The Latest Stuff - Page 38 of 41

July 2, 2007 Bill Swislow

Getting Religion on Its Own Terms

Coming Home! Self-Taught Artists, the Bible and the American South, edited by Carol Crown, with essays by Paul Harvey, Erika Doss, Hal Fulmer, Babatunde Lawal, Charles Reagan Wilson and N.J. Girardot, Art Museum of the University of Memphis with the University of Mississippi Press, 215 pages, 122 color plates, other color and b&w illustrations, 2004. ISBN 1-57806-659-X

Stereotypes have two inherent flaws: They often state the obvious and, when too generally applied, they become false. But they also are inescapable because, in the proper context, they are true.

Carol Crown’s exhibition and catalog, Coming Home! Self-Taught Artists, the Bible and the American South, can’t help but draw on Bible Belt stereotypes because they reflect a big slice of Southern reality. There is a lot more substance here than in many folk art theme shows, since the Bible really is the force behind a great deal of self-taught art.

April 20, 2007 Bill Swislow

Vernacular Art Cars

Three great examples of personal expression on wheels.

March 29, 2007 Bill Swislow

Gems of Soutsider Art

Lovely views from Chicago’s vast South Side repository of commercial creativity.

March 11, 2007 Bill Swislow

Book Review
Authentic Heaven: The Vernacular Art of Urban Spirituality

How the Other Half Worships, by Camilo Jose Vergara, Rutgers University Press, 286 pages, 2005. ISBN 978-0-8135-3682-8 How The Other Half Worships celebrates one of the great engines of true vernacular expression – religion. The subject is inner-city churches, with an emphasis on the storefront variety. Camilo Jose Vergara has spent years visiting and photographing urban churches and their people, fascinated by their architecture and decoration, by what people do in them and by what they do for people. The book is built around his photographs, but it also gives the church folk a direct voice. The generous quotations from

February 7, 2007 Bill Swislow

Re-engineered Gyros Project

I’ve rebuilt the Gyros Project to make the pages more consistent and present some more interesting groupings. It’s still 246 of the best gyros pictures anywhere.

January 17, 2007 Bill Swislow

Bizarre Bazaars

Weird, Wacky and Just Plain Embarrassing Business Names From the Grog N Groc Hall of Fame Order the book here

December 12, 2006 Bill Swislow

Devon Avenue Exotica

Devon Avenue is another Chicago street where creativity explodes from storefronts.

November 29, 2006 Bill Swislow

The Gyros Project 2007 Calendar

Fast food is not the usual subject of creative vision, but the gyros signs of Chicago are masterpieces of prosaic art. This calendar features photos from The Gyros Project. You can order a copy here.

October 31, 2006 Bill Swislow

The Last Folk Hero: Collector Bill Arnett’s art world martyrdom

A review of the recent book about Bill Arnett, one of the most important collectors and advocates of self-taught art from the South. Meanwhile, the sad news arrived that Mose Tolliver, one of the best-known southern black artists of the last century, died Monday.

October 4, 2006 Bill Swislow

New Signs From Around the Loop

Economically marginal businesses haven’t been pushed entirely out from the area around Chicago’s Loop. That’s good news for interesting signage.