Folk Art in Magog

 

 

 

Musee International D’Art Naif of Magog

61 Rue Merry N.

Magog, Quebec

 

 

 

Let’s finish off this week of art by going full Monty (Python): “And now for something completely different.” The Musee International D’Art Naif  (MIANM) is the only museum in all of Canada devoted to “primitive” art.

 

That term doesn’t mean prehistoric or tribal. It goes by other names: craft, folk art, naïve art, traditional, outsider art…. The last handle is pretty good in that it infers a primary characteristic of folk art; it’s usually “outside” of the formal art canon. Its practitioners are usually untrained–though famed painters such as Gaugin, Picasso, and Rousseau dabbled in it–and they pay little attention to the conventions that make up (so-called) fine art. Folk art is often pragmatic, even when it’s a painting on canvas–think rural people trying to make the old homestead more cheerful.

 

For some viewers primitive art evokes “my ten-year-old could do that” responses and that could be true in some cases. Primitivists frequently pay little or no attention to perspective, geometry, relative sizes, or sharp detail. Bold colors are another hallmark, as is an overall flatness. Mostly it fails the proverbial sniff test in that it doesn’t look like “real” art (whatever that means).

 

In the United States, the most famous folk artist is probably Grandma Moses (Anna Mary Robertson Moses 1860-1961). There’s an entire wing devoted to her work at the Bennington Museum of Art in southern Vermont. In Canada, thanks to the excellent 2016 biopic Maudie, Maud Lewis (1903-70) might wear the folk crown, though you might have to visit the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in Halifax to see a lot of it. (You can also see some on Google Images.)

 

Folk art has been rescued from the categories of charming or quaint and is now collectible. Some of it fetches decent U.S. dollars and Canadian loonies on the open market, but mostly the categories have collapsed in ways that bring to life the old saw “I don’t know if it’s art but I know what I like.” The MIANM in Magog is just plain fun. There are no works from Moses or Lewis there, but the galleries have loads of things your ten-year-old could not paint. Quebec has a solid folk art tradition–Arthur Villeneuve, Robert-Émile Fortin–but when we visited earlier this month the MIANM was featuring the work of Gaetan Bibeau. What he does very well is capture our sense of imagination in ways that a good story can do. Here are some samples.

 

Note how the perspective is off

Bibeau imagining what's put there in the heavens!

 

 

Radio City!

 

 

This reminds me of 'toon towns from my childhood

 

 

Of course, MIANM also focuses on the international part of its moniker. And like I said, it’s just a lot of fun. If you find yourself in Magog–the head of Lake Memphremagog–stop in. If not, start looking for folk/primitive/outsider, etc. art. There’s much to be said for taking a break from all things academic!

 

Barbara Sala, River of Penguins

 

 

Despoena Leonis

 

 

This Guylaine Cliche reminded me of Grandma Moses

 

 

Adele Bantjes is from South Africa

 

 

Jean-Claude Dupont take on werewolf tales

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've lost the painter's name, but this could be an illustration from a creepy graphic novel

 

Vermont: The Best Place to See a Circus Museum

 

Shelburne Museum

Shelburne, Vermont

 

Surprise! You don’t need to journey to Sarasota to see the best circus remembrance in America. I’m happy about that because I doubt I’ll ever return to Florida: too hot, too many bugs, too many reptiles, and too many Republicans. The best place to capture the atmosphere, excitement, and assorted paraphernalia of the circus is Vermont’s Shelburne Museum, 7 miles south of Burlington.

 

The entire 45-acre campus is a delight that includes some of the finest folk art in America, 39 buildings, 20 gardens, and a landlocked steamship, but let’s focus on the Circus Building. Instead of jabbering on, I will divide a smattering of photos into sections: circus posters and objects; the circus parade; and circus photographs.

 

Let’s start with the posters. There are more of them than you will see in Sarasota, they are quirkier, and they are culled from more circuses. There were nearly large ones in American history and scores of smaller ones. Here’s a good index if you want to explore some.  A downside about which I’ve previously written: It’s hard to put posters under glass, hang them straight, and avoid bounce from indoor lighting. I’ve selected some that can be best captured digitally.

Ye Olden Days carousel painting

    

 

 The centerpiece of the Circus Museum is it’s enormous circus parade. It is the work of two men best described as obsesses visionaries: Edgar Decker Kirk of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania who, between 1910-56 jig-sawed some 3,500 pieces. They began as a creative toy for his four kids and evolved into a delight for neighborhood children as well. The second was Roy Arnold of St. Johnsbury, Vermont. He was more systematic in his designs and had a small team of assistants who fashioned a 1” = 1’ parade stretching 525 linear feet that were carved between 1925-55. The Shelburne Museum’s collection is considered folk art mastery and I think you can see why. 

 

The Big Top (darkened to take me out of reflection)

 

    

 

 

Note the detail in the figures

    

    

Tableaux were often circus features

    

    

One could do a study of ethnic misrepresentations at the circus

Including the all Indians are Plains Indians stereotype!

 

This summer the museum also has a small photo display from Elliot Fenander of a shoot he did in Pittsfield, Massachusetts of the Beatty-Cole Brothers Circus in 1972. The circus rolled into a very wet town in 1972 in which the soil was too soggy to erect the Big Top but–as the expression  goes–the show must go on! 

 

 

 

 

Ringling Museum in Sarasota

 

 

 

John and Mabel Ringling Museum

Sarasota, Florida

 

 

 

It’s summertime and this year the living has been more muggy than easy. It seems like a good time to think about the circus, but don’t ask me to explain my logic. As I have written elsewhere on this blog, the circus­, professional baseball, and vaudeville were the first forms of American popular culture. People didn’t or couldn’t travel very far from home until well into the 20^th century, so the circus came to them.

 

 

 

It was truly “lions, tigers, and bears, oh my!” Imagine rural America, which was most of it until after 1920. There were backwater towns in which the most exciting thing was the sound of a train whistle. Now imagine the circus arriving at a local train station and unloading fancy wagons, some of which contained exotic animals. As roustabouts hurriedly erected tent cities at the fairgrounds, a giant parade as much a mile long snaked through the town. What gawker would not wish to see the animals, acrobats, clowns, and sideshows? As late as the early 1960s the arrival of the circus thrilled kids like me in my medium-sized Pennsylvania town.

 

My adult self understands how cruel circuses were to animals and “freak show” attractions, but I confess a lifelong fascination with three-ring circuses. I’ve been fortunate enough to visit three of the best repositories of circus memorabilia in America. Baraboo, Wisconsin, used to be the granddaddy of all. From 1884-1918 it was the winter home of the Ringling Brothers circus. For a time it in consolidation with Barnum & Bailey was the “Greatest Show on Earth.” I visited Baraboo back in the 1980s, aka/the age of film photography so I have no digital images to post, but Baraboo’s collection of circus wagons was second to none, as was its poster gallery. Both remain vivid in my memory.

 

Baraboo is still open but it closed for a time in the 21^st century and came back as Circus World Museum. I’ve not been there but I’ve heard it’s not the same, though there is a Bigtop where you can see some live acts. After 1917 the Ringlings briefly wintered in Bridgeport, Connecticut, before decamping to Sarasota, Florida, the subject of this travelogue. So too did other circuses, including Forepaugh, Golmer, and Sells. John Ringling deeded the property to Florida and it’s now overseen by Florida State University. 

 

 

Sarasota is a huge complex whose main attraction is Ca’ d’Zan, John Ringling’s fanciful and palatial mansion. It also features a large art museum (the subject of a later piece). I wouldn’t say the Circus Museum is forgettable, but it’s certainly not the best collection of circus art in North America. It does have several restored circus wagons and an open-space culling of memorabilia, but we often find out more about the Ringlings and other entrepreneurs than the circuses and performers. 

 

John Ringling's private rail car

 

The foyer has a wall of colorful posters, but they are under glass and harsh lighting makes many of them hard to see. The most outstanding part of the Circus Museum is, oddly, the memorabilia linked to its star acts. These, though, could have been better interpreted. Information is given but (ironically) this part of the museum suffers from being too dark! You have to be of a certain age to recognize names such Clyde Beatty, Emmett Kelly, the Flying Wallendas, General Tom Thumb, or the Zacchini Brothers. I’d recommend that if you visit you jot down names of objects and people that intrigue you and look them up later.

 

The original clown car

 The centerpiece of the Circus Museum is an entire circus in miniature created by businessman Howard Tibbals (Hartco Flooring). It’s a combination of assemblage and handmade objects that swelled to 42,000 pieces over 30 years–a 20^th century circus in ¾ model scale. Tibbals was handy with tools and fashioned much of the circus in his workshop, a tribute to his skill and his obsession with the circus. It’s quite impressive, even when the overall effect is that of a model train project on steroids. Tibbals had an eye for detail, though, and you will come away with a sense of how awesome the circus could be. It’s mind-boggling to consider that such a thing in reality could roll into a town in the morning and be ready to welcome patrons in the evening. 

 

 

Stay tuned, though, for my vote for the best capture of circuses available to curious minds and kids seeking wonderment.

 

Rob Weir