Decorative Arts in Wisconsin - A Portfolio of Serigraphs

 

Portfolio

 

1948  

15 serigraphs 

various 

unsigned 

not stated 

lithographically printed title page and colophon 

 

antique-white wove 

published 

State Historical Society of Wisconsin 

24093 

$400.00 

A portfolio of 15 color serigraphs designed by the Wisconsin-born artists Anne Kendall Foote (American: 1910 - 1986) and Elaine Smedal Quant (1922 - 2014), illustrating the folk art and crafts of historic Wisconsin, with a focus on the designs of regional Indigenous tribes and German, Norwegian, and Swiss Americans. A lithographed informational pamphlet is included in the portfolio with a description of the project written by Clifford L. Lord of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin (the publishers of the portfolio) and a colophon that includes reproduced photographs of the objects that Foote and Smedal used as references for their serigraphs. The loose sheets are laid into the tan/gray board color pictorial portfolio with blue cloth spine.

The plate titles and what they represent are listed as follows on the colophon: 1) Sampler (needlepoint sampler); 2) Cast Iron Trivets and Wafer Iron (19th century); 3) Chippewa Indian Designs (embroidery and beadwork samples likely from the St. Croix Chippewa tribe); 4) Wooden Norwegian Basket (painted wooden food delivery basket); 5) Hooked Rug (early pioneer rug) 6) Norwegian Chest (elaborate painted design for wooden dowery chest); 7) Polish Easter Egg and Bohemian Prayer Book (wax process design and illumination reproduction); 8) Beaded Dance Bag (Menominee tribe beaded leather bag); 9) Cast Iron Cricket Boot Jack and Wrought Iron Gate; 10) Butter Molds and Cookie Board (to impress a family design into butter or cookie dough); 11) Swiss Plate; 12) Winnebago Blanket (traditional tribal applique blanket); 13) Pillow Sham (German design); 14) Swedish Cupboard (painted decoration); 15) Columbia Bandwagon (Moeller Brothers carved wooden wagon made for the Ringling Brothers Circus in the 1880s).

A note on the artists: Anne Kendall Foote was born in Wisconsin in 1910. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin in 1945 she took a position there as Assistant Professor of Art and the Director of Art Programs. Additional studies took her to Columbia University and the University of Munich. In 1951 she relocated to Mendocino, California, where she became a noted member of the arts scene, co-founding the Mendocino Print Makers and the Peninsula Serigraphers. She was also a respected teacher, with positions at San Mateo College, College of the Redwoods, and the Mendocino Art Center. She died in Mendocino in 1986.

Elaine Smedal Quant was born in Wisconsin in 1922.She graduated from the University of Wisconsin with a Bachelor of Science degree in Art Education in 1943, then earning her Masters in 1945. She worked as Assistant Director to the Memorial Union Workshop at UW and the Curator of Education for the Wisconsin State Historical Society. She would continue to teach art throughout her life and was a regular contributor to Wisconsin arts. She died in Madison, WI, in 2014.