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"The Folk" a large painting by Rod Mackay
It used to be supposed that "Folk Art" belonged to "The Folk" an
almost mythic people who lived in the\is world's outback. Because
they needed to come to town for necessaries, their carvings, paintings,
needlework, decorated utensils, and other artifacts became known
to town and city slickers. In the beginning they were often anonymous
hawkers of vegetables and whatever else they could sell. The main
requirement for a folk artist is a lack of formal academic training in
the arts.
In the conservative view held by many folklorists, a work only
qualifies as folk art if it is part of a long-standing tradition,
learned from an active practitioner, and has the genre, style, and
technique should be those of an isolated culture. Under this
strict definition the scrimshaw of whalers would qualify as would
that of that of certain exclusive religious groups such as the Amish.
In Canada, museums, dealers, collectors, and the general public think
of folk art as essentially nonacademic, developed outside, but
not necessarily uninfluenced by, the arts taught in art schools. In
fine art, the idiosyncratic is sometimes admired, but traditional
craftsmanship and a non-inventive style is characteristic of folk art.
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