Children enjoy colorful, easy to understand folk art show
PITTSBURGH – Folk art is colorful and easy to understand, and that’s what attracts children to the new show at the Sen. John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center in Pittsburgh. “We were concerned how kids would appreciate folk art. Going to a museum for a lot of kids is not fun,” said Douglas McCombs, assistant curator for the history center. “But I think with the folk art – it’s colorful and fun. It’s made by people like them so it’s inspirational. The kids think ‘I can do that.’ I’m really happy to see a lot of school groups here.’
A show featuring local western Pennsylvania folk art at the history center is a companion show to a traveling Smithsonian exhibit featuring artists from around the country that the history center is presenting through Jan. 30. The national show is called “Contemporary Folk Art: Treasures from the Smithsonian Museum of American Art.”
And to further enhance the experience for youths, the history center has prepared an interactives room for children, coordinated by Linda Tabit. Just to the side of the exhibits, the interactives room allows kids to build a puzzle that replicas a painting of a city landscape. They can create their own quilt or do a rubbing from a gravestone.
“It’s a lot of fun,’ McCombs said. “The kids enjoy it, and it’s a way to get the entire family involved.’
Some of the local artists featured in the exhibit include:
– Joe Youghon, a Clearfield County coal miner with a fourth-grade education, whose work includes a marquetry tabletop he made in the 1920s using 22,000 pieces of wood from 82 different types of trees.
– Andy Flanigan is a Pittsburgh trolley conductor, who began painting trolley scenes after his retirement. He redeemed S&H green stamps for a set of paints to begin his artwork and continues painting today at age 102.
– Sarah Bright Anderson Lea of Aleppo created a tribute to the Civil War in a 19th century quilt. Her husband, Benjamin, was a private stationed at Camp Reynolds in Braddock, Pa., and probably saw little of the war scenes depicted in her quilt.
“Western Pennsylvania has wonderful folk art and artists and that needs to be expressed,’ McCombs said. “There are 46 objects in the western Pennsylvania show and 72 in the Smithsonian show. There are well over 100 objects in the exhibit. The Smithsonian show has been traveling about two years. This is the last venue.’
The Smithsonian show deals with more contemporary pieces from 1960 to present. There are sculptures, paintings, weaving and carvings.
Many of the pieces deal with traditional art but have taken on a contemporary twist.
For example, McCombs pointed to a piece in the opening section called “Root Monster,’ in which artist Myles Carpenter created a three-headed monster from an actual root.
Weavings by Native American women from the Southwest use a traditional art to create such unexpected scenes as dinosaurs, a carnival at a reservation and the inside of a reservation trading post. The latter includes an old Coke machine in the background.
McCombs noted the pieces are both “traditional and self-expressive.’
Most folk artists, McCombs explained, are self-taught.
Their work is considered non-academic.
“Academic is a higher form based on a certain style from an art school or apprentice whereas almost all the art here is self taught,” McCombs said.
Academic art tends to become the center of attention because it is taught extensively in school. Folk art falls by the wayside. It’s the art of the people,’ McCombs added.
The curator said that folk art wasn’t appreciated until the 1920s when its form began to be used in academic art, such as that done by Picasso: cubism, flat pictures, abstracts.
The Smithsonian show is divided into five sections: “Animal Crackers,’ which features animals in folk art; “Places and Spaces,’ which deals with landscapes and settings; “Phenomenal Figures,’ which deals with the human form; “Politics and Prose,’ focuses on politics and history; and “Divine Inspirations’ is about religion.
Some pieces that stand out include: “Bottlecap Giraffe,’ a 6-foot tall giraffe made from bottle caps that is in the “Animal Crackers’ section and is used as an icon for the show.
“Classroom with Three Figures’ is a set of wood sculptures which shows a stern teacher in a classroom ready to reprimand two students who drew a picture of a mule with the word teacher beside it on the blackboard in “Places and Spaces’ section. “Places’ also shows a colorful painting called “Train in Coal Town’ created in 1968 by Jack Savitsky of eastern Pennsylvania, who became an artist after 40 years working in the mines.
There is a fabulous sculpture of a girl made out of galvanized iron called “Marla,’ created by Irving Dominick, who worked with duct work and used this material to create a sculpture of his daughter. “Politics and Prose’ includes a Gerald Ford totem pole and a mechanized exhibit called “Watergate’ that features Richard Nixon. “The Way We Was’ is a carved door by artist Herbert Singleton of Louisiana that recreated the struggles of African Americans.
“Divine Inspirations’ shows the art that ministers used in their work, including “The Story of Job,’ a colorful painting with so much detail that McCombs noted, “You almost have to read the painting.’
The western Pennsylvania collection is also divided into themes.
Those themes include “Birds and Beasts,’ includes “The Raven” and the Greensboro stoneware animals; “Tradition,’ includes some of the earliest work such as samplers, glasswork, dolls and furniture; “Personal Vision’ includes the Youghon table; “Town and Country’ features Flanigan’s work and Kane’s “Bloomfield Bridge;’ and “Looking Back,’ in which artists did nostalgic works and where Kane’s “Scene From the Scottish Highland’ is placed.
The Heinz History Center is located at 1212 Smallman St. in Pittsburgh’s Strip District.
Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. General admission is $6 for adults and $3 for children ages 6 to 18.
The cost of admission is $4.50 for seniors age 62 and older and students with valid ID. Admission is free to children age 5 and under and history center members.
With validation from the history center, parking is available in the 11th and Smallman streets lot for up to four hours for $3.
For more information about the exhibit, call 412-454-6000 or visit the Web site at www.pghhistory.org.