Incollect Magazine - Issue 2

2022 Incollect Magazine 41 point or showpiece, and is accompanied by a tambourine-shaped footstool. There are five known chairs and two known footstools, Katz tells me. “Creative, beautifully crafted yet whimsical, it is what the folk spirit is all about. You identify it as a chair yet it is something else.” Nearby is an elegantly carved swan sled, created in the nineteenth century by an unidentified maker, something Penny says has been an important and nostalgic part of their home environment for over thirty-five years. “It speaks of a more romantic time in our country’s history. Perhaps it was lovingly created by the maker for his own children. It was not commercially produced. We know of only one other (much smaller) swan sled created by the same hand. It’s everyone’s favorite.” Much time and care has gone into the interior design of the home which presents a new model of the way in which folk art may be integrated into contemporary interiors. “So much of the roots of Folk Art were mired in the antique world. We’re trying to show how the material can live with other categories of art in our expanded collection.” To that end, they hired CK Architects from Guilford, Conn. to redesign both floors of the house, which they gutted, and interior designer Melissa Barak Weiss from Indigo Interiors Co. to help with the layout for the rooms and collection display. They engaged lighting consultant Monica Cotton to make sure everything was lit to its utmost advantage. If there is a word that describes the interiors it is restraint — fewer, better pieces of art and design are installed sparingly throughout the open plan rooms, which flow easily into one another and allow visitors to take in artworks and furniture of different genres and time periods together. It also enables wonderful moments of surprise such as the rainbow-hued wall of airbrush glazed German An apiary (beehive) in the form of a Civil War soldier, 1900, DeKalb County, Georgia is one of Allan’s “all-time favorite pieces.” Workshop, Jacob Lawrence, 23/100, signed and dated 1972. Lawrence was a social realist whose work depicted the lives and struggles of African Americans. He grew up in Harlem during the Depression, going on the become successful and one of the first nationally recognized Black artists.