This article was originally published in 1942 in American Collector Magazine. Primitive American portraits, often by self-taught artists, were thought to be crude and ugly until the 1920s. They still seem crude to me, but that doesn’t keep this article from being an interesting read.
“In fact, rugs and paintings had much in common. Both were forms of folk art; both were original, creative achievements by self-taught persons of more or less artistic ability. The rug hooker had done a still-life, a portrait of a pet animal, or a scene, with home-dyed rags and a hook as a medium. The artist worked with paint and brush and relied on native ability and what knowledge he had picked up as a sign or coach painter to depict what he saw.”
Read it here.
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