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Outliers and American Vanguard Art

A carousel horse is drawn in graphite, colored pencil, and watercolor against a cream-white board in this horizontal illustration. The rendering is so detailed that at first (and even second) glance, it appears to be a photograph of the three-dimensional object. The white horse’s head is to the right, and its thick white mane blows back. Lines across the horse’s body suggest that the wood has split or it has been repaired over time. Traces of red, blue, pink, and yellow paint decorate the horse’s body where a blanket might lie across the back. Reins lead back from the horse’s parted lips and blocky teeth to reach the long, padded, dark gray seat. The stirrup we see emerges from the horse’s side. All four legs are lifted and hooves point lightly down and back.

Index of American Design, George Constantine (American, active c. 1935), Carousel Horse, c. 1939, watercolor, graphite, and colored pencil on paperboard, National Gallery of Art, Washington

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Elie Nadelman (American, born Poland, 1882–1946), Two Acrobats, 1934, glazed ceramic, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, Gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, 1966

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John Kane (American, born Scotland, 1860–1934), Self-Portrait, 1929, oil on canvas over composition board, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Fund, 1939. Digital image ©The Museum of Modern Art / Licensed by SCALA / Art Resource, NY

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Bill Traylor (American, 1854–1949), Men Drinking, Boys Tormenting, Dogs Barking, c. 1939–1942, opaque watercolor on card with dark gray prepared surface, Collection of Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz, Promised Gift to the Philadelphia Museum of Art

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Jacob Lawrence (American, 1917–2000), Sidewalk Drawings, 1943, gouache on paper, Collection of Shahara Ahmad-Llewellyn. Image ©2017 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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Painted with small areas of mostly flat color, this horizontal painting shows three brown-skinned people in the room of a home with pale gray walls and wood floors. To our right, a woman wears slate-gray skirt, a white apron and shawl, and a red headscarf with black and white polka dots. She sits in a black wooden chair facing our right in profile, smoking a pipe. A steaming kettle and bright green coffee pot sit on a black wood stove behind and to the right of the woman, with firewood stacked to the right. A clock or timer and an oil lamp sit on a red shelf above the stove and the woman’s head. Beneath her feet is one of three rectangular area rugs with a pattern of green, black, white, and red stripes. A window at the center of the back wall of the room is mostly covered by a dark green curtain. The panes along the bottom are black and lined with white, suggesting snow or frost. A bucket and pewter-colored, shallow bowl sit on a bench on the second striped rug under the window. To our left, a small person standing on the third patterned rug wears short black pants, stockings, and suspenders over a white shirt. That person turns away from us and rests elbows near a lit candle on a table with a red and gray checkered tablecloth. The third person, possibly a young girl, sits on a blanket or a fourth rug patterned with yellow, red, black, and green triangles. That young girl wears a gray dress and black shoes. She cradles a baby doll, and a white dog, perhaps a stuffed animal, sits next to her. A few cracks in the wall near the window expose horizontal bands, perhaps narrow wooden boards under damaged plaster. The artist signed the work with black letters in the lower right corner: “H. PiPPiN.”

Horace Pippin (American, 1888–1946), Interior, 1944, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Meyer P. Potamkin, in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art

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Marsden Hartley (American, 1877–1943), Adelard the Drowned, Master of the “Phantom,” c. 1938–1939, oil on board, The Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Bequest of Hudson D. Walker from the Ione and Hudson D. Walker Collection

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William Edmondson (American, 1874–1951), Angel, c. 1931, limestone, Robert M. Greenberg Collection

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A mountain range, lake, and forest dominate the landscape in this horizontal, colored drawing on paper. The terrain and trees of the mountains are drawn with outlined areas of flat color in ivory, parchment yellow, smoke gray, pinkish-beige, and teal green. A valley of evergreen trees and a baby-blue lake spans the bottom third of the drawing. A hand-written inscription in the top left of the pale blue sky reads, “Briar Head mtn of National Park Range of Bryce Canyon National Park near Hatch Utah U.S.A by Joseph E. Yoakum.”

Joseph Yoakum (American, 1890–1972), Briar Head Mtn of National Park Range of Bryce Canyon National Park near Hatch, Utah U.S.A., c. 1969, blue-black and black ballpoint pen and colored pencil on paper, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of the Collectors Committee and the Donald and Nancy de Laski Fund

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Barbara Rossi (American, born 1940), Rose Rock, 1972, acrylic on Plexiglas panel, artist’s frame, Courtesy of the Artist and Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago

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Edgar Tolson (American, 1904–1984), Cain Going into the World, from the Fall of Man series, 1970, carved wood with nails, paint, graphite, marker, and glue, Milwaukee Art Museum, The Michael and Julie Hall Collection of American Folk Art. Photo: Courtesy Milwaukee Art Museum

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James “Son Ford” Thomas (American, 1926–1993), Untitled, 1988, unfired clay, paint, human teeth, rocks, Souls Grown Deep Foundation, Atlanta, from the William S. Arnett Collection

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Sister Gertrude Morgan (American, 1900–1980), Revelation 7. chap, c. 1970, paint on wood, Courtesy of The Museum of Everything, London

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Betye Saar (American, born 1926), Indigo Mercy, 1975, mixed media, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, Gift of the Nzingha Society, Inc.

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James Castle (American, 1899–1977), Untitled (Shed Interior with Pictures on Display) [recto], no date, found paper, soot and saliva, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of James Castle Collection and Archive, and Acquisition with Bunny and William Cafritz

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Matt Mullican (American, born 1951), Three Suitcases of Love, Truth, Work and Beauty, 2006, nine white cotton sheets each mounted with nine ink on paper drawings housed in an orange custom-built trunk accompanied by two pillows in pillowcases, Courtesy of the Artist and Christine Burgin

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Lonnie Holley (American, born 1950), The Boneheaded Serpent at the Cross (It Wasn’t Luck), 1996, found metal, bones, dried flowers, Souls Grown Deep Foundation, Atlanta, from the William S. Arnett Collection

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Lee Godie (American, 1908–1994), Prince Charming, c. 1975–1980, paint, ink, and gelatin silver print on canvas, Don Howlett and Lisa Stone

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Eugene von Bruenchenhein (American, 1910–1983), Untitled (Marie), c. 1943–1960, gelatin silver print, John Michael Kohler Arts Center Collection, Sheboygan

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Rosie Lee Tompkins (American, 1936–2006), Untitled, 1986, velvet and velveteen (quilted by Irene Bankhead in 1990), Collection of Eli Leon

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Alan Shields (American, 1944–2005), Shape-Up, 1976–1977, acrylic and thread and beads on canvas belting (double-sided), The Drawing Room Gallery, East Hampton. Photo by Gary Mamay

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Judith Scott (American, 1943–2005), Untitled, 2004, fiber and mixed media, Courtesy of The Museum of Everything, London

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