Jeff Bridgman Antique Flags
folk art:



Folk Art DrumView Current Folk Art

While many experts disagree on the definition of folk art, most would probably agree that it includes those items made with some degree of artistic purpose, by persons who lacked formal training. This loose description includes anything from furniture to quilts, carvings, paintings, pottery, and such a multitude of other objects that one could scarcely hope to name them all.

I primarily buy decorative arts made in rural settings, and since the makers of most country items are unidentified, one might legitimately ask how we know if these persons were trained or not. Early rural objects are seldom signed, and assuming that we did know who the maker was and his/her history, what degree of education would constitute formal training? A single art class? A documented series of five carving lessons from an uncle who was considered a master craftsman?

Even if a list of variables could be agreed upon that divided the trained from the untrained, in early America the definition would probably encompass almost all rural-made art. Most rural people made do with what they had, or what they could easily gather together, with little money and lots of difficulty in the logistics of acquiring and transporting materials. And aside from a few years of grammar school, most persons living in the country would not be formally educated by any definition.

I like to think that there is at least some degree of folk art in everything I sell, no matter what the object or origin. I search for out-of-the-ordinary antiques with dynamic form, intriguing color, and appealing, early surface. I am fond of an even broader definition of folk art, one that takes the attributes common to objects made by persons without formal training, and applies those characteristics to things made by professionals. When the stars on an antique American flag point in various directions, for example, instead of all pointing upward, I might describe them as having a degree of “folk quality”. This trait can be found in factory-made flags.

I also like to think of art objects as having various degrees of folk quality. The more reserved and refined, the less folk quality that exists. The more eccentric, even bordering on the ridiculous, the greater the folk quality in the design.

While most of the furniture, paintings, and flags I buy have strong degrees of folk quality, for the sake of this web site I am reserving the section called Folk Art for all items with folk attributes that do not fit under these other three primary headings.