This document discusses folk art and examines how its definition is often contradictory, focusing on whether a work is naive or skilled, made by an outsider or popular artist. It profiles several self-taught artists like James Hampton, who created the massive Throne of the Third Heaven installation in his garage using found materials, and Howard Finster, a Baptist minister who built the Paradise Garden folk art environment in Georgia and designed album covers. Overall, the document explores how folk art is defined more by the social position of its makers rather than specific qualities of the works.

1. Class 4 Folk Art

2. wrestling with the question
• what is art, anyway?
• what belongs in this category?
• is it a quality of objects? (aka significant form as Bell would
argue?
• is it based upon decisions of gatekeepers like curators and
scholars?
• today, we discuss this from a different angle: folk art

4. Sheldon PECK (1797–1868),
David and Catherine Stolp Crane,
Aurora, Illinois, c. 1845
Oil on canvas, 35 11/16 × 43 5/8"

6. http://folkartmuseum.org/?t=images&id=1582
Ammi PHILLIPS (1788–
1865)
Girl in red dress with cat and
dog
near Amenia, New York
1830–1835
Oil on canvas
30 x 25 inches

7. Jonathan Singleton COPLEY
Boy with a Squirrel
1765
oil on canvas
30 x 25 inches

8. Henry DARGER (1892-1973)
watercolor, pencil and collage on pieced paper
18 x 47 ½ inches

9. Henry DARGER
Untitled (Vivian Girl with Doll)
watercolor, pencil on paper
12 x 9 inches

10. clipping with outline
from Darger's files

11. clipping from
Darger's files

12. clipping with added
watercolor

13. Henry DARGER, Untitled, 11 x 15 inches

17. Vlach, p. 14

18. the case of "folk art"
As Vlach points out, the
definitions of folk art are
often contradictory.
• naive, or sophisticated?
• untutored, or skilled?
• made by an outsider? or
popular?

19. the case of "folk art"
"Folk art" ends up being
defined by the social
position of the maker,
rather than by any specific
qualities of the object.
• not from a big city
• not someone who went
to art school
• not someone who has
sold their work in the
"artworld"

20. James Hampton
• 1909-1964
• born in rural South Carolina
• moved to Washington, DC
to live with his brother;
worked as short –order cook
and janitor
• served in WWII in a
segregated unit, 385th
Aviation Unit, maintaining air
strips on Saipan and Guam
• returned to Washington, DC
worked as a janitor for the
GSA
• “Director, Special Projects
for the State of Eternity”

21. • possibly made the first
piece as early as 1945 in
Guam
• in 1950, rented a garage
and built a special staging
area inside
• collected castoffs/junk from
his job and all over the city
to make this environment

22. gold and silver aluminum foil, Kraft paper over mixed materials
180 pieces in overall configuration: 10 1/2 x 27 x 14 1/2 ft.
Includes plaques, tags and notebooks in a not-yet deciphered language.
James HAMPTON
The Throne of the Third Heaven
of the Nations' Millennium
General Assembly
circa 1950-1964

23. posted on the wall of
Hampton's garage
"Where there is no vision,
the people perish.”
— Proverbs 29:18

31. Howard FINSTER
• (1915-2001)
• born Alabama, one of 13
children
• “born again” at age 13
and followed call to
become a Baptist
minister

32. Howard Finster ·
Howard Finster, Man of
Visions. 1988, Wood
Sculpture with paint,
13.00 x 8.38 x 3.5
inches.

34. Howard FINSTER
George Washington in Another
World
1987
oil on panel
58 ½ x 47 inches

35. Howard Finster, Florence Nightingale

36. Paradise Garden, Pennville, GA
• bought 4 acres of
inexpensive land, which he
began to clear and drain
after purchasing.
• Began planting, as well as
building walkways and
structures, mostly made of
concrete with embedded
objects. Many sculptures
and structures, including a
chapel he called the
“World's Folk Art Church.”

41. installation view, Howard Finster, Paradise Garden at the High Museum

43. Howard FINSTER
album cover for
Little Creatures,
Talking Heads, 1985