Art News
by Sandra Kwock-Silve

The American folk artists exhibited

This month there is a show of historic American folk art from the Fenimore Art Museum at the Mona Bismarck Foundation. The exhibition highlights portraits and handcrafted objects from the 18th and early 19th centuries. Most of the pieces in the collection were produced in the Massachusettes area.
In the New World aspiring artists seldom had the opportunity to study painting in Paris or London. For the most part, those who wished to live by their artistic talents were self-taught painters. Ambitious artists journeyed far and wide, offering to produce portraits or panoramic views of family farms; and in the case of sculptors, life-sized wooden figures, shop signs or weathervanes.
Often working with only vague notions of technique — but, challenged by economic necessity to reproduce reality on a flat, painted surface — these folk artists managed to arrive at striking representations of a sitter’s essence expressed in a few fluid, yet simple lines.
Women’s portraits suggest that the subjects of the time were “fashion victims,” not unlike today’s. Peering out of necklines featuring dernier cri styles are serious or adoring, Madonna-like mothers with young children, portrayed next to prosperous husbands.
American Folk Art To Mar 24, Tue-Sat 10:30am to 6:30pm, Mona Bismarck Foundation, 34 av de New York, 16e, M° Alma-Marceau, tel:01 47 23 38 88, free

Universal exhibition artists revisited

In 1900, the presentation of American paintings at the Universal Exposition in Paris constituted a major landmark. So, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of this staggering blockbuster event, several major museums have pooled their resources and know-how. The group hanging, with artists such as James McNeill Whistler, John Singer Sargent or William Merritt Chase, made a considerable impact on the Paris art world, confirming the emergence of an American school of painting. For artists who wanted to be taken seriously in the States, it marked a departure from dependence on mandatory European training.
The vitality of the paintings reflects the birth of a new nation. One hundred years after this highly significant exhibition, the Musée Carnavalet has reassembled the majority of the 250 oils, watercolors and pastels, created and exhibited by more than 160 American artists, before the turn of the century. Although paintings are the main feature, examples of the period’s sculpture, photography, posters and decorative arts are also included.
Paris 1900: Les Artistes Américains à l'Exposition Universelle To Apr 29, Tue-Sun 10am to 5:40pm, Musée Carnavalet, 23 rue de Sévigné, 3e, M° St-Paul, tel: 01 44 59 58 58, 35F/25F