Introduction
Folk art is mostly visual art that's meant to be used by people or a small group of people. It's mostly done by hand or with limited tools, but it also has something to do with the long-term survival of tradition. It's the creative expression of people's struggle to make a living in a certain place by making things that are useful but also aesthetically pleasing.
Folk art and popular art are two very different categories of art; so, as a field of art history, folk art is usually looked at in isolation from certain other types of peoples' art, especially the "primitive" arts (the work of pre-literate peoples). In the art world, folk and popular are used interchangeably, with the former in English and German being called "Volkskunst" and the latter in Romance languages like "populaire" and "popolare", but the term folk has been used more and more in the Western and Oriental languages to describe the category we're talking about.
Characteristic materials and techniques
The most obvious features of folk art are the materials and techniques used. Most of the materials used were natural ones that were easy to get your hands on, so things like straw might not be important in folk art. Oil painting and other more complex media could be used if you could manipulate them, and you could use paper if it was cheap and could be used anywhere. The unique forms that emerged in these more complex media show how folk art draws on the culture in a certain way but also develops along its own lines. Tools were usually pretty basic and used for a lot of different things - you could cut Polish cut-paper with a pair of sheep shears, chip carving with an axe or hatchet, and notch carving with a knife.
In some arts, textiles were very much part of folk technology, and they often compete with handmade products in terms of style and theme. But in many other arts, folk artists came up with their own simpler methods. For instance, cut tin in silhouette shapes, or decorated with hand painting or picking (marking a design with tiny holes), is a popular folk medium. Full-round bronze sculptures weren't likely to be tried, and the French Canadians made "cathedrals" out of wood, which were basically carpentered versions of their stone prototypes from Europe.
The following are the categories of folk art:
Architecture
When it comes to architecture, the focus is on the "kitchen sink" and the "simple public or religious building." One of the most interesting and original dwelling forms is the "trullo" in Puglia, Italy. It's a circular dry-stone building with a high conical roof, and it's often decorated with symbols in white. For some, the basic structure is repeated for multiple rooms.
The Greek islands' white stone architecture, which combines basic cubic shapes with lots of free shapes and clever projections like balconies and overhangs and exterior staircases, has been studied and praised by modern architects. So have the wooden churches in Eastern Europe, with their needle-like wooden spires and wooden stave churches in Scandinavia. Other unusual structures include the Alpine house, which has a steep wide-eave roof designed for snow, the cave dwellings in Spain, some of which have several rooms and a built-in exterior front, the adobe house and log cabin, as well as granaries, dovecotes, straw shepherd's huts, and barns.
Painting
Folk art isn't all about hanging pictures on walls. In Europe, it was mostly done as ex-voto or votive offerings in churches and chapels. In America, it was done in oil, pastels, or watercolours of portraits and local scenes. Most of the time, the painted images are incorporated into other things, like the American clock faces that show local landscapes. In some folk art, the "picture" is displayed as if it was painted, but it's done in different media like ferns, corks, shells, or even embroideries.
Oil paints and painted canvasses were sophisticated materials and, although they were sometimes available, they were mostly replaced with house paint or chalk, and silk, linen or cotton fabric. Velvet and under glass painting also emerged as specific types of folk art. The amount of decoration on a particular object can be huge, for example, on every inch of the chest, bed or chair surface.
The walls or beams were usually decorated with geometrical and floral motifs, and sometimes with scenes, but there wasn't enough space to do anything like the sophisticated mural.
Sculpture
Figural sculpture and a large amount of incision or relief decoration on a wide range of objects appear to have been common in many societies. The woodwork was particularly popular, although stone, a more challenging material, was also widely used, particularly on gravestones and religious sculptures. Papier mâché, a quick and bold technique, was widely used in both East and West for Carnival and votive figures, as well as for a large number of toys.
Often, the folk artist was at his best when creating small objects, such as toys, miniature representations of everyday activities, and oddities such as ships carved into bottles. The miniature sculpture was often executed in elaborate groups, displaying a cohesive harmony. For instance, in Russia, a whole herd of cattle was set up on a single trellis, designed to give a scissor-like movement to the entire group. Other examples of this type of sculpture include the European Crèche figures (sembling the Nativity or Manger scene) and toy soldiers, as well as Chinese miniature wedding processes.
In southern Europe or Mexico, bottles, bottles, fish, or candlesticks could take humans, fish or other forms, such as a beehive, such as a sculptured head.
Specific folk categories
It is important to note that any analysis of folk art based on established, well-defined categories, although revealing in comparison, neglects the vast majority of art. Many of the characteristic products which have not been subject to formalized aesthetic treatment have become specialized areas of study and collection due to the creativity of their creators—mangles (cleaners), mould, ornate eggs, weather vane, decoy, powder horn, trade mark, scarecrow, and figurehead, to name but a few.
Additionally, there are significant objects classified according to their function; animal gear, such as the woven harness of a donkey in Spain, painted and carved ox yokes, collars, and headpieces adorned with brass and tassel, as well as ornaments supposedly imbued with protective properties. Other widely used types include caravans of Roman (Gypsy) origin, decorated wagons, circuses, boats with symbolic motifs, toys, and miniatures in numerous media.
Freedom of media
Some of the art is done in a well-known medium like wood carving, but there are lots of other materials that are unique to each region or object. You can't find a material that isn't used in folk art, like the hickory nut doll or the commemorative photo made of human hair. This kind of free-wheeling use of any kind of material rivals the creative use of "found objects" in 20th-century art, and there's a long history of this kind of spontaneous art in folk festivals.
College and assemblage have been around for a while, and people used to make things out of whatever they could get their hands on. In southern Germany, weather charms were often made out of collages of people's pictures and amulets, as well as seeds. There are lots of kinetic art masks, dolls, figures, spinning toys, pinwheels, and balance figures that are set in motion by touching the wind or candle heat. It's almost like a mini-version of a mid-20th century "happening."
Major folk regions
The most well-known folk regions have been big producers of textiles, ceramics, and carvings, as well as of tools and tools, and often have local costumes. This general art output is the foundation for the more specific arts that are unique to certain regions. The amount of material is so huge that most general surveys are really just samples. Generally, general summaries are organized by countries, which makes sense since big collections are kept in big museums and folk art is usually studied and supported as part of a nation's heritage.
But a country-specific summary divides certain groups that are pretty similar, like the Basques in Spain and France, and it also combines different types of art, like the Alpine art and Sicilian art in Italy. Any attempt to group regions together will most likely be based on things like the traditional sources, religion, culture, and environmental conditions that influence materials and activities.
Summary of Folk Art
Folk art is art made in a traditional way by people who have been around for a long time, like peasants, sailors, and country artisans. It's usually done by people who don't have any formal training or who are part of a group that has stayed true to their culture. Most of it is functional, like paintings that are made by hand and used by people or a small group. They're usually hung on walls or other buildings, like clocks, chests, and chairs. There are also sculptures made of wood, stones, and metal, like toys and spoons, as well as candlesticks and religious objects.
It can also be seen in public and private buildings, like wooden churches in Eastern Europe and log cabins in the US. Other visual arts include woodcuts, scrimshaw, ceramics, fabric, and clothing.
