❥ the merry cemetery

this week in outsider art features possibly the greatest cemetery ever, wise words from nellie mae rowe, another felipe benito archuleta wooden reptile and much more

Sep 08, 2024

THIS WEEK IN OUTSIDER ART

for daily postings of outsider art visit folkartwork.art or follow on Instagram

**STAN IOAN PĂTRAŞ** Merry Cemetery (c. 1935; Săpânţa, Romania) // Eight hundred oak wood hand painted crosses via *Atlas Obscura*

**NELLIE MAE ROWE** This Kicthing Will Be Close Be Cause of illness (1982) // Crayon and pencil on paper; 7 inches x 9 inches via *High Museum of Art*

**FELIPE BENITO ARCHULETA** Tortoise (1972) // Carved and Painted; 4-1/2"h x 8"w x 9-1/2"l via *Mutual Art*

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**SARAH LEE** A dogs fourth birthday breakfast (2024) // Acrylic paint on wood; 8.27 inches x 11.69 inches -- *available for purchase via the artist in the FolkArtwork Collective shop*

**VIVIAN MAIER** Men Must Change (1971) // Modern gelatin silver print; 12 × 12 in | 30.5 × 30.5 cm via *KP Projects Gallery*

**JUSTIN MCCARTHY** Last Supper (c. 1960) // Oil on board; 22 1/4 x 27 3/4 inches via *Fleisher/Ollman Gallery*

**MINNIE EVANS** Untitled (1977) // Crayon, watercolor, graphite, and gold paint on paper; 11 x 14 in. (27.9 x 35.6 cm) via *North Carolina Museum of Art*

**ARTIST UNKNOWN** Circus knockdown punks (1940s) // Hand-painted punks on wooden stands; 21 inches tall via *Heimwee Antiques*

**SELBY WARREN** The Homestead (1971) // Oil on board 21 5/8 x 25 1/4 inches via *Dutton Gallery*

**BILL DOUGLAS** Americana (2024) // Colored Pencil on Paper; 18 inches x 24 inches via *Project Onward*

**RALPH FASANELLA** Organizing Committee (Fisher Building) (1989) // Oil on Linen; 29.5 x 37.5 inches via *fasanella.org*

**UNKNOWN** Shabti of Painedjem I (ca. 1070-1032 B.C.) // Faience; H. 10.7 × W. 3.6 × D. 2.4 cm (4 3/16 × 1 7/16 × 15/16 in.) via *Met Museum*

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FEATURED ARTIST OF THE WEEK

**ROSE DESMITH GREENMAN** Untitled (n.d.) // Pastel on paper 14 x 17 inches via *Dutton Gallery*

Orphaned at a young age, Greenman (1898-1983) was severely hearing impaired and lived her life in Boston and Newton, MA. Greenman married a pharmacist and had one daughter, Betty, and was a home-maker until her husband died suddenly in 1956. To make ends meet, she became a clerk at the Mass. Division of Banking and Insurance until her retirement in 1970. At that time, seemingly out of nowhere, Greenman began drawing at age 72. Over a period of the next seven years, Greenman drew obsessively, making work with increasing intensity as a struggle with Alzheimer’s disease began and progressed. Learn more.

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WATCHING AND READING

Here are a few things I’ve been watching this past week:

Here are a few things I’ve been reading this past week:

OH WORD?

» The Merry Cemetery «

Slide into my DMs… and tell me art I don’t know exists!

Like everyone, I’m a very busy person. A full-time job, a wife and kids, counting the millions of dollars I make from this newsletter — I love every second of it. But I’m currently pouring coffee into my face at 9 o’clock on a Saturday night trying to stay awake to get this sent out to the millions of you, so I can continue to count millions of more dollars.

Thanks to brilliant readers and friends of mine here and on Instagram, I often learn and find out about amazing artists, artworks, and wonderfully decorated cemeteries that I otherwise may not have known about. Thank you breadbread118!

This beauty, the Merry Cemetery, is a cemetery in the village of Săpânța, Maramureș County, Romania. It is famous for its brightly colored tombstones with naïve paintings describing, in an original and poetic manner, the people who are buried there in addition to scenes from their lives.

"The cemetery's origins are linked with the name of Stan Ioan Pătraș, a local artist who sculpted the first tombstone crosses. In 1935, Pătraș carved the first epitaph and, as of the 1960s, more than 800 of such oak wood crosses came into sight." Wikipedia

The most famous epitaph, carved in 1969, reads:

Underneath this heavy cross / Lies my mother-in-law poor / Had she lived three days more / I would be here and she would read / You that are passing by / Try not to wake her up / For if she comes back home / She’ll bite my head off / But I will act in the way / That she will not return / Stay here my dear Mother-in-law.

I don’t think I had ever planned on going to Romania, but quite honestly other than bed I can’t think of anywhere else I’d rather be right now.

SHOUT OUT

Shout out to June Gutman and Kishka Gallery and Library, who will have work on display one more day at the VOLTA New York art fair. If you have a chance to see June’s work in person, please do yourself a favor!!!

(Coming) FROM THE COLLECTIVE

Creeps, creeps and more creeps by Mike Combs.

stay tuned

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

» MEET THE COLLECTOR SERIES PART SIXTY-NINE — Adam Oestreich, Iowa «

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