Asa "Ace" Moore African-American outsider artist who created erotic and sexual works in ink and pencil during the 1930s. Certainly in private. Personal visions of his own, and produced during a time when even African-American's questioned their own beauty. As such, these are likely among the earliest depictions of sexuality and eroticism by a Black artist in the United States. It took as long as 1974 for Vogue Magazine to put an African-American model on their cover, and even Hefner resisted until 1971. Racism was so extreme and brutal in the 1930s, images of Black sexuality were virtually unknown. In 1968, when James Brown sang "Say it Loud, I'm Black and Proud" he was literally convincing his own race of their worth...and that was 30 years after these drawings were created. Some are far too risque to allow here...but Mr. Moore created at least 38 works. Some appear on the Museum of Uncut Funk site HERE
Drawings by Asa "Ace" Moore circa 1935 Collection Jim Linderman
Erotic Folk Art Antique Carving Two Nude Women in Debauched Revelry! Circa 1930 Pennsylvania origin Collection Jim Linderman. Thanks to Mark Smerkanich
Erotic Folk Art Antique Carving Two Nude Women and a Dog circa 1930 Pennsylvania origin Collection Jim Linderman. Thanks to Mark Smerkanich
Exuberant Nude Erotic Folk Art Sculpture no date Collection Jim Linderman
Handmade risque man and woman pot holders circa 1940. Collection Jim Linderman
Hold to Light Man's Best Friend Handmade Erotic Folk Art Gag c. 1930 (Two Sides)
Collection Jim Linderman
Erotic Folk Art Joke Carving Man in a Barrel circa 1920.
A Folk Art Collection of Wee Men with a penny to illustrate size...of the men.
Vintage Erotic Folk Art Sculpture Wood Carving 1940s?
Erotic Naive Drawings of Pecs 1942 Each 11 x 17
Gallery Fred Giampietro exhibited a wall installation of these works art the 2015 Outsider Art Fair.
Erotic Folk Art Carved Figural Pipe collection Jim Linderman
For decades, the Erlich Pipe Company in Boston was one of the longest surviving pipe shops in the country, and in the window of their store on Tremont Street, they often had a master carver at work. There were actually two locations for a time, and each window had a resident carver. George Bushee carved on Tremont, Gustave Fischer carved at 33 Court Street. I am guessing this was done by one or the other.
Hand-carved Pipe Bowl with Nude Woman and Man no date Collection Jim Linderman
Yes folks, step right up! A Nude Woman with Rhinestone Pasties carved from a Peach Pit! Even Abe Lincoln seems amazed, and he should be. This little (nay, microscopic) miracle of precision carving and a fevered brow comes to us from the astounding shop of the amazing and curious CURLEY'S DEN of ANTIQUES.
Erotic Folk Art Drawings by Ace Moore Collection Victor Minx
Antique Man in a Coffin Erotic Folk Art Carved Novelty Handmade Sculpture with Penis and Moving Tongue.
Well, the title says a lot, but not all. I'm going to add a value judgement. Bad taste is evident from every era man has been here, and it's not going away. If a whittler making a statement on mortality and the way we procreate is a problem for you, turn away.
Second, as strange as it may seem, I have collected these little contraptions for years. I have had some with the coffin as large as a shoebox (sold at auction and lost) and as small as a matchbook. I have had them painted and not, manufactured as tourist trap do-dads and whittled on the porch from when radio was the only mass-media other than the local newspaper. I have had them working and broken, in pieces and not. Rubber band operated and with other mechanisms.
But I have never had one with a tongue. It is also unusual to see one with arms which extend, and nearly as far as the wanger. Interestingly, as I write, my spell-checker fails to recognize the word wanger, repeatedly replacing the word danger... while it has been in our vocabulary for decades.
Whether the artist who created this morbid miracle of post-death erection was thinking of "arms to hold you" and a tongue to kiss you is unknown. Still, it is a pretty powerful little object combining life, death and what goes on in-between.
Note also "Rest in Peace" painted on end of the coffin, wire carrying straps, actual linen lining and pencil highlights. Not to mention red color applied in particular places.
Little erotic effigies began in caves. Where they will end is questionable, but they will always be here.
Circa 1930 Handmade Erotic Novelty Man in Coffin Collection Jim Linderman
If you are interested in similar examples or hand-crafted dirty little (and big) objects created as an homage to sexual silliness, the book FOLK EROTICA by my gentleman friend and esthetic miracle man Milton Simpson HERE is a good place to start.
Looks to me like a carver wore out...certainly that CAN'T be her hair? Actually, what happened, I believe, is while carving the right arm, a tool slipped, an arm was cracked and a project was abandoned.
Large folk art carved nude woman circa 1940? Collection Jim Linderman
Examples of the outsider art by African-American Outsider Artist B. E. Riddick, who drew on flattened shopping bags and other paper circa 1970
