Becoming America: Highlights from the Jonathan and Karin Fielding Collection of Folk Art - Hardcover

Demos, John; Fielding, Jonathan; Fielding, Karin; Frank, Robin Jaffee; Hollander, Stacy C; Nielsen, Christina; Priddy III, Sumpter; Warren, Elizabeth V.; Wheatcroft, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0300247567 ISBN 13: 9780300247565

Publisher: Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, 2020

Synopsis

Celebrating two collectors’ passion for Americana and the window it provides into the everyday beauty of the past

Becoming America offers a multifaceted view of one of the foremost collections of 18th- and 19th-century American folk and decorative art from the rural Northeast. Essays by leading specialists discuss the culture of furniture workshops, exuberant painted decoration, techniques of sewing and quilting, and poignant stories about the families depicted in the portraits. The collection itself includes Shaker boxes, a beaded Iroquois hat, embroidered samplers, metalwork, scrimshaw, handwoven rugs, ceramics, and a weather vane. The majority of these works have never before been published. With lively essays and profuse illustrations, this handsome volume brings to life the aesthetic of early Americans living in the countryside and is an essential exploration of the period’s taste and style.

About this title

Book Description:

This exploration of the art and everyday household items of rural New Englanders during the 18th and 19th centuries sheds light on early American consumer culture through quilts, metalwork, ceramics, textiles, portraits, and furniture.

About the Author:

James Glisson is interim chief curator of American art at The Huntington. Jonathan Fielding is the former director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health and Distinguished Professor at UCLA. Karin Fielding is a trustee of the American Folk Art Museum in New York.

About this edition

• Publisher: Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens
• Publication date: 2020
• ISBN 10: 0300247567
• ISBN 13: 9780300247565
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 264
• Editor: Glisson James