American Antique Folk Art

Austin T Miller American Antiques, Incorporated, specializes in works of art and Americana created by recognized and important naive, self taught artists.  Whether you call it primitive, outsider art, naive artwork or a personal passion, the charm of American Folk Art for Antique collectors has continued to expand over the years.  This is a brief primer about American Folk Art for the uninitiated.

Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: folk art

"Art produced in a traditional fashion by peasants, seamen, country artisans, or tradespeople with no formal training, or by members of a social or ethnic group that has preserved its traditional culture. It is predominantly functional, typically produced by hand for use by the maker or by a small group or community. paintings are usually incorporated as decorative features on clock faces, chests, chairs, and interior and exterior walls. Sculptural objects in wood, stone, and metal include weathervanes, toys, spoons, candlesticks, and religious items. Folk architecture may include public and residential buildings, such as eastern European wooden churches and U.S. frontier log cabins. Other examples of visual folk arts are woodcuts, scrimshaw, pottery, hooked rugs, and traditional clothing."

An Alternate Definition Comes from American History Companion
The Reader's Companion to American History, edited by John A. Garraty and Eric Foner, published by Houghton Mifflin Company

"Some scholars have spent much of their lives studying American folk art, and nearly all have arrived at their own definitions. Perhaps the most pertinent was developed by Mary Childs Black, first director of the Museum of Early American Folk Arts in New York: "The genesis, rise, and disappearance of folk art is closely connected with the events of the nineteenth century when the disappearance of the old ways left rural folk everywhere with an unused surplus of time and energy. People were free to invent and make simple things for their own pleasure in each household and in each village, until the rise of industrial production toward the end of the nineteenth century. Folk art occupies the brief interval between court taste and commercial taste." Definitions used by other scholars support Black's theories in general, and it is possible to derive from them a consensus of the qualities usually associated with great folk art. Such words as freshness, directness, simplicity, and imaginative frequently occur in writings on the subject.

"For many years it was generally thought that the folk artist was essentially anonymous, itinerant, and untrained, but research has altered these views. A number of artists have been identified, such as the Massachusetts painter Rufus Hathaway, the Hudson Valley artist Gerardus Duyckinck, the youthful Benjamin West who flourished in Pennsylvania prior to an illustrious career in England, and Sheldon Peck who worked first in Vermont and later moved with the frontier to western New York."