Journal ArticleDOI
Instituting English Folk Art
TLDR
This paper explored the development of folk art as an idea in English culture during the twentieth century, addressing the commonplace assumption that the promotion of "folk art" is necessarily antagonistic towards modernity, and, correspondingly, it is always to be associated with aesthetic conservatism, political reaction, and ethnically restrictive notions of Englishness.Abstract:
This article explores the development of folk art as an idea in English culture during the twentieth century, addressing in particular the commonplace assumption that the promotion of ‘folk art’ is necessarily antagonistic towards modernity, and, correspondingly, it is always to be associated with aesthetic conservatism, political reaction, and ethnically restrictive notions of Englishness. The article surveys a series of moments when the issue of folk art came to the fore: around 1909–1912, when there were efforts to establish an open‐air folk museum in England; 1929–1934, when these efforts were revived, and when folk art became the subject of pan‐European scholarly attention and a prime symbol of national identity; 1949–1954, when a new generation of designers turned to vernacular culture as a source of an energetic style that was both national and modernist; and the period since 1960, which saw attempts at the commodification of English folk art as an aspect of the national heritage. Through these cas...read more
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Dissertation
Hands across the sea: situating an Edwardian greetings postcard practice
TL;DR: The authors argue that the lack of a contemporary, broadly contextualised history distorts our understanding of the postcard's place within Edwardian society, and argue that there is far more continuity with earlier practices and visual culture than the current postcard literature acknowledges.
Dissertation
Henry Rothschild and Primavera: The retail, exhibition and collection of craft in post-war Britain, 1945-1980
TL;DR: The authors explored the role of Rothschild as a retailer, exhibitor and collector in the post-war craft world and found that his role as a collector, retailer, and collector marked him as a unique character within the crafts as well as demonstrated the ways in which he utilised his position as an emigre to act outside of the confines of the traditional British standpoint.
Journal ArticleDOI
The Jobbing Artist as Ethnographer: Documenting ‘Lore’
TL;DR: The authors focus on a set of scholarly books published during the period 1920-1960, written and illustrated by women who were also well-known artists and designers, which offer histories and taxonomies of popular and folk art.
References
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Book
Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste
TL;DR: In this article, a social critic of the judgement of taste is presented, and a "vulgar" critic of 'pure' criticiques is proposed to counter this critique.
Book
Everyday Genius: Self-Taught Art and the Culture of Authenticity
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss the differences among folk art, outsider art, and self-taught art, explaining the economics of this distinctive art market and exploring the dimensions of its artistic production and distribution.
Journal ArticleDOI
Civilization and its Discontents: English Neo-Romanticism and the Transformation of Anti-Modernism in Twentieth-Century Western Culture:
TL;DR: The aim of science should be to give men as much pleasure and as little displeasure as possible as mentioned in this paper. But what if pleasure and displeasure were so tied together that whoever wanted to have as much as possible of one must also be prepared for the other, and this is how things may well be.