A Collection That Defines Folk Art
by Bob Brooke

Folk art has been around since man first began drawing on cave walls. It evolved out of necessity, from primitive stone tools to baskets to carrying things to decorating furniture to store things. The American Folk Art Museum New York City presents an overview of folk art in America.

Since its first incarnation in 1961—when it was known as the Museum of Early American Folk Arts—the museum has focused on collecting, displaying, and studying works in a variety of objects created by self-taught American artists and artisans. But assembling its collection and curating it presented challenges, one of which was its moving from one venue to another along the way and another the changing of its name twice.

In 1966, the institution received its first name change to the Museum of American Folk Art and then in 2001 to its second change to the American Folk Art Museum, when it moved to a new purpose-built location in Midtown Manhattan. The museum occupied that facility until 2011, when it sold the building to the Museum of Modern Art. The collection returned to its previous location in Lincoln Square, which it had occupied from 1989 to 2001.

Visitors to the museum get to view objects in its permanent collection, including Americana dating from the 17th century to the present day. The collection ranges from weathervanes to more-traditional fine art, such as paintings, drawings, and photographs. Textiles, quilts, sculptures, and other three-dimensional pieces offer insights into various elements of American cultural heritage.

Since 1961, the American Folk Art Museum has been the leading institution shaping the understanding of art by the self-taught members of a community. It showcases the creativity of individuals whose singular talents have been refined through personal experience rather than formal artistic training. Its collection includes over 8,000 works of art from the last 400 years and nearly every continent—from compelling portraits and dazzling quilts to powerful works by living artists in a variety of mediums.

Self-taught art, both past and present, tells empowering stories of everyday life. Collectors, professional artists, critics, dealers, and curators first defined the category of American folk art at the turn of the 20th century, They had been searching for an authentic American art form which seemed to be finally answered in works that presented a picture of national identity, faith, progress, ingenuity, community, and individuality. Under the umbrella of “folk art” the category expanded to also include artists working in the present. For the last two decades, the term self-taught has more regularly come to address these artists, whose inspiration emerges from unsuspected paths and unconventional places, giving voice to individuals who worked outside the social mainstream.

The Museum is open from Wednesday to Sunday from 11:30 A.M. to 6:00 P.M.

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