The Devil you Say! The Saintly and not so Saintly in Folk Art

The Devil you Say! The Saintly and not so Saintly, in Folk Art is an exhibition that aims to highlight the ascribed Christian concept of duality, good versus evil, and how that concept has historically shaped folk art practices in the Americas. the Latin American works included herein, are either early works that reflect a standardized formula of European training or are shaped by the artisans' interpretation of Christianity as understood and practices in a deeply rooted Indigenous/Mestizo identity. a section of U.S. American works is also included as it reifies religion-based folk art. This exhibition also includes works from Europe as well as works on paper. Finally, to complement and further provide context, we include accompanying excerpts from the exhibition catalogue written by collector and scholar Michael T. Ricker. We invite the audience to consider the works as a nod to both sides of one coin. “The works selected for this exhibition come from a variety of cultures representing centuries of creativity. The inspiration of many of the artists in our exhibition, most of them anonymous, stems from personal belief, often of a profound nature. Some creations emerged from workshops, or near workshop environments, and were intended to meet market demands for devotional objects. Some works are decorative -- others are intended to be used in didactic of publicly devotional manner. some works are intended to profit from a buyer's unreasonable fear (or lack thereof), while others are objects of intense personal devotion, representing visions wildly abstracted from convention and difficult to reattach to established historical context. A few, defying any reasonable categorization, help keep the boundaries delightfully fuzzy.”- Michael T. Ricker, Collector