American Vernacular: New Discoveries in Folk, Self-Taught, and Outsider Sculptures

by Frank Maresca, Roger Ricco, Margit Rowell (Contributor)

A groundbreaking retrospective of art from "off the beaten path" sculpture features spectacular images from a wide variety of American artists and craftspeople, in a study that includes everything from religious totems and antique trade signs to hand-carved canes. 12,500 first printing.

Genres: Art

304 pages, Hardcover

First published September 9, 2002

Reviews

[Melki · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Goodreads friend once accused me of being easily entertained. She said, "You are like a cat chasing a laser." (She knows who she is, and has been sent home to Think. About. What. She. Said.)

I really don't see anything wrong with the fact that I'm easy, so believe me when I say that one of the greatest thrills of my life was finding this $75.00 book for $3.95 in a remainder catalogue.

So, yeeha!
Color me entertained.

This book features the work of folk artists, both known and unknown, and it's packed with 450 color photos of "outsider" sculpture. There are gorgeous, LARGE pictures of trade signs, shooting gallery targets, decoys, canes, furniture, whirligigs, and creepier-than-usual ventriloquist dummies.

The section on Carnival and Circus Figures was most interesting to me, but the whole book has got me looking with fresh eyes at "art" I may have overlooked before.