American folk art may be remarkable for the cultural clues it holds, but these often become elusive when the artworks are removed from the context of their creation. For the better part of the twentieth century, however, this is exactly how folk art has been perceived, following a museum model that was established early in the century and that initially provided a useful and reliable framework for organizing material that was then outside the art historical mainstream. Exhibitions were arranged by fine arts categories of sculpture, painting, and decorative arts or divided into thematic categories such as work, play, landscape, and home. Through these presentations, it was certainly possible to appreciate the development of form within each medium and even to understand folk art�s reflection of human concerns. But the artworks were largely divorced from their own history and the myriad forces that imbued them with deeper meaning.

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American Folk Art Museum
45 West 53rd St
New York, NY 10019