[If it’s August,
it must be time for my
annual pilgrimage to my Virginia homeland with my boys—and my annual
series AmericanStudying the Old
Dominion. Leading up to a special weekend post on the people who really
signify “Virginia” to me!]
Three telling exhibits
and pieces from Williamsburg’s
amazing folk art museum.
1)
An exhibition of quilts: Through December 6th,
the museum’s McCarl Gallery will feature “A
Celebration of Quilts,” an exhibition featuring 12 noteworthy American quilts
from the 18th through the 20th centuries. The exhibit
includes pieces by African American, Hawaiian, and Amish quiltmakers (among
other artisans), and likewise runs the gamut of techniques and styles. Serving
as both utilitarian household item and artistic products, as both material and
artistic culture, quilts are a perfect example of the complexity
and value of folk art (compared to the more obvious “fine arts”).
2)
Pueblo jewelry: Through September 5th,
2016, the museum’s Peebles Gallery will feature “Thunderbirds:
Jewelry of the Santo Domingo Pueblo,” an exhibition that highlights a
particular, Depression-era jewelry style from a New Mexico pueblo
with a longstanding artistic tradition. Mass-produced (compared to the pueblo’s
norms, at least) in response to the Depression’s economic exigencies, and using
any and all available materials for the same reason, these jewelry pieces are
thus both distinct from the pueblo’s traditions and yet represent a stage and evolution
of those histories—and are vital American folk art in any case.
3)
Baby
in Red Chair: And then there’s that baby, one of the perennial representations
of the museum’s collections and spirit. Currently exhibited as part of an American
folk portraits collection in the Clark Foundation Gallery, the baby
embodies the practice and appeal of folk art—simple yet eloquent, anonymous yet
enduring, everyday yet reflecting our reality in the way that only the arts
can. There’s a reason why the baby has been one of the museum’s most popular
pieces, and it’s the same reason why the museum has been so successful—because folk
art is a vibrant and vital part of our national community and identity.
Last Virginia
connection tomorrow,
Ben
PS. What do you
think?
No comments:
Post a Comment