D. C. Nolan. Outsider Art. Photo Brut or mere Hoarder?

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19th Century Folk Art Outsider Art Drawing on Flattened Prang Christmas Card Box Man, Woman, Horse

A sketch on a c.1890 flattened box reeking of age and creativity! Drawn on a Prang Christmas card box. Any school art teacher knows of Prang. They are still in business "providing children with the freedom to create without boundries" which means crayons, markers, chalks and modeling clay. The company was founded in 1882. I do not now if Mr. Prang intended to inspire a drawing of a man with a gun and a woman without a head. 19th Century Folk Art Outsider Art Drawing on Flattened Prang Christmas Card Box Man, Woman, Horse Collection Dull Tool Dim Bulb. Thanks to Box Lot on Facebook

High art versus Low art Witness the Elks RPPC

I had intended to take on the sticky issue of "High" art versus "Low" art today, but I smashed my thumb working in the back yard and typing is more laborious than usual. As such, i'll try to let the pictures do my typing for me.

"High" art and "Low" art is a concept which one may approach from a dozen angles. Economically (art for the rich and art for the poor) Esthetically (beautiful art and ugly art) Intellectually (smart and dumb) Compositionally (both in materials used to compose AND how the object is positioned)...by Audience (art for the elite and art for the masses) Scarcity (rare versus common, or a diamond versus "THE BEDAZZLER") Paintings versus comics, fine versus primitive, trained versus untrained, erotic versus pornographic, insider versus outsider, decorative versus functional, fine versus folk...All those and I'm only starting my coffee.

The concept implies a cultural stratification and indicates social identification. I suppose I lean towards low...being a common man myself. If you've followed the 6 months of my blog, that my taste runs right down the stairs to the artistic basement should be obvious. I like my music scratchy, my clothes worn and my fiction trashy.

A pair of images here to illustrate. Two elks. Both representations of the same animal. Both from roughly the same time period. One is "better" by even the most generous standards of high versus low... and it is most certainly BIGGER...note tiny, tiny fat man in between white elk's hoofs. (he is also an "elk" by the way...in that he is a member of a fraternal organization, hence the title of the card) But is the rag-tag, make-do stump art Elk shown less real? Less valid? Less important? Less pleasing? Nah. They're both great.

The most valuable "non-academic" folk art weathervanes were manufactured and forged. The most "interesting" folk art weathervanes were made by hand from materials around the farm. Both told the direction of the wind.

Comments welcome.

Pair of Real Photo postcards "The Two Largest Elks at Carnival Fulton N.Y." and "The Elk?" both circa 1910-1930. Collection Jim Linderman

Outsider Art African American Yard Show Sculpture Alabama c. 1990 Photographs by Jim Linderman Television in the Driveway

Outsider Art African American Yard Show Sculpture Alabama c. 1990 Photographs by Jim Linderman Television in the Driveway high atop a pole.  See also the BOOK and EBOOK by Jim Linderman In-Situ: American Folk and Outsider Art in Place available HERE.

Annual I'm Not at the Outsider Art Fair Post Famous Residences by Basil Merrett

My annual "I'm not at the Outsider Art Fair" series continues, here with works depicting famous residences by British eccentric and cypher Basil Merritt circa 1950.  I'd be there if I could, but I hate to fly.

A few other posts in my unstructured and informal Outsider Art series are shown HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE   More or less.  Additional works by Basil Merrett are HERE.

Art Car Houston Texas Outsider Art Automobile

There is an "art car" in every city, even if only the junker you see parked downtown covered with "ouch" stickers and "I brake for (whatever)". However, this mega-tricked beauty seriously rules the road. A 1973 post card with the following caption on the reverse "'52 Pontiac custom features hand-painted seat covers, lots of chrome, years of work. The artist wishes to remain anonymous. Photographed in Houston, Texas 1973. Photo by Chip Lord" The charming dealer I purchased this card from adds "this outsider art automobile has a bumper sticker near the front grill which says "black." The gas station owner's last name was Wilson. Ads for Bardahl and STP seen in the service station. A classic Harris County, roadside America or black Americana collectible in near-mint condition. For black Americana and gas station collectors, it just doesn't get much better than this".

Finally, I would like to add even the doo-dads on the matching raised visors are symmetrical. The driver may be anonymous, but I suspect his name might be "Flash". This ride might struggle to reach cruising speed, but I would pay $500 just to drive it around the block and wave and I'd throw in a full tank right after. Automobile manufacturers would like you to think their cars make a "statement". This one clearly says aloud "Kiss My Ass".

Post Card c. 1973 Collection Jim Linderman

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

Trench Art with a Twist Hammered copper sculpture made from old copper stills after World War One

Trench Art with a twist, but not all trench art was made in a trench. Generally, the term refers to art sculpture made from expended artillery shell casings. Nothing to do but stay down, cringe at the incoming and hammer copper. However this group of decorative items was made by a different group of soldiers.  As noted on the reverse of the image, These fine examples were made by disabled soldiers as they recuperated. The material is taken from the remnants of old copper stills.  Prohibition provided the material!  World war one ended in 1918.  Prohibition started in 1920.  Must have been a bitter pill to have fought for your country only to return without having even a beer. 
 
The Trench Art  of the Great War website refers to pieces like those above as convalescent soldier art.  The Wikipedia entry for Trench Art suggests "Outsider Art" as a related category.

Original undated, anonymous 8 x 10 press photograph circa 1920.  No credits on photograph. 
Collection Jim Linderman

The Art of Old Time Religion

To say the least, the use of Christian religious iconography in a sincere manner has not been the stuff of contemporary artists or art collectors. On the contrary, and in the last few decades in particular, artists have taken delight in lampooning the depiction of all things bible. You can probably name a few of them without thinking, as opportunistic politicians frequently use their work to raise funds. Whether their motivations were born of genuine artistic skill and talent, or merely a way to appear clever and attract attention is up to the viewer and critic. For my collection plate donation, the most appealing and interesting "contemporary religious art" came from studio Warhol. Sincere or not, his last supper paintings which I saw beautifully installed in NYC were striking, modern and beautiful. All the more "controversial" pieces from the era appeared lame, obvious and contrived by comparison. They do even more so today.

As I discuss in the introduction to Take Me to the Water: Immersion Baptism in Vintage Photography and Music 1890-1950 (Dust-to-Digital) there is a notion that sincere religious artists, regardless of medium, often work harder when they are depicting renditions of their faith. The gospel singer strains to reach a higher note, the mural painter uses precision when attempting to achieve God's perfection and the glazier never leaves loose leaded panes in a piece behind the pulpit. Whether these practitioners of religious craft use iconography to preach or to make a living is moot... it could be both.

The most prolific "religious" artist of this century is certainly Howard Finster, the late folk artist from Georgia, who created nearly 50,000 individually numbered works before having the brush (and Sharpie) pried from his cold fingers. It has been a common understanding that despite his seemingly sincere attempts to convert heathens though his work, a collector of his eccentric paintings who has actually been saved has not yet come forth to testify. Rather, his work has been appreciated for the most part by smug non-believers who found his work quaint rather than convincing.

I started collecting religious ephemera as an outgrowth of folk art and vernacular photography. My own beliefs don't exist beyond a rudimentary trust in the scientific method, but I do believe OTHERS believe, and that makes the material fascinating. Elaborate obsessive doodles of outsider art, shaking and sweating evangelists and tax-dodging street corner churches have always seemed a sort of performance art to me. Who determines what is saved, sacred or sane? It's all fine with me even if not fine art...and when it isn't any good, it is at the least still interesting because it was a good try. I may lean solidly towards the smug side of art appreciation, but there is always a story with each work I find. Faith or fraud, the fevered brow produces some pretty interesting product.

Running the gamut from silly to sacred, eccentric to evangelical (I could go on) there is a wealth of spiritual flotsam sitting in the shoe boxes of history, and I will present it one day at a time on old time religion. Objective reporting seems to be a disappearing along with newspapers, but I aim to be journalistic. If a preacher sullied the farmer's daughter and left town with a sack of money, so be it. Just like Jesus said, no one is perfect, and it seems particularly true in this milieu. One thing we CAN give thanks for is federal prosecution of mail fraud. Whether the material presented is pathetic or profound, it exists in great big abundance. One doesn't look far for a message of faith in this country. From rear bumper fish to door-knocking Jehovah's, we are looking at one big industry here...and big industry makes lots of things that take up space. I certainly do not need to prosthelytize. All manner of bible salesman, radio preachers and lobbyists have beat me to it. But I can dig up some cool things and probably dig up a few things folks would rather have buried too. Let's see!

Follow OLD TIME RELIGION Here

Outsider Art Folk Art Sculpture The Catskills Prepare for War

Outsider Art Folk Art Sculpture  The Catskills Prepare for War!  Said to be from New York State.  Circa 1930 - 1950?  Original Snapshot Collection Jim Linderman

Serving Time with Father Time Prison Art and Clock Hands which Don't Move

Plenty of nothing, but plenty of time.  Paraphrase of the Porgy and Bess song.  If anyone had plenty of nothing and plenty of time, it would be someone serving it.  Hence Prison Art.  Akin to the branch of institutionalized outsider art  (oxymoron) which existed before psychoactive drugs sapped some of the fevered creativity.  Folks in small living quarters with nothing on their hands BUT time…and sometimes an object of art results.

I don't know if this giant fake grandfather clock (Father Time) constructed of hundreds of wooden matchsticks was made by a prisoner, but it does have a time motif.  It even has a fake pendulum and weights which move, but the the hands do not.  He's stuck.  Time keeps dragging on.  A lifer.

One way to tell if your wooden object is tramp art versus prison art?  Did it require a KNIFE?  Most hoosegows frown, as general policy, of giving the inmates knives.

Tramp Art or Prison Art Grandfather Clock of Matchsticks.  No Date.  Collection Jim Linderman

Books and Ebooks by Jim Linderman are available HERE

Anonymous Outsider Art / Art Brut found on the streets of Manhattan

Anonymous Outsider Art / Art Brut found on the streets of Manhattan circa 1985.  Now lost.  Each was 18 x 24. 
Order books and affordable E-books by Jim Linderman HERE

American Folk Art in Place: IN - SITU The BOOK by Jim Linderman Available NOW!

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

Basil Merrett Outsider Art The Religious Series c. 1950 Collection Jim Linderman

Basil Merrett Outsider Art The Religious Series c. 1950 Collection Jim Linderman.  Each drawn (while institutionalized) on hand-cut 4" x 5" cardboard. See also the book Eccentric Folk Art Drawings by Jim Linderman