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Published on 7/25/08
Published on 7/24/08
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Howard Halle, Art editor
There’s only one New York institution I’m even remotely tempted to run: the American Folk Art Museum, mainly because of its mandate to showcase Outsider Art along with folk art. Of course, I’d make OA even more of a focus of the place and push the envelope of defining the category, starting with a retrospective of pervy, pedophilic puppet maker and photographer Morton Bartlett. I’d do theme shows like UFO-abductee art and thrift-store paintings, and maybe a survey of paint-by-number sets. Starting where the “Dargerism” show leaves off, I’d do even more shows of contemporary artists influenced by Outsider and folk art—Marcel Dzama, for instance—as well as shows of artists who straddle the line between outsider and insider, like Paul Laffoley.
I also think the Folk Art Museum could be a venue for OG graffiti-artist surveys by '80s legends like Lee Quinones, Dondi and Lady Pink, as well as contemporary street artists like Banksy, though I imagine he figures that his work belongs in the Museum of Modern Art. Speaking of which, I might consider a merger with MoMA, not to have the Folk Art Museum written out of existence, but rather to get a piece of the exhibition space in the new MoMA expansion, which will be right next door.
