Jim Linderman blog about surface, wear, form and authenticity in self-taught art, outsider art, antique american folk art, antiques and photography. Dull tool and dim bulb were the only swear words my father ever used. Items from the Jim Linderman collection of vernacular photography, folk art, ephemera and curiosities. (Note: if anyone believes an image contained violates their rights or insults their intelligence, simply point it out and I will remove)
AMERICAN FOLK ART IN PLACE: IN-SITU by Jim Linderman is NOW available. A large format vintage photography book which reveals hundreds of folk art environments and unique folk art sculptures as installed over the years. The book documents numerous outsider art installations (many previously unknown) and photographs of known and unknown artists at work. All photographs will be drawn from the collection of Jim Linderman, whose previous vintage photography books include the ground-breaking Take Me to the Water,The Birth of Rock and Roll and Arcane Americana. The book will be the companion to Eccentric Folk Art Drawings of the 19th and 20th Centuries from the Linderman Collection. Same size, same format and also available as an affordable instant download e-book. American Folk Art In Place: In-Situ is a much expanded and revised edition of the now out of print original book of the same title. Details and a free preview of the book will follow. Inquiries to J.Winkel4@gmail.com
Shown: Untitled snapshot (Feed the Monkey) unknown location, circa 1950. Collection Jim Linderman
Michigan had several clay sewer tile factories, and like the others (particularly in Ohio) their workers would take unused clay at the end of the day and make whimsical pieces of pottery for friends. This sewer tile head (with a pile of tiles stacked ready for transport in the Real Photo Postcard) is signed on the base Curtis Rugge who was a pretty good sculptor. See also the essay by Marsha MacDowell and Kurt Dewhurst from 1980 titled The Sewer Tile Clay Pottery of Grand Ledge, Michigan. Interestingly, they point out that Michigan drew employees from Ohio to work for them...a small rivalry, but likely also an exchange of skills and ideas for pieces like this. Grand Ledge folk art Sewer Tile Head and Real Photo Postcardcollection Jim Linderman
The Monument of the States contained a rock from every state in the union (at the time...two of our states with the most rocks were not eligible yet) collected after Pearl Harbor. The originator of the project was Dr. Charles Bressler-Pettis. Charles did not go get the rocks. He wrote all the governors and had them send one down to Florida! It still stands! See a contributor revisit his rock below!
An extraordinary folk art drawing by Dennison W. Hammond of Sommerville, MA. 1876. It was drawn, in ink, on the front endpaper of an autograph / friendship book. Collection Jim Linderman Thanks to BOX LOT on Facebook.
A superstitious folk art carving. Antique American Folk Art Carving Sculpture Man in Chair Black Cat Jumps Over the Moon Circa 1900 Collection Jim Linderman
Antique Folk Art Statue of Liberty Trade Figure from the turn of the century. The massive sculpture on Liberty Island in Manhattan was installed in 1886. Soon after this 34 inch folk art carving was created. Note construction on the base...several blocks of wood were combined to form a block, and shrinkage of the center piece has been filled at some time with putty or plaster. Found in Pennsylvania.
Pen-pricked tracings have been used by quilters and embroidery creators for decades, though the art has pretty much died out. It allows designs to be copied. Above, a parlor game with someone using what could have been THE EDISON ELECTRIC PEN AND DUPLICATING MACHINE creates "Hand of prominent politician" which was apparently rubbed with orange chalk to create a stencil.
The artist from Michigan had a demented view of Florida, but he shared them in a trio of letters to a pair of snowbirds wintering down south. Trio of racist hand drawn postal envelopes sent from Michigan to Florida 1949 Collection Jim Linderman
Champion Whittler C. A. Huges Wooden Figure and Uncle Sam Folk Art Original press photograph edited by hand before publication 1927 Arkansas Collection Jim Linderman
ECCENTRIC FOLK ART DRAWINGS OF THE 19TH AND 20TH CENTURIES BOOK AVAILABLE NOW
FROM THE COLLECTION OF JIM LINDERMAN
Click for Sewer Tile Pottery Folk Art Site
JIm Linderman Profile Ursula Magazine.
Hauser & Wirth 2019
Click Jim Linderman Profile New York Times
Jim Linderman Photo by Adam Bird for the New York Times
BOOK The Birth of Rock and Roll
JIm Linderman Take Me to the Water
Grammy-Nominated Best Historical Release out of print
ABOUT JIM LINDERMAN
Credits Biography Publications
Click Grin for old time religion by Jim Linderman
JIM LINDERMAN BIO, TESTIMONIALS, PRESS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jim Linderman
"...Linderman is widely regarded as one of the foremost figures in a field of vernacular art collectors working beyond the margins of most institutional axioms and impulses, in what is essentially it's own self-taught art form." Ursula Magazine Hauser & Wirth 2019
"Linderman produces the most sublime books on dreamy, arcane subjects, sexy stuff, too, all with rare one-of-a-kind images." Craig Yoe 2017
"...disclosing an underground history of American popular culture one oddball tale at a time" John Strausbaugh in The New York Times
"...one of the blog writers to watch for" ARTSlant
"...wonderful, extraordinary, fascinating, remarkable and profound" Fans in a Flashbulb International Center of Photography Museum 2016
"Brilliantly Astute, Acerbic and Aesthetic Jim Linderman" The Museum of Everything 2014
"Dull Tool Dim Bulb is always worth a visit" THINGS Magazine 2016
"...grumpy..." The Austin Chronicle 2014
"Perpetually ahead of the collecting curve...a one man Taschen. An authentically curious individual...diligently archiving the forgotten curiosities of American History"
Emma Higgins in Art Hack May 2012
"Jim Linderman likes Art, Antiques and Photography and his collection of Vernacular Photography, Folk Art, Ephemera and Curiosities is a wonderful place..." LifeElsewhere with Norman B. 2014
"...collected over the years by Jim Linderman, a character who seems the perfect subject for a Harvey Pekar comic. Linderman treats collecting like a calling, and his finds have a resulting air of authority, stunning in their capture of bygone picturesque moments." Derek Taylor Dusted
"The pictures, discarded artifacts of ecstatic Americana, come from the stash of Jim Linderman, who in his introduction recalls advice he’s plainly taken to heart: “Collect the heck” out of whatever you find interesting." Drew Jubera Paste Magazine
"His interest in art is rivaled only by his interest in music, and one expression informs the other. He pursues objects with thoroughness and an innate sense of curiosity..." Tanya Heinrich Folk Art Magazine
"Linderman acknowledges the obscure at the same time that he elevates it.... His collections tell vast stories in sotto voce, allowing curios and objects shadowed by mainstream culture and ideology to converse and be heard. What we hear is an enormous American sub-culture speaking in forbidden, marginalized languages: stuff discovered boxed in the attic out of embarrassment or zealotry, smutty ash trays crowing next to religious pamphlets, each claiming a part of the complex, sometimes contradictory, always conflicted American imagination, a chaos of memories that will one day vanish." Joe Bonomo Author of Conversations With Greil Marcus, Jerry Lewis Lost and Found and No Such Thing As Was
"...he's one of the world's greatest pickers." Brian Wallis in The New York Times
"Documenting--one clipping at a time--the scrapbook of a leg and garter aficionado that was dumpster-dived in Virginia in the 60s" "...an outstanding image-archaeologist who has compiled a shelf-ful of worthy and unique photographic histories." William Smith Hang Fire Books
"Linderman has a knack for discovering untold stories and introducing them to a wider audience" Joey Lin Anonymous Works
"Jim Linderman...makes us all look a little puny" Could it be Madness-this?
"...insatiable collector of ephemera and ringleader behind an incredible circus of blogs — including the treasure trove dull tool dim bulb" The Cynephile
"...there's something beyond the endless photos and postcards and weird propaganda from another time that he lovingly documents - I think it's the collection as a whole, the portrait of a person fascinated with culture and communication. I have met people like this before, and in reading Dull Tool Dim Bulb I feel I have been lucky enough to meet one more. This site is a goldmine in terms of links..." The Hyggelic Life October 2009
"Linderman is always on the lookout for the new and exciting" Chuck and Jan Rosenak Contemporary American Folk Art
"...an amazing collection..." Revel in New York October 2009
"Jim Linderman has a nice little colllection of interesting books and blogs...But every so often he just loses it." American Digest March 2010
"FOR MOST OF HIS LIFE, COLLECTOR JIM LINDERMAN has searched high and low for authentic things--unique and special objects that define the artistic culture of the American experience. From folk art to popular culture, from pulp fiction to Delta Blues-- Jim is a walking authority on so many things American they are too numerous to mention. One thing is certain-- his collecting interests are for things that have fallen through the cracks, those things lost and forgotten--the box of material under the table at the flea market booth. If it wasn't for dedicated collectors like Jim Linderman-- so many important objects about our culture would have surely been lost to time and indifference."
"Jim Linderman maintains a most interesting blog about the most amazing things from his collection—a site he calls “Dull Tool Dim Bulb,” the only curse words his father ever uttered. I love it, and read it everyday." "...an excellent writer and I devour your blog daily. I am impressed at your deep knowledge of things within your niche..." John Foster Accidental Mysteries
"I am grateful to Jim Linderman for first alerting me to the existence of the 1930s Spiritualist hymn "Jesus is My Air-o-plane." William Fagaly New Orleans Museum of Art, Author Tools of her Ministry: The art of Sister Gertrude Morgan
"Linderman describes a long gone world...(he) claims not to be a writer but he is most certainly an excellent researcher..." BOOKSTEVE
"Jim Linderman, King of the Internet Ephemeral Arts" Spaniel Rage
"Jim is a fantastic historian...show him some love" Astrid Daley Fringe Pop / Sin-A-Rama
"Almost an experimental narrative" Idiopath
"He came to us with hundreds of jaw-dropping baptism photos that he'd been collecting for 25 years," Ledbetter explains. "By the time he found us, he'd already done half a lifetime's works, and he trusted us to handle it properly." Lance Ledbetter in Creative Loafing 10/13/11
