What is meant by the terms “folk art” and “outsider art”?

There have been long discussions, books written, and theories proposed about these terms and will continue to be as long as these terms are used in the art world. However, for the sake of discussion, we will defer to the National Endowment for the Arts for its definition of folk art. Folk art is generally thought of as art that comes from some particular tradition within a culture and is passed down from generation to generation. Often it is passed down through established cultural community traditions, Kachina dolls made by the Hopi being a good example.

“Outsider artists”, on the other hand, are those artists who are self taught, with no academic training, and have had little or no contact with the mainstream art world. Much outsider art often illustrates extreme mental states, unconventional ideas, or elaborate fantasy worlds. Roger Cardinal was the first to use outside art to describe this type of art and wrote a book with a title of the same name in 1972.

What is lithography?

Lithography is a method of printmaking invented in 1798 by Austrian actor and playwright Alois Senefelder, while he was experimenting with various printmaking techniques to duplicate a new play he had written.

This process involves many steps but relies primarily on the principle that water and oil do not mix. An image is drawn with a greasy implement onto a treated surface such as a flat piece of limestone or a metal plate. Through a chemical process, the greasy material is dissolved and the image is etched lightly onto the plate, although some residue remains. The surface is then moistened with water. When greasy ink is applied to the surface, it sticks to the residue left on the image and is repelled by the blank wet areas. Prints are made when the ink is transferred to a dampened sheet of paper that has been placed onto the surface of the stone or plate and run through a lithography press under light pressure. Only one color can be printed at a time, so that a multi-colored print must go through the printing process several times.

Miaou by Karel Appel, on view in the exhibition, Animals in Art in the McDonell Douglas Education Gallery, is a good example of a color lithograph. An artist will usually make several prints of the same image. This series of prints is known as an edition. The artist indicates the total number of prints in the edition as well as the individual print with a number that appears as a fraction in the lower left or right corner of the work. The larger number to the right of the slash indicates the size of the edition, while the smaller one to the left indicates the particular print. Look for these numbers in Miaou. Note that it is the 51st print in an edition of 110 (51/110).

 

What are the metal boxes on the walls for?

The metal box to which you are referring is an instrument called a hygrothermograph and measures the levels of temperature and humidity within each gallery. These two factors, if left unchecked, can over time cause damage to the artwork.

The hygrothermograph relies on special sensors that respond to fluctuations in the environment. These sensors are comprised of two different materials that expand and contract as changes in temperature and humidity occur. The sensor for temperature is a metal strip, and the sensor for humidity is a specially treated bundle of human hair. Pens attached to these sensors record the fluctuations on a paper chart fastened to a rotating drum. This chart is divided into hours and days that span a week's time. During the week, the charts are checked several times a day to be sure that the temperature and humidity remain constant in the galleries. If any changes are noted, we can immediately adjust heating and air conditioning levels accordingly. Each week, the charts are replaced with new copies, and the process begins again.

Hygrothermographs can be found in all the galleries in the Museum, as well as the Collections Storage area, where art not on display is housed.