smith, Georgia Speller, Henry Speller, Jimmy Lee Sudduth, James (Son) Thomas, Mose Tolliver, Felix Virgous, Purvis Young. 4to, pictorial wraps. First ed.
NEW YORK (NY). Bernice Steinbaum Gallery.
American Resources: Selected Works of African American Artists.
August 26-September 24, 1989.
Unpag. (94 pp.) exhib. cat., 91 b&w illus., checklist. A catalogue of three exhibitions held June 18-August 18 in Nashville which were subsequently shown together at Bernice Steinbaum Gallery. Includes: 14 older masterworks, 57 works by 47 contemporary avant garde artists, and 34 works by outsider artists. Curated and text by Bernice Steinbaum. Excellent wide-ranging selection with many women artists represented. Includes: Emma Amos, Benny Andrews, Richmond Barthé [as Richard], Romare Bearden, John Biggers, Camille Billops, Bob Blackburn, Frederick J. Brown, Vivian Browne, Beverly Buchanan, David Butler, Carole Byard, Archie Byron, Kimberly Camp, Elizabeth Catlett, Catti, Albert Chong, C'love, Robert Colescott, Houston Conwill, Eldzier Cortor, Ernest Crichlow, Thornton Dial (Sr.), Jeff Donaldson, Aaron Douglas, Sam Doyle, David Driskell, William Edmondson, Minnie Evans, Sam Gilliam, Ralph Griffin, Bessie Harvey, Maren Hassinger, Gerald Hawkes, Janet Henry, Lonnie Holley (as Holly), Margo Humphrey, Richard Hunt, Noah Jemisin, Sargent Johnson, William H. Johnson, Lois Mailou Jones, Ronald Joseph, Jacob Lawrence, Hughie Lee-Smith, Norman Lewis, Joe Light, Ronald Lockett, Wini McQueen (as Winnie), J.B. Murry, Mary Lovelace O'Neal, Joe Overstreet, Howardena Pindell, Adrian Piper, Horace Pippin, James A. Porter, Martin Puryear, John Rhoden, John Riddle, Faith Ringgold, Royal Robertson, Juanita Rogers, Nellie Mae Rowe, Alison Saar, Raymond Saunders, Joyce Scott, Elizabeth Talford Scott, William E. Scott, Clarissa Sligh, Albert A. Smith (as Albert H. Smith), Mary T. Smith, Henry Speller, Jimmie Lee Sudduth, Alma Thomas, James (Son) Thomas, Bob Thompson (as Bobby), Mose Tolliver, Bill Traylor, Felix Vergous, Bisa Washington, Grace Y. Williams, Philemona Williamson, Hale Woodruff, Purvis Young. Narrow 8vo (23 cm.), grey paper wraps, lettered in black. First ed.
NEW YORK (NY). Cavin-Morris Gallery.
By Any Means Necessary: Sculpture by African-American Self-Taught Artists.
January 14-February 13, 1999.
Group exhibition. Included: Steve Ashby, David Butler, Bessie Harvey, Woody Joseph, George Liautaud, Errol McKenzie, Elija Pierce, Kevin Sampson, Henry Simms, Herbert Singleton, Doc Williamson.
NEW YORK (NY). Cavin-Morris Gallery.
Difficult Women.
September 19-October 19, 1996.
Group exhibition of 8 artists. Included: Minnie Evans, Bessie Harvey, Mary Whitfield.
NEW YORK (NY). Cavin-Morris Gallery.
Millennial Intentions: Post-20th Century Self-Taught Artists.
January 8-February 7, 1998.
Group exhibition of outsider art. Artists included: Freddie Brice, Leonard Daley, Bessie Harvey.
NEW YORK (NY). Cavin-Morris Gallery.
Redemption Songs II: Spirit Works From the Black Diaspora.
Thru July 5, 1991.
Group exhibition of 42 works by more than a dozen artists. Includes: Bill Traylor, Minnie Evans, Georges Liautaud, John Harvey, Bessie Harvey, Willie Leroy Elliott, Jr. Elijah Pierce, Simon Sparrow, et al. [Review: Michael Brenson, NYT, July 5, 1991.]
NEW YORK (NY). Cavin-Morris Gallery.
Redemption Songs: Outsider Art from the Black Diaspora.
September 17-October 24, 1987.
Group exhibition. Included: Frank Jones, Elijah Pierce, William Traylor, Joseph Yoakum, Archie Byron, Richard Burnside, Bessie Harvey, Lonnie Holley, Charlie Lucas, Mary T. Smith, and Philadelphia Wireman.
NEW YORK (NY). Museum of American Folk Art.
Ancestry and Innovation: African American Art from the Collection.
February 8-September 4, 2005.
Group exhibition. Curated by Stacy C. Hollander and Brooke Davis Anderson. Quilts, paintings, works on paper, and sculpture by contemporary African American artists. Includes: Elijah Pierce, Horace Pippin, William Edmondson, David Butler, Sam Doyle, Bessie Harvey, Clementine Hunter, Thornton Dial, Sr., Kevin Sampson, Bill Traylor, Willie LeRoy Elliot, Jr. and quiltmakers Leola Pettway, Idabell Bester, Mary Maxtion, Mozell Benson and Pearlie Posey. [Traveled to: Reynolds House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC, February 2-April 13, 2008; Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, TN, August 10-October 12, 2008; Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE, May 9-July 12, 2009; and many other venues.] Exhib. brochure.
NEW YORK (NY). Museum of American Folk Art.
Approaching Abstraction.
October 6, 2009-September 6, 2010.
Group exhibition of work by ten artists. Curated by Brooke Davis Anderson. Included: Thornton Dial, Jr., Bessie Harvey, J. B. Murry, and Purvis Young.
NEW YORK (NY). New Museum of Contemporary Art.
A Labour of Love.
January 20-April 14, 1996.
96 pp. exhib. cat., illus. Text by Marcia Tucker. 50 artists including five African American artists: Bessie Harvey, Sana Musasama, Faith Ringgold, Kevin Sampson, Alison Saar.
NEW YORK (NY). Studio Museum in Harlem.
When the Stars Begin to Fall: Imagination in the American South.
March 27-June 29, 2014.
154 pp. exhib. cat., color illus. Text by curator Thomas J. Lax, Horace Ballard, Katherine Jentleson, Scott Romine and Lowery Stokes Sims. Includes: Benny Andrews, Kevin Beasley, McArthur Binion, Beverly Buchanan, Henry Ray Clark, Courtesy the Artists, Thornton Dial, Minnie Evans, Theaster Gates, Deborah Grant, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Bessie Harvey, David Hammons, Lonnie Holley, Frank Albert Jones, Lauren Kelley, Ralph Lemon, Kerry James Marshall, Rodney McMillian, Joe Minter, J.B. Murray, John Outterbridge, Noah Purifoy, Marie (Big Mama) Roseman, Jacolby Satterwhite, Patricia Satterwhite, Rudy Shepherd, Xaviera Simmons, Georgia Speller, Henry Speller, James (Son) Thomas, Stacy Lynn Waddell, Kara Walker, Carrie Mae Weems and Geo Wyeth. [Traveled to: NSU Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, FL. Thru October 12, 2014; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, February 4-May 10, 2015.] [Review: Randy Kennedy, "A Southern Stew of the Self-Taught," NYT, March 21, 2014.]
NEW YORK (NY). Whitney Museum of American Art.
1995 Biennial.
May 2-August 2, 1995.
268 pp., b&w and color illus., biogs, exhibs., bibliog. for each artist. Curated by Klaus Kertess, with a poem by John Ashbery expressly commissioned for this catalogue; texts by Gerald Edelman, John G. Hanhardt, Lynne Tillman. 80 artists represented, including several African American artists: Stan Douglas, Ellen Gallagher, Thomas Allan Harris, Bessie Harvey, Frank Moore, Nari Ward. Small 4to, wraps. First ed.
NEWARK (NJ). Aljira, A Center for Contemporary Art.
Art from the African Diaspora: Persistence.
1989.
Group exhibition. Included: David Butler, Bessie Harvey, Lonnie Holley, James "Son Ford" Thomas, James Andrew Brown, Thom Corn.
OWENSBORO (KY). Owensboro Museum of Fine Art.
Crossroads: Spirituality in American Folk Traditions.
November 17, 2007-February 24, 2008.
144 pp. exhib. cat., color illus. Texts by theologians, folk life specialists and historians. Included: Leroy Almon, Prophet William Blackmon, Minnie Evans, Josephus Farmer, Dilmus Hall, Bessie Harvey, Clementine Hunter, Helen LaFrance, Sister Gertrude Morgan, J.B. Murry, Elijah Pierce, Sultan Rogers, Lorenzo Scott, Bernice Sims, Herbert Singleton, Mary T. Smith, Jimmie Lee Sudduth, Sarah Mary Taylor, James Son Thomas, Mose Tolliver.
OXFORD (MS). University of Mississippi Museum of Art.
Our Faith Affirmed - Works from the collection of Gordon W. Bailey.
September 10, 2014-August 8, 2015.
Exhib. cat., color illus. Texts by David Houston, W. Ralph Eubanks, Jason "PyInfamous" Thompson, and hip-hop emcee and songwriter Sally McDonnell-Barksdale. Includes work by 27 African American Southern self-taught artists born between 1900 and 1959: Leroy Almon, Hawkins Bolden, Richard Burnside, Charles Butler, Archie Byron, Arthur Dial, Thornton Dial, Sr., Thornton Dial, Jr., Roy Ferdinand, Charles Gilliam, Ralph Griffin, Bessie Harvey, Lonnie Holley, Robert Howell, Edwin Jeffery, Jr., Joe Louis Light, Charlie Lucas, Sultan Rogers, O.L. Samuels, Welmon Sharlhorne, Henry Speller, Jimmie Lee Sudduth, James "Son" Thomas, Felix Virgous, Willie White, Luster Willis, and Purvis Young. [Review:
PHILADELPHIA (PA). Janet Fleisher Gallery.
Materializers.
October 9-November 5, 1987.
Group exhibition. Included: Bessie Harvey, Lonnie Holley, Elijah Pierce.
PHILADELPHIA (PA). Janet Fleisher Gallery.
Paintings and Sculpture by Black Self-Taught Artists.
February 11-March 4, 1987.
Group exhibition. Includes Steve Ashby, David Butler, William Dawson, William Edmondson, Bessie Harvey, William Hawkins, Frank Jones, Sister Gertrude Morgan, Elijah Pierce, William Traylor, Philadelphia Wireman, and Joseph Yoakum.
PHILADELPHIA (PA). Temple Gallery, Tyler School of Art.
Sources In American Culture: In Celebration of Black History Month.
February 7-28, 1986.
Four-person exhibition. Curated by Julie Courtney. Included: Robert Colescott, John Dowell, Bessie Harvey, Quentin Morris.
RALEIGH (NC). African American Cultural Center, North Carolina State University.
A Diaspora of Commonalities.
January 16-February 28, 1998.
Artists include: Bessie Harvey, Alexis Joyner, George Obeng, Edward Oduro, Sultan Rogers.
RICCO, ROGER, FRANK MARESCA and JULIA WEISSMAN.
American Primitive: Discoveries in Folk Sculpture.
New York: Knopf, 1988.
Identifiable African American artists include: Jesse Aaron, Hawkins Bolden, David Butler, William Edmondson, Rev. Josephus Farmer, Dilmus Hall, Bessie Harvey, Leroy Person, Elijah Pierce, Philadelphia Wireman.
RIGGS, THOMAS, ed.
St. James Guide to Black Artists.
Detroit: St. James Press, 1997.
xxiv, 625 pp., illus. A highly selective reference work listing only approximately 400 artists of African descent worldwide (including around 300 African American artists, approximately 20% women artists.) Illus. of work or photos of many artists, brief descriptive texts by well-known scholars, with selected list of exhibitions for each, plus many artists' statements. A noticeable absence of many artists under 45, most photographers, and many women artists. Far fewer artists listed here than in Igoe, Cederholm, or other sources. Stout 4to (29 cm.), laminated yellow papered boards. First ed.
ROSENAK, CHUCK and JAN ROSENAK.
Contemporary American Folk Art: A Collectors Guide.
New York: Abbeville, 1996.
320 pp., index of artists, yard art sites, major museum collections, galleries. Includes nearly 80 African American artists: Jesse James Aaron, Leroy Almon, Zebedee B. Armstrong, Steve Ashby, Patsy Billups, Hawkins Bolden, Rudy Bostic, Herman Bridgers, Smoky Brown, Vernon Burwell, David Butler, Archie Byron, Henry Ray Clark, Ulysses S. Davis, William R. Dawson, Thornton Dial, Sr., Carl A. Dixon, Sam Doyle, William Edmondson, Minnie Evans, Rev. Josephus Farmer, Roy Ferdinand, Ray Hamilton, Bessie Harvey, Gerald Hawkes, William L. Hawkins, Lonnie Holley, Sylvanus Hudson, Clementine Hunter, Rev. John L. Hunter, Eddie Lee Kendrick, Leon J. Kennedy, Helen LaFrance, Mary Le Ravin, Joe Light, Charlie Lucas, Willie Massey, Jake McCord, Sam McMillan, Reggie Mitchell, Deacon Eddie Moore, Sister Gertrude Morgan, Mark Anthony Mulligan, David Philpot, Elijah Pierce, Roger Rice, Sultan Rogers, Nellie Mae Rowe, Ellis Ruley, O.L. Samuels, Lorenzo Scott, Herbert Singleton, Mary T. Smith, Isaac Smith, Jimmie Lee Sudduth, Rev. Johnnie Swearingen, Willie Tarver, Sarah Mary Taylor, James (Son Ford) Thomas, Rev. L. T. Thomas, Annie Tolliver, Mose Tolliver, Bill Traylor, Inez Nathaniel Walker, Hubert Walters, Gregory Warmack (Mr. Imagination), Willard Watson The Texas Kid, Willie White, Chuckie Williams, Lorraine Williams, Luster Willis, Wesley Willis, Joseph Yoakum, Purvis Young.
ROSENAK, CHUCK and JAN ROSENAK.
Museum of American Folk Art Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century American Folk Art and Artists.
New York: Abbeville Press, 1990.
414 pp., illus. in color and b&w. With contributions by Robert Bishop, Barbara Cate, Lee Kogan. Includes 255 biographies with statements by artists, general and artistic background, subjects, sources, materials, and an illustration for each artist. Includes information on numerous black folk artists: Jesse Aaron, John Abduljaami, Leroy Almon, Sr., Zebedee Armstrong, Jr., Steven Ashby, John Willard Banks, Prophet William J. Blackmon, Bruce Brice, Vernon Burwell, David Butler, Henry Ray Clark, Abraham Lincoln Criss, Patrick Davis, Ulysses Davis, William Dawson, Thornton Dial, Sr., Thornton Dial, Jr., Richard Dial, Sam Doyle, William Edmondson, Minnie Evans, Rev. Josephus Farmer, Walter Flax, Ezekiel Gibbs, Ralph Griffin, Ray Hamilton, James Hampton, Bessie Harvey, Gerald Hawkes, William Lawrence Hawkins, Lonnie Holley, Clementine Hunter, Frank Jones, Joe Louis Light, Ronald Lockett, Charlie Lucas, J. T. Jake McCord, Robert J. Marino, Willie Massey, Ike Morgan, Sister Gertrude Morgan, J. B. Murry, Inez Nathaniel-Walker, William W. C. Owens, Leslie J. Payne, Elijah Pierce, Horace Pippin, Naomi Howard Polk, Daniel Pressley, Prophet Royal Robertson, Juanita Rogers, Sultan Rogers, Nellie Mae Rowe, James J. P. Scott, Herbert Singleton, Mary T. Smith, Simon Sparrow, Henry Speller, Jimmy Lee Sudduth, Reverend Johnnie Swearingen, Sarah Mary Taylor, James Henry (Son Ford) Thomas, Mose Tolliver, Bill Traylor, Felix Virgous, Derek Webster, George W. White, Jr., Lizzie Wilkerson, George Williams, Luster Willis, Joseph Elmer Yoakum. Selected public collections, list of exhibitions with participating artists listed. 4to (10.25 x 9 in.), gilt-stamped burgundy cloth, d.j. First ed.
RUSSELL, CHARLES, ed.
Self-Taught Art: The Culture and Aesthetics of American Vernacular Art.
Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2001.
x, 201 pp., 32 color plates, 72 b&w illus., substantial bibliography, index. Outstanding collection of 11 critical essays on vernacular art by Charles Russell, Ellen Dissanayake, Michael Owen Jones, Arthur C. Danto, Roger Cardinal, Russell Bowman, Randall Morris, Sharon Patton, Maude Southwell Wahlman, and Alison Weld. Artists included: Jesse Aaron, Z.B. Armstrong, Jean-Michel Basquiat, David Butler, Henry Ray Clark, Archie Byron, Arthur Dial, Buddie Jake Dial, Mattie Dial, Thornton Dial, Sam Doyle, Arester Earl, William Edmondson, Minnie Evans, Ralph Griffin, Tyree Guyton, Dilmus Hall, James Hampton, Bessie Harvey, Gerald Hawkes, William Hawkins, Lonnie Holley, Clementine Hunter, Hector Hyppolite, Clyde Jones, Frank Albert Jones, Joe Light, Ronald Lockett, Errol McKenzie, Sister Gertrude Morgan, J.B. Murry, Leroy Person, Elijah Pierce, Horace Pippin, Pearlie Posey, Harriet Powers, Royal Robertson, Juanita Rogers, Nellie Mae Rowe, Bernice Sims, Mary T. Smith, Henry Speller, Renée Stout, Jimmie Lee Sudduth, Rev. Johnnie Swearingen, Sarah Mary Taylor, James "Son" Thomas, Mose Tolliver, Bill Traylor, Charles Williams (Kentucky sculptor), Joseph Yoakum. 4to (26 cm.; 11.8 x 6.4 in.), cloth, d.j. First ed.
SELLEN, BETTY-CAROL and CYNTHIA J JOHANSON.
Self-Taught, Outsider, and Folk Art: A Guide to American Artists, Locations and Resources.
Jefferson (NC): McFarland, 2000.
328 pp., biogs. Compilation of American folk, outsider and self taught artists. It also includes gallery locations, fairs, festivals, exhibitions, auctions and organizations. The majority of the book is devoted to brief biographical sketches. Includes: Jesse Aaron, John Abduljaami, Leroy Almon, George Andrews, Z. B. Armstrong, Steve Ashby, John W. Banks, Hawkins Bolden, Bruce Brice, Richard Burnside, Vernon Burwell, David Butler, W. A. Cooper, Walter F. Cotton, L. W. Crawford, Ulysses Davis, William Dawson, Mattie Dial, Thornton Dial, Sr., Thornton Dial, Jr., Sam Doyle, Vanzant Driver, William Edmondson, Minnie Evans, Amos Ferguson, Marvin Finn, Thomas Jefferson Flanagan, Ezekiel Gibbs, William O. Golding, Mary Gordon, Ralph Griffin, Dilmus Hall, James Hampton, Bob "Fan Man" Harper, Bessie Harvey, William Hawkins, Geoffrey Holder, Lonnie Holley, Sylvanus Hudson, Clementine Hunter, Alvin Jarrett, Anderson Johnson, M. C. Five-Cents Jones, Leon J. Kennedy, Joe Light [and Light Family: Hosea Light, Mosea Light, Rachele Light, Rebekah Light, Rosie Lee Light], Ronald Lockett, Jesse Lott, Annie Lucas, Charlie Lucas, John W. Mason, Willie Massey, Jake T. McCord, Mr. Imagination, Ike Morgan, Sister Gertrude Morgan, Emma Lee Moss, J. B. Murry, Sammie Nicely, Leslie Payne, Leroy Person, Philadelphia Wireman, David Philpot, Elijah Pierce, Horace Pippin, Naomi Polk, Daniel Pressley, Royal Robertson, Juanita Rogers, Sulton Rogers, Nellie Mae Rowe, J. P. Scott, Charles Smith (Louisiana), Edward Smith, Mary T. Smith, Georgia Speller, Henry Speller, Vannoy Streeter, Jimmy Lee Sudduth, Rev. Johnnie Swearingen, Willie Tarver, Sarah Mary Taylor, James "Son" Thomas, Annie Tolliver, Charles Tolliver, Mose Tolliver, Willie Mae Tolliver, Bill Traylor, Felix Virgous, Inez Nathaniel Walker, Arliss Watford, Willard Watson, Derek Webster, Della Wells, George White, Willie White, Lizzie Wilkerson, "Artist Chuckie" Williams, Jeff Williams, Luster Willis, Onis Woodard, Joseph Yoakum. 8vo (10.3 x 7.3 in.), cloth.
SMITH, THEOPHUS.
Working the Spirits: The Will-To-Transformation in African American Vernacular Art.
.
In: Souls Grown Deep: African American Vernacular Art of the South. (Paul Arnett, ed.). Argues for the conjurational intentions and pharmacopic impulses of African American vernacular art such as the work of Thornton Dial, Thornton Dial, Jr., Lonnie Holley, Ronald Lockett, Jimmie Lee Sudduth, Purvis Young, Archie Byron, Richard Dial, Bessie Harvey and Dilmus Hall.
STORRS (CT). Atrium Gallery, University of Connecticut.
Gifted Visions: Black American Folk Art.
1988.
Group exhibition. Included: Leroy Almon, Steve Ashby, Patsy Billups, David Butler, William Dawson, Minnie Evans, Walter Flax, Bessie Harvey, J. B. Murry, Elijah Pierce, Prophet Royal Robertson, Juanita Rogers, Nellie Rowe, Mary T. Smith, Simon Sparrow, Henry Speller, Mose Tolliver, Bill Traylor, Inez Nathaniel-Walker, Luster Willis.
TALLAHASSEE (FL). Florida State University Art Gallery and Museum.
My Magic Pours Secret Libations.
February 16-April 6, 1996.
78 pp. exhib. cat., b&w and 16 full-page color plates., bibliog., photos of artists, brief biogs. Group exhibition of 16 contemporary women artists. Curator Monifa A. Love; texts by Joanne M. Braxton, Diana Montane, Alvia Wardlaw, Delia Poey. Included: Bessie Harvey, Kabuya Pamela Bowens, Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, Martha Jackson-Jarvis, Jean Lacy, Maria Martinez-Canas, Januwa Moja, Winnie Owens-Hart, Yvonne Pickering Carter, Malkia Roberts, Renée Stout, Yvonne Edwards Tucker, et al. [Traveled to Terrace Gallery, Orlando, FL, May-June, 1996; and Appleton Museum of Art, Ocala, FL, June-July 1996.] 4to (28 cm.), wraps. First ed.
TALLAHASSEE (FL). Museum of Art.
Southern Spirit: The Hill Collection.
February 21-March 31, 2000.
(6 pp.), color illus. Summary of exhibition of 110 works by 43 mostly African American artists, donated to the museum by Calynne and Lou Hill. Artists included: Jesse J. Aaron, Leroy Almon, Hawkins Bolden, Richard Burnside, Archie Byron, Arthur Dial, Richard Dial, Thornton Dial Sr., Thornton Dial Jr., Sam Doyle, Ralph Griffin, Dilmus Hall, Sandy Franklin Hall, Alyne Harris, Bessie Harvey, Theodore Hill, Lonnie Holley, Robert Howell, Joe Light, Ronald Lockett, Charlie Lucas, Jessie Marshall, J.T. "Jake" McCord, A.J. Muhammed, John "J.B." Murry, Mary Proctor, Royal "Prophet" Robertson. O.L. Samuels, Lorenzo Scott, Mary T. Smith, Georgia Speller, Henry Speller, Jimmy Lee Sudduth, James "Son" Henry Thomas, Mose Tolliver, Felix Virgous, Rev. Albert Wagner, Luster Willis, Purvis Young. 4to (28 cm.), folded sheet.
TAMPA (FL). Contemporary Art Museum, University of South Florida.
Making the Mainstream: Robert Colescott, Emilio Cruz, Melvin E. Edwards, Bessie Harvey, William Hawkins, James Little, Faith Ringgold.
October 30-December 19, 1987.
31 pp. exhib. cat., illus. Curated by Joseph Jacobs. Included : Robert Colescott, Emilio Cruz, Melvin Edwards, Bessie Harvey, William Hawkins, James Little, and Faith Ringgold. 8vo (13 x 22 cm.), wraps.
THOMISON, DENNIS.
The Black Artist in America: An Index to Reproductions.
Metuchen: Scarecrow Press, 1991.
Includes: index to Black artists, bibliography (including doctoral dissertations and audiovisual materials.) Many of the dozens of spelling errors and incomplete names have been corrected in this entry and names of known white artists omitted from our entry, but errors may still exist in this entry, so beware: Jesse Aaron, Charles Abramson, Maria Adair, Lauren Adam, Ovid P. Adams, Ron Adams, Terry Adkins, (Jonathan) Ta Coumba T. Aiken, Jacques Akins, Lawrence E. Alexander, Tina Allen, Pauline Alley-Barnes, Charles Alston, Frank Alston, Charlotte Amevor, Emma Amos (Levine), Allie Anderson, Benny Andrews, Edmund Minor Archer, Pastor Argudin y Pedroso [as Y. Pedroso Argudin], Anna Arnold, Ralph Arnold, William Artis, Kwasi Seitu Asante [as Kwai Seitu Asantey], Steve Ashby, Rose Auld, Ellsworth Ausby, Henry Avery, Charles Axt, Roland Ayers, Annabelle Bacot, Calvin Bailey, Herman Kofi Bailey, Malcolm Bailey, Annabelle Baker, E. Loretta Ballard, Jene Ballentine, Casper Banjo, Bill Banks, Ellen Banks, John W. Banks, Henry Bannarn, Edward Bannister, Curtis R. Barnes, Ernie Barnes, James MacDonald Barnsley, Richmond Barthé, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Daniel Carter Beard, Romare Bearden, Phoebe Beasley, Falcon Beazer, Arthello Beck, Sherman Beck, Cleveland Bellow, Gwendolyn Bennett, Herbert Bennett, Ed Bereal, Arthur Berry, Devoice Berry, Ben Bey, John Biggers, Camille Billops, Willie Birch, Eloise Bishop, Robert Blackburn, Tarleton Blackwell, Lamont K. Bland, Betty Blayton, Gloria Bohanon, Hawkins Bolden, Leslie Bolling, Shirley Bolton, Higgins Bond, Erma Booker, Michael Borders, Ronald Boutte, Siras Bowens, Lynn Bowers, Frank Bowling, David Bustill Bowser, David Patterson Boyd, David Bradford, Harold Bradford, Peter Bradley, Fred Bragg, Winston Branch, Brumsic Brandon, James Brantley, William Braxton, Bruce Brice, Arthur Britt, James Britton, Sylvester Britton, Moe Brooker, Bernard Brooks, Mable Brooks, Oraston Brooks-el, David Scott Brown, Elmer Brown, Fred Brown, Frederick Brown, Grafton Brown, James Andrew Brown, Joshua Brown, Kay Brown, Marvin Brown, Richard Brown, Samuel Brown, Vivian Browne, Henry Brownlee, Beverly Buchanan, Selma Burke, Arlene Burke-Morgan, Calvin Burnett, Margaret Burroughs, Cecil Burton, Charles Burwell, Nathaniel Bustion, David Butler, Carole Byard, Albert Byrd, Walter Cade, Joyce Cadoo, Bernard Cameron, Simms Campbell, Frederick Campbell, Thomas Cannon (as Canon), Nicholas Canyon, John Carlis, Arthur Carraway, Albert Carter, Allen Carter, George Carter, Grant Carter, Ivy Carter, Keithen Carter, Robert Carter, William Carter, Yvonne Carter, George Washington Carver, Bernard Casey, Yvonne Catchings, Elizabeth Catlett, Frances Catlett, Mitchell Caton, Catti, Charlotte Chambless, Dana Chandler, John Chandler, Robin Chandler, Barbara Chase-Riboud, Kitty Chavis, Edward Christmas, Petra Cintron, George Clack, Claude Clark Sr., Claude Lockhart Clark, Edward Clark, Irene Clark, LeRoy Clarke, Pauline Clay, Denise Cobb, Gylbert Coker, Marion Elizabeth Cole, Archie Coleman, Floyd Coleman, Donald Coles, Robert Colescott, Carolyn Collins, Paul Collins, Richard Collins, Samuel Collins, Don Concholar, Wallace Conway, Houston Conwill, William A. Cooper, Arthur Coppedge, Jean Cornwell, Eldzier Cortor, Samuel Countee, Harold Cousins, Cleo Crawford, Marva Cremer, Ernest Crichlow, Norma Criss, Allan Rohan Crite, Harvey Cropper, Geraldine Crossland, Rushie Croxton, Doris Crudup, Dewey Crumpler, Emilio Cruz, Charles Cullen (White artist), Vince Cullers, Michael Cummings, Urania Cummings, DeVon Cunningham, Samuel Curtis, William Curtis, Artis Dameron, Mary Reed Daniel, Aaron Darling, Alonzo Davis, Bing Davis, Charles Davis, Dale Davis, Rachel Davis, Theresa Davis, Ulysses Davis, Walter Lewis Davis, Charles C. Davis, William Dawson, Juette Day, Roy DeCarava, Avel DeKnight, Beauford Delaney, Joseph Delaney, Nadine Delawrence, Louis Delsarte, Richard Dempsey, J. Brooks Dendy, III (as Brooks Dendy), James Denmark, Murry DePillars, Joseph DeVillis, Robert D'Hue, Kenneth Dickerson, Voris Dickerson, Charles Dickson, Frank Dillon, Leo Dillon, Robert Dilworth, James Donaldson, Jeff Donaldson, Lillian Dorsey, William Dorsey, Aaron Douglas, Emory Douglas, Calvin Douglass, Glanton Dowdell, John Dowell, Sam Doyle, David Driskell, Ulric S. Dunbar, Robert Duncanson, Eugenia Dunn, John Morris Dunn, Edward Dwight, Adolphus Ealey, Lawrence Edelin, William Edmondson, Anthony Edwards, Melvin Edwards, Eugene Eda [as Edy], John Elder, Maurice Ellison, Walter Ellison, Mae Engron, Annette Easley, Marion Epting, Melvyn Ettrick (as Melvin), Clifford Eubanks, Minnie Evans, Darrell Evers, Frederick Eversley, Cyril Fabio, James Fairfax, Kenneth Falana, Josephus Farmer, John Farrar, William Farrow, Malaika Favorite, Elton Fax, Tom Feelings, Claude Ferguson, Violet Fields, Lawrence Fisher, Thomas Flanagan, Walter Flax, Frederick Flemister, Mikelle Fletcher, Curt Flood, Batunde Folayemi, George Ford, Doyle Foreman, Leroy Foster, Walker Foster, John Francis, Richard Franklin, Ernest Frazier, Allan Freelon, Gloria Freeman, Pam Friday, John Fudge, Meta Fuller, Ibibio Fundi, Ramon Gabriel, Alice Gafford, West Gale, George Gamble, Reginald Gammon, Christine Gant, Jim Gary, Adolphus Garrett, Leroy Gaskin, Lamerol A. Gatewood, Herbert Gentry, Joseph Geran, Ezekiel Gibbs, William Giles, Sam Gilliam, Robert Glover, William Golding, Paul Goodnight, Erma Gordon, L. T. Gordon, Robert Gordon, Russell Gordon, Rex Goreleigh, Bernard Goss, Joe Grant, Oscar Graves, Todd Gray, Annabelle Green, James Green, Jonathan Green, Robert Green, Donald Greene, Michael Greene, Joseph Grey, Charles Ron Griffin, Eugene Grigsby, Raymond Grist, Michael Gude, Ethel Guest, John Hailstalk, Charles Haines, Horathel Hall, Karl Hall, Wesley Hall, Edward Hamilton, Eva Hamlin-Miller, David Hammons, James Hampton, Phillip Hampton, Marvin Harden, Inge Hardison, John Hardrick, Edwin Harleston, William Harper, Hugh Harrell, Oliver Harrington, Gilbert Harris, Hollon Harris, John Harris, Scotland J. B. Harris, Warren Harris, Bessie Harvey, Maren Hassinger, Cynthia Hawkins (as Thelma), William Hawkins, Frank Hayden, Kitty Hayden, Palmer Hayden, William Hayden, Vertis Hayes, Anthony Haynes, Wilbur Haynie, Benjamin Hazard, June Hector, Dion Henderson, Napoleon Jones-Henderson, William Henderson, Barkley Hendricks, Gregory A. Henry, Robert Henry, Ernest Herbert, James Herring, Mark Hewitt, Leon Hicks, Renalda Higgins, Hector Hill, Felrath Hines, Alfred Hinton, Tim Hinton, Adrienne Hoard, Irwin Hoffman, Raymond Holbert, Geoffrey Holder, Robin Holder, Lonnie Holley, Alvin Hollingsworth, Eddie Holmes, Varnette Honeywood, Earl J. Hooks, Ray Horner, Paul Houzell, Helena Howard, Humbert Howard, John Howard, Mildred Howard, Raymond Howell, William Howell, Calvin Hubbard, Henry Hudson, Julien Hudson, James Huff, Manuel Hughes, Margo Humphrey, Raymond Hunt, Richard Hunt, Clementine Hunter, Elliott Hunter, Arnold Hurley, Bill Hutson, Zell Ingram, Sue Irons, A. B. Jackson, Gerald Jackson, Harlan Jackson, Hiram Jackson, May Jackson, Oliver Jackson, Robert Jackson, Suzanne Jackson, Walter Jackson, Martha Jackson-Jarvis, Bob James, Wadsworth Jarrell, Jasmin Joseph [as Joseph Jasmin], Archie Jefferson, Rosalind Jeffries, Noah Jemison, Barbara Fudge Jenkins, Florian Jenkins, Chester Jennings, Venola Jennings, Wilmer Jennings, Georgia Jessup, Johana, Daniel Johnson, Edith Johnson, Harvey Johnson, Herbert Johnson, Jeanne Johnson, Malvin Gray Johnson, Marie Johnson-Calloway, Milton Derr (as Milton Johnson), Sargent Johnson, William H. Johnson, Joshua Johnston, Ben Jones, Calvin Jones, Dorcas Jones, Frank A. Jones, Frederick D. Jones, Jr. (as Frederic Jones), Henry B. Jones, Johnny Jones, Lawrence Arthur Jones, Leon Jones, Lois Mailou Jones, Nathan Jones, Tonnie Jones, Napoleon Jones-Henderson, Barbara Jones-Hogu, Jack Jordan, Cliff Joseph, Ronald Joseph, Lemuel Joyner, Edward Judie, Michael Kabu, Arthur Kaufman, Charles Keck, Paul Keene, John Kendrick, Harriet Kennedy, Leon Kennedy, Joseph Kersey; Virginia Kiah, Henri King, James King, Gwendolyn Knight, Robert Knight, Lawrence Kolawole, Brenda Lacy, (Laura) Jean Lacy, Roy LaGrone, Artis Lane, Doyle Lane, Raymond Lark, Carolyn Lawrence, Jacob Lawrence, James Lawrence, Clarence Lawson, Louis LeBlanc, James Lee, Hughie Lee-Smith, Lizetta LeFalle-Collins, Leon Leonard, Bruce LeVert, Edmonia Lewis, Edwin E. Lewis, Flora Lewis, James E. Lewis, Norman Lewis, Roy Lewis, Samella Lewis, Elba Lightfoot, Charles Lilly [as Lily], Arturo Lindsay, Henry Linton, Jules Lion, James Little, Marcia Lloyd, Tom Lloyd, Jon Lockard, Donald Locke, Lionel Lofton, Juan Logan, Bert Long, Willie Longshore, Edward Loper, Francisco Lord, Jesse Lott, Edward Love, Nina Lovelace, Whitfield Lovell, Alvin Loving, Ramon Loy, William Luckett, John Lutz, Don McAllister, Theadius McCall, Dindga McCannon, Edward McCluney, Jesse McCowan, Sam McCrary, Geraldine McCullough, Lawrence McGaugh, Charles McGee, Donald McIlvaine, Karl McIntosh, Joseph Mack, Edward McKay, Thomas McKinney, Alexander McMath, Robert McMillon, William McNeil, Lloyd McNeill, Clarence Major, William Majors, David Mann, Ulysses Marshall, Phillip Lindsay Mason, Lester Mathews, Sharon Matthews, William (Bill) Maxwell, Gordon Mayes, Marietta Mayes, Richard Mayhew, Valerie Maynard, Victoria Meek, Leon Meeks, Yvonne Meo, Helga Meyer, Gaston Micheaux, Charles Mickens, Samuel Middleton, Onnie Millar, Aaron Miller, Algernon Miller, Don Miller, Earl Miller, Eva Hamlin Miller, Guy Miller, Julia Miller, Charles Milles, Armsted Mills, Edward Mills, Lev Mills, Priscilla Mills (P'lla), Carol Mitchell, Corinne Mitchell, Tyrone Mitchell, Arthur Monroe, Elizabeth Montgomery, Ronald Moody, Ted Moody, Frank Moore, Ron Moore, Sabra Moore, Theophilus Moore, William Moore, Leedell Moorehead, Scipio Moorhead, Clarence Morgan, Norma Morgan, Sister Gertrude Morgan, Patricia Morris, Keith Morrison, Lee Jack Morton, Jimmie Mosely, David Mosley, Lottie Moss, Archibald Motley, Hugh Mulzac, Betty Murchison, J. B. Murry, Teixera Nash, Inez Nathaniel, Frank Neal, George Neal, Jerome Neal, Robert Neal, Otto Neals, Robert Newsome, James Newton, Rochelle Nicholas, John Nichols, Isaac Nommo, Oliver Nowlin, Trudell Obey, Constance Okwumabua, Osira Olatunde, Kermit Oliver, Yaounde Olu, Ademola Olugebefola, Mary O'Neal, Haywood Oubré, Simon Outlaw, John Outterbridge, Joseph Overstreet, Carl Owens, Winnie Owens-Hart, Lorenzo Pace, William Pajaud, Denise Palm, James Pappas, Christopher Parks, James Parks, Louise Parks, Vera Parks, Oliver Parson, James Pate, Edgar Patience, John Payne, Leslie Payne, Sandra Peck, Alberto Pena, Angela Perkins, Marion Perkins, Michael Perry, Bertrand Phillips, Charles James Phillips, Harper Phillips, Ted Phillips, Delilah Pierce, Elijah Pierce, Harold Pierce, Anderson Pigatt, Stanley Pinckney, Howardena Pindell, Elliott Pinkney, Jerry Pinkney, Robert Pious, Adrian Piper, Horace Pippin, Betty Pitts, Stephanie Pogue, Naomi Polk, Charles Porter, James Porter, Georgette Powell, Judson Powell, Richard Powell, Daniel Pressley, Leslie Price, Ramon Price, Nelson Primus, Arnold Prince, E. (Evelyn?) Proctor, Nancy Prophet, Ronnie Prosser, William Pryor, Noah Purifoy, Florence Purviance, Martin Puryear, Mavis Pusey, Teodoro Ramos Blanco y Penita, Helen Ramsaran, Joseph Randolph; Thomas Range, Frank Rawlings, Jennifer Ray, Maxine Raysor, Patrick Reason, Roscoe Reddix, Junius Redwood, James Reed, Jerry Reed, Donald Reid, O. Richard Reid, Robert Reid, Leon Renfro, John Rhoden, Ben Richardson, Earle Richardson, Enid Richardson, Gary Rickson, John Riddle, Gregory Ridley, Faith Ringgold, Haywood Rivers, Arthur Roach, Malkia Roberts, Royal Robertson, Aminah Robinson, Charles Robinson, John N. Robinson, Peter L. Robinson, Brenda Rogers, Charles Rogers, Herbert Rogers, Juanita Rogers, Sultan Rogers, Bernard Rollins, Henry Rollins, Arthur Rose, Charles Ross, James Ross, Nellie Mae Rowe, Sandra Rowe, Nancy Rowland, Winfred Russsell, Mahler Ryder, Alison Saar, Betye Saar, Charles Sallee, JoeSam., Marion Sampler, Bert Samples, Juan Sanchez, Eve Sandler, Walter Sanford, Floyd Sapp, Raymond Saunders, Augusta Savage, Ann Sawyer, Sydney Schenck, Vivian Schuyler Key, John Scott (Johnny) , John Tarrell Scott, Joyce Scott, William Scott, Charles Searles, Charles Sebree, Bernard Sepyo, Bennie Settles, Franklin Shands, Frank Sharpe, Christopher Shelton, Milton Sherrill, Thomas Sills, Gloria Simmons, Carroll Simms, Jewell Simon, Walter Simon, Coreen Simpson, Ken Simpson, Merton Simpson, William Simpson, Michael Singletary (as Singletry), Nathaniel Sirles, Margaret Slade (Kelley), Van Slater, Louis Sloan, Albert A. Smith, Alfred J. Smith, Alvin Smith, Arenzo Smith, Damballah Dolphus Smith, Floyd Smith, Frank Smith, George Smith, Howard Smith, John Henry Smith, Marvin Smith, Mary T. Smith, Sue Jane Smith, Vincent Smith, William Smith, Zenobia Smith, Rufus Snoddy, Sylvia Snowden, Carroll Sockwell, Ben Solowey, Edgar Sorrells, Georgia Speller, Henry Speller, Shirley Stark, David Stephens, Lewis Stephens, Walter Stephens, Erik Stephenson, Nelson Stevens, Mary Stewart, Renée Stout, Edith Strange, Thelma Streat, Richard Stroud, Dennis Stroy, Charles Suggs, Sharon Sulton, Johnnie Swearingen, Earle Sweeting, Roderick Sykes, Clarence Talley, Ann Tanksley, Henry O. Tanner, James Tanner, Ralph Tate, Carlton Taylor, Cecil Taylor, Janet Taylor Pickett, Lawrence Taylor, William (Bill) Taylor, Herbert Temple, Emerson Terry, Evelyn Terry, Freida Tesfagiorgis, Alma Thomas, Charles Thomas, James "Son Ford" Thomas, Larry Erskine Thomas, Matthew Thomas, Roy Thomas, William Thomas (a.k.a. Juba Solo), Conrad Thompson, Lovett Thompson, Mildred Thompson, Phyllis Thompson, Bob Thompson, Russ Thompson, Dox Thrash, Mose Tolliver, William Tolliver, Lloyd Toone, John Torres, Elaine Towns, Bill Traylor, Charles Tucker, Clive Tucker, Yvonne Edwards Tucker, Charlene Tull, Donald Turner, Leo Twiggs, Alfred Tyler, Anna Tyler, Barbara Tyson Mosley, Bernard Upshur, Jon Urquhart, Florestee Vance, Ernest Varner, Royce Vaughn, George Victory, Harry Vital, Ruth Waddy, Annie Walker, Charles Walker, Clinton Walker, Earl Walker, Lawrence Walker, Raymond Walker [a.k.a. Bo Walker], William Walker, Bobby Walls, Daniel Warburg, Eugene Warburg, Denise Ward-Brown, Evelyn Ware, Laura Waring, Masood Ali Warren, Horace Washington, James Washington, Mary Washington, Timothy Washington, Richard Waters, James Watkins, Curtis Watson, Howard Watson, Willard Watson, Richard Waytt, Claude Weaver, Stephanie Weaver, Clifton Webb, Derek Webster, Edward Webster, Albert Wells, James Wells, Roland Welton, Barbara Wesson, Pheoris West, Lamonte Westmoreland, Charles White, Cynthia White, Franklin White, George White, J. Philip White, Jack White (sculptor), Jack White (painter), John Whitmore, Jack Whitten, Garrett Whyte, Benjamin Wigfall, Bertie Wiggs, Deborah Wilkins, Timothy Wilkins, Billy Dee Williams, Chester Williams, Douglas Williams, Frank Williams, George Williams, Gerald Williams, Jerome Williams, Jose Williams, Laura Williams, Matthew Williams, Michael K. Williams, Pat Ward Williams, Randy Williams, Roy Lee Williams, Todd Williams, Walter Williams, William T. Williams, Yvonne Williams, Philemona Williamson, Stan Williamson, Luster Willis, A. B. Wilson, Edward Wilson, Ellis Wilson, Fred Wilson, George Wilson, Henry Wilson, John Wilson, Stanley C. Wilson, Linda Windle, Eugene Winslow, Vernon Winslow, Cedric Winters, Viola Wood, Hale Woodruff, Roosevelt Woods, Shirley Woodson, Beulah Woodard, Bernard Wright, Dmitri Wright, Estella Viola Wright, George Wright, Richard Wyatt, Frank Wyley, Richard Yarde, James Yeargans, Joseph Yoakum, Bernard Young, Charles Young, Clarence Young, Kenneth Young, Milton Young.
TRENTON (NJ). New Jersey State Museum.
Dream Singers, Story Tellers: An African-American Presence.
August 7, 1993-March 7, 1994.
238 pp, exhib. cat., 72 color and 102 b&w illus. Dual lang. text in English and Japanese. Exhibition curated by Allison Weld, Sadao Serikawa and James Smalls. 33 artists including: Emma Amos, Benny Andrews, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Mozell Benson, Hawkins Bolden, David Butler, Willie Cole, Emilio Cruz, Thornton Dial, Melvin Edwards, William Edmondson, Melvin Edwards, Minnie Evans, Ralph Griffin, Bessie Harvey, Gerald Hawkes, Lonnie Holley, Frank Jones, Jacob Lawrence, Norman Lewis, Glenn Ligon, Tyrone Mitchell, John L. Moore, Joe Overstreet, Joanna Pettway, Martha Jane Pettway, Plummer Pettway, Philadelphia Wireman, Adrian Piper, Faith Ringgold, Lorna Simpson, Bill Traylor, William T. Williams, Joseph Yoakum. [Traveled to: Fukui Fine Art Museum, Fuki, Japan, November 6-December 6, 1992; Takushima Modern Art Museum, Takushima, Japan, January 23-March 7, 1993; Otani Memorial Art Museum, Otani, Japan, April 10-May 9, 1993.] 4to, wraps, pictorial d.j. First ed.
WARDLAW, ALVIA J., ROBERT V. MOZELLE, and MAUREEN A. MCKENNA, eds..
Black Art, Ancestral Legacy: The African Impulse in African-American Art.
Dallas: Dallas Museum of Art and New York, Abrams, 1989.
305 pp., 320 illus. (170 in fine color), biogs. and exhibs. for individual artists, general bibliog., index. Texts: Edmund B. Gaither, R. A. Perry, Alvia J. Wardlaw, William Ferris, Ute Stebich, Robert F. Thompson. A topical exhibition of great interest, not a survey of Afro-American art. More than 150 works by 49 African American and Afro-Caribbean artists (including 7 women artists): Xenobia Bailey, Minnie Evans Bessie Harvey, Lois Mailou Jones, Jean Lacy, Nancy Prophet, Renée Stout, along with Richmond Barthé, John Biggers, William Edmondson, Aaron Douglas, Malvin Gray Johnson, Sargent Johnson, Hale Woodruff, Rigaud Bénoit, Gabriel Bien-Aimé, Everald Brown, Edgar Brierre, Murat Brierre, Houston Conwill, Amos Ferguson, Mr. Imagination, Ben Jones, William (Woody) Joseph, Kofi Kayiga, John Landry, Georges Liautaud, Ed Love, Vusumuzi Maduna, David Miller, Jr., David Miller, Sr., Ademola Olugebefola, James Phillips, David Philpot, Anderson Pigatt, Daniel Pressley, Earle Richardson, Sultan Rogers, Bert Samples, Osmond and Willard Watson, Derek Webster, Rip Woods. [Review: Robert L. Douglas, "Formalizing an African-American Aesthetic," New Art Examiner (June/Summer 1991):18-24, illus.] 4to (12 x 9 in.), cloth, d.j. First ed.
WERTKIN, GERALD C. and LEE KOGAN, eds.
Encyclopedia of American Folk Art.
New York: Routledge, 2003.
704 pp., eight 16-page full-color inserts, 100 b&w photos. Contributions by 92 scholars and others. Individual entries on over 500 artists (including approximately 55 African American artists), general essays on bibliogs. written by folk art experts. The entry on African American Folk Art states that approximately 10% of American vernacular artists are African American (unsubstantiated), noting however that their presence in recent exhibitions of American folk art is closer to 30%. Indeed, dozens of other African American artists are mentioned elsewhere throughout the entries. Entries on Santeria arts, Vodou art are largely theoretical and iconographic; a noteworthy and substantial essay on African American Folk Art (Vernacular) by Paul Arnett and a brief essay on African American Quilts by Jacqueline M. Atkins. Artists include: Jesse Aaron, Leroy Almon, Zebedee Armstrong, Steve Ashby, Mozell Benson, William H. Brown, Hawkins Bolden, Richard Burnside, David Butler, Archie Byron, Dave [the Potter], Ulysses Davis, William Dawson, Arthur Dial, Richard Dial, Thornton Dial, Sr., Thornton Dial, Jr., Sam Doyle, William Edmondson, Minnie Evans, Rev. Josephus Farmer, William O. Golding, Dilmus Hall, James Hampton, Bessie Harvey, William Hawkins, Clementine Hunter, Anderson Johnson, Joshua Johnson (as Johnston), Joe Louis Light, Frank Jones, Ronald Lockett, Charlie Lucas, Sister Gertrude Morgan, J. B. Murry, Leroy Person, Elijah Pierce, Horace Pippin, Harriet Powers, Royal Robertson, Juanita Rogers, Nellie Mae Rowe, Ellis Ruley, Lorenzo Scott, Herbert Singleton, Mary T. Smith, Simon Sparrow, Henry Speller, Queena Stovall, Jimmie Lee Sudduth, Rev. Johnnie Swearingen, James (Son Ford) Thomas, Mose Tolliver, Bill Traylor, Inez Nathaniel-Walker, Gregory Warmack (Mr. Imagination), Yvonne Wells. [White artist Queena Stovall is listed in the index as African American.] Other artists are mentioned in passing: Pearl Fryar, Joe Minter, Dinah Young, et al.] 4to (11.3 x 8.4 in.), hardbound. First ed.
WINSTON-SALEM (NC). Diggs Gallery, Winston-Salem State University.
Ashe: Improvisation & Recycling in African-American Visionary Art.
February 2-March 29, 1993.
36 pp. exhib. cat., 25 illus.(10 in color), bibliog. Text by Tom Patterson. Includes: E. M. Bailey, Hawkins Bolden, Frank Bowman, Thornton Dial, Thornton Dial, Jr., Ralph Griffin, Bessie Harvey, Lonnie Holley, Joe Light, Ronald Lockett, Charlie Lucas, Leroy Person, Juanita Rogers, Nellie Mae Rowe, Arthur Spain, Jimmie Lee Sudduth. 8vo (22 cm.), stapled wraps. First ed.
YELEN, ALICE RAE, et al.
Passionate Visions of the American South: Self-Taught Artists from 1940 to the Present.
Jackson: University Press of Mississippi and New Orleans Museum of Art, 1993.
351 pp. exhib. cat., 223 mostly full-page color plates with commentary, 100 b&w illus., 78 biogs. with photos of artists, checklist, bibliog., index. 7 scholarly texts by Susan Ferris, William Larsen, Jane Livingston, Lowery Stokes Sims. Many women and African American artists included. Excellent reference work on the Southern members of the "outsider" art phenomenon. Jesse Aaron, Zebedee B. Armstrong, Steven Ashby, Hawkins Bolden, Vernon Burwell, David Butler, Archie Byron, Henry Ray Clark, Ulysses S. Davis, William Dawson, Thornton Dial, Sr., Sam Doyle, William Edmondson, Minnie Evans, Rev. Josephus Farmer, Ezekiel Gibbs, Ralph Griffin, Bessie Harvey, William Hawkins, Lonnie Holley, Clementine Hunter, Rev. J. L. Hunter, Frank Jones, Eddie Kendrick, Joe Louis Light, Charlie Lucas, Willy Massey, Sister Gertrude Morgan, Leslie J. Payne, Royal Prophet Robertson, Elijah Pierce, Juanita Rogers, Sultan Rogers, Nellie Mae Rowe, James (J. P.) Scott, Bernice Sims, Herbert Singleton, Mary T. Smith, Everett Strickland, Jimmy Lee Sudduth, Rev. Johnnie S. Swearingen, Sarah Mary Taylor, James (Son) Thomas, Mose Tolliver, Bill Traylor, Hubert Walters, Willie White, George Williams, Purvis Young. Stout 4to, cloth, d.j. First ed.
This is Bessie Harvey, folk artist, so I'm called. I'm really not the artist. God is the artist in my work; nature and insects, they shape my work for me, because they belong to God. I belong to God, and all things belong to God, because it's in his Word that all things are made to him, that without him there's not anything made. I know that my art is a peculiar kind of an art, but he says that his people are peculiar people and I just want to give all the praise and glory to him for my work. My work is something that tells of love, and he is love, so he let the insects and time and nature go in front and do the work and then he gives me the insight to bring it out. He uses the hands that he gave to me with his spirit in the hands and in the mind and in the heart and just in me, he's all in me, and he expects me to bring it out, so that I can tell the world today that he is my life and he is the artist in my work.
Image
Bessie Harvey, Poison of the Lying Tongues, 1987
There is a piece that's called The Poison of the Lying Tongues. He speaks of the tongue so much of being a thing that will cause us to go down in great sorrow, because the tongue has never been tamed. He speaks that all animals and everything in the earth has been tamed by mankind except the tongue, and it cannot be tamed, tongues coming out of the lying mouth, and it's saying to the world today, that the tongue can't be tamed. So before you use it to say things that will hurt yourself or someone else, remember that love covers a multitude of faults, and it's a fault to go around hurting others.
My greatest hope is in my believing and trusting and knowing, from self-experience, that truly, God is real. The art is magic, he's majestic, and the art is from him, so it is magic. But for it to be good for you is to know that Bessie Harvey is not magic, only the one that lives within her, the spirit, is the magic one.
I came from a family of ten children, and my mom was an alcoholic. My father died when we were all very young, and I came up without guidance, except for what the spirit that lived within me taught me. There was a lot of hurt, and I was afraid to show myself. I was trying to talk to mankind, but I knew from a child that I had a friend in nature, which was the trees, the grass, and the wind, all the things that God had sent here, to keep me and to grow me up, that even in knowing that in him, there is peace, joy, happiness, prosperity, healing. Anything that I needed, he had.
I used to question it, because my mom was an alcoholic, and I had sisters and a brother younger than I, and it was rough, so I would say, "Why didn't Momma die and Daddy live?" and I complained that I didn't have a father down to myself to the trees, to nature, because I dared not talk to mankind, because they didn't understand and they could hurt me more. So the spirit told me, "I am your father, I am your daddy, and I can do all things for you—all the things that a daddy could have done, an earthly daddy, I would have had to give him the power to do, and I'll do it for you, you are my child, and I will never leave you, neither will I forsake you." And I believed that, and I found it to be true.
When I was at my lowest point on the earth, thinking that I just couldn't make it any further, bringing up eleven children, almost alone except for welfare, and whatever I could do to help make a living for them, fourth-grade education, you can't do much, but God enlightened me. He taught me how to read the Word, which is him, and it said that he would give me a favor, with him and with mankind, and in the art. That's what he gave me, and he gave me a favor through the work that he has allowed me to do, through him, with the hands that he gave me to work for him, and I'm so thankful that I get the opportunity to say in the work that God loves us all and he is God, regardless of whatever you believe him to be, whatever you believe it to be, it is your God. But there is but one, and that's the great "I am," and every one of us use the words "I am," and the great "I am" has established his love and himself within us, that we be just as we say "I am."
I am the sculptress that God has taught me to be, allowing me to be, through loving him, believing and trusting in him, knowing that the little girl was put into my mother's womb so many years ago. My mom told me that I was born with a disease, tuberculosis, and the doctors had told her that I wouldn't live to get six months old, so, with all the other kids, she just kind of, I thought, didn't love me. But she told me before she died in '74, she said, "Bessie Ruth, God is going to bless you," and she told me that she never got too close to me because she was always afraid of losing me. But see, the Mighty One had already put this there, that I would go through these trials and tribulations, that I would understand today a mother with a lot of children needing somebody to talk to. I would be that one, because I never had that one, and it is a pleasure to reach out to anybody in love, when you haven't had it yourself. Sometimes it makes us mean, but then, whom God set free, the Son, Jesus, we're free indeed, and he set me free. I didn't know how to hate, because he is love, so everything that comes against me, I replaced it with love.
And not being able to give it to mankind, I started doing the little people that he allowed me to make, and I could talk to them about my problems, and sometimes I would make one and it would look straight at me, in my eyes, and I would ask it questions like "Who are you? Where did you come from?" It would say "An artist." I didn't know nothing about being an artist! I'd never been in an art show, I never even studied art. I'm a fourth-grade graduate, and back in the times that I was going to school, art wasn't taught, until you were in, I guess, the last years of high school or something like that.
But even when I began to do the sculptures, to me they were my dolls, they were my freedom from this world, that I could go into them, and I could talk to God, and that the spirit would release me from all of the hurt, and I could hear him speak and talk to me. I could see in the eyes of the dolls I could love, sometimes confusion, but I knew that they were there for the purpose of me sharing what I felt with them. And I began to even see them in the walls, in the paneling, and they were all reaching out to me in love, and I began to make more and more and more.
I went to work at a hospital here, and I worked there, and I was so thankful to have a job, that I could earn a little money, more than I had ever earned before. And I got there in time for the show that they have at the hospital. They have a little art show every year, and I had a piece that was called Banda. It was a big bird that would fly me away when troubles were so strong that I couldn't take any more. And I sold Banda, and, oh, boy, I thought I was so rich when I got paid for Banda. And the spirit said to me, "Child, you haven't seen anything yet."
And he has continually blessed the works of my hands, that he worked through, and showed me that I was loved very much by him, and that because he loved me, I was to tell the world about his love, and about his goodness, and about the art. Because the prayer "Our father who art”—is A-R-T, same as art, that is considered art in the earth. So I thought about this thing, and then I realized that he had made me a little creator—all artists are little creators—like he is. He is a Creator of all things, and he will allow artists to also create. But it is for the purpose of showing love, and if an evil person creates art, it's dangerous, same as we are when we not in love. We should always be in love with righteousness, and when we see a good piece of art, that the spirit reaches out, and says "I love you," or "You need me," or "I need you," and then good things begin to happen in your life. Then we know that there is a spirit in the wood, which is a good spirit.
I didn't know when I was young that the trees praise God. I didn't know that, but when I got older, and got in touch, for real, with the One that had walked this long walk with me, I began to read and study the Word. And it said that the trees praise God, they clap their hands. And I was drawn into a tree, some kind of way. And I kind of see the Scriptures a little different to some people, because I see people as trees, living trees, and I see our fruits that we bear, some good and some bad. But we're not responsible when we use the bad fruit, and the one that has the good fruit is to show good fruit to the one that has bad fruit, that they will learn to enjoy good fruit, and not hate the corrupt fruit within them. And then that way we are building a place for the Paradise to return. But as long as we hate and can't love, as long as we judge and think we're not judged, as long as we condemn and not be condemned, so we think the world will never be what God intended it to be. It is to be a Paradise, is to be peace and love, from all colors, because the colors is just the skin.
The true person lives within the temple, and if they have in the temple the righteous things, then it shines through, the candle is lit, the lantern is burning bright, and it comes out in the things that we do, which is our fruit. And to have the wood, the clay, the metal, all things that he gives me to do, and not know that I was considered an artist in the earth, I didn't think this could happen to me, I never dreamed it could happen to me. Then met this woman at the hospital, and she saw my little people, because I'd done poems for the sick people. I would sneak away from my work, and go into the rooms with the sick people where they went to go to get well, and I would try to bring a little joy into their lives. I would tell them poems out of my heart, that God gave to me to give to them, and I would bring my wood and tell them about God's love.
My art has been blessed and sent all over, and I've been seen on television, and all of this is just to say that God is God, and there is no other. He is a jealous God, and I will have no other God before him. The art is his, and I'm blessed to be the one to do it, and in it there is no evil, because in him there is no evil. He lives in me, and I in him, so anybody that purchased the work, or looks upon the work, I truly believe you are blessed. If you see it as an instrument of love, there is no evil, it is an instrument of love. And I do thank and praise God for taking it as far as it's gone, and I know he will take it the rest of the way, even if I go to be with him, the spirit will still be in the wood, and it will tell the sweet old story of Jesus and his love.
So I just want everyone to know that the people that have listened to me and the people that know that there are some of us that come to the trash can to eat, some of us have come to the king's table, but God has blessed me that I am able to praise him, to sit down at the Lord's table, even if it is the trash can, and share love with the straw-poor brother in the earth. I'll just sit at the king's table and tell him I know a king bigger than he, that owns his kingdom and him too, and the art is a symbol of the same God that I'm speaking of, my art.
I think of art as being like a puzzle. There are so many pieces to be placed and if they're placed in the right way, one day we will see the results of what art is really about, and we will know that we haven't been let down by being small creators labeled as artists. I guess I should have a lot more to say right now, but I only say what the spirit allows me to, and this is it, this is what he wanted me to do. Thank you for being patient with me, because anybody that doesn't do art, or poems, or talk through the spirit, cannot understand that you can't do this just when you want to, you have to do it when he allows you to—the work, the speeches, and the talking about yourself. So I hope this will be a help to whoever uses it, to benefit the work that has Bessie Harvey's name on it, and God bless you.
Bessie Harvey (1929-1994) was Tennessee’s most notable self-taught “outsider” artist. Originally from Georgia, she lived most of her life in Alcoa. She came to make art late in life as a spiritual calling and a response to hardships, first fashioning sculptural creatures out of found wood, and eventually working in drawing, painting, and clay as well. By the mid-1980s she’d been “discovered” by collectors and big-city dealers, and for several years she was among the state’s most widely-exhibited artists. She inferred complex meanings in most of her pieces, some of which depicted biblical characters and themes from African American history and everyday life. Harvey was posthumously honored by a retrospective exhibit at the Knoxville Museum of Art in 1997.
Folk art covers all forms of visual art made in the context of folk culture. Definitions vary, but generally the objects have practical utility of some kind, rather than being exclusively decorative. The makers of folk art are typically trained within a popular tradition, rather than in the fine art tradition of the culture. There is often overlap, or contested ground[1] with 'naive art'. "Folk art" is not used in regard to traditional societies where ethnographic art continue to be made.
The types of objects covered by the term "folk art" vary. The art form is categorised as "divergent... of cultural production ... comprehended by its usage in Europe, where the term originated, and in the United States, where it developed for the most part along very different lines."[2]
American sampler, 1831
From a European perspective, Edward Lucie-Smith described it as "Unsophisticated art, both fine and applied, which is supposedly rooted in the collective awareness of simple people. The concept of folk art is a distinctly 19th-century one. Today it carries with it a tinge of nostalgia for pre-industrial society."[3]
Folk arts reflect the cultural life of a community. The art form encompasses the expressive culture associated with the fields of folklore and cultural heritage. Tangible folk art can include objects which historically are crafted and used within a traditional community. Intangible folk arts can include such forms as music and art galleries, dance and narrative structures. Each of these art forms, both tangible and intangible, typically were developed to address a practical purpose. Once the purpose has been lost or forgotten, there usually is no reason for further transmission unless the object or action has been imbued with meaning beyond its initial practicality. These artistic traditions are shaped by values and standards that are passed from generation to generation, most often within family and community, through demonstration, conversation, and practice.
Characteristics of folk art objects
Detail of 17th century calendar stick carved with national coat of arms, a common motif in Norwegian folk art.
Main article: Concepts in folk art
Objects of folk art are a subset of material culture and include objects which are experienced through the senses, by seeing and touching. Typical for material culture in art, these tangible objects can be handled, repeatedly re-experienced, and sometimes broken. They are considered works of art because of the technical execution of an existing form and design; the skill might be seen in the precision of the form, the surface decoration or in the beauty of the finished product.[4] As a folk art, these objects share several characteristics that distinguish them from other artifacts of material culture.
Folk artists
The object is created by a single artisan or team of artisans. The craft-person works within an established cultural framework. The folk art has a recognizable style and method in crafting its pieces, which allows products to be recognized and attributed to a single individual or workshop. This was originally articulated by Alois Riegl in his study of Volkskunst, Hausfleiss, und Hausindustrie, published in 1894. "Riegl ... stressed that the individual hand and intentions of the artist were significant, even in folk creativity. To be sure, the artist may have been obliged by group expectations to work within the norms of transmitted forms and conventions, but individual creativity – which implied personal aesthetic choices and technical virtuosity – saved received or inherited traditions from stagnating and permitted them to be renewed in each generation."[5] Individual innovation in the production process plays an important role in the continuance of these traditional forms. Many folk art traditions like quilting, ornamental picture framing, and decoy carving continue to be practiced, and new forms continue to emerge.
Contemporary outsider artists are often self-taught, and their work is usually developed in isolation or in small communities across the country. The Smithsonian American Art Museum houses over 70 folk and self-taught artists.[6]
Hand crafted
The taka is a type of paper mache art native to Paete in the Philippines.
Folk art objects are usually produced in a one-off production process. Only one object is made at a time, either by hand or in a combination of hand and machine methods, and are not mass-produced. As a result of manual production, individual pieces are considered to be unique and usually can be differentiated from other objects of the same type. In his essay on "Folk Objects", folklorist Simon Bronner references preindustrial modes of production, but folk art objects continue to be made as unique crafted pieces by folk artisans. "The notion of folk objects tends to emphasize the handmade over machine manufactured. Folk objects imply a mode of production common to preindustrial communal society where knowledge and skills were personal and traditional."[7] Folk art does not need to be old; it continues to be hand-crafted today in many regions around the world.
Workshops and apprentices
The design and production of folk art is learned and taught informally or formally; folk artists are not self-taught.[citation needed] Folk art does not aim for individualistic expression. Instead, "the concept of group art implies, indeed requires, that artists acquire their abilities, both manual and intellectual, at least in part from communication with others. The community has something, usually a great deal, to say about what passes for acceptable folk art."[8] Historically, the training in a handicraft was done as apprenticeships with local craftsmen, such as the blacksmith or the stonemason. As the equipment and tools needed were no longer readily available in the community, these traditional crafts moved into technical schools or applied arts schools.
Teaching of the craft through informal means outside of institutions has opened the genre to artists who may face barrier to entry in other disciplines. Canadian folk artist Maud Lewis, for example, suffered from an undiagnosed congenital illness, making formal art schooling a challenge.[9] Despite barriers to formal education, Lewis became one of Canada's most famous folk artists, creating thousands of paintings of life in Nova Scotia.[9]
Owned by the community
The object is recognizable within its cultural framework as being of a known type. Similar objects can be found in the environment made by other individuals which resemble this object. Individual pieces of folk art will reference other works in the culture, even as they show exceptional individual execution in form or design. If antecedents cannot be found for this object, it might still be a piece of art but it is not folk art. "While traditional society does not erase ego, it does focus and direct the choices that an individual can acceptably make… the well-socialized person will find the limits are not inhibiting but helpful… Where traditions are healthy the works of different artists are more similar than they are different; they are more uniform than personal."[10] Tradition in folk art emerges through the passing of information from one generation to another. Through generations of family lines, family members pass down the knowledge, information, skills and tools needed to continue the creation of one's folk art. Examples are Leon “Peck” Clark, a Mississippi basket maker, who learned his skills from a community member; George Lopez of Cordova, New Mexico, who is a sixth-generation santos carver whose children also carve; and the Yorok-Karok basket weavers, who explain that relatives generally taught them to weave.” [11]
Utility of the object
The known type of the object must be, or have originally been, utilitarian; it was created to serve some function in the daily life of the household or the community. This is the reason the design continues to be made. Since the form itself had function and purpose, it was duplicated over time in various locations by different individuals. A book on the history of art states that "every man-made thing arises from a problem as a purposeful solution."[12] Written by George Kubler and published in 1962, "The Shape of Time: Remarks on the History of Things" describes an approach to historical change which places the history of objects and images in a larger continuum of time. The purpose of folk art is not purely decorative or aimed to have duplicated handicraft. However, since the form itself was a distinct type with its function and purpose, folk art has continued to be copied over time by different individuals.
Aesthetics of the genre
The object is recognized as being exceptional in the form and decorative motifs. Being part of the community, the craftsperson is reflecting on the community's cultural aesthetics, and may take into consideration the community's response to the handicraft. An object can be created to match the community's expectations, and the artist may design the product with unspoken cultural biases to reflect this aim.[13] While the shared form indicates a shared culture, innovation can enable the individual artisan to embody their own vision. This can be a representation of manipulating collective and individual culture, within the traditional folk art production. "For art to progress, its unity must be dismantled so that certain of its aspects can be freed for exploration, while others shrink from attention."[14] This dichotomous representation of the culture is typically visible in the final product.[15]
Materials, forms, and crafts
Folk art is designed in different shapes, sizes and forms. It traditionally uses the materials which are at hand in the locality and reproduces familiar shapes and forms. The Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage has compiled a page of storied objects that have been part of one of their annual folklife festivals. The list below includes a sampling of different materials, forms, and artisans involved in the production of everyday and folk art objects.[16]
Alebrije
Armourer
Basketry
Bellmaker
Blacksmith
Boat building
Brickmaker
Broommaker
Cabinetry
Carpentry
Ceramics
Chillum
Clockmaker
Cooper
Coppersmith
Cutler
Decoy carving
Drystone Mason
Ex-voto
Farrier
Foodways
Fraktur
Furniture
Gunsmith
Harness maker
Ironwork
Jewelry
Kuthiyottam
Latin American Retablos
Leather crafting
Lei (garland)
Ljuskrona
Locksmith
Lubok
Madhubani painting
Masonry
Metalworking
Millwright
Miniatures or Models
Nakshi Kantha
Needlework
Origami
Painting
Pewterer
Phad painting
Quilting
Recycled materials
Ropemaker
Saddler
Sawsmith
Sculpture
Shoemaker
Spooner
Stonemason
Tanner
Textiles
Thatcher
Tile maker
Tinker
Tinsmith
Truck art in South Asia
Tools
Toys
Treenwaren
Turning
Vernacular architecture
Wainwright
Weaver
Wheelwright
Whirligig
Wood carving
Related terminology
Listed below are a wide-ranging assortment of labels for an eclectic group of art works. All of these genres are created outside of the institutional structures of the art world, and are not considered "fine art". There is overlap between these labeled collections, such that an object might be listed under two or more labels.[2] Many of these groupings and individual objects might also resemble "folk art" in its aspects, however may not align to the defining characteristics outlined above.
Americana
Art brut
Folk Environments
Genre paintings
Naïve art
Outlier art[17]
Outsider art
Primitive art
Tramp art
Trench art
Tribal art
Vanguard art[17]
Vernacular art
Visionary art
Influence on mainstream art
Folk artworks, styles and motifs have inspired various artists. For example, Pablo Picasso was inspired by African tribal sculptures and masks. Natalia Goncharova and others were inspired by traditional Russian popular prints called luboks.[18]
In 1951, artist, writer and curator Barbara Jones organised the exhibition Black Eyes and Lemonade at the Whitechapel Gallery in London as part of the Festival of Britain. This exhibition, along with her publication The Unsophisticated Arts, exhibited folk and mass-produced consumer objects alongside contemporary art in an early instance of the popularisation of pop art in Britain.[19]
Supporting organizations
The United Nations recognizes and supports cultural heritage around the world,[20] in particular UNESCO in partnership with the International Organization of Folk Art (IOV). Their declared mission is to “further folk art, customs and culture around the world through the organization of festivals and other cultural events, … with emphasis on dancing, folk music, folk songs and folk art.”[21] By supporting international exchanges of folk art groups as well as the organization of festivals and other cultural events, their goal is promote international understanding and world peace.
In the United States, the National Endowment for the Arts works to promote greater understanding and sustainability of cultural heritage across the United States and around the world through research, education, and community engagement. As part of this, they identify and support NEA folk art fellows in quilting, ironwork, woodcarving, pottery, embroidery, basketry, weaving, along with other related traditional arts. The NEA guidelines define as criteria for this award a display of “authenticity, excellence, and significance within a particular tradition” for the artists selected. (NEA guidelines) .” In 1966, the NEA's first year of funding, support for national and regional folk festivals was identified as a priority with the first grant made in 1967 to the National Folk Festival Association. Folklife festivals are celebrated around the world to encourage and support the education and community engagement of diverse ethnic communities.
Regional folk arts
African folk art
Chinese folk art
Mingei (Japanese folk art movement)
Minhwa (Korean folk art)
Mak Yong (Northern Malay Peninsular folk art dance)
Mexican handcrafts and folk art
Joget (Wider Malay folk art dance)
North Malabar
Theyyam
Tribal art
Warli painting (India)
Folk arts of Karnataka (India)
Folk Art and Ethnological Museum of Macedonia and Thrace
Folk Art Museum of Patras, Greece
Native American Art
Folk art of the United States
Appalachian folk art
Associations
Folk Art Society of America
IOV International Organization of Folk Art, in partnership with UNESCO
National Endowment for the Arts
CIOFF: International Council of Organizations of Folklore Festivals and Folk Arts
Pennsylvania Folklore: Woven Together TV Program on textile arts
National Folk Organization
Museum Collections
American Folk Art Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Folk Art Center and Guild, Asheville NC
Museum of International Folk Art
Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum
Shelburne Museum
Citations
(Wertkin 2004, p. xxxiv-xxxvi)
(Wertkin 2004, p. xxxii)
Lucie-Smith, Edward, The Thames & Hudson Dictionary of Art Terms, p. 95, 2003 (2nd edn), Thames & Hudson, World of Art series, ISBN 0500203652
(Wertkin 2004, p. xxx)
(Wertkin 2004, p. xxviii)
"Folk and Self-Taught Art". SAAM. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
(Bronner 1986, p. 214)
(Vlach 1992, p. 19)
Cronin, Ray (2021). Maud Lewis: Life & Work. Toronto: Art Canada Institute. ISBN 978-1-4871-0267-8.
(Vlach 1992, p. 20)
Congdon, Kristin (1986). "Finding the Tradition in Folk Art: An Art Educator's Perspective". The Journal of Aesthetic Education. 20 (3): 95. doi:10.2307/3332437. JSTOR 3332437.
(Kubler 1962, p. 8)
(Toelken 1996, p. 221)
(Glassie 1992, p. 271)
(Pocius 1995, p. 421)
(Roberts 1972, p. 240 ff)
"Outliers and American Vanguard Art". National Gallery of Art. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
Goncharova Biography Archived 2009-07-20 at the Wayback Machine, Hatii, retrieved 19/2/2012
Moriarty, Catherine (2017-11-30). "Popular Art, Pop Art, and 'the Boys who Turn out the Fine Arts'". Pop art and design. Massey, Anne, 1956-, Seago, Alex. London, UK. pp. 25–47. ISBN 9781474226189. OCLC 928487681.
"'GREAT MASTERS OF MEXICAN FOLK ART' EXHIBIT TO OPEN AT UN HEADQUARTERS ON 10 APRIL | Meetings Coverage and Press Releases". www.un.org. Retrieved 2019-04-08.
UNESCO Mission Statement
See also
icon Visual Arts portal
Alebrije
African folk art
American Folk Art Museum
Chester Cornett
Chillum
Chinese folk art
Ex-voto
Guy Cobb
John William "Uncle Jack" Dey
Juliana R. Force
Kuthiyottam
Latin American Retablos
Ljuskrona
Lubok
Madhubani painting
Mingei (Japanese folk art movement)
Minhwa (Korean folk art)
Museum folklore
Naïve art
Nakshi Kantha
Nose art
North Malabar
Outsider art
Phad painting
Pakistani vehicle art
Pasaquan
Rebecca Couch
Rural crafts
Theyyam
Thidambu Nritham
Tramp art
Tribal art
Vaillancourt Folk Art
Warli painting
Whirligig
Wire craft
Yakshagana
Czech folklore