Tuesday, September 20, 2011

The American Folk Art Museum

Via Boing Boing, this:
Please. Someone, everyone, do something to save the American Folk Art Museum from dissolution and dispersal. Or at least slow down the process, so that all options can be thoroughly considered. New York’s contemporary artists, and New York as a whole, need the creative energy of this stubborn, single-minded little institution, its outstanding exhibition program and its wondrous collection, an unparalleled mixture of classic American folk art and 20th-century outsider geniuses.
Go while you can, it's an amazing place.

5 comments:

Dr.KennethNoisewater said...

Oh geez. That's sad. It's always sad when a resource like that goes away. I'm surprised a city like NY would let it go away.

M. Bouffant said...

No one gives a shit about weirdos, hicks & their pretensions to art.

We had an equivalent in the capital of Philistine, but it disappeared for a while.

Enthusiasm alone could not withstand the recession of the early nineties. After a series of setbacks, financing dwindled and the museum was forced to close its doors for a couple years. The library was given to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the collection was sold at auction; and the archive was given to UCLA. The museum’s operations scaled down and was taken under the administration of the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department in 1999.

Disappeared because people here want what WV calls cologen more than culcha.

Big Bad Bald Bastard said...

Man, Darger was one strange duck. I loved that documentary about him that came out a couple of years ago.

Substance McGravitas said...

I didn't see it. I should hunt around. The stuff when you see it is just loads better in person.

Smut Clyde said...

I loved that documentary about him that came out a couple of years ago.

The film-maker felt the necessity to turn paintings into Flash animations, in the belief that they were not sufficiently eye-catching as they were.

Let the record show that as a fervent Snakefinger fan from way back, I knew about the Vivian Girls long before all you hipsters got into Darger.

The Youtuba has just introduced me to the Monks of Doom covering The Vivian Girls AND The Insect God.