Author Description

"New Hampshire Folk Art: By the People, For the People" is the first major loan exhibition devoted to the subject in thirty years. This catalogue explores a rich vein of popular arts in New Hampshire from the eighteenth century to the present. "Folk art" is a broad term encompassing many types of artistic expression that lie outside the academic tradition of the so-called fine arts. That eclecticism is reflected in the many types of objects embraced by the term, including portraits, watercolors and drawings, elegant calligraphy, landscapes, decoys, rugs and quilts, trade signs, wood carvings, powder horns and scrimshaw, fire buckets, fanciful carved and painted furniture, and other types of individualistic and idiosyncratic works of art that are not easily classified. Each represents in its own way the fundamental human urge to create art, regardless of formal training, and also to embellish the artifacts of everyday life, allowing ordinary objects to provide visual pleasure and delight through color, patterning, and abstract forms. This catalogue includes an introduction by Gerald W.R.Ward, a specialist in American decorative arts, sculpture, and material life. It also contains a selective catalogue with color images of some forty works in the exhibition, including many rarely seen objects drawn from public and private collections throughout the Granite State. A companion exhibition, "Contemporary NH Folk Art," features the work of many members of the prestigious and venerable League of NH Craftsmen, founded in 1932. These talented artists and craftspeople carry on the folk art tradition in the twenty-first century.