The American Folk Art Museum

The American Folk Art Museum is an institution devoted to commemorating and displaying often unknown or shadowy personas of our American past through traditionally handmade artworks. In spite of this, its stone structure shares little character with the artwork that inhabits it. Folk art generally reflects craft traditions produced by people of little or no artistic education often with a provenance that is unknown or less then distinguished. Thus, when entering a space devoted to such work one would expect something homier. The wooden benches and gallery floors attempt to add warmth but in the end the stark, cold, textured cement prevails virtually destroying its role as a bearer of our cultural inheritance. The building merely feels like an extension of the Museum of Modern Art. Perhaps this is because the two museums are next door to one another.

Nonetheless a museum should be molded to its collection. When viewing Renaissance art I expect to see gold frames illuminated by warm lighting. The same goes for viewing contemporary art. The sterile white walls and slick lines provide a minimalist impression necessary for viewing contemporary pieces. The Metropolitan Museum phenomenally creates a new feeling and setting when visitors move from the Greek art section to the Cloisters and onto the more contemporary works.

One redeeming quality is how art is integrated into public spaces, such as the lobby, stairwells, hallways, and niches throughout the building offering continuity for the audience. Additionally the wall postings for the Asa Ames: Occupation Sculpting exhibition were exceptional. Providing an ample amount of information on an almost unknown American figure. Each piece exhibited is given its own informational wall posting. Unfortunately this was not consistent in the museums other exhibition “Dargerism: Contemporary Artists and Henry Darger”.

It is only fitting that the American Folk Art Museum would feature an exhibit commemorating Darger and his subsequent followers. Coined as an outsider, Darger certainly fits the mold of a folk artist whose self-taught genius and diligence is all inspiring. One thing is for sure the works displayed beside Darger’s are equally peculiar. However, there is a lost sense of emotional poignancy. Justine Lieberman’s photographs of ambiguous prepubescent bodies with child beauty queen faces inserted in Darger like landscapes seems like a even more eccentric attempt to update or recontextualize.

Amy Cutler has a better idea of paying homage to Darger with originality. Cutler’s piece Monkey Bars (2001) depicts a clashing group of girls battling in all different challenging positions on monkey bars. The muted tonality of the piece is further substantiated by the girls’ blue and white uniform dresses. The connected long hair and sameness of the girls force the viewer to question if this is just one girl battling her own internal war. Cutler presents a narrative not unlike a magical fairy tale or Sunday morning comic or even Darger’s Vivian Girls. Both Darger and Cutler include tribes of girls in conflict. Darger’s girls of course struggling to free children from slavery while Cutler’s battle to liberate themselves from domestic tedium. This message of is even clearer in Cutler’s piece, Traction (2002) where four girls fight to escape a house that appears to be a factory of girls with endless braided hair.

The exhibition overall is oddly setup and scattered. There are informational wall posting on many of the artists featured but not all creating a sort of hierarchy of whose work is more valid. Darger is mixed in amongst the more contemporary artists. Surely this was intentional but it lacks continuity and devalues some of Darger’s work.

The main problem with the exhibition is it leaves the viewer questioning the motives of the curator. Why pair this artist so well known for being an outsider with formally educated artists or insiders? Most certainly the fact that Darger has become something of a celebrity is a major factor. His work has not only inspired an “ism” undoubtedly fabricated by curator but also music mentioning Darger by Snakefinger to a full blown ballad for him by Natalie Merchant. Darger has a mythic stature not unlike his epic story that is oddly alluring. The artists featured with Darger appear inauthentic to be featured at a folk art museum. “Folk” implies ordinary or common people, which would preclude an extensive education. The inclusion of academically trained artists is a break from the institution’s ostensible mission. Although the architecture does not reflect its occupants the institution brilliantly convinces the viewer that folk art is noteworthy and precious enough to warrant being housed in its own museum.