Metal Bird on a Pipe

There's a lovely little gift shop in the older section of Mainz which sits behind a little courtyard/ garden and which sells, among other things,... more

by Sarah Loft

Title

Metal Bird on a Pipe

Artist

Sarah Loft

Medium

Photograph

Description

There's a lovely little gift shop in the older section of Mainz which sits behind a little courtyard/ garden and which sells, among other things, metal folk art animal statues like this one. The garden is full of them, some quite large, and a tall bird usually stands just outside the gate on the cobblestone street. The shop, Potpourri, has a website, but the owner told me the metal menagerie is only for sale on site. In any case, you may want to visit www.potpourri-mainz.de.

Per Wikipedia: Folk art encompasses art produced from an indigenous culture or by peasants or other laboring tradespeople. In contrast to fine art, folk art is primarily utilitarian and decorative rather than purely aesthetic. Folk Art is characterized by a naive style, in which traditional rules of proportion and perspective are not employed.

As a phenomenon that can chronicle a move towards civilization yet rapidly diminish with modernity, industrialization, or outside influence, the nature of folk art is specific to its particular culture. The varied geographical and temporal prevalence and diversity of folk art make it difficult to describe as a whole, though some patterns have been demonstrated.

Characteristically folk art is not influenced by movements in academic or fine art circles, and, in many cases, folk art excludes works executed by professional artists and sold as "high art" or "fine art" to the society's art patrons. On the other hand, many 18th- and 19th-century American folk art painters made their living by their work, including itinerant portrait painters, some of whom produced large bodies of work.

Terms that might overlap with folk art are naive art, tribal art, primitive art, popular art, outsider art, traditional art, tramp art and working-class art/blue-collar art. As one might expect, these terms can have multiple and even controversial connotations but are often used interchangeably with the term "folk art".

Folk art expresses cultural identity by conveying shared community values and aesthetics. It encompasses a range of utilitarian and decorative media, including cloth, wood, paper, clay, metal and more. If traditional materials are inaccessible, new materials are often substituted, resulting in contemporary expressions of traditional folk art forms. Folk art reflects traditional art forms of diverse community groups-- ethnic, tribal, religious, occupational, geographical, age- or gender-based-- who identify with each other and society at large. Folk artists traditionally learn skills and techniques through apprenticeships in informal community settings, though they may also be formally educated.

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Featured in the Images That Excite You group, June 2019.

Featured in the Strictly Neon group, July 2019.

Uploaded

June 23rd, 2019