{"id":581939,"date":"2026-04-13T16:40:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T16:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/581939\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T16:40:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T16:40:09","slug":"uwss-american-folk-art-museum-marks-two-milestones-with-new-shows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/581939\/","title":{"rendered":"UWS\u2019s American Folk Art Museum Marks Two Milestones With New Shows"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>A whirligig with Uncle Sam riding a bicycle, part of the \u201cFolk Nation\u201d exhibit currently at the American Folk Art Museum. All images courtesy of the American Folk Art Museum<\/p>\n

By Tracy Zwick<\/p>\n

Today it styles itself as the nation\u2019s museum of folk and self-taught artists, but before attaining that status, the American Folk Art Museum was already an Upper West Side treasure.<\/p>\n

This neighborhood jewel on Columbus Avenue near West 66th St., which is always free to visitors, is celebrating two important milestones. The institution itself will mark its 65th anniversary in a few weeks with a gala at the nearby Mandarin Oriental Hotel<\/a>. And with two exhibitions that opened last week and run through September, it\u2019s also offering a 250th birthday tribute to our nation, in keeping with its focus dedicated to the historically sidelined.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFolk Nation: Crafting Patriotism in the United States<\/a>\u201d honors America\u2019s birthday while offering some counter-programming to the big birthday party planned in Washington, D.C. \u201cFolk Nation\u201d asks us to consider who and what\u2019s been traditionally represented in the history of American art, and what\u2019s been left out. It speaks to long-held American themes, including family, religion, and belonging, but from the perspectives of artists from historically marginalized communities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The coverlet with Americana themes.<\/p>\n

The exhibition opens with one of the most patriotic pieces in the show, an 1822 ivory on near-black coverlet<\/a> inscribed with the date July 4th, 1829. Its unidentified maker, who literally wove a sense of American pride into their design, filled the textile with stars, eagles, and other Americana. In one corner, there\u2019s text celebrating American industry: \u201cAgriculture and manufactures are the foundation of our independence.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>A 1990 canvas that filters the Statue of Liberty through a folk art lens.<\/p>\n

Nearby is Reverend Benjamin Franklin Perkins\u2019s \u201cMiss Liberty Reaches Out to Welcome the Persecuted<\/a>,\u201d a 1990 canvas that runs NYC\u2019s familiar national icon, the Statue of Liberty, through a folk-art lens. Her body is rendered as a yellow rectangle, with an out-of-scale torch-bearing arm raised against a lapis-like, star-filled background. Lady Liberty has phrases written in garland-shaped swags across her body, calling attention to values like \u201copportunity,\u201d \u201cliberty to pursue happiness,\u201d and \u201ceducation.\u201d Just above his signature, Perkins wrote: \u201cYours to choose: this is America.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

More choices come in the next gallery, where \u201cSelf-Made: A Century of Inventing Artists<\/a>\u201d begins. The show unfolds in three sections, each in its own gallery: Self-Portraits, Alter Egos, and Autobiographies. You can start anywhere; taken together, the trio of galleries offers viewers an array of choices made by artists who \u2013 without academic training \u2013 have depicted themselves, on their own terms.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201cThe Artist and His Model,\u201d oil on canvas painting by Morris Hirshfield.<\/p>\n

One of the first objects you\u2019ll encounter is Morris Hirschfield\u2019s 1945 \u201cThe Artist and His Model<\/a>,\u201d which includes a self-portrait, a landscape, and a classical female model. The artist brandishes his palette the way a crossing guard holds up a \u201cStop\u201d sign. His other hand holds three brushes the way a medieval knight might hold his lance. There are patterns everywhere, on the wall, on the plinth, and in the model\u2019s scarf, that match with the robed artist\u2019s tie and slacks.<\/p>\n

The attention to textiles makes sense when you learn that before painting, Hirschfield had been involved in manufacturing clothing and slippers. If you look closely at the painting within the painting, of a cat chasing a butterfly, you\u2019ll see he\u2019s included an olive branch behind the playful feline. Americans have, throughout our history, yearned for hope and peace.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>From the \u201cSelf-Made\u201d exhibit, a painting by John Kane of the artist and his wife.<\/p>\n

Go deeper and you\u2019ll find works by once-marginalized but now Sotheby\u2019s-approved artists like Adolf W\u00f6lfli, John Kane<\/a> and Henry Darger<\/a>. No need for UWSers to travel to MoMA, the Met or The Whitney to check out some of these artists\u2019 prize works.<\/p>\n

One artist whose work was new, and winning, to me was Susan Janow, whose practice has been supported by Creative Growth<\/a>, a non-profit in California that advances the inclusion in contemporary art of artists with developmental disabilities. In two 10-minute single-channel videos, Janow poses questions to herself in voiceover \u2013 some simple, some deep \u2013\u00a0 while sitting interview-style, facing the camera, in a Tigger t-shirt and blazer. In the next video, we see her answering the questions, her responses written in pretty, childlike handwriting on placards. Viewers may find themselves responding to her questions with their own answers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2023, the AFAM launched a project to review and revise catalog entries, filling in or fixing missing, incomplete, or misleading information about its vast 20th and 21st-century collection. \u201cSelf-Made\u201d grew out of that effort. As curators learned more about the works and the artists who created them, they were able to reassess and re-present the art with greater attention to the artists\u2019 voices, interests, and intentions. Visitors now have a chance to reconsider history too, particularly American history.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The museum, closed for a time last summer for construction work, still has construction equipment up outside around the entrance, but the restrooms, galleries, and charming shop are newly redone and fully open for business. Because of its manageable size, just four galleries, it\u2019s easy to spend an hour or an afternoon at the museum, and there are plenty of cafes a few steps away to refuel after a visit \u2013 Maman<\/a>, La Botaniste,<\/a> and Rosetta Bakery<\/a> among them. There\u2019s robust programming around both of the new exhibitions, including free guided tours<\/a>, musical performances<\/a> in the galleries, talks, and artist-led workshops (including one with Janow<\/a>).<\/p>\n

In a moment of historical uncertainty, curator Valerie Rousseau mentioned during a walk-through of the show this week that she hopes visitors will respond to the authenticity of the work on view. These exhibitions offer opportunities for critical thinking, away from the big birthday hullabaloo planned for the nation\u2019s capital.<\/p>\n

Subscribe to West Side Rag\u2019s FREE email newsletter\u00a0here<\/a>. And you can Support the Rag\u00a0here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A whirligig with Uncle Sam riding a bicycle, part of the \u201cFolk Nation\u201d exhibit currently at the American…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":581940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[255082,228,226,227,229,88],"class_list":["post-581939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-american-folk-art-museum","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}