They Taught Themselves: American Self-Taught Painters Between the World Wars

Morris Hirshfield... View (1945, Oil on canvas, Signed and dated, lower right; and titled, upper right, Reproduced on the cover of View magazine, October 1945). From the exhibition They Taught Themselves: American Self-Taught Painters Between the World Wars, January 7 - March 14, 2009 at Galerie St. Etienne in New York, NY. "...In 1942, Sidney Janis published his book They Taught Themselves: American Primitive Painters of the 20th Century. Later hailed as classic, this was the first study of its kind. Janis's book established the framework and foundation for the field of contemporary self-taught art as we know it today. In an introduction that feels remarkably fresh, the author grappled with issues that still confound scholars: nomenclature, quality and definitions. Relying as much as possible on his subjects' own words, he presented capsule biographies of 30 artists. Of these, five (Morris Hirshfield, John Kane, Grandma Moses, Joseph Pickett and Horace Pippin) are considered among the most important self-taught artists of the twentieth century, and an additional seven (Emile Branchard, Henry Church, William Doriani, Lawrence Lebduska, Israel Litwak, Patsy Santo and Patrick J. Sullivan), while not as well remembered, made significant contributions to the field in the first decades of that century. Although Alfred Barr, in his introduction to They Taught Themselves, gently chided Janis for being overly inclusive, the author's selections have, on the whole, held up remarkably well."