| The Columbia World of Quotations. 1996. |
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| NUMBER: | 27019 |
| QUOTATION: | “Folk art” signifies the poetical, musical, and pictorial activities of those strata of the population which are uneducated and not urbanized or industrialized. It is of the essence of this art that those who keep it in being are not only passively receptive, but normally are creative participants in the artistic activities, and yet do not stand out as individuals or claim any personal authorship of the productions. “Popular art” on the other hand is to be understood as artistic or quasi-artistic production for the demand of a half-educated public, generally urban and inclined to mass-behavior. In folk art, producers and consumers are hardly distinguished, and the boundary between them is always fluid; in the case of popular art, we find on the contrary an artistically uncreative, completely passive public, and professional production of artistic goods strictly in response to the demand for them. It is indeed a striking fact that folk art, especially folk-poetry, emerges from the ranks of those who enjoy it, whereas popular songs—the street ballads and popular “hits”Mderive from professionals belonging to and spir itually dependent upon the upper classes. |
| ATTRIBUTION: | Arnold Hauser (1892–1978), Hungarian-born art historian. The Philosophy of Art History, pt. 5, ch. 1, Knopf (1958). |
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| | | The Columbia World of Quotations. Copyright © 1996 Columbia University Press. |
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