On the Trail of Self-Taught Genius: A Journey through the Amon Carter Museum of American Art

1. On the Trail of Self-Taught Genius

2. On the Trail of Self-Taught Genius Outline I. Experience 1. The Amon Carter Museum of American Art 2. Understanding “primary source” 3. What to expect at the museum II. Introduction 1. What is Folk Art? 2. Self-Taught Genius III. Enrichment 1. A Texas Blues Chronicle IV. Projects 1. Field Holler/Work Song 2. Folk Art/Music 3. Expressing the Out of the Ordinary *** All IFW programs are TEKS aligned to grade level*** Experience Enrichment About Us Introduction Projects IFW Donors

3. On the Trail of Self-Taught Genius Experience: The Amon Carter Museum of American Art Now in its sixth decade of operation, the Amon Carter Museum of American Art offers a diverse array of exhibitions, publications, and programs that connect visitors to masterworks of American art. The Amon Carter Museum of American Art was established through the generosity of Amon G. Carter Sr. (1879–1955) to serve an educational role through exhibitions, publications, and programs devoted to the study of American art. Learn More: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=timuGRXaeb0 Experience Enrichment About Us Introduction Projects IFW Donors

4. On the Trail of Self-Taught Genius Experience: The Amon Carter Museum of American Art The first group of slides in this presentation provide supporting information from the staff at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art. These slides will help you prepare for you upcoming visit to the Museum. Experience Enrichment About Us Introduction Projects IFW Donors

5. On the Trail of Self-Taught Genius Experience: The Amon Carter Museum of American Art Reflections of a Community, State, and NationImagination Fort Worth 2015 Experience Enrichment About Us Introduction Projects IFW Donors

6. On the Trail of Self-Taught Genius Things to Think About Experience: The Amon Carter Museum of American Art • Why are museums important? • What is a primary source? • The Library of Congress defines primary sources as “the raw materials of history—original documents and objects which were created at the time under study.” Experience Enrichment About Us Introduction Projects IFW Donors

7. On the Trail of Self-Taught Genius Experience: The Amon Carter Museum of American Art Things to Think About • In what ways can an artwork be a viable primary source? What advantages might an artwork have over other types of primary sources? • The Amon Carter collects, preserves, and exhibits American art. • For your upcoming museum experience you will be asked to think about ways in which art can reflect the community of Fort Worth, the state of Texas, and the United States. Experience Enrichment About Us Introduction Projects IFW Donors

8. On the Trail of Self-Taught Genius Experience: The Amon Carter Museum of American Art Experience Enrichment About Us Introduction Projects IFW Donors

9. On the Trail of Self-Taught Genius Experience: The Amon Carter Museum of American Art • Sweetie Ladd (1902–1999) • Lived in Fort Worth most of her life • Became an artist at the age of sixty • Her work is considered Folk Art • Painted Fort Worth landmarks and events • Fort Worth Library owns thirty-eight of her artworks Experience Enrichment About Us Introduction Projects IFW Donors

10. On the Trail of Self-Taught Genius Experience: The Amon Carter Museum of American Art Experience Enrichment About Us Introduction Projects IFW Donors

11. On the Trail of Self-Taught Genius Experience: The Amon Carter Museum of American Art Julian Onderdonk (1882–1922) A Cloudy Day, Bluebonnets near San Antonio, Texas, 1918 Oil on canvas Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas Purchased with funds from the Ruth Carter Stevenson Acquisitions Endowment in honor of Lady Bird Johnson 1998. Experience Enrichment About Us Introduction Projects IFW Donors

12. On the Trail of Self-Taught Genius Experience: The Amon Carter Museum of American Art Experience Enrichment About Us Introduction Projects IFW Donors

13. On the Trail of Self-Taught Genius Experience: The Amon Carter Museum of American Art • What to Expect During Your Museum Experience • Your tour will last approximately ninety minutes. • You will view five or six artworks, discuss your observations and think about how the artworks reflect Fort Worth, Texas, and the United States. • You will begin an artwork of your very own, and you will take it with you when you leave the museum. • You will increase your expertise in observing and analyzing art objects, and we hope you will have fun! Experience Enrichment About Us Introduction Projects IFW Donors

14. On the Trail of Self-Taught Genius Experience: The Amon Carter Museum of American Art A few things to keep in mind as you prepare for your visit: • Please do not touch the works of art. Be respectful of the art and the artist who created it by staying at least two feet away from all artworks. • Stay with your group at all times. • Talk and walk quietly through the galleries. One of the museum’s awesome Gallery Attendants Experience Enrichment About Us Introduction Projects IFW Donors

15. On the Trail of Self-Taught Genius Experience: The Amon Carter Museum of American Art A few things to keep in mind as you prepare for your visit: • Listen to the gallery teachers and participate in the activities that they guide you through. • Leave all kisses (the candy kind!), food, gum, drinks, school supplies, and electronic devices on the bus or at home on the day of your visit. Experience Enrichment About Us Introduction Projects IFW Donors

16. On the Trail of Self-Taught Genius Introduction: What is Folk Art? Folk art encompasses art produced from an indigenous culture or laboring tradespeople. In contrast to fine art, folk art is primarily utilitarian and decorative rather than purely aesthetic. Folk Art is characterized by a naïve style, in which traditional rules of proportion and perspective are not employed. Experience Enrichment About Us Introduction Projects IFW Donors

17. On the Trail of Self-Taught Genius Introduction: What is Folk Art? Terms that might overlap with folk art are naïve art, tribal art, primitive art, popular art, outsider art, and working-class art/blue-collar art. As one might expect, these terms can have multiple and even controversial connotations but are often used interchangeably with the term "folk art". Folk art expresses cultural identity by conveying shared community values and aesthetics. Experience Enrichment About Us Introduction Projects IFW Donors

18. On the Trail of Self-Taught Genius Introduction: Self-Taught Genius In a newly formed United States this characterization took on dynamic and optimistic dimensions that were pivotal to the development of a start-up nation with no history: after the War of Independence, all of the nation’s citizens were self-taught Americans. Exhibit Website: http://selftaughtgenius.org/ Experience Enrichment About Us Introduction Projects IFW Donors

19. On the Trail of Self-Taught Genius Introduction: Self-Taught Genius As the field matured under the umbrella of “folk art,” it was also expanded to include a wider variety of expressions and artists working in the present. For the last twenty years, the term “self-taught” has more regularly come to address artistic inspiration emerging from unsuspected paths and unconventional places, giving voice to individuals situated outside the social consensus. Learn more about the exhibit you will visit and what is folk art: http://hyperallergic.com/135105/in-self-taught-genius-a-history-of-label-teasing-art-forms/ Experience Enrichment About Us Introduction Projects IFW Donors

20. On the Trail of Self-Taught Genius Introduction: Self-Taught Genius Self-taught art, past and present, blurs frontiers between disciplines, making definitions look constricted. These individuals have been active participants in the shaping of American visual culture, influencing generations of artists and establishing lively artistic traditions. Recast as self-taught geniuses, they fit within a pervasive but mutable self-taught culture, reflecting life in America as it has changed and as it has been ambitiously dreamed. Experience Enrichment About Us Introduction Projects IFW Donors

21. On the Trail of Self-Taught Genius Enrichment: The Texas Blues Chronicle We have learned about self-taught artists in visual art. Now we will focus on another genre of self-taught genius, Blues Music. By the early 1900s the blues was widespread. Thousands of blacks during this period were migratory, looking for work and an escape from racism. Blues singers were often migrant workers who followed the crop harvests or lived in lumber camps and boomtowns. Many roved from town to town, working odd jobs in the growing urban centers of Dallas and Houston. Experience Enrichment About Us Introduction Projects IFW Donors

22. On the Trail of Self-Taught Genius Enrichment: The Texas Blues Chronicle Blues music expressed the hardships of newly-freed African American slaves. Early blues answered the need for a release from everyday life. The blues is an intensely personal music; it identifies itself with the feelings of the audience—suffering and hope, economic failure, the break-up of the family, and the desire to escape reality. Experience Enrichment About Us Introduction Projects IFW Donors

23. On the Trail of Self-Taught Genius Enrichment: The Texas Blues Chronicle Early blues drew from the music of its time: field hollers and shouts, songster ballads, as well as spirituals and gospel. Although blues drew from religious music, it was often considered sinful. Blues singers were stereotyped as "backsliders" in their communities. In many areas blues was known as the devil's music. The blues singer had an expressive role that mirrored the power of the preacher, and because of this power, blues was both embraced and rejected by African Americans and their churches. Experience Enrichment About Us Introduction Projects IFW Donors

24. On the Trail of Self-Taught Genius Enrichment: The Texas Blues Chronicle In Texas, blues has developed a unique character that results from the cross-pollination of musical styles. Not only is the black population of Texas less concentrated than that of other states in the South, but blues music in Texas also evolved in proximity to other important musical traditions: the rural Anglo, the Cajun and Creole, the Hispanic, and the Eastern and Central European. Learn more: https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/xbb01 Mance Lipscomb Experience Enrichment About Us Introduction Projects IFW Donors

25. On the Trail of Self-Taught Genius Enrichment: The Texas Blues Chronicle With the growth of the recording industry during the 1920s the audience for blues expanded among African Americans nationwide. Dallas became a recording center primarily because it was a geographical hub. Major labels produced "race records," those catering to a black audience. Engineers came into the city, set up their equipment in a hotel room, and put the word out. Itinerant musicians found their way to Dallas, among them the legendary Delta bluesman Robert Johnson, who recorded there in 1937. Eric Clapton visits the site of Robert Johnson’s recording: https://vimeo.com/21208446 Experience Enrichment About Us Introduction Projects IFW Donors

26. On the Trail of Self-Taught Genius Enrichment: The Texas Blues Chronicle In March 1926, Blind Lemon Jefferson became the first male folk blues singer and guitarist to record. Jefferson was from the rural East Texas farming community of Couchman and made his way to Dallas, where he played for tips at the corner of Elm Street and Central Avenue. Between 1926 and his untimely death in December 1929, Jefferson made more than eighty recordings and was the biggest selling country blues singer in the country. As a result of Jefferson's success, blues singers from around the South flocked to Dallas. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n51Z2J888rA Experience Enrichment About Us Introduction Projects IFW Donors

27. On the Trail of Self-Taught Genius Enrichment: The Texas Blues Chronicle Generally, these musicians lived and worked in the area around Deep Ellum and Central Tracks. Lying east of the downtown business district and north of Deep Ellum, Central Tracks was the heart of the black community. Jefferson was a major influence upon the development of Texas blues, influencing not only Huddie “Lead Belly” Ledbetter but also Aaron “T-Bone” Walker. Lead Belly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry-8pCpTDCE Experience Enrichment About Us Introduction Projects IFW Donors

28. On the Trail of Self-Taught Genius Enrichment: The Texas Blues Chronicle The relatively small black population of Austin made the capital unappealing for record producers until the 1960s, when the "Austin Sound" began to attract national attention. With the influx of white musicians, including Jimmie Vaughan, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Joe Ely, Angela Strehli, and Kim Wilson, the enthusiasm for blues grew significantly. Stevie Ray Vaughn performing Texas Flood: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtLwuPCUEdg Experience Enrichment About Us Introduction Projects IFW Donors

29. On the Trail of Self-Taught Genius Enrichment: The Texas Blues Chronicle The success of these musicians also benefited many older African-American blues musicians who gained a larger audience outside of their own community and performed at Antone’s, the Continental Club, and other venues near the University of Texas campus. The influence of these early blues artists on rock, country, and jazz music today is incalculable. Music as we know it today would not be what it is with out the blues. Movie Trailer for Antone’s Home of the Blues: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ushy-8Ui5mU Experience Enrichment About Us Introduction Projects IFW Donors

30. On the Trail of Self-Taught Genius Enrichment: The Texas Blues Chronicle Over the last four decades, the interest in Texas blues has swelled, especially in the cities of Dallas, Austin, and Houston. As early as the 1960s, ArhoolieRecords was a major force in recording Texas blues musicians--from the barrelhouse blues of Robert Shaw & Alexander H. Moore to the country blues of Sam "Lightnin'" Hopkins & ManceLipscomb, as well as the urban blues of Lil' Son Jackson & L.C. "Good Rockin'" Robinson. Mance Lipscomb: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZDgWESeZWs LightninHopkins: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFN9lebEvF0 Experience Enrichment About Us Introduction Projects IFW Donors

31. On the Trail of Self-Taught Genius Enrichment: The Texas Blues Chronicle Since 1985, Documentary Arts, a nonprofit organization in Dallas, has been involved in the documentation and preservation of Texas blues through the production of folk festivals, radio features, films, videos, audio recordings, and the development of educational outreach materials. Learn More: http://www.docarts.com/ Experience Enrichment About Us Introduction Projects IFW Donors

32. On the Trail of Self-Taught Genius Projects: Field Holler/WorkSong Blues has its roots in field hollers or work songs. In work songs, a leader would chant or sing a line that was then repeated by laborers who kept time to the music with tools such as axes or hoes. Create a work song or field holler with a simple beat that helps you focus on a simple task like folding the laundry, pulling weeds in the garden or cleaning your room. Your song should reflect your task and how you feel about that task. Listen to a prison work gang song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4G5KtQynWvc Experience Enrichment About Us Introduction Projects IFW Donors

33. On the Trail of Self-Taught Genius Projects: Folk Art/Music We have learned that folk artists used any materials they could find to create art. Early blues artists had to do the same for instruments. For example, thediddley bow is a single-stringed instrument. It consists of a single string of baling wire tensioned between two nails on a board over a glass bottle, which is used both as a bridge and as a means to magnify the instrument's sound. Rural slaves in the American South originally developed it. Using salvaged materials, create either an art work or an instrument that reflects you and where you live. Watch a video with a diddley bow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSt2RgGPDow Experience Enrichment About Us Introduction Projects IFW Donors

34. On the Trail of Self-Taught Genius Projects: Expressing the Out of Ordinary Learn more about featured artist Esther Pearl Watson by clicking on the link below. You will see her work featured prominently during your visit to the Amon Carter Museum of Modern Art. After learning about her unconventional upbringing, create a “folk art” style painting of a crazy family story or legend. Is there a story your crazy uncle always tells or some old piece of folklore you have heard from your family? Express it in painted form! http://www.cartermuseum.org/exhibitions/pasture-cows-crossing-indian-creek-comanche-texas-looking-for-the-old-civilian-fort-of-1851-north-of-gustine-and-a Experience Enrichment About Us Introduction Projects IFW Donors

35. About Us: Imagination Fort Worth Imagination Fort Worth sparks the imaginations of Texas kids through transformational experiences. Over the past 25 years, more than five million students have participated in our programs—programs that combine the creative thrill of the arts with the critical educational goals outlined by local and state guidelines. Through art, dance, music, and theater, students engage with history, science, math, and language in ways that enhance learning and awaken creativity. Experience Enrichment About Us Introduction Projects IFW Donors

36. About Us: Imagination Fort Worth Imagination Fort Worth is an independent non-profit organization. We partner with  local schools to create field trips and in-school programs that target specific educational needs, as well as with local arts and cultural institutions to introduce students to a diversity of mind-opening experiences. Visit us at: http://imaginationfortworth.org/ Experience Enrichment About Us Introduction Projects IFW Donors

37. Imagination Fort Worth would like to thank the following for their continued support. Imagination Fort Worth would like to thank the following for their continued support. Edward and Ellison LasaterTrust Mollie and Garland Lasater Charitable Trust Livingston Hearing Aid Centers, Inc. Gary Patterson Foundation Rhodes Charitable Trust Rosenthal Charitable Trust Rotary Club of Fort Worth Rozell Sprayer Manufacturing Company Ryan Foundation William E. Scott Foundation Sertoma Club of Fort Worth Sid W. Richardson Foundation Helen Gertrude Sparks Trust Starkey Hearing Foundation Texas Association of Parents & Educators of the Deaf Texas Commission for the Arts Texas Education Agency Texas Instruments Texas Women for the Arts Tyler Metro Association for the Deaf A Special Thanks to our Individual Donors Armstrong Foundation Arts Council of Fort Worth and Tarrant County ARTS Council Northeast Bates Container Ben E. Keith Birdies for Charity Amon G. Carter Foundation City of Fort Worth Colonial Country Club Charity Community Foundation of North Texas Communities Foundation of Texas Dallas Hearing Foundation Deaf Action Center Fash Foundation Fifth Avenue Foundation Fort Worth Convention and Visitors Bureau Frost Bank Garvey Texas Foundation Edith Winther Grace Charitable Trust Hired Hands, Inc. Mary Potishman Lard Trust http://icfw.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Arts-Council-of-Fort-Worth-Donor-List.pdf Experience Enrichment About Us Introduction Projects IFW Donors

38. On the Trail of Self-Taught Genius