“Folk Art and American Modernism”

Stylistic borrowings from outsider art have become something of a vogue among contemporary painters, but it is hardly a new phenomenon. Self-taught artists have long exerted a pull on Modern Art, especially in the United States, where folk traditions have played a large role in the nation’s cultural life. Their impact on early-20th-century American art is revealed here, in a presentation of folk art owned by artists such as Elie Nadelman, Yasuo Kuniyoshi and Charles Sheeler, along with the works inspired by those objects.