'Blue' at the American Folk Art Museum

NEW YORK CITY

:Colors in fashion come and go. One, however, has sustained at the margins of Western taste for many centuries - blue - and is the subject of an enlightening and enjoyable exhibition currently on view at the American Folk Art Museum. "Blue," through March 6, assembles 30 paintings, textiles and ceramics from the museum's collections that illustrate the predominance of this color in American art and social life since the Eighteenth Century.

Stacy Hollander, senior curator, recalls that the origins of the exhibition were serendipitous, with her attentions first drawn to the museum's textile holdings. Eventually, she realized, her reflections centered not on one medium but on one color. So she set out to organize an exhibition on the "history, mystery and use of blue."

In light of the theme, only predominantly blue works are on display. The visitor thus risks forming a distorted view of the color's popularity - but not by much. By the Eighteenth Century, there was a flowering of blue in art, interior design and clothing after a slow emergence dating back to the Middle Ages.