AMERICAN EXPRESSIONS OF LIBERTY
Art of the People, by the People, for the People
1996. 168 pages. 104 color photographs by Lynton Gardiner except as noted. Selected bibliography. Commentaries by Gerard C. Wertkin, Director of Museum of American Folk Art and Jack Lenor Larsen, President Emeritus, American Craft Council. Design and foreword by Martha Longenecker, Director. ISBN No. 0-8109-6338-8.
From our previous exhibition Curated by Martha Longenecker. AMERICAN EXPRESSIONS OF LIBERTY—Art of the People, by the People, for the People reflected the living traditions of creative expression and Yankee ingenuity beginning with early American folk art, and continuing through selected contemporary crafts. Representing all media, the exhibition included many patriotic symbols such as the flag, the eagle, the Statue of Liberty and Uncle Sam. The contemporary crafts were the essence of freedom and quality of expression and were represented with selections from the permanent collection of Mingei International Museum. The Museum of American Folk Art in New York collaborated on the exhibition, its documentary publication and video tape. Other major loans came from the collections of Michael Del Castello, and Margaret and Bill Pearson.
Excerpt
Foreword
Martha W. Longenecker
Founder and Director Mingei International Museum
This documentary exhibition publication, AMERICAN EXPRESSIONS OF LIBERTY—Art of the People, by the People, for the People reflects the continuity of creativity and Yankee ingenuity beginning with early American folk art and continuing through contemporary crafts. All the objects are emblematic of the land and the people — many featuring beloved icons: the Stars and Stripes, Miss Liberty, Uncle Sam, and the American bald eagle. They express the need of every individual to be physically and psychologically free to actualize his own innate, creative potential.
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The power and energy bursting forth in what we call art of the people can profoundly touch the core of being and awaken inner sources of creativity. The beauty of these arts seems to be the flowering of an order and state of mind beyond the physical, and often beyond the restraints of physical circumstances. How moving and life-changing is the realization that the exquisite violin to be seen on page 91 was created by a prisoner using the only material he had - matchsticks!
The objects represented in this book were made in America over a span of fewer than 200 years and were created to fulfill needs of daily life. They include quilts, coverlets, weathervanes, trade signs, furniture, as well as whirligigs — objects of whimsy and play.
Not intellectually but intuitively conceived folk arts of all cultures speak eloquently of distinctive lands and peoples. They are intense and intimate expressions of human qualities — strength, humility, courage, resourcefulness, inventiveness, and a sense of humor. All are simply revealed in line, form and color; the international language of art that knows no barrier of time, place or race...
Expressions of Liberty in American Folk Art
Gerard C. Wertkin, Director
Museum of American Folk Art, New York
At first glance, the great figure of "Uncle Sam Riding a Bicycle" that adorns the cover of this catalogue appears to be fanciful, a product of its maker's whimsy and playfulness. There is an exuberant, celebratory spirit about this Uncle Sam on wheels that, if anything, is enhanced when the articulated figure is in motion. A second look, however, suggests the presence of something more: an engaging earnestness, a certainty of direction, even a seriousness of purpose, as America (joined, perhaps, by its northern neighbor, for the flag of Canada flies here too) pedals resolutely and without self-doubt into its future.
The identity of the maker of "Uncle Sam Riding a Bicycle" is unknown, but he brought to this hundred-year-old work of art a sure sense of Yankee rectitude, an anything-is-possible optimism and an uncritical belief in the promise of America. It is these qualities no less than the creative gifts and technical virtuosity of the artist that render "Uncle Sam Riding a Bicycle" such an apt symbol for an exhibition that celebrates the American spirit. As Director of the Museum of American Folk Art, I am delighted that this wonderful object, a promised bequest to the Museum from Dorothy and Leo Rabkin, should have been chosen by Mingei International Museum of Folk Art as the signature-piece for the exhibition that inaugurates its splendid new home...
