A Kind of Archeology: Collecting Folk Art in America, 1876-1976

Reader Reviews
For author Stillinger, the subtitle "Collecting American Folk Art" is not only a subject, but also an activity of a lifetime. Author of five previous books on antiques and wife of William Guthman (deceased) who was a regular on Antiques Road Show in the areas of early Americana, particularly militaria, Stillinger writes from a knowledge base and broad historical perspective of an expert along with the enthusiasm, market awareness, and approach of the committed collector. Her aim is to share as well as instruct.Given its eclecticism depending much on personal tastes (e. g., what is folk art is often in the eye of the beholder) and unpredictability with respect to what antique objects will be included in the field depending in many cases on archeological finds, attic discoveries, recent scholarship, or new thinking in the field, folk art cannot be precisely defined. Definition and even concept are at different times strongly influenced though not fixed by individual interests, market trends, and social change.Folk art has come to be seen in a new light in recent decades because of how it relates to trends of modernism, especially the fading of the line between "high" and "low" art and the elevation of popular culture. "Collecting folk art has to do...with the great shift in our perception of what art is." Avant-garde artists looked to the forms, materials, and decorations of folk art as representing the modernist ideals of "freedom from the shackles of formal art [and] self-expression above conformity". Stillinger explores this vein thoroughly in terms of the relevant modern interest in ethnology, social history, aesthetics, decoration, identity, and art theory.The author notes that her voluminous, authoritative examination of folk art mostly of the Northeast can readily be applied to folk art of any region or group. The motives, perspectives, appreciation, and activities of collectors, dealers, and auction houses in the Northeast where Stillinger lives and has been active for decades which inform her study along with her own incomparable experience and knowledge are found among individuals in other parts of the country.The abundant and diverse color photographs of quilts, sign boards, sculpture, amateur paintings, family portraits, patriotic woodworking, furniture, weather vanes, etc., coming page after page in a seemingly endless stream delight the reader as the text informs. The history, cultural ground, appeal, and market standing of folk art found in the book make it a benchmark in the field. There are many books on different aspects of folk art such as regional and ethnic; but none brings the field together to put it on the map and also to serve as a groundwork for study of the field and work in it as this book does.


Back To Top