AFA 18th Anniversary

e the Peopl A merican folk portraits are treasured for many reasons, foremost, their aesthetic appeal. The rhythms, lines, shapes, and color combinations in these likenesses draw attention and provoke an emotional response. Most folk painters were self-taught, and their desire to follow academic principles or adopt prevailing artistic conventions varied greatly. In the decades following the American Revolution, wealthy and powerful patrons sought out academically oriented artists, while folk painters responded to the growing needs of a burgeoning middle class. Their painted likenesses served many purposes, but today are most helpful in the information they reveal about how ordinary people lived, what they valued, and how they wished to be remembered. The exhibition We the People: American Folk Portraits , at Colonial Williamsburg’s Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum in Williamsburg, Virginia, opened May 2017 as part of AARFAM’s sixtieth anniversary celebrations; it remains on view through December 2020. 1 Abby Aldrich Rockefeller devoted nearly ten years to assembling her collection of American folk art, before giving the majority of her private collection to Colonial Williamsburg in 1939. Ms. Rockefeller appreciated the aesthetic relationships between American folk and modern art and advocated for the study and admiration of both. According to family members, it was Rockefeller’s interest in American folk portraiture in particular that gave her the most pleasure. 2 by Laura Pass Barry American Folk Portraits 18th Anniversary 112 www.afamag.com | w ww.incollect.com