Antique American Folk Art Drawing 19th Century "Meeting of the Old Man and his Grandson" collection Jim Linderman

Antique American Folk Art Drawing 19th Century "Meeting of the Old Man and his Grandson" Anonymous Collection Jim Linderman

Homemade Science Fiction Pulp Magazine Cover Drawn by Hand 1938 Collection Jim Linderman

This Science Fiction Pulp Magazine from before World War Two has been saved from destruction with a handmade cover! I am not sure how high the "pass-around" rate was for these rags, but this one has had life extended with the repair. Featuring an Edgar Rice Burroughs story titled "Synthetic Man of Mars" from 1938, it is the artistic vision of the humble home artist which interests me. He created a hand-written spine as well. Hand Drawn Science Fiction pulp magazine cover,created sometime after 1938. Collection Jim Linderman Dull Tool Dim Bulb.

19th Century Child's Handmade Paper Weaving Froebel Kindergarten Work

19th Century Child's Handmade Paper Weaving. Froebel Kindergarten. From a handmade book of similar work. The simple (yet sophisticated!) training techniques of Frederich Froebel continue to set a high bar for children's art education. 19th Century Child's Handmade Paper Weaving. Collection Jim Linderman

Drawing of Haley's Comet 1910 on a piece of Birch Bark circa 1910 Folk Art

A scarce period Drawing of Haley's Comet circa 1910 on a piece of Birch Bark. A drawn by hand postcard. It's a curious one...a boy rushes in riding the comet with a net to collect mosquitos! Of course there was worldwide panic at the time. A good share of the fear came from religious nuts. My favorite factoid is that the impending doom resulted in a run on "anti-comet umbrellas" and protective pills. Collection Jim Linderman BOOKS AND EBOOKS BY JIM LINDERMAN ARE AVAILABLE HERE ON BLURB.COM

Love During Wartime #12 Pacific Theater Solder's Footlocker with Homemade Pinups Collection Jim Linderman

Love During Wartime #12 Pacific Theater Solder's Footlocker with Homemade Pinups Collection Jim Linderman

Antique Sewer Tile Yellow Kid Bank c. 1900 Collection Jim Linderman / Dull Tool Dim Bulb

Antique Sewer Pipe sculpture (and bank) depicting the Yellow Kid. Fear not, this fella isn't a racist relic from the past! The Yellow Kid was an American Icon and star of the Sunday comics. First appearing in the papers in 1895, the Yellow Kid grew to be a little baby icon. This figure dates to that era. For those of you who might not know, Sewer Pipe or Sewer Tile folk art figures were largely hand-fashioned by clay factory workers from leftover clay at the end of the day. There WERE some racist elements in the Yellow Kid comics, but it appears to have been the way it was back then. It was over 100 years ago. Of course there were. But this figure is benign. Here's what his creator Richard Outcault had to say about him in 1902: “The Yellow Kid was not an individual but a type. When I used to go about the slums on newspaper assignments I would encounter him often, wandering out of doorways or sitting down on dirty doorsteps. I always loved the Kid. He had a sweet character and a sunny disposition, and was generous to a fault. Malice, envy or selfishness were not traits of his, and he never lost his temper” Read more about the kid HERE on the Outcault Wiki page. He also invented Buster Brown! The form is scarce, but several other examples have turned up. Sewer Pipe Folk Art Pottery Bank figure of The Yellow Kid. c. 1900. Hand-signed on the base "P.O." Collection Jim Linderman / Dull Tool Dim Bulb. Posted on The Sewer Pipe Pottery Website HERE also.

Folk Art Whirligig Fragments made from Cigar Box Wood (Man with hat, Woman with hair bun) c. 1950 Collection JIm Linderman

Folk Art Whirligig Fragments made from Cigar Box Wood c. 1940. Collection JIm Linderman

Hand Drawn Folk Art Paper Dolls

Hand Drawn Folk Art Paper Dolls, c. 1935 - 1945 Collection Jim Linderman Folk art and Photography books by Dull Tool Dim Bulb and Jim Linderman are available on Blurb.com

Pair of Anonymous 19th Century Drawings collection Jim Linderman

Pair of Anonymous 19th Century Drawings collection Jim Linderman

Israel Litwak Mountaindale, NY 1938. Self-Taught "Primitive" art Outsider Collection Jim Linderman

Israel Litwak Mountaindale, NY 1938. Self-Taught "Primitive" art Outsider Collection Jim Linderman Another work by Litwak is shown in a post from a few weeks ago. Scroll Down!

Apron Money Pouch with Frugal Note Flour Sack Fabric with Frugal Message Sewing Folk Art

Miniature Apron sewn from flour sack cloth with a note inside about saving money. Folk Art circa 1930 - 1940 Collection Jim Linderman

Albert Freeman Pair of Folk Art Portraits c. 1940 Collection Jim Linderman Outsider Art

Albert Freeman is another artist we might not ever know much about. I believe his work was discovered by Robert Cargo, long time collector, dealer and advocate of southern 20th century American folk art. I was recently pleased to find he had donated significant portions of his collection (particularly a wonderful collection of African-American quilts) to the Birmingham Museum of Art. While not illustrated, they acquired a dozen or so Freeman works. I find several good examples of his work online. Most are portraits like the pair above, although a small painting of a lion is illustrated in the outsider art chapter of Wendy Lavitt's Animals in American Folk Art in 1990. All were done on scrap paper and found cardboard. Mr. Freeman was active from 1940 to 1950. Untltled (Man and Woman(pair of portraits) circa 1940. Collection Jim Linderman

Antique Folk Art Portrait Drawing of a Young Woman Anonymous

Antique Folk Art Portrait Drawing of a Young Woman. Cut out and affixed to cardboard. Anonymous. Early 19th Century Miniature.

Self Taught Primitive Painter Israel Litwak 1867 - 1952 Vase with Flowers collection Jim Linderman

Israel Litwak was born in Russia and immigrated to Brooklyn in 1903. After his long career as a cabinet maker, he began producing lively and unique drawings and paintings which he shared with the Brooklyn Museum. They gave him a one man show! He was included in the seminal book They Taught Themselves: American Primitive Painters of the 20th Century. See a similar work (without peeping gentlemen) in the Brooklyn Museum collection HERE ISRAEL LITWAK UNTITLED (VASE WITH FLOWERS) 17 X 20 1940. COLLECTION JIM LINDERMAN / DULL TOOL DIM BULB

Outsider art Folk art Baseball Greats Collection Jim Linderman

Five baseball star outsider art portraits by a woman (a Braves fan!) created in the late 1950s. The amateur artist surrounds each with colorful misshapen borders. Rocky Colavito of the Cleveland Indians, Jackie Jensen of the Boston Red Sox. Roger Maris,then of the Kansas City Athletics, Don Drysdale from the Los Angeles Angels and finally, the great Ernie Banks of the Chicago Cubs. The pieces were obtained by an auction house back in the 1970s. Apparently there were less than ten pieces at the time. Five drawings on lined paper, mounted on Manilla. Collection Jim Linderman / Dull Tool Dim Bulb ORDER JIM LINDERMAN ART and PHOTOGRAPHY BOOKS from BLURB

Lisa Z. Sigel The People's Porn: A History of Handmade Pornography in America Book Review

Lisa Sigel is an audacious scholar. Her field of study is old as the species, but still appears to scare the pants off academia. None of us would be here if it weren't for sexual activity and that makes it one of the most important areas for study, yet Sigel's afterword details a harrowing pattern of denied fellowships, grant rejections and any interest at all from cultural institutions. Their eyes are closed. 

 The author writes that "there are no big grants or prizes for the study of pornography. Foundations, ever since the year of the Mapplethorpe (1990) do not fund general scholarship on pornography or erotica and most institutions will be penalized with cuts in federal funding if they inadvertently discuss erotic objects." Meanwhile, Facebook continues to figure out how to eliminate errant female nipples from postings through artificial intelligence.

 It might be a stretch, but in some ways this compares to the reluctance of art institutions to accept the work of folk and outsider artists. Nearly one hundred are illustrated here. They will certainly open some eyes, although most of the wondrous objects shown in The People's Pornography have yet to find any acceptance at all. That is except for those owned by a handful of adventurous collectors and the Kinsey Institute. One characteristic of all the work shown is their scarcity. Think of the amount of material tossed by horrified surviving family members if they came across some of the art shown here.

 Sigel takes on all manner of handmade and homemade erotic objects. They may look pornographic but all reflect true human emotions the makers struggled with. Or simply enjoyed. They display humor (hilarious gag objects intended to surprise) or extreme violence, such as the work created in prison by imaginations which might be out of control. Still, all exist and all are worthy of appraisal.

 Sigel also takes on what those here will recognize as "term warfare" as we figure out how to categorize and understand art made by the creative impulses of the untrained. Maybe there are outsiders and WAY outsiders. Just flipping through the images here will shock some. Well…many. Others might remember familiar "dirty jokes" traded among classmates. Although this is a scholarly and historical approach, Sigel manages to provide a highly readable narrative. She writes like other recent authors who popularize science (think Mary Roach and Caitlin Doughty). This book isn't just for the pictures.

 There have been several other books on erotic folk art. Milt Simpson, who recently celebrated his 95th birthday, published the lovely Folk Erotica: Celebrating Centuries of Erotic Americana in 1994.. Thomas Waugh's book Out / Lines : Underground Graphics from Before Stonewall provides scores of homemade gay pornography in 1982. Lisa Sigel's own article "Flagrant Delights" in Antiques Magazine July/August 2014 is also recommended. 

 Purchase The People's Porn: A History of Handmade Pornography in America HERE 

Lisa Sigel bibliography of books and publications HERE

Wood Carving Folk Art Puppet Head original paint circa 1950

Wooden Folk Art Puppet Head original paint circa 1950 Collection Jim Linderman / Dull Tool Dim Bulb

Antique Folk Art Paper Cut / Folded Paper Froebel "Kindergarten" Projects circa 1903 - 1904 by Kenneth Miles Litchfield, CT Collection Jim Linderman

Antique Folk Art Paper Cut / Folded Paper Froebel "Kindergarten" Projects circa 1903 - 1904 by Kenneth Miles, Litchfield, CT. The boy was around ten years old when these were created. Loose bound with a ribbon, each piece is 9" x 9". Collection Jim Linderman

Giant Tin Sardine Can Submarine Explores Lake Michigan Waters Folk Art Fish Sculpture

Well, a giant homemade fish submarine!  "Lake Crossing in Sardine Can" reads the caption.  I'm not sure the date.  The fish is just over ten feet long.  The maker Barney Connett prepares for launch.

Original A.P. Wirephoto circa 1950?

Antique American Folk Art Drawings by Mantie L. Throckmorton 1925

Two drawings by one Mantie L. Throckmorton 1925. Oil Derrick and a Bicycle which would be pretty hard to build...but what a beauty.  From a large sketchbook started around the same time the artist began taking lessons.  Collection Dull Tool Dim Bulb