The Temptation of Edgar Toison: Where Twentieth Century Folk Art Led by Julia S. Ardery (review)

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

century. Appalachian Studies can only hope that other local presses will find other such useful material to make available to us. —Richard B. Drake Julia S. Ardery. The Temptation ofEdgar Toison: Where Twentieth Century Folk Art Led. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998. 351 pages; illustrations. Cloth $45.00. Trade paper $19.95. Julia Ardery's study of Campton, Kentucky, folk artist Edgar Toison is also an effort to relate the development and popularity of twentieth century folk art to larger historical forces and to present Toison as a man "who, for a variety of reasons, perpetuated, changed, and betrayed the local culture into which he was born and found a place he could not entirely choose or enjoy in a larger, national culture...a successful artist much like any other: charming, self-absorbed, visually heedful, a person who seized many ofthe aesthetic and commercial opportunities available to him." Toison's story, much like that ofMichael Owen Jones's study ofchairmaker Chester Cornett (Craftsman of the Cumberlands: Tradition and Creativity, 1989, University of Kentucky Press) sometimes tells us more coarse detail than we'd rather know about the artist's personal life, his heavy drinking, depression, his weaknesses, and his "24 to 27" children. Edgar Tolson's work was "discovered" at the first Kentucky Guild Fair in Berea in 1967, first by John and Miriam Tuska and then by Michael and Julia Hall, who guided Tolson's artistic and commercial transition from traditional craftsman to contemporary folk artist. The Halls joined forces with Herbert W Hemphill, founder of the Museum of American Folk Art in New York, to build Tolson's artistic reputation, an effort enhanced by Ralph Rinzler ofthe Smithsonian Institution. Toison effectively played out the role either assigned to him or assumed by him, including the always-present striped pants, and was a more willing participant in the marketing effort. In many ways, Ardery helps prove my own unpopular theory that markets fuel the folk art and craft process, but she fairly presents the history without taking sides. This book is a well researched, well written study of a legendary Kentucky whittler turned artist, a character given to excesses and weaknesses but one who displays a certain nobility that often rises above the harsh realities and human frailties. Many collectors profited financially from Edgar Tolson's artistic skills and the wave ofpublicity. Tolson's works now sell for astronomical prices, 72 and certainly he broke the ground for the many contemporary folk artist's who produce and sell works rooted in much the same culture. This is an absorbing study of people, politics, places, and the slightly cockeyed world of art marketing, though some will disagree with the author's conclusions, and it's a "must" book for an overview (or inner view) of folk art, culture, and how one man's talents wound up influencing so many. There are a few factual errors. Ardery repeatedly refers to the Southern "Highlands" Handicraft Guild instead of the correct "Highland" used by the venerable Guild, and she places Berea's Bill Best, a North Carolina native, in West Virginia. I question much ofArdery's interpretation ofinfluences and events, much as she questioned my interpretations of the mountain craft revival in my 1991 study, but the differences are of opinion, not fact. As Ardery once wrote, I tend to view the activity in the mountain art and craft world as driven more by economics than by tribal instincts. The Temptation is well illustrated, particularly in Rick Bell's sensitive, haunting portraits. And it is Bell, throughout, who seems to carry the truest and deepest feelings for the sometimes tortured artist, who gave most freely and expected nothing in return. This is a very valuable, very readable book, one I strongly recommend to all who are interested in the regional culture. —Garry Barker 73 ...