Abstract
Keywords:
folk art; gender; society; avant-garde; craft; creativity; progress; conservativism
The processes of modernization in Europe led, in the early twentieth century, to an increasing degree of interest in the status of folk art. If it represented a superseded stage of social and cultural development, what role did it have in modern society? The four texts here illustrate the different kinds of ideas that circulated in Czechoslovakia the interwar period, and they testify to the fact that it remained a continuing subject of fascination. The authors, ranging from the Russian art critic Sergei Makovsky to Karel Teige, one of the leading members of the Czechoslovak avant-garde, deal with a range of issues, to do with the nature creativity in folk art, the role of women as makers, the relation between folk and high art, and the commodification of folk art in modern urban life. The texts are prefaced with an introduction that outlines the broader context of debate in which these texts belong.
folk art; gender; society; avant-garde; craft; creativity; progress; conservativism

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Copyright © 2024 Sergei Makovsky, Drahomíra Stránská, Zdeněk Wirth, Karel Teige