folk art

plural folk arts

1. countableuncountableCraft traditions and values of various social groups.

   Folk art belongs to communities rather than to individuals, and to many generations rather than one period. […] Folk art reflects community ideas about what is beautiful or appropriate for a given object or function.

   1995, Alison Hilton, Russian Folk Art, Indiana University Press, →ISBN, page 3

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   Folk art is often produced by anonymous and formally untrained consumers for their own or barter use. It might later, like brothel-born jazz, be accorded the status of a fine art by subsequent audiences who assign greater complexities to its structure.

   2015, Peter B. Orlik, Media Criticism in a Digital Age, Routledge, →ISBN

2. countableuncountableIntangible art forms such as folk music and folk dance rooted in and reflective of the cultural life of a community.

   Through its disarming frankness, inherent drama, and theatricality, Spanish dance had definitely moved from folk art to theatrical experience.

   2012, Sharyn R. Udall, Dance and American Art: A Long Embrace, University of Wisconsin Press, →ISBN, page 108

3. countableuncountableOutsider art.

   Advocates of the “folk art” term stretched its meaning to the maximum in order to include under the same rubric the peaceful landscapes of Grandma Moses and the provocative and disturbing watercolors of Henry Darger.

   2015, Víctor M. Espinosa, Martín Ramírez: Framing His Life and Art, University of Texas Press, →ISBN, page 183

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   Mr. Finster's work emerged at a time when traditional definitions of folk art were being expanded to include a diverse range of faith-driven, stylistically raw work known as outsider art that was frequently made by Southern blacks and whites who eked out livings as farmers or repairmen.

   2001 October 23, Roberta Smith, “Howard Finster, Folk Artist and Preacher, Dies at 84”, in The New York Times, →ISSN