The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture

Volume 23: Folk Art

Edited by Carol Crown, Cheryl Rivers, Charles Reagan Wilson

Charles Reagan Wilson, General Editor

520 pp., 6.125 x 9.25, 29 color plates., 27 halftones, bibl., index

  • Paperback ISBN: 978-0-8078-7174-4
    Published: June 2013
  • E-book EPUB ISBN: 978-1-4696-0799-3
    Published: June 2013
  • E-book PDF ISBN: 979-8-8908-8350-6
    Published: June 2013

New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture

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Folk art is one of the American South's most significant areas of creative achievement, and this comprehensive yet accessible reference details that achievement from the sixteenth century through the present. This volume of The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture explores the many forms of aesthetic expression that have characterized southern folk art, including the work of self-taught artists, as well as the South's complex relationship to national patterns of folk art collecting. Fifty-two thematic essays examine subjects ranging from colonial portraiture, Moravian material culture, and southern folk pottery to the South's rich quilt-making traditions, memory painting, and African American vernacular art, and 211 topical essays include profiles of major folk and self-taught artists in the region.

Sponsored by the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi

About the Authors

Carol Crown is First Tennessee Professor of Art History at the University of Memphis and editor of Coming Home! Self-Taught Artists, the Bible and the American South.
For more information about Carol Crown, visit the Author Page.

Cheryl Rivers, an independent scholar living in Brooklyn, New York, has taught numerous courses at the Folk Art Institute, American Folk Art Museum and is editor of Donald Mitchell: Right Here, Right Now.
For more information about Cheryl Rivers, visit the Author Page.

Charles Reagan Wilson is Kelly Gene Cook Sr. Chair in History and Professor of Southern Studies at the University of Mississippi. He is coeditor, with William Ferris, of the original Encyclopedia of Southern Culture.


For more information about Charles Reagan Wilson, visit the Author Page.

Reviews

"[A] multi-year, multi-dimensional, and unprecedented series."--Library Journal

“This work provides a comprehensive presentation of traditional contemporary folk art in the American South and will help the discipline find a place in American art history. It will be of interest to scholars, collectors, and enthusiasts of Southern art and culture.”--Library Journal

"Highly recommended. Lower-level undergraduates and above; general readers."--Choice

“Will fill a unique niche in any academic reference collection, and will be of interest to artists and collectors alike. Recommended for academic libraries, particularly those supporting ‘outsider’ or other Southern folk art programs.”--Tennessee Libraries

“An enormous amount of information can be found in this well edited, easy to handle book on southern folk art.”--Florida Historical Quarterly

“A most welcome addition to The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, which already has become a standard reference work on the American South for general readers and scholars alike.”--Western Folklore