Art History 355: American Folk Art
Information resources for research in American folk, outsider, and self-taught art
Publications about folk, outsider, and self-taught art
-
Folk Society of America - Browse By ArtistThe Folk Art Society of America, founded in 1987, is a nonprofit organization that advocates the documentation, preservation and exhibition of folk art, folk artists and folk art environments, with an emphasis on the contemporary. Publishers of Folk Art Messenger Magazine
-
Raw VisionRaw Vision is the world's only international journal of Outsider Art, the art of “unknown geniuses” who are untrained, unschooled and uninfluenced by the art world. Over the years, they have featured hundreds of self-taught and visionary artists, many of whom were previously unknown. They also feature visionary environments, sculpture gardens, self-built architecture and unique buildings.
-
Folk Art Messenger MagazineThe Folk Art Messenger, is published three times a year and carries no advertising. This award-winning publication features articles about self-taught artists, exhibition and book reviews, news, an international calendar of events, and much more. The library has a current subscription to the print periodical.
Folk art in museum collections
-
Smithsonian American Art MuseumThe Smithsonian American Art Museum, the nation’s first collection of American art, is an unparalleled record of the American experience.The collection captures the aspirations, character, and imagination of the American people throughout three centuries. The museum is the home to one of the largest and most inclusive collections of American art in the world. Its artworks reveal key aspects of America’s rich artistic and cultural history from the colonial period to today.
-
Smithsonian Archives of American ArtThe Archives of American Art is the world’s preeminent and most widely used research center dedicated to collecting, preserving, and providing access to primary sources that document the history of the visual arts in America.
-
John Kohler Arts Center CollectionsThe John Michael Kohler Arts Center houses a world-class collection of artist-built environments and works by contemporary and vernacular artists. We invite you to explore the works in the collection through this searchable database.
-
American Visionary Art MuseumThe American Visionary Art Museum (AVAM) is the official national museum, education center, and repository for intuitive, self-taught artistry.
-
Folk and Self-Taught Art - High Museum of ArtThe artists featured in the High’s Folk and Self-Taught Art collection instead were shaped primarily by lessons learned from family, community, work, and spiritual experiences. Some painted on canvas, while others depended on more readily available materials: stone from local quarries, decommissioned doors, scrapyard metal, leftover fabric, and even chewing gum. The High began collecting the work of living self-taught artists in 1975 and was the first general interest museum to establish a dedicated department in 1994. This collection of more than 1,200 objects primarily comprises work made in the late twentieth- and early twenty-first centuries, with growing holdings of more historic folk sculpture.
-
Intuit - Center for Intuitive and Outsider ArtIntuit is a premier museum of outsider and self-taught art, defined as work created by artists who faced marginalization, overcame personal odds to make their artwork, or who did not, or sometimes could not, follow a traditional path of art making, often using materials at hand to realize their artistic vision. By presenting a diversity of artistic voices, Intuit builds a bridge from art to audience.
-
Art Institute of ChicagoLocated in downtown Chicago, the Art Institute is one of the world’s great art museums, housing a collection that spans centuries and the globe.
-
SPACESSPACES—Saving and Preserving Arts and Cultural Environments—is dedicated to the study, documentation, and preservation of art environments and self-taught artistic activity. It is currently a preservation project of Kohler Foundation.
Collecting, galleries, and auctions
-
Galleries for Folk and Self-Taught ArtSAAM’s collection of folk and self-taught art represents the powerful vision of America’s untrained and vernacular artists. Represented in the museum’s collection are pieces that draw on tradition — such as quilts — as well as artworks that reveal a more personal vision.
-
Collecting Outsider Art - Art-Collecting.comOnline resource about collecting Outsider art and Folk art. Simply, "Outsider Art" is art made by people who are "outside" the loose system of professional art schools, galleries, distributors, and collectors. The art is usually quite original -- often with a raw, earthy beauty or power. Below you'll find a list of galleries and dealers that specialize in Outsider art. They carry a variety of artworks for sale and they're operated by experts in the field. You'll find additional resources to guide in your art education.
-
Self-Taught, Folk, and Outsider Art Auctions - ArtsyArtsy is for art collecting. As the leading marketplace for art by the world’s emerging and established artists, we’ve made it easy for new and experienced collectors to discover, buy, and sell art—and so much more. Everything you’ll ever need to collect art, you’ll find on Artsy.
-
Christie's American Folk ArtChristie’s has offered superb examples of American Folk Art since its first sales of Americana in 1979. The category has grown to include a wide range of works, including weathervanes, needlework samplers and paintings by well-known artists such as Edward Hicks, Ammi Phillips, and Sheldon Peck as well as anonymous practitioners.
-
Christie's Outsider ArtOutsider Art, defined as art by untrained makers operating outside art world establishments, is an increasingly important and diverse area of today’s art world, with major museums establishing collections and holding retrospective exhibitions of artists in the field. Christie’s is the market leader in this category and holds the world auction records for highly important Outsider artists including Henry Darger, William Edmondson, and Bill Traylor.
-
Sotheby's - American Furniture, Decorative Art & Folk ArtSotheby’s American Furniture Department specialises in American furniture, antiques and decorative arts from 1650 to 1830, with an emphasis on premier examples from Philadelphia, New York, throughout New England and, increasingly, the South. All aspects of American furniture, from formal carved and finished styles to more vernacular examples of painted folk furniture, are offered by this department, with many high-quality pieces available each season at a wide range of prices.
-
Anthony Petullo Collection of Self-taught & Outsider ArtThe Anthony Petullo Collection of Self-Taught and Outsider Art is one of the premier collections of its kind in the country. Comprised of nearly five hundred pieces, two-thirds of which are European, the collection consists of works ranging from the early twentieth-century to the present, and includes many of the most renowned American artists in the field such as Bill Traylor, Henry Darger, and Minnie Evans.
Find Images in Research Databases
-
JSTOR
Provides access to journal articles, books, images, and primary sources. Contents include the Artstor image collection, archival and current scholarly journal content, and historical documents.
-
UWM Libraries Digital CollectionsThe Digital Collections at the UWM Libraries include over 180,000 photographic images, maps, and books drawn from the collections of the American Geographical Society Library, the Archives, Special Collections, and the Curriculum Collection.
-
Digital Public Library of America (DPLA)
The Digital Public Library of America strives to contain the full breadth of human expression, from the written word, to works of art and culture, to records of America’s heritage, to the efforts and data of science. Contains materials from all the UW System Digital Collections, Recollection Wisconsin, the National Archives and Records Administration, University of California System, the Smithsonian, and the New York Public Library.
-
Europeana
Europeana enables people to explore the digital resources of Europe's museums, libraries, archives and audio-visual collections. It promotes discovery and networking opportunities in a multilingual space where users can engage, share in and be inspired by the rich diversity of Europe's cultural and scientific heritage.
-
ArtveeSeveral major museums and libraries have instituted an open access policy by designating most or all of the public domain art in their collections with a creative commons license making them available for use for any purpose with no restrictions attached. Artvee sorts through and aggregates the best of these images in one location to make them easy to discover and download.
-
Getty Research Institute Photo Archive GuideApproximately half the holdings in the Photo Archive are represented by descriptive, nonpictorial records in the Photo Archive Database. Searchable by key word and artist name, the database is particularly useful for patrons conducting iconographic or thematic research as searches can be conducted across periods, styles, and media.
-
Library of Congress: Prints and Online Photograph CatalogThe collections of the Prints & Photographs Division include photographs, fine and popular prints and drawings, posters, and architectural and engineering drawings. While international in scope, the collections are particularly rich in materials produced in, or documenting the history of, the U.S. and the lives, interests and achievements of the American people.
-
New York Public Library Digital CollectionsThis site is a living database with new materials added every day, featuring prints, photographs, maps, manuscripts, streaming video, and more.
-
Smithsonian Collections Search CenterSearch over 17.1 million records of museum objects, archives and library materials including more than 6.3 million online images, audio & videos and blog posts.
-
CC SearchCC Search is a tool that allows openly licensed and public domain works to be discovered and used by everyone. Creative Commons, the nonprofit behind CC Search, is the maker of the CC licenses, used over 1.4 billion times to help creators share knowledge and creativity online.
-
Google Images Reverse Image SearchFour ways to search by image via Google: Drag and drop, upload an image, copy and paste the URL for an image, right-click an image on the web (some functions require Chrome browser).