Vision in Afro-American Folk Art

JAMES THOMAS IS A GIFTED BLUES MUSICIAN, tale teller, and clay sculptor in Leland, Mississippi, the heart of the Mississippi Delta. I have followed the evolution of his sculpture over the past six years. Already, in four years, my earlier study of his work is dated, reflecting Thomas' speed and creativity in developing new sculptural forms.' Research on Thomas' art has raised questions about the study of AfroAmerican folk art within western intellectual frames. Anthropologists and folklorists generally define folk culture as a spectrum of songs, tales, and material culture passed on from generation to generation within a community. This approach to Afro-American culture is linear and is classically illustrated in Melville Herskovits' The Myth of the Negro Past where folk traditions are traced from African forms to New World survivals.2 Scholars thus assume that master

Art · Art history · Performance art · Sculpture · Visual art of the United States · Visual arts · Architecture, Design, and Social History

• Creolizing for Survival in the City

  Ivor Miller, Ivor L Miller•Cultural Critique•1994

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