those are human teeth

this week in outsider art includes a large pig with udders, a prancing horse hooked rug, plus a christie's auction preview, and getting ready for the outsider art fair

Feb 25, 2024

THIS WEEK IN OUTSIDER ART

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**James 'Son Ford' Thomas,** Skull (1988) // Unfired clay, human teeth, rocks, aluminum foil; 6.75 x 4.5 x 7 inches via *Souls Grown Deep Foundation*

» READ: 13 Black Folk Artists From The American South on DailyArtMagazine «

**FELIPE BENITO ARCHULETA** Large Pig with Udders (1977) // Carved wood, putty, rope and paint; 21 in. high, 43 in. wide, 16 in. deep via *Christie’s Auction House*

»ICYMI: The 15 Cant’t Miss Works at Christie’s Outsider Art Auction «

**ARTIST UNKNOWN** Hooked Rug Depicting a Prancing Morgan Horse (c. 1870; Vermont) // Wool on burlap; Width 43 in. x Length 27.5 in via *Robert James Walsh & Company*

» free preview of this week’s B-B-Bonus This Week in Outsider Art newsletter «

**SISTER GERTRUDE MORGAN** The Throne of God (circa 1970) // Acrylic and/or tempera, and ball point pen ink on paper; 12 x 19 inches via *New Orleans Museum of Art*

**RACHEL CAREY GEORGE** "Housetop"—Sixteen-Block "Half-Log Cabin" Variation (1930s) // Cotton, denim, wool, rayon; 79 x 75 inches via *Souls Grown Deep Foundation*

**ARTIST UNKNOWN** Horse Pull Toy (c. 1960; India, Bengladesh) // Wood, paint; 9 13/16 × 8 1/16 × 2 1/16 in. via *Museum of International Folk Art*

**RAYMOND MATERSON** My Fate Cries Out (titled My / Fate / Cries out) (Dec. 1989) // Unraveled sock threads; 2 ¾ x 2 ¼ inches via *Christie’s Auction House*

A super cool old wooden hand-painted shelf with mirrored ladies on it, artist unknown via *Undeveloped Eye*

**SARAH LEE** Beth, Betty, and Billy starts a band (c. 2023) // Acrylic on canvas paper — *available for purchase via the artist in the FolkArtwork Collective shop*

**LAUREN MCCOY** Tiger (c. 2023-2024) via *Vault Art Studio*

**CLEMENTINE HUNTER** Clementine In Her Flower Garden (1984) // Oil on canvas board; 18 x 24 in. via private collection

**STEVE ASHBY** Dancing Couple (ca. 1973) // Carved and painted pine, found objects; 9 3⁄4 x 4 3⁄8 x 2 1⁄2 in. (24.8 x 11.1 x 6.4 cm.) via *Smithsonian American Art Museum*

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FEATURED ARTIST OF THE WEEK

**NIL & KARIN ROMANO** Insanity (2024) // Acrylic on paper courtesy *the artists*

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WATCHING AND READING

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

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

OH WORD?

**WILLIAM EDMONDSON** Fox (c.1930s) // Limestone; 15 3⁄8 in. high, 5 ½ in. wide, 23 ¾ in. deep

The 15 Can’t-Miss Works At Christie’s 2024 Outsider Art Auction

This coming Friday, over one hundred pieces of outsider art will go to auction at Christie’s annual ‘Outsider Art’ auction in New York City. While I may never be able to afford these works, and while the idea of the artists who made these works never seeing the tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars that these will sell for next week is a bit of a bummer, they’re are quite a few jaw-dropping works that are worth talking about here today.

Last year when I first wrote this article what jumped out to me is works by artists like Bill Traylor, Sam Doyle and Minnie Evans that were so unique and different than the oeuvre (I love this word) we’ve come to expect from these artists. This year is no different.

**MINNIE EVANS** Untitled (1973) // Pencil, watercolor, crayon on paper; 9 7⁄8 x 12 inches

The only real difference between this year and last year is that this year, the auction takes place on the Friday of the Outsider Art Fair, a business decision I could only assume is going to pay off handsomely for Christie’s as everyone who is anyone in the outsider art world will be in New York next weekend. Including me and my wife! Hooray!

While every work up for auction is a beauty, and I would kill to own and hang in my office, there are fifteen that really jump out to me and make me audibly exclaim, “Oh dear.”

From Bill Traylor to Clementine Hunter, to Raymond Masteron, Felipe Benito Archuleta, William Edmondson, and a collaboration I didn’t know I needed in Judith Scott and Donald Mitchell, these are the ca n’t-miss works at Christie’s outsider Art auction next week.

see the full list

SHOUT OUT

**Raymond Coins,** Crucifixion on carved river stone (date unknown)

2024 Outsider Art Preview: Lindsay Gallery

Next week, I head to New York City with my beautiful wife to spend a few days away from our beautiful children. Oh, and to go to the Outsider Art Fair to see some of the world’s greatest self-taught, visionary, folk and outsider art. Each day, as we lead up to the start of the event on Thursday, February 28th, I’ll preview some of my favorite works from some of my favorite exhibitors.

Today, meet Lindsay Gallery, owned and operated by Duff Lindsay, one of the nicest people I met at the fair last year who spent his valuable time talking to us about his years of collecting art, how you can almost detect a Clementine Hunter fake, and spending days with William Hawkins and watching him paint with only one paintbrush

see preview

BLACK HISTORY MONTH

Bill Traylor in Montgomery, Alabama in the early 1940s. Photograph by Horace Perry. Alabama State Council on the Arts.

13 Black Folk Artists from the American South on Daily Art Magazine

The thirteen self-taught artists below, from Bill Traylor to Nellie Mae Rowe, Thornton Dial to Mary T. Smith among others, created some of the most powerful and beautiful works of art in the past hundred years. While either direct descendants of slaves, affected by Jim Crow or witnessing the Civil Rights Movement firsthand, these artists told stories that needed to be told, and despite being told that they may not fit in the art world, made it work anyway.

**Bill Traylor,** Untitled (Radio), ca. 1940-1942, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C., USA.

For almost one hundred years the United States has recognized African Americans in February to coincide with the birth of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. In that time, countless prominent Black Americans have celebrated the struggle and the strength and courage of Black people living in the United States who continue to persevere despite the racial tensions and divide that continue to affect the day-to-day lives of millions of people.

There is no better place and group of people in the art world to recognize than that of Black folk artists in the American South. Today and every day these Black folk artists deserve to be celebrated and recognized as not only great Black folk artists in the American South, but some of the best artists this country has ever seen.

read now on dailyartmagazine.com

FROM THE COLLECTIVE

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