folk art

—folk-art, adj. —folk artist.

artistic works, as paintings, sculpture, basketry, and utensils, produced typically in cultural isolation by untrained often anonymous artists or by artisans of varying degrees of skill and marked by such attributes as highly decorative design, bright bold colors, flattened perspective, strong forms in simple arrangements, and immediacy of meaning.

[1920-25]

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Art produced in a traditional fashion by peasants, seamen, country artisans, or tradespeople with no formal training, or by members of a social or ethnic group that has preserved its traditional culture.

It is predominantly functional, typically produced by hand for use by the maker or by a small group or community. Paintings are usually incorporated as decorative features on clock faces, chests, chairs, and interior and exterior walls. Sculptural objects in wood, stone, and metal include toys, spoons, candlesticks, and religious items. Folk architecture may include public and residential buildings, such as eastern European wooden churches and U.S. frontier log cabins. Other examples of visual folk arts are woodcuts, scrimshaw, pottery, textiles, and traditional clothing.

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Introduction

      predominantly functional or utilitarian visual art created by hand (or with limited mechanical facilities) for use by the maker or a small circumscribed group and containing an element of retention—the prolonged survival of tradition. Folk art is the creative expression of the human struggle toward civilization within a particular environment through the production of useful but aesthetic buildings and objects.

      This article focuses on the usual sense of the term folk art—that is, on the visual arts. For folk art in the broader sense, see also folk dance; folk music; folklore; and folk literature.

      In the broadest sense, folk art refers to the art of the people, as distinguished from the elite or professional product that constitutes the mainstream of art in highly developed societies. The term in this comprehensive context combines some quite disparate categories of art; therefore, as a workable field of art-historical study, folk art is generally treated separately from certain other kinds of peoples' arts, notably the “primitive” (defined as the work of prehistoric and preliterate peoples). Historically, the terms folk and popular have been used interchangeably in the art field, the former being specific in English and German (Germany) (Volkskunst), the latter in the Romance languages (populaire, popolare); the term folk, however, has increasingly been adopted in the various languages, both Western and Oriental, to designate the category under discussion here. The term popular art is widely used to denote items commercially or mass-produced to meet popular taste, a process distinguished from the manner of the folk artist, as defined above. The distinction between folk and popular art is not absolute, however: some widely collected folk art, such as the chalkwares (painted plaster ornamental figures) common in America and the popular prints turned out for wide distribution, may be seen as the genesis of popular art; and the products and motifs long established in folk art have provided a natural source for the popular field.

      Although the definition of folk art is not yet firm, it may be considered as the art created among groups that exist within the framework of a developed society but, for geographic or cultural reasons, are largely separated from the cosmopolitan artistic developments of their time and that produce distinctive styles and objects for local needs and tastes. The output of such art represents a unique complex of primitive impulses and traditional practices subjected both to sophisticated influences and to highly local developments; aside from aesthetic considerations, the study of folk art is particularly revealing in regard to the relationship between art and culture.

      As industry, commerce (modernization), and transportation begin to offer all people free access to the latest ideas and products, a true folk art tends to disappear; the integrity and tradition that formed its inherent character decline, and the heritage of home-produced products is undervalued for the very qualities that made it distinctive. Subsequent revivals, extensively sponsored by organizations, craft groups, governments, or commercial enterprises, are no longer the same thing.

      The recognition of folk art as a special category came about during the late 19th century and was at first limited to the so-called peasant art of Europe, the “art of the land.” The new intellectual climate of the time, with a romantic (Romanticism) value attached to the simple life and the “folk soul” and the increasing spread of democratic or nationalistic ideas, brought the art of the common people into focus. It was recognized that their simple tools, utensils, and crafts had aesthetic aspects. Before industrialization, such folk art was widespread throughout Europe, exhibiting almost everywhere local styles created by people who had no access to the products of the wealthy and who were engaged largely in agricultural, pastoral, or maritime pursuits. As sophistication advanced, localism began to break down along major routes, but the folk arts continued on the periphery, particularly in geographically isolated regions, where they had an opportunity not only to survive but also to elaborate.

      Having only limited contact with the outside world, the inhabitants preserved their traditions, art forms, and methods of workmanship over a long period and, at the same time, had to rely on their own invention to create new styles and products at need. These outstanding regional arts provide a well-defined core of material in the field of folk art.

      As the early colonists immigrated to remote parts of the world, they, too, were isolated from the cultural developments of the homeland and forced to rely on their own skills for most of their products. The arts they took with them were transformed, and new arts emerged under the stimulus of a different environment and through contact with native cultures; the notable folk arts of the Americas were one result.

      In time, it was recognized that the great Asian civilizations, like those of Europe, also had two distinct forms of art—the elitist and the folk. As Asian folk art scholarship developed, the subject gained international footing.

      While most scholars agree that a folk type of art has occurred at some time in many parts of the world (and may yet appear in newly developing countries), there are various areas in which such art has so far been ignored or has not been studied as a separate category. For instance, with the notable exception of Roman folk art, the folk distinction is not usually applied to the art of ancient civilizations nor to Islamic or Western medieval art. The summary provided here is, therefore, necessarily concentrated on the more studied areas: European folk art of the 17th–19th centuries, colonial and postcolonial folk arts, and the folk art of certain major Eastern countries. In addition to the major folk regions, this article will deal with the categories, styles, content, and motifs of folk art.

Patterns of development

      The extensive studies of European and American folk art over the past century have revealed certain patterns of folk art development. Though these patterns are subject to revision as the field expands or is refined, they provide a basis on which cultural variations and less widespread or random occurrences may be considered.

The utilitarian aspect of folk art

      Typically, the people who created the art were immediately concerned with producing the necessities of life; as a result, the art is often described as predominantly functional or utilitarian, in spite of the fact that important categories are definitely not utilitarian, such as the widespread miniatures created simply for pleasure. It is true, however, that much artistic effort was absorbed in meeting everyday requirements. In the folk group, in which occupations were often seasonal or dependent on weather and where people had to provide their own amusements, the creation of useful objects became also a leisure-time activity on which creativity was lavished; a shuttle might be transformed with carving or a chest with painted designs, and even the corset stay came to be an art form. For this reason, folk art is best studied (as is “primitive” art) with the entire handmade product included and attention devoted to its cultural as well as its aesthetic significance. It differs from the study of sophisticated art, in which there is a long-standing distinction between fine and applied arts and a tendency to exclude, or at least segregate, the utilitarian from more strictly aesthetic forms.

      Folk art was not created for museums. Certainly, some was designed to endure, such as documents, family portraits, and gravestones; occasional types were made purely for display, such as the “show towel” of the Pennsylvania Germans and the sampler (a piece of needlework with letters or verses embroidered on it as an example of skill); and certain household treasures were preserved for generations. In general, however, there was an indifference to permanence, so long as the function was served; and much of the art was expected to be either consumed or discarded after a celebrative appearance. There is a substantial percentage of intentionally ephemeral folk art—the marriage bowl broken after the ceremony, paper objects burned at funerals, festival breads, carnival figures, graffiti, snowmen; temporary symbolic designs were drawn on the threshold on feast days in India, for example, and were formed of flower petals for religious processions in Italy. Folk art collections, thus dependent at least in part upon the accidents of survival, must be supplemented by photographic and written documentation in order for a representative view of the whole art to be obtained.

The role of continuous tradition

      The element of retention (prolonged survivals of tradition) is considered fundamental in folk art, as it is in folklore. In an isolated situation, the sophisticated ideas that penetrate are generally belated and simplified, and there is a natural trend toward conservatism. Both local and ancient traditions maintain a strong hold. Serviceable forms and familiar motifs are likely to persist, and changes are gradual in comparison to the sudden innovations possible in sophisticated art.

      Yet a constant individuality and ingenuity affect the familiar mode, and an art uninhibited by arbitrary aesthetic rules takes many fresh directions. Thus, the fluctuating combination of retained and inventive elements is of significant interest.

Characteristic materials and techniques

      The most easily distinguished characteristics of folk art as a whole relate to materials and techniques. Most commonly used were the natural substances that came readily to hand; thus, various materials that have little or no place in sophisticated art, such as straw, may figure importantly in folk art. Sophisticated media, such as oil painting, might be adopted if they could be manipulated, and manufactured products—notably paper, which was cheap and versatile—might be used where available. The unique forms evolved in these sophisticated media illustrate the way in which folk art draws upon the general culture in a limited way, while developing along original lines of its own.

      Tools were usually few and often multipurpose: delicate Polish cut-paper designs were often executed with clumsy sheep shears; and in woodwork, chip carving (with ax or hatchet) and notch carving (V-shaped cuts with a knife) were widely used.

      Some arts were well within the compass of folk technology; textiles often rival the sophisticated handmade product in workmanship (differences being a matter of styles and themes). In many crafts, however, the folk artists evolved simpler methods of their own. Cut tin (metalwork), in silhouette shapes or decorated by hand painting or pricking (marking out a design with small punctures), for example, is a common folk medium, whereas full-round bronze sculpture was not likely to be attempted. Again, the French Canadians used wood for “cathedrals” that were carpentered adaptations of their European stone prototypes.

      Large-scale figures often reveal special devices that were invented to overcome technical deficiencies; some are crudely assembled from parts; many maintain a simple overall shape with details merely incised; feet might be represented by pegs inserted into bored holes. In pictorial representation, the difficulties of three-dimensional modeling, while readily solved by some groups, frequently resulted in a preference for outline and flat shapes; for the easier, profile view; and for the evolution of such forms as the silhouette and the shadow picture, made by outlining and filling in the shadow of a head cast onto the wall or paper. The limitations forced a mutation in forms.

Folk art in the urban environment

      Folk art is by no means restricted to characteristic regional groups or rural arts. It occurs, for example, among minority groups bent on preserving their ethnic or religious traditions and their typical products. There are various folk manifestations within an urban environment, particularly in connection with the celebrative arts, which have a strong traditional hold; for example, at Christmas time in Warsaw (Poland), the people carry about the city models they have made of their cathedral. Covered with salvaged coloured foil, the models incorporate a Nativity scene and are lighted by candles or, more recently, by small bulbs and batteries.

Collective versus individual art

      While many folk artists are known by name and many specialized in a particular art form, the skills were mainly available to all (with a distinction between the crafts of men and women), and most of the people were productive. The originality that delights the collector was not emphasized by the people themselves, who were concerned with producing the best examples they could of the desired object decorated with the appropriate and traditional image. Without consideration of the group involved and of the circumstances of folk culture in general, the art can scarcely be interpreted.

Categories of folk art

      Only a part of folk art falls into the recognized sophisticated categories of visual art, and even that part has its own adaptations.

architecture

      In architecture the focus is naturally on the basic dwelling and on a simple public or religious building. One of the oldest and most remarkable dwelling forms survives in the trullo of Puglia, in Italy. A circular dry-stone structure with a tall conical roof, it is often decorated with symbolic designs splashed in white; for multiple rooms, the basic construction is simply repeated. The whitewashed stone architecture of the Greek islands (Míkonos), combining basic cubic forms with a variety of free shapes and inventive projections of balconies, overhangs, and exterior stairways, has been extensively studied and acclaimed by modern architects—as have the wooden churches of eastern Europe, with their delicate, needlelike wooden spires, and the wooden stave churches of Scandinavia. Other unique forms are the Alpine house, with its steep, wide-eaved roof designed for snow; the cave dwellings of Spain, some with several rooms and a constructed exterior front; the adobe house; and the log cabin. A characteristic design may evolve for such outbuildings as the granary (notably the hórreos of Galicia), the dovecote, the straw shepherd's hut, or the barn. In community building, the walled agricultural villages with radial pathways to surrounding fields, the fishing villages that are oriented to a harbour, and the American stockade cluster as well as the village common exemplify the close relationship of folk design to folk activities.

painting

      The idea of a picture to be hung on the wall is by no means universal in folk art. It occurs in Europe, notably as the ex-voto, or votive offering, hung in churches and chapels, and in America, where portraits and local scenes were executed in oil, pastel, or watercolour. More typically, the painted depictions that occur in folk art are incorporated into other objects; for example, the American clock faces bearing local landscapes. A feature of some folk art is the “picture” displayed as if it were painted but executed in such media as fern, cork, shells, or embroidery. Oil paints and prepared canvasses are sophisticated materials and, though sometimes available, were often replaced by house paint or chalk and by silk, linen, or cotton fabric. Painting on velvet and underglass painting emerged as specific folk types. The amount of decorative painting on a particular object is often very extensive; among German (Germany) and German-American groups, for example, every inch of a chest, bed, or chair surface might be covered. Walls or beams were commonly decorated with geometric and floral motifs and occasionally with scenes, though the available space did not encourage anything approximating the sophisticated mural. Painting on exterior walls was a feature in some areas, including parts of North Africa and India as well as Europe. Stencil painting, widely used for furniture and walls, illustrates the folk capacity for achieving varied effects within technical limitations.

      In America the technique was applied to “theorem painting” (painting on velvet through a stencil, usually done with a dauber or pad and with some attempt at shading).

sculpture

      Some form of figural sculpture and a quantity of incised or relief decoration applied to a variety of objects appear to be almost universal among societies. Work in wood was particularly widespread, though stone, a more difficult material, was also used, especially for gravestones and religious sculpture. papier-mâché, with its quick and bold effects, was widely adopted both in the East and West for carnival and votive figures and for a multitude of toys. The folk artist was often at his best in making small things, delighting in toys, small-scale representations of daily activities, and such oddities as ships carved inside bottles. Miniature sculptures were often skillfully executed in elaborate groups displaying a cohesive harmony; in Russia, for example, an entire herd of cattle was mounted on a jointed trellis designed to provide a scissorlike movement to the whole. Some figural types were created to be set up in groups, as were the European crèche figures (making up the Nativity or manger scene), toy soldiers, and Chinese miniature wedding processions. The creation of useful objects in an overall sculptured shape, both in pottery and wood, is also typical. In southern Europe or in Mexico, a bottle, flask, or candlestick might take human, fish, or other forms; a Moravian beehive, for example, might be a sculptured head.

The folk print

      The wood block (also used for stamping textiles) was the natural folk medium for making prints (printing). Usually simply cut and sometimes crudely coloured or stenciled, they served to illustrate popular subjects, with more interest often in the idea than in the depiction itself. Small prints of various saints were widely produced in Europe. Comic themes were popular, such as the “topsy-turvy world” and “man reversed” (e.g., “the fish catches the man”) and stock characters. Block printing was also used to produce games, announcements for traveling shows, and forms for certificates. The English broadsheets and the Mexican (Mexico) calaveras (literally “skulls,” a category of prints, sometimes made from lead cuts) offer outstanding examples of the cheap printed sheets that combined a verbal message (verses, proverbs, polemics, pious themes) with illustration. The 19th-century trade cards (notice for a shop or service) are sometimes included in folk art, but doubtfully so; they were often machine printed. In fact, it is difficult to segregate the print of truly folk character from the voluminous field of either “popular” or commercial printing.

Other arts

      In the folk field, the minor arts can hardly be called minor, for such universal necessities as pottery, textiles, costume, and furniture and more unusual forms such as weather vanes and scarecrows provided the most frequent opportunities for creative expression and often absorbed the aesthetic impetus that, in the sophisticated world, was associated more with the fine arts.

      Both pottery and textiles range from the everyday to elaborately decorated forms that are often symbolic or highly pictorial; even common examples are typically ornamented with design in a simple slip (a mixture of clay and water) or a woven band.

      Folk costume (dress) is justly included in many general works on costume, but it differs significantly from the sophisticated in several respects: in a localism so extreme that even a particular town or valley may have its own prized style and every region is distinctive; in the complete differentiation of the festival costume from ordinary clothing; and in a prolongation of style that is little affected either by changes of fashion or by individual taste. The motifs which are typical of festival costumes, such as the twin, cone-shaped buttons symbolizing fertility in Sardinia, are too deep-rooted in the tradition of the area to be discarded.

       furniture tends toward basic, repeated shapes, which may be left purely functional but are often extensively carved or painted. The Alsatian chair, for instance, has an upright-board back, carved with a pierced, silhouetted, bilateral design; some hundreds of variations of this simple design have been recorded within the area. Certain occupational forms emerged, according to need, such as the milking stool, the cobbler's bench, and the rocking bench, or “mammy settle.”

      In metalwork, the materials used to produce tools and other essentials were also turned by the craftsmen into such art forms as toleware (painted tin or tinned iron), incised copper or silver, pewter toys, and lead figurines. European wrought-iron grave crosses and shop signs are distinguished by intricate scrollwork and inventive linear depictions. Delicate bone carving is very widespread, appearing on such objects as implements, game pieces (such as chessmen), figures (notably crucifixes), and ornaments. An art peculiar to North America is the whalebone carving ( scrimshaw) made by sailors while at sea.

      The theatrical (theatre) arts are spectacularly represented by puppetry, ranging from toy theatres, finger puppets, and the ubiquitous Punch and Judy shows to the famous puppet theatres of Sicily and Indonesia. Among the appurtenances of traveling shows and miracle plays, dating from the earlier phase of European folk art, was the hobbyhorse, which had a counterpart in festival performances in India. Musical instruments (musical instrument) offer a profusion of types, often preserving ancient features of construction, principles of sound, and decoration: the heavy ratchets and rattles of the Alpine festivals; the shaggy bagpipes of the Abruzzi mountains; fiddles such as the rudimentary gusle of the Balkan States, with its typical horsehead or horseman scroll, and the more complicated Norwegian Hardanger fiddle, with underlying sympathetic strings; and innumerable ornamented flutes, harps, horns, and dulcimers. The simple, painted clay whistle or flute is widespread, often in mimetic bird shape.

Specific folk categories

      Any attempt to analyze folk art in terms of the established, sophisticated categories, though revealing in comparison, fails to take into account a substantial bulk of the art. Many characteristic products not subject to sophisticated aesthetic treatment have become specific fields of study and collection because of the ingenuity expended upon them—mangles (laundry beaters), molds, decorated eggs, weather vanes, decoys, powder horns, trade signs, scarecrows, and figureheads, to name a few. There are also significant objects categorized according to function; for example, animal gear represented by the woven harness of donkeys in Spain, carved and painted ox yokes and sheep collars, brass-studded and tasseled headpieces, and ornaments supposedly endowed with protective powers. Other widespread types are decorated vehicles such as the caravans of Roma (Gypsies), circus wagons, boats bearing symbolic motifs, and toys and miniatures in countless media.

Freedom of media

      While some of the art is executed in a recognized sophisticated medium such as wood carving, many other materials, such as hide, horn, straw, bamboo, and palm leaf, are characteristic in certain regions or for certain objects. In fact, there is scarcely an available material that is not utilized somewhere in folk art, from the hickory-nut doll to the commemorative picture made of human hair, and materials are often combined. This free-wheeling employment of any sort of material rivals the fertile adaptations of “found objects” in 20th-century sophisticated art—as many other modern “innovations” have a long-standing precedent in the spontaneous art of the folk. collage, and assemblage are an old story in this field; embroidered pictures had faces painted in watercolour, and festival figures were made of anything that came to hand. Weather charms in southern Germany were often collages of—among other things—saints' pictures, amulets, and seeds. The many types of kinetic art include manipulated masks; jointed dolls, figures, and toys; whirligigs (spinning toys); pinwheels spun by wind or candle heat; and balance figures set in motion by a touch. Folk festivals, with their impromptu processions, costumed personages, antics, and props, offer almost a prototype of the mid-20th-century “happening.”

Style

      Although folk artists had their own criteria of function and craftsmanship, design in the theoretical sense was not a part of their training; rather, it was the natural result either of continued use of established patterns or of instinctive methods of organization. In special instances there was deliberate imitation of well-known works of art, as in the American portraits of George Washington and folk versions of famous Virgins and Buddhas.

      Any particular folk art will necessarily share the style of its general cultural area; Chinese folk art is Chinese as well as folk. Thus, analysis of the style and recognition of its folk origin is dependent upon knowledge of the “high art” with which it interacts, as well as of the folk situation that sets it apart. When a folk piece is compared with an adjacent sophisticated one produced at the same time, the differences become apparent, whether in the nature of the object as a whole or in its material, execution, content, or style. Stylistically, the time lag is significant; for example, the Baroque curve survived in simple country churches, and elaborate floral ornament in furniture decoration, long after sophisticated European art had become Neoclassical.

      One of the commonly accepted notions of folk style is that it is naive; it is thought to be childlike and fresh, despite the fact that some of its 19th-century critics condemned its “meaningless repetitions” and its “degenerate” forms. Repetitiveness is to be expected in the production of objects needed by all; but the artists saw only a few neighbouring examples, and to the practiced eye their art reveals many variations. Folk art is often associated with bright colour and an appealing charm, qualities sufficiently present to account for a wide popularity but counterbalanced by the sombreness and seriousness of many pieces, notably in religious art. In fact, few commonly accepted notions of folk style apply to the entire field. Execution may be free or meticulous. Representations of figures may be highly literal (even to the inclusion of actual hair and clothing), almost abstractly simplified, or monstrously exaggerated and distorted, as in, for example, the boldly painted papier-mâché carnival figures of Europe or the fantastic animal figures of East Asia.

      The focus on utilitarian production leaves its mark in two opposite ways: often there is a strong decorative orientation, with a wealth of surface ornament lavished on objects that maintain a prescribed shape; on the other hand, certain categories of folk production, such as simple tools, and the work of certain groups are characterized by a functionalism so complete as to seem in tune with modern sophisticated design. Technical limitations and the demand for a quantity of certain necessary objects are conducive to simplification; the reverse may be true of such an object as the bridal bedspread, for which custom dictates extreme elaboration.

      The particularly long retention of traditional forms and patterns generally results in increasingly stylized versions of themes; in crewel (crewel work) embroidery, for example, the representation of landscape elements is commonly reduced to a tree and hills, the hills typically shown as three simple, rounded humps; in American portrait painting, the bust or figure is conventionalized in a simple frontal form, repeated over and over again and sometimes painted in advance of a sitting, leaving only the features to be filled in. More important, perhaps, is the fact that the adoption of materials not used in sophisticated art, the forcing of a limited technology toward artistic expression, and the adaptation of rather remotely perceived sophisticated ideas to the folk artists' concept of the realities of life result in some highly original stylistic solutions.

Content and motifs

      Whereas sophisticated art often reaches out for the esoteric and the unusual, the content of folk art is closely related to immediate human concerns. The major events of life were universally celebrated on the folk level in ways that demanded of art special costumes, implements, vessels, and auspicious gifts. For the newborn there might be amulets and decorated birth certificates. The period of courtship occasioned a love token, often a beautifully carved feminine implement such as a shuttle or needle case; traditional in England was a double spoon symbolizing union and plenty, whereas in the former Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic and Slovakia) it was often a painted egg or carved stick. In many regions elaborate wedding chests were carved or painted for the bride. The bridal bedspread or bed curtain, like the wedding costume, was ornate and highly symbolic, with such motifs as Adam and Eve, the tree of life, and mating birds considered appropriate. Both weddings and funerals required processional equipment, standards, and special vehicles. In some places there were gifts for the dead, which in China took the form of paper models burned at funerals. There were memorials such as grave sculpture, pictures, and documents.

      Specific memorial motifs crystallized in two American forms: the “mourning picture,” executed in embroidery or watercolour, often depicting grieving figures draped around a tombstone under weeping willows, and the gravestone carved with a winged death's-head or, later, with the urn-and-willow motif.

Religious art

      The prevailing religion puts its stamp on the consciousness of every group, providing common elements in areas that share the same religion, even though the groups are not in contact. Roman Catholicism in the West (and, similarly, Buddhism in the East) provided rich visual conceptions and evocative images that spilled over into folk art. Crucifixes, Virgins, and saints were required as images for village churches and wayside shrines; they were set up over gateways and tombs, in arches, and in homes and were used as motifs on countless objects, where they were often freely combined with secular decoration. Religious observance demanded many objects decorated with Christian symbols—baptismal scoops, altar cloths, pilgrimage bottles, lavabos (holy-water vessels). There is even a special category of “nuns' work,” including small devotional objects, many in collage, as well as vestments and church textiles. A particular German sculptural type is the Palmesel, a half-size figure of Christ on the donkey, which is drawn through the streets on its wheeled base on Palm Sunday.

      An outstanding category of Catholic folk art is the crèche, made up of figurines displayed at Christmas in homes or churches to reenact the birth of Christ. The main characters of the event (Holy Family, Magi, shepherds, and angels) were supplemented by hundreds of lively figures drawn from peasant or village life and shown pursuing their daily activities or bearing gifts to the Christ child similar to those enumerated in folk carols.

      The Protestant and Jewish (Judaism) faiths made fewer demands on the visual arts, but the popularity of biblical themes is apparent. A favourite motif for the American weather vane was the angel Gabriel blowing his trumpet, often executed in a style that survives from the puffing zephyrs of Classical art. The noteworthy Jewish folk art of Poland was largely lost during World War II, though records of the unique folk synagogues have been preserved by the Institute of Polish Architecture. The Jewish folk art collection in the Alsatian Museum in Strasbourg, France, includes such specific religious objects as yadayim (pointers used to guide the reading of sacred texts) and candelabra.

      Since antiquity, some form of votive art has occurred in connection with religion. In India, outdoor shrines may be surrounded by a veritable crowd of papier-mâché figures set on the ground as offerings. Catholic churches and chapels throughout the world are hung with countless small ex-votos, usually cutouts of stamped tin or silver in the shape of an afflicted part of the body—an arm, a leg, or an eye—or of the heart or other symbol. In Canadian Jesuit missions, ex-votos were even made of wampum. In Sevilla (Seville) small ivory carvings of religious figures were left in the cathedral by soldiers going to war. Clay plaques made from molds, common in the Mediterranean area, show an inheritance from Greek times, when small clay molds of the head of Athena were stamped out in quantity as votive objects. The most significant art, however, occurs in the painted ex-voto, which provides a major type and some of the best examples of folk painting. In sophisticated art, paintings of standard religious themes were often donated to churches in fulfillment of a vow. In folk art, this votive urge found expression in small narrative paintings (only occasionally large, as in Mexico) depicting an accident, illness, or other disaster from which the victim was saved by the intervention of a saint or the Madonna.

      The recognized religion, however, is only a part of folk belief, which is impregnated with concepts from earlier times. The decorated Easter egg, for example, is an evolution of the egg as an ancient symbol of renewed life, and the fat, laughing figure of the Japanese Hotei (god of luck) is both a deity and a ubiquitous folk charm. There are many survivals from local pagan cults, particularly of motifs associated with life, fertility, and protection; in Calabria an animal stake may be carved with the head of the blank-eyed mother-goddess, expected to protect the tethered beast, and similar elemental forms were preserved in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Lying at the root of human experience, such themes were never completely abandoned by the folk and may appear in curious juxtaposition with Christian themes or secular uses: a Sardinian clay bowl, for example, contains a modeled wedding group with the priest standing before an altar on which a small, nude hermaphroditic deity is seated, and the Christian loaves of bread appear along with pagan phallic and fertility symbols.

Festival art

      A major folk category is festival art, which owes its genesis and much of its content to ancient seasonal celebrations. Since antiquity, the solar manifestations of the summer and winter solstices (solstice) and the vernal and autumnal equinoxes have been bound up with the idea of sowing and reaping, death and rebirth, year's end and year's opening; at such times it was traditionally believed that supernatural forces were in control and should be propitiated. Reenactment of the roles of malign spirits called for the production of grotesque masks and demonic costumes and also of clamorous noisemakers (bells, horns, rattles, and the like) to drive them away. Harvest figures invoked or celebrated a good crop yield. Special foods in symbolic shapes were prepared and consumed. Varying according to the culture, many other appurtenances were created—decorated trees and poles, lanterns, banners, processional vehicles, sculptured figures and dolls, household and shrine adornments—all bearing their motifs of life symbolism.

      While the magical significance of the primordial festivals may have been largely forgotten and the events reduced to horseplay and merrymaking, the customs and the art objects associated with them persisted. In Europe, masqueraders continued to impersonate such “characters” as Death, the Devil, the Goat, the Old Man, and the Mischief-Maker; their masks were often makeshift and ephemeral, but many carved of wood and decorated with other materials are preserved and highly prized. Such personifications were also painted on banners or created by assemblage and carried about, as were the Mexican calaveras, skeletal death figures ubiquitous during the Día de los Muertos (Spanish: “Day of the Dead”) celebrations.

      Oriental festivals often featured plant and animal motifs. In China the dragon of the New Year was a great paper creation made to undulate by the dancing steps of the bearers underneath. In the Japanese boys' festival, painted paper carp were flown from poles as symbols of strength and virility. In Indonesia, towering decorative constructions of vegetables and fruits were borne about to celebrate the harvest.

      The assimilation of ancient seasonal celebrations—the winter solstice and the Roman Saturnalia with Christmas, for example—has been extensively studied in European folklore. In folk art, it occasioned an intermingling of pagan and Christian elements, enriched by many inventions created in an exuberant festival atmosphere and readily incorporating local and current themes. The celebrative instinct found expression also in many purely local festivals commemorating a local saint, historical event, or an episode in folk life, such as the setting out of the fishing boats or the onset of rains. In Japan alone there were hundreds of such festivals.

Other sources of folk motifs

      The traditional survivals that play so significant a part in folk art stem from other sources as well. Certain motifs diffused from the earliest cultures provided a repertory of stylized symbols to meet decorative demands; for example, the rosette (a disk divided variously into petallike segments), the rayed disk and the swastika (both associated with sun symbolism), the tree of life, the chimera and other fantastic beasts, and such human-animal combinations as the siren or mermaid. The extent to which such motifs retain their meaning or may become simply an appropriate decoration for a certain type of object (as the mermaid is for boats) is problematic, but there is undoubtedly a high symbolic content in the art.

      Some aspects of Classical mythology (myth) fed into folk art, partly by way of later European sophisticated art, and many medieval themes remained popular; the Saracen of the Crusades is a figure that still appears as a Sicilian puppet and as a revolving target in tilting games. Early Renaissance conceptions of paradise and landscapes with stylized trees and towered towns oddly recur in 19th-century folk painting, sometimes imparting an esoteric flavour to a local scene. In fact, the body of tradition retained in folk art may be seen as growing or shifting from one century or one place to another. A folk version of the horse-and-rider motif, in typical profile view, served with only a slight change of uniform for both the Napoleonic and the American Revolutionary soldier.

      Although themes may fall into disuse, they do not become obsolete so readily as in sophisticated art. Yet, folk art is not merely a repository for tradition; new themes constantly evolve from old ones or out of new circumstances. In the wine-producing area around Alsace, France, Bacchus astride a barrel became the common motif for carved bungs (the stopper of a cask), thus utilizing the Classical Bacchus for a specific local commodity. In America, the Indian was widely adopted for weather vanes, trade figures, and other objects. Similar use was made of the personification of Liberty and the emblematic eagle.

      All decorative design draws heavily on geometric and plant and animal motifs. In the folk use of this material there is often such concentration on one or two motifs that they become strongly identified with the regional style, as the tulip is in Pennsylvania German art; there is also a tendency to attach a particular motif to a particular object, for which it is used repeatedly. The prevalence of animal themes reflects the importance of animals in folk life.

      Aside from their frequent appearance as realistic depictions, miniatures, and design elements, some animals also have strong symbolic aspects: the snake, the horse, and the cock, for example, occur with varying significance in many parts of the world.

      Representational and narrative art other than the religious is often devoted to local subjects: the family portrait, the individual farm or church, or a typical activity. In Switzerland a favourite theme was the Alpengang, depicting the transferral of the cattle to high pastures in the spring. Folk artists also drew upon legend, popular romance, history, and the more famous literary and visual art themes that reached them from the sophisticated world. In Sicily the deeds of Roland (Orlando), derived from the poetic accounts by Torquato Tasso (Tasso, Torquato) and Ludovico Ariosto (Ariosto, Ludovico), were repeatedly painted and enacted in puppet shows. From history, the patriot Giuseppe Garibaldi (Garibaldi, Giuseppe) was as popular in Italian folk art as George Washington (Washington, George) was in American; and the Prince of Wales was a favourite figure for pub signs in England.

      Account must also be taken of the folk capacity for satire. The anticlerical humour of Italy has a folk manifestation in caricatures of impious monks and nuns. The Russians evolved stock figurines of the snobbish officer, the vain woman, the greedy merchant, the pretty girl riding on a rooster. The early prints of London and Paris had their lampoons, and Mexico had its effigies of personages who did not meet popular approval. Out of the slow exolutions typical of a strongly traditional art, there emerges an astute view of the human situation.

Major folk regions

      The major recognized folk regions in most cases have been prolific in such crafts as textiles, pottery, and carving and in the production of implements and utensils; they also often have localized costumes. This common art output forms a broad basis underlying the more distinctive arts peculiar to particular areas. The material is so voluminous that most attempts at general survey are admittedly samplings.

      General summaries are commonly organized by nation, a convenient expedient, because major collections are centred in great national museums and because folk art is often studied and promoted as part of the national heritage. However, a country-by-country summary divides some groups that are homogeneous, such as the Basques of Spain and France; and it combines, under Italy, for example, such diverse arts as the Alpine and Sicilian.

      Any effort to group regions for comparative study will most logically be based on such factors as the traditional retained sources, the prevailing religion, the nature of the related sophisticated culture, and the environmental conditions that affect materials and activities.

Western

Mediterranean

      Viewed in terms of these four factors, the European folk arts of the Mediterranean area obviously have much in common. First, there was a direct transmission from ancient Middle Eastern and Greek civilization, accentuated by Greek colonization in the West and followed by Roman domination. These sources, plus the local cults that occurred everywhere, may be traced even in recent art in the continuance of a rich pottery tradition from Greek times onward and in the preservation of many motifs. Second, the religion, chiefly Roman Catholic or Greek Orthodox, demanded extensive imagery. Third, in the sophisticated cultures throughout the historical period, art of all kinds was a major activity, developing high skills that penetrated to some extent even to the more isolated folk. Finally, contact was facilitated by active trade along an extensive coastline, and varied materials were available; yet the area industrialized very slowly, so that the folk arts could continue to thrive in some localities even to the present.

      Thus, it is not surprising that the arts of this region are outstanding in quantity and variety. The level of skill is apparent, sometimes in bold and facile styles, sometimes in meticulous craftsmanship. Many folk artists were capable of expert full-round sculpture, realistic painting, fine metalwork, and other difficult techniques. The motifs are varied and freely intermingled.

      Among the long-surviving regional arts are those of Epirus in Greece, where an important folk centre has been established at Metsovon; the islands—the Aegean with its stone architecture, Sicily with its spectacular carved and painted carts, puppets, and pottery, and Sardinia, noted for gold ornaments, textiles, and costumes still in use; and Puglia, Calabria, and Abruzzi regions in Italy, the latter having fine lace, silver filigree (openwork), and weaving.

      Southern France is affiliated with this area, as is evidenced by the style of the fine ex-votos and Nativity figures of Provence. So is the Iberian Peninsula, though in that region there are also special factors. The Moorish influence was felt particularly in Andalusia—as in the use of ivory as a material and in the arabesque tracery (ornate, interlaced openwork) of the ironwork—and the Atlantic coastline provided other connections. The Portuguese use of cork was distinctive. Galicia and the Basque region, each with a population of distinct linguistic background, developed in prolonged isolation, the results of which are clearly visible in their exceptional arts: the architecture presents unique features, and the Basques are unusual in their lack of pottery, though they developed remarkable dance costumes. The difficulty of communications preserved a strong folk character not only in Galicia and the Basque region but throughout the peninsula. The painted and glazed tiles (azulejos), the textiles (notable in Salamanca), and carved furniture are among the products notably Iberian in character. Traditional survivals were strong in the northeast, with much religious art, including prints, centred in Catalonia.

Slavic area

      Another possible grouping is the Slavic area in eastern Europe and Russia. There the influences from the ancient Middle East and Greece penetrated less far in early times but were transmitted (and transmuted) by way of the Byzantine (Byzantine art) Empire and the Eastern church. Much folk art in the area was strongly affected by the Byzantine style.

      Among the transmitted elements were the themes and styles associated with icons, which were commonly hung—at wells, for example—until the mid-18th century, when their production was discouraged in Russia and thus dwindled. Two centuries of Mongol rule introduced other traditions stemming from the East and marked by the so-called animal style. In modern times these countries mostly had communist (communism) governments whose policy included promotion of the folk arts, organization of artists into cooperatives, and even the introduction of crafts from one area into another. Although this was a stimulus to the study of folk art, it tended to blur the distinction between the strictly folk and the revived or commercialized product. Even earlier, Russian folk art was subject to extraneous influences in a way not typical elsewhere: in the 17th century, craftsmen were requisitioned from many parts of Russia to supply products for the national economy or to work on palaces, and they were also assembled around monasteries for prescribed output.

      The Russian products probably best known elsewhere are toys (toy)—intricate constructions of wood or vivid earthenware miniatures. Some of the Vyatka toys are thought to be survivals of idols made for homes, representing the innumerable local deities that preceded Christianity. Other notable arts include ceramic tiles, wooden and ceramic figurines, and bone carving in the Siberian tradition.

      In eastern Europe, where national boundaries have been particularly confused and the population comprises various minorities, studies of the art may follow ethnic lines. The geography provides a number of distinct regions, which are as varied as coastal Dalmatia, Transdanubia, and the isolated Tatras mountains. With a heavily forested landscape, the work in wood was outstanding. It appeared in church architecture, architectural sculpture, vessels and implements, and in such special forms as the sculptured grave-post; even a corn bin might be covered with rosettes. The area was rich in festival arts, with a strong retention from pre-Christian traditions and magic rites. In the former Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic and Slovakia), there were special wedding effigies and candlesticks. Among many ancient motifs, such as vase-and-tree, sun, and heart, the cock appeared as a protective symbol that might be set on roof ridges or carved on cheese molds. Some of the art is strikingly primitive.

      One of the complications arising in the study of eastern European arts is the fact that the countries involved are culturally borderline, having an affinity with Roman Catholic Europe in the West (exemplified by the ex-votos in the brilliant Czech glass painting) and with the Byzantine Empire in the East. The arts bracketed as Polish, including some of the finest decorative art in paper, once extended far to the east and yet are northern European.

Northern Europe

      The situation in northern Europe was very different from that in the south, and not merely in climate. The tradition involved a different mythology, and the society lacked the sophisticated centres that had crystallized early in Greece and Italy. The Roman influences that reached northern Europe had far to travel; consequently, the transmitted motifs were fewer, and emphasis might be placed on technical execution rather than on variety. This can be seen in the prevalent and superb use of two motifs, the acanthus and the vine-and-tendril. It can also be seen in the animal style from the East, which penetrated and persisted, for example, in some fine architectural carving, with the tendency typical of this style toward flat and pierced rather than full-round rendering. Although religious art was by no means lacking, the Reformation, which in itself was a popular movement, curbed the use of extensive Catholic imagery as well as the demand for religious objects.

      The festival arts drew heavily on northern pagan themes, and the impulse that gave rise to pre-Lenten carnival celebrations in the south was likely to find expression rather in municipal and occupational processions with comic giant figures drawn through the streets.

      Some parts of the far north demonstrate that density of population is a factor in folk art; where farms are many miles apart with few opportunities for community contact, the art forms may tend to be few or even nonexistent. Even so, there may be one or two special crafts, such as the bone and horn carving of Lapland. Also, where materials are scarce, as in Iceland, variety of product depends on imports likely to be allocated to the sophisticated, not the folk. In more densely populated France, Germany, and The Netherlands, on the other hand, it is clear that peasant arts existed everywhere in the earlier periods but that the early establishment of trade routes and urban centres pushed the folk arts into special categories or into the peripheral areas.

      Among the Scandinavian regions, Norway is noted for the rose painting of Hallingdal and Telemark Fylke, the needlework of Hardanger, and the pictorial weaving of Gudbrandsdalen. Sweden, among varied arts, had a unique type of built-in furniture and wall hangings that were either painted or woven with biblical and Icelandic motifs. Finland had a specific linear ornament called “dark drawing,” made by bending a strip of wood until the ends meet, and metal ornaments of prehistoric origin in Karelia. Distinctive folk art regions in Denmark include the Hedebo (now Hedeboryde) area, with its linen embroidery; the Fyn archipelago, with its colourful floral painting; and Jutland and Slesvig, with notable cabinetmaking. In the Baltic area there were many survivals of ancient motifs (swastikas, rayed disks, snakes, horse heads) used on varied products, including the remarkable crosses and roofed poles, often with symbolic wrought-iron finials (crowning ornaments).

Central Europe

      In the heart of Europe, two areas demonstrate special factors involved in the formation of folk culture: the Rhineland, where wine production provided a number of special objects and motifs; and the Alpine regions, which, though extending into several countries, share a pattern of living dictated by the mountain territory. The latter region, which includes several well-defined areas—such as the Appenzell in Switzerland, the Tirol in Austria, and the Alto Adige in the south Tirol, now a part of Italy—is rich in festival arts, ceremonial foods, and implements associated with dairying (even musical cowbells).

      In France, The Netherlands, and Germany, the proximity of folk groups to sophisticated culture made its mark in the variety of products, high skills, and lavish decoration of such objects as furniture. Invention was devoted to new figural types, such as the hod carrier common to lower Germany and Austria; and events such as the Napoleonic Wars made a rather quick impact, as with the soldier motif and the appearance of handwritten and ornamented documents relating to military service. The mechanical genius that made the Germanic peoples leaders in the field of sophisticated automata found folk expression in innumerable animated toys, clocks, chimes, figures, and other gadgets. While the folk art associated with Paris itself is not to be ignored, the more easily analyzed French groups are outlying, as in Brittany, with its many-figured outdoor calvaries (representations of the crucifixion) and other enduring forms.

Britain (United Kingdom) and Ireland

      The tendency to separate British from other European folk arts is an oversimplification, for a number of forms are shared with northern Europe; for example, the famous horse brasses (circular harness ornaments often retaining ancient protective motifs), giant processional figures such as the Salisbury dragon, and the May tree, a celebrative decoration in pole form. England is a small country that industrialized rapidly, a factor that tends to shorten the folk art period. Some arts that required expanding technical skills, however, could develop as folk forms: for example, the printed arts (such as the broadside, or sheet printed on one or on both sides and folded) and the hand-propelled roundabout (later the mechanized carousel), which became increasingly elaborate. Tunbridge woodwork, of glued coloured strips, is merely one example of local invention. Among the well-known categories of folk art are the inn signs (both hanging and “effigy” signs), wrought iron work, and tombstones. Hebridean textiles and Highland plaids and sporrans (the pouch worn in front of the kilt) are also familiar products. Both Scotland and Ireland have interesting grave crosses bearing ancient symbols. Ireland, however, serves as a reminder that the creative urge of a folk group may not focus primarily on the visual arts; Irish folk art does not compare with the contribution to oral lore in that area. (The same may be said of the black folk minority in the United States, whose musical contribution was spectacular but whose visual art traditions were largely cut off.)

North America

      The colonization of the Americas in the 17th and 18th centuries, stemming largely from Europe at a time when European folk art was flourishing, resulted in a second general area of major folk art development. This art can be divided into that of the United States (loosely called American folk art); Canadian folk art, which has much in common with that of the United States, with its scrimshaw, ship carving, and western pioneer art, but which also has products of its own (for example, French Canadian wood carving in Quebec); and Latin American folk art, which has quite a different character.

      For the first century and a half, the art of the Eastern Seaboard of the United States may be described as predominantly folk. Although there were European imports and works produced by sophisticated American artists, they were generally a pallid reflection of the art then developing in Europe, and they made little impact on a people bent on making a home in a new world. The so-called Yankee ingenuity produced a wealth of material, sometimes reminiscent of European prototypes but often new. There were, for example, dozens of handmade lighting devices and many specialized contrivances such as the trammel, for raising and lowering pots in the fireplace, and the corn planter. Fresh decorative styles, special forms, and new motifs contributed to an art that, either in evolution or invention, was typically American.

      American folk painting is outstanding. Although there was once a tendency to view as sophisticated the artists who closely followed European styles and as folk those who worked in the rapidly emerging American manner, many of the latter have become individually known creators of a valuable body of work and have taken their place in the history of American art, some no longer viewed as belonging in the folk category. The more typical folk product comprised thousands of portraits and scenes by anonymous or local craftsman-artists or itinerant painters, who provided a vivid, if often crude, extensive record of America's ancestors and their surroundings.

      As America advanced, a pattern of regional differentiation appeared, just as in Europe. In general, geographic isolation was overcome rather quickly, one exception being the sparse settlements of the Appalachian Mountains, where Scotch-Irish descendants maintained a handicraft tradition. People of varying origins, however, had brought to the “melting pot” of America their different art traditions. While they were often content with preserving a few objects and customs, some groups chose to maintain a separate identity, set apart by religion or national origin, and among them some fresh regional arts developed. The strict religious beliefs of the Shakers (Shaker) in New England and New York state, with their emphasis on simplicity, gave rise to clean, functional lines in furniture and architecture and to some psychologically interesting “spirit drawings” executed under the influence of religious visions. The Pennsylvania Germans (Pennsylvania German) (popularly called Pennsylvania Dutch) not only had a distinctive religion but clung tenaciously to the language and traditions of their native Pfalz (Palatinate, now in the state of Rhineland-Pfalz and in Bavaria), which in art included such crafts as fine painted furniture and such motifs as the tulip, heart, and vine. Thriving in the flourishing countryside of their new home, they produced a notable body of art: fraktur (embellished documents), painted wedding chests, decorated ceramics (including elaborate pieces created for special occasions), unique barns with exterior painted symbols (“hex signs”), pictorial embroidery, weaving, and other forms.

      The American settlers who moved westward were again thrust into a folk situation comparable to that of their forebears, and a pioneer art developed. Saddlery (saddle) was one of its important crafts; the covered wagon was its distinctive vehicle; and the board structures of mining towns and the sod houses of the plains were solutions to the problem of immediate housing. The flatboat and keelboat of the Mississippi River arose from specific navigational requirements.

      The Southwest, including part of California, is an area apart, producing art distinct from what is often called “Western Americana.” There the architecture was influenced by the Spanish mission and adobe styles, and a Catholic religious art was encouraged among the natives, resulting in the carved or painted imagery of saints (bultos and santos) with a strong native flavour overlying the Spanish derivation. These arts are more allied with the Latin American (as may be seen in the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe).

Latin America

      The different character of Latin American folk art may be ascribed in part to the modification of an indigenous culture by contact with a more self-aware culture. The settlers on the eastern seaboard of North America moved in on a Native American population whose arts were relatively limited and who were rapidly pushed back or disoriented; the best-known folk art of that area was thus essentially the product of the white settlers. In Latin America, however, where there were some highly developed pre-Columbian cultures as well as tribal arts, intermingling was freer; this was partly because the missionary program—which included the teaching of crafts and Catholic symbols to the native population and the use of native craftsmen for church construction and for the production of religious objects—accepted an infusion of native techniques and styles. Thus, Indian crafts and motifs had a better chance of survival, and a greater degree of syncretism could occur. Furthermore, the colonizers, predominantly Spanish and Portuguese, brought with them the wealth of Mediterranean tradition and the varied imagery and forms of their home regions.

      Under circumstances as favourable as these, a virtual explosion of folk art can occur, as it did, notably, in Mexico. Because Mexico seems to have a peculiar receptivity to art impulses regardless of source, the area is distinguished by a folk imagination that can create a towering, multifigured, ceramic candlestick, elaborate figures and models of straw, and fantastic fireworks. Craft motifs are handled with great spontaneity, and the festival arts are remarkable, with such original creations as the Judas figures, the skeletal musicians associated with the Day of the Dead, and the calaveras (literally “skulls” but extended to mean the entire skeleton) that appear both as confections and as a theme in popular prints. The religious arts are also outstanding, with many ex-voto paintings (retablos) and Nativity figures in varied materials. Art that combines features of the Mediterranean and native Indian traditions occurs also in other Latin American countries, as in the Portuguese-oriented areas of Brazil and in Argentina, which developed some arts related to the life of the cowboy of the pampas (gaucho). In some regions of Latin America, however, the indigenous Indian culture long remained unaffected and little influenced by the European colonies.

      In the Caribbean and coastal areas there is evidence of African-Indian-European interaction: saints are painted with African physiognomy, and African decorative motifs appear on crosses, votive sculptures (the milagre of northeastern Brazil, for example), and such objects as laundry beaters and peanut pounders in Suriname. For a more detailed treatment of the visual art of Latin America, see art, Latin American (Latin American art).

Other regions

      During the 16th–19th centuries, European exploration, trade, and culture expanded into many parts of the world. Colonization elsewhere, however, was not so conducive to folk evolution as in the Americas, where many settlers emigrated early, bearing folk traditions with them and expecting to make a life with their own skills. Because in many places the Europeans maintained a sophisticated enclave closely tied to the homeland, the native arts were preserved intact, inhibited, or exploited. This was fairly typical in Africa and the South Pacific, where settled colonization took hold only in the late 19th century. In South Africa, where it occurred earlier, only the Dutch (who built farmhouses of Dutch character) tended even to take their families with them.

Non-Western

      In many parts of the world there have been tribal arts, some of which are sometimes bracketed with the “primitive” in a general category of ethnic art and are sometimes considered as folk art. But although they may have folklike crafts and links with the outside world, they differ from true folk cultures in that they constitute homogeneous societies with traditions that are specifically ethnic rather than shared with a broad area of sophisticated culture. Such tribal folk art occurs in the Saharan Berber areas of Africa and in Siberia, among the Ainu people of Japan, and in various other parts of Asia.

      The Eastern art recognized as truly folk has been studied, as in the West, chiefly in the areas where it exists as the local or provincial art within a great culture. These traditions were often relatively uninterrupted, and effects from industrialization were late; while all folk dating is problematic and much of the art has perished, it is likely that some folk art in the East has a history extending back to ancient times. In Japan, however, it is usually understood as beginning in the Edo period (17th century). Interest in folk art is particularly strong in India and Japan, where many art scholars are familiar with the Western folk concept but dedicated to the preservation of their Eastern traditions. Indian folk art was discovered in an emotional climate reminiscent of the European discovery of the folk soul; Ananda Coomaraswamy (Coomaraswamy, Ananda Kentish), a leader in the movement, called folk art the “main road,” as distinguished from the sophisticated “bypaths.” Both in India and Japan, certain sophisticated artists deliberately identified themselves as “folk.”

India and Pakistan

      In India, where all the crafts are distinguished by variety, skill, and a strong component of strictly Indian tradition, the folk distinction is not always clear-cut. It is most apparent in such objects as toys (for example, the mother-and-child figure probably related to fertility concepts), masks, works in papier-mâché (votive and animal figures, for example, and dancing dolls balanced on wire), the symbolic motifs painted on the houses of the poor, and other works of art related to local custom or primitive belief. Particularly in southern India, small religious and other sculptures were created in quantity in an unmistakably folk manner; there are also some distinctive tribal arts, notably those of Assam. Pakistan has some highly regional arts: for example, the fine house carving and the ceremonial fans of Swat, the silver ornaments of Gilgit, and the tombstones and matrimonial objects produced in the arid regions of Balochistan. For a more detailed treatment of the visual art of South Asia, see arts, South Asian (South Asian arts).

Japan (arts, East Asian)

      Pottery and toys are probably the most widespread kinds of Japanese folk art; but there are also innumerable typical objects—lanterns, fans, umbrellas, nested boxes, and kites—exhibiting skillful use of bamboo and paper, as well as wood, lacquer, and other materials. Thousands of wayside images, as well as sculptures for shrines and graves, are made in a folk style characterized by shallow carving on a simple, coarse-stone shape. An outstanding type of folk painting flourished in the Ōtsu region from the 17th to the 19th century. Clearly distinct from the sophisticated ukiyo-e painting, it was executed by farmers and artisans and depicted folk as well as Buddhist deities, popular animal motifs such as the cock-and-hen, and popular characters and genre scenes, often satiric. There are also votive pictures, some portraying the horse and traceable to the ancient horse sacrifice. One of the late-surviving folk regions in modern Japan is on Sado island, where small cylindrical stone images are thrown into the sea to invoke pregnancy.

China

      Chinese folk art must have been as extensive as any in the world, as evidenced by the descriptions of Western travelers and the souvenirs they collected and by various cultural and craft studies; but the problem of collating and analyzing the material as a folk category is forbidding. Every Chinese region has its own styles, and the entire art output is enormous. The art associated with weddings, funerals, and festivals is extravagant, even among the poor. In the country where paper was invented in antiquity, papermaking is a common skill, and the art of paper cutting is learned from childhood. Paper is used for the banner-like shop signs that give a special character to Chinese streets and for many complicated models and festival objects.

Indonesia

      In its effect on folk culture, the spread of Buddhism in East Asia has some parallels with the spread of Christianity in the West. In Indonesia, for example, where Buddhism penetrated an area whose local traditions were strong enough to survive and intermingle with the new concepts, there is much temple art of a folk character. Among the abundant ephemeral folk arts of Bali are the vegetal offerings and the beautifully stylized symbolic objects woven of palm leaf. Indonesian shadow puppets and printed textiles are world-famous.

Mamie Harmon Ed.

Additional Reading

Helmuth Th. Bossert, Folk Art of Europe, trans. by Sybil Moholy Nagy (1953, reprinted 1990; originally published in German, 1949), selection by the author from his Volkskunst in Europa, 2nd ed. (1941), a major compilation of folk designs, largely from textiles; Daniel Paulk Branch, Folk Architecture of the East Mediterranean (1966), including Greek islands and central and southern Italy, with photos and diagrams; Robert F. Bussabarger and Betty Dashew Robins, The Everyday Art of India (1968), with glossary; Alfonso Caso et al., Arte popular de México (1963), a special issue of Artes de México, authoritative for crafts; Erwin O. Christensen, The Index of American Design (1950, reissued 1967), selections from a Federal Art Project study covering the period from before 1700 to c. 1900; H.J. Hansen (ed.), European Folk Art in Europe and the Americas (1968; originally published in German, 1967), country by country, chiefly European, with more than 600 illustrations; M. Harmon et al., “Folk Art,” in vol. 5, Encyclopedia of World Art, 17 vol. (1959–87), pp. 451–506, a worldwide sampling of the arts, with extensive bibliography to c. 1960; Stella Kramrisch, Unknown India: Ritual Art in Tribe and Village (1968), an exhibition catalog of ritual and tribal folk art; Frances Lichten, Folk Art of Rural Pennsylvania (1946, reprinted 1963), German American motifs and products; Jean Lipman, American Primitive Painting (1942, reissued 1972), pioneering study of folk painters; Priscilla Sawyer Lord and Daniel J. Foley, The Folk Arts and Crafts of New England, updated ed. (1975), more than 500 illustrations of crafts; Hugo Munsterberg, The Folk Arts of Japan (1958), which includes the modern folk art movement and living folk arts; Bernard Rudofsky, Architecture Without Architects (1964, reprinted 1987), on primitive and vernacular styles throughout the world; R. Turner Wilcox, Folk and Festival Costume of the World (1965, reissued 1989), covering more than 150 regions.

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