American Wall Stenciling, 1790-1840

Book Description

For today's owner of an antique house, the discovery of an early stenciled wall--even a fragment of one--is a revelation that offers a shard of a tangible past. In post-revolutionary America, the decoration of choice for a surprisingly large number of home owners from all social and economic groups was walls painted with intricate stenciled designs. Stenciled walls were cheaper and more sanitary than those covered with paper, but the most compelling reason for the widespread use of stenciling was that it was considered far more stylish than impersonal, mass-produced paper. Stencil artists freely borrowed wallpaper motifs and crossbred them. Successive generations of wallpaper, which became increasingly more affordable after the Industrial Revolution, covered stenciled walls, hiding them, obliterating some and preserving others.

Ann Eckert Brown's extensive research has unearthed stencils not just in New England's more characteristic homes, taverns, and inns, but also in the south and midwest. She divides stenciling into rural-based folk art, which uses naturalistic, and sometimes primitive motifs, and classically inspired, urban-based stencils, which feature patterns more refined in scale and earlier in execution, echoing Federal style images.

Over 250 illustrations complement Brown's text as she makes fresh stylistic connections among designs, artists, regions, and houses over two centuries, discovering and illuminating some missing links in the history of wall stenciling. Even more, she ties together the shared destinies of the families, descendants, artists, rescuers, and restorers who lived with, created, or have dedicated their lives to preserving, this beautiful art form. She also provides a glossary, a discussion of early paint materials, suggested resources for wall stenciling preservation, and a Who's Who of American wall stenciling which includes 18th, 19th, and 20th century artists and preservationists. The result, as Mimi Handler writes in her foreword, "is a book that fairly hums with life and purpose."

Customer Reviews:

I truly loved this book.......2003-05-17

Last weekend I attended a party in RI and I found myself emersed in this book for much of the time. I came home and ordered it right away. It is a beautiful image of post revolutionary America and this important art form. As someone who grew up in New England I loved this glimpse into the past. Ms. Eckert Brown's extensive research is evident, and the illustrations are wonderful. This is the quintessential book for anyone who loves stenciling, art and American history.

Chicano Visions: American Painters on the Verge

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Look at these Amazing Pictures!
Chicano Visions: American Painters on the Verge
Electrifying and inspiring!
fearless, robust, and innovative art
what a feast!

Chicano Visions: American Painters on the Verge
Cheech Marin
Manufacturer: Bulfinch
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | History & Criticism | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

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Folk Art | Schools, Periods & Styles | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Mexico | Americas | History | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0821228064

Book Description

Cheech Marin, well known for his three decades of work as a comedian, actor, director, and musician, has long championed Chicano artists and been a collector of their work. This breakthrough publication will be available in both hardcover and paperback formats. The exhibition features Marin's collection of over 30 artists' work, and their paintings that depict Hispanic culture, religion, and politics with brilliant color and emotion. Incisive essays by leading scholars describe the origins of Chicano art. In the same way that Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo redefined our understanding and appreciation of Mexican art, Chicano artists such as Gronk, Patssi Valdez, and Carlos Almaraz are putting Chicano art on the cutting edge of contemporary art.

Customer Reviews:

Look at these Amazing Pictures!.......2007-08-24

Cheech Marin has collected some of the most amazing, enthralling pictures (paintings, drawings, etc.) by Chicano artists that I've come across! This book is such a rich collection to own because some of us can't afford to buy art, but we can look again & again at the copies he's put together. There are well-known artists, unknown artists, and people I'm thrilled to have found out about because their work is so brilliant. Some places where I've seen "Chicano" art collected before have stuck to one style, very pastely, very soft colors, a certain women's painting style that has its place but isn't representative. This book isn't like that. Marin has collected paintings of incredible scenes, showing car wreck victims, cholos, lovers embracing, a drive-by shooting in progress, a freeway accident, & a police shake down to name a few. The "realist" aspect of these pictures is so entertaining that it will provide owners of the book hours of transfixing study & discussion! Buy it!

Chicano Visions: American Painters on the Verge.......2007-03-14

Absolutely breathtaking. A great addition to my collection.

Electrifying and inspiring!.......2005-03-11

I am insanely jealous of Cheech Marin's art collection, or at least those pieces that are featured in this book. A true artist is one who can make the ugly beautiful, or at least make you look at it with a different perspective, such as David Botello's "Alone and Together Under the Freeway"

Frank Romero's "Arrest of the Paleteros" is tragic and funny at the same time, with the hapless ice cream sellers lined against a wall in front of robot-like cops.

Adan Hernandez' "Sin Titulo II", while not owned by Marin, is included in this book, and gives a peeping-Tom's eye view of a family's living room-it is stunningly beautiful and menacing at the same time. Other works in this book are excellent, and it is inspiring for any artist in a rut, who needs a fresh look at some unusual talents.

fearless, robust, and innovative art.......2004-06-28

Some of the most innovative and brilliant art in America is being done by those in the Chicano art movement; the range of styles and techniques is vast, but they all share a vibrancy and vigor that is hard to find elsewhere in the art world.
Cheech Marin has accumulated a fabulous collection, and must be commended for bringing this art to fifteen cities the U.S. in the travelling exhibit, and to the world with this marvelous book. Marin also writes the insightful introduction, and there are excellent and informative essays by Max Benavidez, Constance Cortez, and Tere Romero, as well as mini bios of the 26 artists represented in the volume.

Among the highlights for me are the 4 pictures by George Yepes, that include his "La Pistola y el Corazon," which was the cover for the Los Lobos CD of the same title (pg. 144), the 10 pages of the glorious, impressionistic work of Carlos Almaraz, especially "Southwest Song," with its horse and rider and splashy moonlit sky (pg. 53), and Leo Limon, starting with his "Frida and Palomas" through his complex symbolic storytelling in "Los Muertos" (93-99). I recently had the opportunity to view Frank Romero's work at the Icaro Gallery in Long Beach, California, and was thrilled by his rich use of color, and his sense of humor, both aspects which are well illustrated on pages 108 through 117.

The layout of the this book is excellent, and the color reproduction superb; on thick glossy pages, the work comes alive, excites and inspires, and will not be forgotten. This is work that will stand the test of time, and as Marin writes, the viewer is "...transported to a place both timeless and immediate, that provides the ultimate validation for this new movement in art."

what a feast!.......2004-01-18

Rebeccasreads recommends CHICANO VISIONS as a glorious feast for the eyes, containing the inevitable hair-raising violence, pulsing cityscapes & sun bleached field labors, as well as the beauty that is before us. There are ethereal visions of heaven & hell, of blood hot nights as well as rich family life.

There are visions wrought in "primitive" styles, in sleek "photorealism" & in vibrant complex iconography -- giving us insights into the Chicano experience, both female & male.

We can spend hours discussing the merits of each painting: their composition, impact & style, whether they are "good art", however, as Cheech Marin writes in his Introduction "...it is the lone art lover standing in front of a great painting with his jaw dropped, transported to a place both timeless and immediate, that provides the ultimate validation..."

Book Description

Grandma Moses and her paintings first came to public attention in 1940, when she was 80 years old. Her folk art, down-home personality, and background as a farmer and homemaker charmed the American public. By the time she died at the age of 101, she had completed over 1600 works of art and had established an international reputation. The work of "the white-haired girl," a self-taught artist who was a regular news feature for two decades, remained enormously popular at home and abroad even in the years after her death.

For this reevaluation of the work of Grandma Moses, Jane Kallir contributes an authoritative introduction and presents a catalogue that illustrates 87 of Moses' most important works. Kallir traces Moses' development as an artist from the first embroidered landscapes to the glorious paintings of her "old-age style." The Grandma Moses myth is tackled from various perspectives. Roger Cardinal examines the artist's working methods, exploring the relationship between the actual regional landscape and her interpretation of the area. Michael D. Hall places Moses within the context of contemporary artistic and social movements of the 1940s and 1950s. Lynda Roscoe Hartigan reveals how memory and imagination merge in the paintings. And Judith E. Stein discusses the role of gender in shaping the artist's reputation in the postwar years.

Customer Reviews:

thes best of grandma moses.........2005-07-28

great historical information... beautiful photographs... a wonderful gift for collectors of grandma moses..

The Long - Ago Mother Of Us All.......2004-07-12

Prepared in conjunction with "a major exhibition, organized and circulated by Art Services International," Grandma Moses In The 21st Century (2001) represents an academic reassessment of the celebrated folk artist's work for audiences of the new millennium. While the two longest sections (Roger Cardinal's excellent essay, "The Sense of Time and Place," and Jane Kallir's commentary on the 87 plates) are sound, other segments underscore the wide cultural divide that continues to exist between the abstraction - tending perspective of some art scholars and the general public's capacity for spontaneous appreciation for various kinds of painting and other cultural products.

The paintings of Anna Mary Robertson Moses, which are predominantly landscapes, were initially and earnestly created by an uneducated, unprivileged, "common" "farm woman" of advanced years as gifts for her family, friends, and social peers. When brought to mass public attention in the Forties, the paintings were widely embraced by Americans of all walks of life for their inherent combination of unique talent, nostalgia for family, home, and community, apparent simplicity of method, sentimentality, anecdotal style, and vision of the country's agricultural past. Indeed, most of the paintings suggest a bucolic, Eden - like utopia in which regular and vigorous hard work is nonetheless a necessity for all able - bodied citizens.

Though Moses' paintings were initially embraced and promoted by elements within the cultural elite of the Forties, the wider public continued to cherish - and avidly purchase commercial reproductions of - Moses' work long after the art world that had discovered her had lost interest. Whether photographed with President Truman, interviewed in her home by Edward R. Murrow, or appearing on the cover of Life magazine, by the advent of the Fifties, Moses was celebrated as a quintessentially American icon in the tradition of Benjamin Franklin, Johnny Appleseed, Washington Irving, Clara Barton, Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain, Theodore Roosevelt, Amelia Earhart, or Gary Cooper.

The process of promoting Moses was assisted by several key figures over the decades, but in Moses' case, nothing about her public image was fabricated, and her paintings, like her persona, sold themselves. As a hard - working, elderly widow who advocated traditional American values like industry and self - sufficiency, and whose appearance and mannerisms bespoke of a bygone era, Moses perfectly embodied an idealized representation of the archetypal "benign great grandmother," a figure most people, regardless of background, are sensitive to. Only 8 years after her death at 101 in 1961, the United States Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp bearing her name and a detail from her painting 'July Fourth.'

There is probably no major American artist whose work needs academic interpretation less than Moses', and while critical assessments of her work and life are welcomed, the balance of the essays in Grandma Moses In The 21st Century read like superfluous, self - important, and slightly pretentious padding, especially since the paintings speak perfectly well for themselves in a plain visual language assessable to all.

However, John Cardinal's investigative, straight forward, and always - relevant discussion of Moses is a model of what a good art essay should be, and Jane Kallir's plate - by - plate commentary provides the necessary factual information required without straying into unnecessary theory. The 87 color plates are gloriously reproduced and represent all periods of the artist's creative life.

Those who would like more information on Moses' life and work may also want to seek out a copy of Grandma Moses: My Life's History (1948), sadly out of print but still widely available via secondhand sources.

A catalog of an elderly painter's folk art.......2001-06-06

Grandma Moses In The 21st Century is a catalog of an elderly painter's folk art and provides an excellent survey of her works including an intricate examination of her working methods, her interpretive process, and her role in the context of modern art and social movements of her times, in the 1940s and 50s. The result is an excellent catalog which features important analyses of her achievements and displays her notable works in lavish, full page color.

Five Star Folk Art: One Hundred American Masterpieces

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Five Star Folk Art: One Hundred American Masterpieces
Jean Lipman , Robert Bishop , Elizabeth Warren , and Sharon Eisenstat
Manufacturer: Harry N Abrams
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

Decorative Arts | Design & Decorative Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Painting | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Folk Art | Schools, Periods & Styles | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Village of Painters: Narrative Scrolls from West Bengal

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Past meets present
village of painters

Village of Painters: Narrative Scrolls from West Bengal
Frank J. Korom
Manufacturer: Museum of New Mexico Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Instructional & How-To | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

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Folk Art | Schools, Periods & Styles | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Customs & Traditions | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0890134898

Book Description

The Patuas of West Bengal are a traditional artisan caste specializing in the production of painted narrative scrolls and the performance of songs to accompany their unrolling. These artisans have been plying their trade in this region of India at least since the thirteenth century and possibly earlier. Traditionally, the scroll painters wander from village to village, seeking patronage by singing their own compositions while unraveling painted scrolls on sacred and secular themes.

Customer Reviews:

Past meets present.......2007-05-24

I saw an exhibit of these narrative scroll paintings at the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, NM last month. The idea of painting narrative pieces and singing songs to perform the stories in them still fascinates me. This book shows many examples of narrative scrolls in vivid color and explains how they were collected for the exhibit. I am glad I bought the book to look through over and over again. I only wish the museum had been selling the DVD of the painters performing the songs while unrolling the scrolls.

village of painters.......2007-02-26

This was more like a "family of painters" rather than a "village of painters" as noted in the book's title. The content encouraged me to find out more about this type of art. Was disappointed that it was not hardcover; seemed overpriced for a paperback.

Average customer rating:

This art is your art.
Enjoyment depends on your degree of Woody fandom...

Woody Guthrie Artworks
Steven Brower , and Nora Guthrie
Manufacturer: Rizzoli
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Painting | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Drawing | Instructional & How-To | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0847827380
Release Date: 2005-10-25

Book Description

Songwriter, poet, writer, political activist . . . and, perhaps most fundamental to his work but least known about Woody Guthrie, artist. "Contrary to popular mythology, it was with paint brushes in hand, not a guitar, that Guthrie hit the road for California. He had hocked his guitar . . . and it was his artistic skills that he brokered for room and board." So begins Nora's fascinating revelations about her father's vast body of artwork. Other than the drawings for his autobiography, Bound for Glory, few have seen Guthrie's art. This is because much of it is inextricably bound into diaries and work books into which he poured his images, and which are presented here for the first time. Guthrie worked as a commercial artist, illustrating album covers, books, and newspaper columns, and kept a daily record of his life, and of American life, in thousands of pictures. Some complement song-writing in such a fluid way that they often appear interwoven with handwritten lyrics. The stinging honesty, humor, and wit found in his music are also to be found in his art, layering our understanding of his social, political, and spiritual life. In more than 300 examples, his visual creativity is apparent, from political cartoons to bawdy and comical gouaches to children's art to abstract emotional outpourings. Drawing extensively on Guthrie's words, Brower unveils an enhanced portrait of one of America's greatest creative forces.

Customer Reviews:

This art is your art........2006-11-06

Woody Guthrie was a great talent and a complicated person. This book lets you get peek into his mind (humorous, dirty, sentimental, hopeful). If you like his music or want an interesting book to flip through, this is a great choice.

Enjoyment depends on your degree of Woody fandom..........2005-12-06

This is an expensive large book in glorious color, designed very well. As a Woody Guthrie fan for the past 45 years, I was delighted to receive it from a dear friend as a birthday gift. I am no artist, nor am I a folk singer, but over the decades my interest in Woody, warts and all, became quite extensive. So I read the brief text and studied the many, many drawings, and I won't be giving the volume away. However, I don't think for casual Woody fans, who like many of his songs but are not interested in biography, this will be a good investment. Woody's "art" is sometimes fascinating, but more often child-like, or vague, or political (and outdated). Presented more or less chronologically, toward the end of the volume Woody's affliction, Huntington's Chorea, shows up in his drawings and prevents the talent from showing through. Although he was a sign painter and illustrator and cartoonist before he became a "famous" folk singer in 1940 with his "Dust Bowl Ballads" collection on 78 RPM records, it is for songwriting that he will remain in our hearts and minds, not for his brush or pencil work. For Woody completists, this is a treasure. If your interest is less scholarly, pass it by and spend your money on his CD's instead. (Five stars for presentation, the four star rating is for content.)

Designs on the Heart: The Homemade Art of Grandma Moses

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Designs on the Heart

Designs on the Heart: The Homemade Art of Grandma Moses
Karal Ann Marling
Manufacturer: Harvard University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Painting | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

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Contemporary Art | Schools, Periods & Styles | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0674022262

Book Description

It is a story that has gone down in the annals of American art history: a New Yorker visiting upstate Hoosick Falls is entranced by four pictures hanging in the window of a drugstore. Investigating further, he learns they are the handiwork of a 78-year-old widow. Thus begins the rise to fame of Grandma Moses--farmwife, painter, and unlikely celebrity.

In this book Karal Ann Marling, distinguished observer of American visual culture, looks at Grandma Moses as a cultural phenomenon of the postwar period and explores the meaning of her subject matter--and her astonishing fame. What did the "Greatest Generation" see in her simple renderings of people, young and old, tapping maple trees for syrup, making apple butter, gliding across snowy fields on sleighs? Why did Bob Hope, Irving Berlin, and Harry Truman all love her--and the art czars of New York openly despise her? Through the flood of Moses merchandise--splashed across Christmas cards, dishware, yard goods, and gewgaws of every kind--Marling traces the resonances that these "primitive" images struck in an America awkwardly adjusting to a new era of technology, suburbia, and Cold War tensions.

Between the cultural ephemera, folklore, song, and history embedded in Moses' paintings and the potent advertising shorthand for Americana that her images rapidly became, this book reveals the widespread longing for the memories, comforts, and small victories of a mythic, intimate American past tapped by the phenomenon--in art and commerce alike--of Grandma Moses.

Customer Reviews:

Designs on the Heart.......2007-03-09

Interesting and lovingly written by Karal Ann Marling on the life of Grandma Moses...Viewing the numerous pictures throughout were a treasure to me. This book will have a special place in my home library.

Zydeco Shoes: A Sensory Tour Of Cajun Culture

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Cajun art with recipes and descriptions of Cajun culture
COMPLETELY CAJUN, AND TONS OF FUN
introduction to colorful Cajun culture

Zydeco Shoes: A Sensory Tour Of Cajun Culture

Manufacturer: Pelican Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Americas | History | Subjects | Books

North America | Travel | Subjects | Books

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All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 1589802462

Book Description

This collection of vivid, humorous paintings by self-taught artist Earl Hébert takes the reader into the real heart of Cajun culture--the back-road music halls, the small-town family gatherings, and the all-important, spicy, local cuisine. With its evocative text, authentic Cajun recipes, and enclosed music CD, Zydeco Shoes celebrates the joie de vivre of South Louisiana and its people.

Alexandria Hayes lives in Stratham, New Hampshire, where she founded Blue Moon Communications, a marketing and consulting firm. She first encountered Earl Hébert and his work during a visit to New Orleans' historic Jackson Square.

Earl Hébert was born in the tiny town of Ossun, Lousiana, and began his working life as a restaurateur. Mr. Hébert took up painting as a hobby in the late 1970s. Increasingly successful despite his lack of formal training, he has maintained his own gallery, Mr. Earl's Gallery, in New Orleans' French Quarter for more than fifteen years.

George Rodrigue is known worldwide for his Blue Dog paintings. Born in New Iberia, Louisiana, in 1944, he studied art at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and at the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles. Mr. Rodrigue's paintings are eagerly sought by collectors and museums around the globe, and he has produced several books. His commercial commissions include designing posters for the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and a print ad campaign for Absolut Vodka.

Kerry Boutté and his daughter Monique Boutté Christina both carry on the tradition of the original Mulate'sR, the Cajun restaurant and dance hall that Mr. Boutté founded almost twenty years ago in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana. Mulate'sR now has three locations, including one in New Orleans, where fans can sample authentic Cajun cuisine and dance to local music seven nights a week.

The Lucky Playboys make their recording debut on this exclusive compact disk.

Customer Reviews:

Cajun art with recipes and descriptions of Cajun culture .......2005-01-04

Enthusiasts of Louisiana and Zydeco art, folk culture, and music will find it all in one gift-appropriate package in Zydeco Shoes: A Sensory Tour Of Cajun Culture, a gorgeous package blending an oversized art book blending Cajun art with recipes and descriptions of Cajun culture to a cd by The Lucky Playboys, Plus D'chance-que D'l Esprit (More Luck Than Sense). The oversized presentation and striking arrangement juxtaposing art works with recipes, cultural insights and music assures recipients receive a full taste of Zydeco culture.

COMPLETELY CAJUN, AND TONS OF FUN.......2005-01-02

"Zydeco" for those unfamiliar with Cajun culture is defined as "a combination of traditional Cajun dance music and African blues." Quite obviously, that's a jumpin' kind of music, really snappy. And, this is a really snappy kind of book from the bright red and orange shoes on the eye popping cover to the paintings by Earl Hebert to the 34 recipes from Mulate's Cajun Restaurant and Dance Hall to the CD zestfully played by the Lucky Playboys. If you can't hop a plane to Louisiana, this is the best way to immerse yourself in the Cajun's fun loving way of life.

The editor of this book, Alexandra Hayes, discovered Earl Hebert and his art in New Orleans' Jackson Square. Hebert's first career was in the restaurant business; he began painting solely as a hobby in the 1970s. Without any formal training his works soon generated quite a following, and he has maintained his own gallery in the French Quarter of New Orleans for the past fifteen years.

Hebert's paintings, basically in rich primary colors, recall a less complicated life when happiness was found with a mess of crawfish, beer on ice, and good friends. By using acrylic paints the viewer is treated to a layering effect that is both unique and memorable.

Known throughout the world for his Blue dog paintings, George Rodrigue contributed the foreword for "Zydeco Shoes." A native of Louisiana, he studied art at the University of Louisiana. Today, his paintings are much sought by collectors.
Making their debut on the included compact disk The Lucky Playboys give new meaning to zestful music. You won't be able to keep your toes from tapping.

Popular Cajun recipes featured are from the files of Mulate's, a restaurant founded by Kerry Boutte some twenty years ago in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana. He now has three locations, one in New Orleans.

"Zydeco Shoes" is complete Cajun, and tons of fun.

- Gail Cooke

introduction to colorful Cajun culture.......2004-12-26

Music on a CD, recipes, anecdotes, and most of all, Earl Hebert's vibrantly-colored illustrations convey the tone, energy, and distinctiveness of Louisiana's cajun culture. The full-page illustrations in this oversize book make readers feel that they are practically participating in the scenes of dancing, music playing, and socializing. The book and CD are packaged in an eye-catching, brightly colored slipcase. The different parts combine together for a celebration of this widely-known regional culture.

The Highwaymen: Florida's African-American Landscape Painters

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Florida's African-American Landscape painters
Idealized Florida
A Fascinating Story
Great coffee table book for those who long for the beach.

The Highwaymen: Florida's African-American Landscape Painters
Gary Monroe
Manufacturer: University Press of Florida
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | History & Criticism | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Instructional & How-To | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Painting | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Landscape | Painting | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

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Folk Art | Schools, Periods & Styles | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0813022819

Book Description

The Highwaymen introduces a group of young black artists who painted their way out of the despair awaiting them in citrus groves and packing houses of 1950s Florida. As their story recaptures the imagination of Floridians and their paintings fetch ever-escalating prices, the legacy of their freshly conceived landscapes exerts a new and powerful influence on the popular conception of the Sunshine State.

Gary Monroe tells the story behind the Highwaymen, a loose association of 25 men and 1 woman from the Fort Pierce area--a fascinating mixture of individual talent, collective enterprise, and cultural heritage. He also offers a critical look at the paintings and the movement's development. Added to this are personal reminiscences by some of the artists, along with a gallery of 63 full-color reproductions of their paintings.

Customer Reviews:

Florida's African-American Landscape painters.......2007-05-07

Great book! Such talent needs to be recognized and applauded.

Idealized Florida.......2005-10-10

In 1994, art aficionado Jim Fitch assigned the name "Highwaymen" to a loose association of young, mostly untrained black artists (including one woman) from the Fort Pierce area who created thousands of Florida landscapes and marketed them from the backs of their cars for about $25 in the 1960's and `70's. Theirs was an unabashedly commercial venture, and the artists collaborated to create and sell works as quickly and cheaply as possible. Dismissed as "motel art" at the time, these intense, lush and at times otherworldly depictions of an idealized Florida have become a subject of renewed interest and critical attention in recent years. Consequently, many myths and vague tales have grown up around the group.

As part of his research, author Gary Monroe interviewed many of the remaining artists to bring the story to life, presented here in a 26-page annotated essay. In analyzing the art, he insists that the speed with which they worked was far from a detriment: "By unintentionally bastardizing the canonical pictorial strategies...they created a new form of fantasy landscape painting." The artists found their strength as colorists, and the emotional hues capture the essence of Florida (or at least, as we imagine it.)

As a northerner who visited Florida twice as a child in the pre-Disney days, I must confess that the 63 glorious full-color reproductions here gave me goose bumps of fond memory, real or imagined.

A followup: This book launched an explosion of interest in The Highwaymen. Surviving members no longer need hawk their wares, since collectors now come to them and new works sell for as much as $18,000. The were inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame in 2004.

A Fascinating Story.......2005-09-15

This book highlites a special group of amateur black artists who lived in Florida in the 1950's. The story is well presented with wonderful details that make their artistic journey come alive. The paintings are wonderful. The only drawback to this book, as I see it, is that the vivid hues of the paintings did not come through in this book. I happened to read a magazine article, full of rich colorful pictures of some of the paintings, which sparked my interest, and led to my purchasing this book. Unfortunately, it seems that this printing process could not represent the original brilliance of the paintings. This is a fascinating peek at a little know bit of Florida art history.

Great coffee table book for those who long for the beach........2003-06-01

An all-inclusive journey through the lives and souls of African American painters from days gone by. These creative souls painted breathtaking beach landscapes... Many of their works still survive today, and sell for [a small fortune]. (I know, I have one in my living room.) A great buy! Just be warned; one look through it's pages will draw you toward Florida's shores lke a child to the smell of cotton candy!

Drawing on America's Past: Folk Art, Modernism, and the Index of American Design

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Drawing on America's Past: Folk Art, Modernism, and the Index of American Design
Virginia Tuttle Clayton , Elizabeth Stillinger , Erika Doss , and Deborah Chotner
Manufacturer: The University of North Carolina Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0807827940

Book Description

This beautifully illustrated book commemorates the sixtieth anniversary of the National Gallery of Art's acquisition of the Index of American Design. Widely regarded as one of the New Deal's most important art projects, the Index began in 1935 as a unit of the Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project. Its aim was to compile and eventually publish a visual archive of American folk, popular, and decorative art from the time of settlement to about 1900. The approximately 1,000 artists involved in the project created more than 18,000 meticulous watercolor portraits of Americana.

The book presents 82 of the finest watercolor renderings along with a selection of the artifacts they represent. The original objects range from quilts, weather vanes, and hand-carved toys to carousel animals, stoneware, and cigar-store figures. Three essays explore the history, operation, and ambitions of the Index of American Design, examine folk-art collecting in America during the early decades of the twentieth century, and consider the Index's role in the search for a national cultural identity in the early twentieth-century United States.

Drawing on America's Past is the companion publication to an exhibition that runs at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., from 27 November 2002 through 2 March 2003.

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