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In the United States, the term “folk art” describes paintings, sculptures, and textiles produced by artists and craftspeople with little or no formal training. In Mexico, the same criteria could also be applied to that nation’s folk art, but...
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In the United States, the term “folk art” describes paintings, sculptures, and textiles produced by artists and craftspeople with little or no formal training. In Mexico, the same criteria could also be applied to that nation’s folk art, but traditional Mexican folk art differs from its northern relative in that the techniques executed by Mexican folk artists are just about always applied to functional objects, whether their task is to carry water from a well or help the living commune with souls in the afterlife. Traditional Mexican folk art also differs from modern pieces and curios created exclusively for the tourist trade. While these objects often do a very good job of replicating the design and appearance of traditional folk art, their manufacturing techniques and production as items for sale differentiates them from vintage and antique examples of folk art. Still, for many collectors, the aesthetic of Mexican folk art is more alluring than a particular object’s provenance, which is why the market for modern Mexican folk art is brisk. Categories of Mexican folk art range from pottery to painted paper and wood, and within each of these categories are entire universes of objects. Taking pottery first, one of the most acclaimed types of ceramic folk art is found in the Michoacán town of Ocumicho, where artists use local clay to create small sculptures crowded with Biblical figures, mermaids, animals, and devil figures known as diablitos. In the Zapotec community of San Bartolo Coyotepec, located in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, ceramists use their local clay, which is gray when dug but black when fired, to make coiled ovoid forms that are shaped on a wheel before being polished smooth with quartz. Often, these wide pieces with small openings at the top are pierced all around to produce a latticework of black flowers. Of the painted forms of Mexican folk art, the brightly colored paintings on traditional amate paper are fairly recent arrivals, produced...
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