"Burroughs," Jurgan Frederick Huge (1809-1878), 1876. Bridgport, Conn. Watercolor, ink and gilt on paper. From the collection of the Bridgeport Public Library.

 

A Place for Us

Vernacular Architecture in American Folk Art

NEW YORK CITY --Since the Eighteenth Century, folk artists, as recorders of daily life, have depicted the way America looks. It is through their legacy that our architectural traditions can still be observed, studied, understood and admired. "A Place for Us: Vernacular Architecture in American Folk Art," on view through January 5, 1997 at the Museum of American Folk Art, sweeps across the landscape, surveying the buildings intimately related to environment and to the heart-life of the people, as portrayed by American self-taught artists.

This is the house that Jack built - and the farm, the church, and the workplace. These homes and buildings are richly recorded in the paintings, sculpture, furniture, needlework and decorative arts of the Eighteenth, Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries.

Curator Stacy Hollander has selected almost 100 objects from public and private collections to document the way Americans have lived and worked and the structures that have shaped their lives. To articulate the relationship between the artistic representations created by folk artists and actual building traditions, consultant Norman Weiss of Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation interprets these house portraits within a historical framework.

During the Eighteenth and early Nineteenth Centuries, as various building styles evolved in response to issues of function, geography, availability of materials, and cultural heritage, there was a growing sense of permanence and pride in the built landscape. Architecture became a symbol of progress, status and economic security. This is clearly communicated in the vast numbers and variety of media that received artistic embellishments with architectural themes. The earliest visual documentation of vernacular buildings occurred mostly on interior architectural elements, such as fireboards, overmantels and painted walls. Prosperous property owners such as Joshua Winsor commissioned portraits of their homes much as they would commission likenesses of their families before the age of photography. The overmantel painting "Situation of America, 1848" displays a serenely expansive view of New York City and its harbor. Punctuated by black puffing smoke from the stacks of the passing boats, the scene conveys the strong relationship between economic and architectural growth. As these works reveal, both artist and client were well aware of the impression of attainment produced by such portrayals.

Agrarian areas also inspired numerous paintings and drawings of the rich farmsteads laid out in colored patches. "Berks County Farm Scene" by Pennsylvania artist John Rasmussen and a landscape of Lemuel Cooper's farm in Plain, Wisc., by Paul Seifert were statements of permanence in the face of increasing industrialization.

The earliest views of Shaker villages were basically maps used to document the physical aspects of the properties. By the 1830s, colored inks and watercolor were introduced, though the drawings continued to be regarded as documents rather than works of art. As the villages stabilized, the need for new renderings diminished. The Maine communities, however, experienced a revival in the 1880s as they improved and modernized their facilities. Joshua Bussell - who spent most of his life in the Shaker community in Alfred - portrayed the Maine Shaker villages over a period of three decades. While his earliest renderings are diagrammatic, by the time of the revival his delicate watercolor and pencil works had evolved into paintings such as "View of the Church Family," with the three-dimensional buildings realistically portrayed in shallow perspective.

In the late Nineteenth Century, the forms and emphases of art about architecture changed, reflecting the increasing density of the population and the built landscape. Artists' perspectives gradually shifted, moving from direct, head-on images of residences and landholdings to long-distance prospects and elevated bird's-eye views, perfect for highlighting the sprawling towns that now dotted the landscape as well as institutional complexes and extensive factory plants. Many manufacturers even commissioned portraits, such as "Oswego Starch Factory," that detailed every type of building and activity related to their product. Commercial architecture became an important feature in the American landscape, especially in small towns trying to compete in larger markets. Jurgan Frederick Huge's painting of the imposing Burroughs building in Bridgeport, Conn., with its handsome stores below and elaborate ornamentation above imparts a feeling of excitement to the street and an air of economic well-being.

Architectural images appeared on virtually every type of decorated material. From churches to schoolhouses, from private residences to public buildings, these structures embellished media as diverse as stoneware jugs, tinware boxes, schoolgirl samplers, painted furniture, fraktur, rugs, quilts and whale ivory (the tender inscription "Sweet Home" is painstakingly etched in ink under the image of a New England house). Not for people only - small-scale replicas housed squirrels, birds and dolls.

In the Twentieth Century, architecture has featured largely in the visual reminiscences of older artists such as Grandma Moses and Mattie Lou O'Kelley, whose painted memories of the past recreate an American scene tinged with nostalgia. Other artists such as William Hawkins in Ohio and Nellie Mae Rowe in Georgia have confronted their environments, painting gritty urban buildings and traditional shotgun houses.

"For more than three centuries and throughout the United States architectural answers to human needs have created a feeling of belonging and familiarity. It is this sense of place that is captured so evocatively in the many folk art expressions that preserve the seaports, townscapes and rural and urban architecture of American life and society," Hollander said.

The Museum of American Folk Art is at Columbus Avenue between 65th and 66th streets. Hours are Tuesday through Sunday, 11:30 am to 7:30 pm.