Untitled (Swan Decoy from Delaware)

Unidentified · ca. 1920

The genre of “folk art,” objects and images made by working-class individuals, emerged in the early days of the American republic, with communally trained artisans or craftspeople and work that was often utilitarian or decorative in nature. In the early twentieth century, as folk art become more desirable among collectors, objects such as this swan decoy intersected with the clean, streamlined aesthetic of midcentury-modern art, shifting it from hunter’s lure to sculpture.