folk art


noun
  1. artistic works, as paintings, sculpture, basketry, and utensils, produced typically in cultural isolation by untrained often anonymous artists or by artisans of varying degrees of skill and marked by such attributes as highly decorative design, bright bold colors, flattened perspective, strong forms in simple arrangements, and immediacy of meaning.

Origin of folk art

1
First recorded in 1920–25

Other words from folk art

  • folk-art, adjective
  • folk artist, noun

Words Nearby folk art

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use folk art in a sentence

  • It felt strangely awkward seeing him in my living room with the fake Louis armchairs and the folk art paintings.

  • The custom of using animals and plants to represent human beings and to express human meanings is as old as folk-art itself.

    Literature in the Elementary School | Porter Lander MacClintock
  • Let it stand as a bit of child-art, just as we rejoice to let crude productions stand as folk-art.

    Literature in the Elementary School | Porter Lander MacClintock
  • It differs somewhat in style from other examples of Byzantine art of that period by reflecting the influence of folk art.

    Area Handbook for Romania | Eugene K. Keefe, Donald W. Bernier, Lyle E. Brenneman, William Giloane, James M. Moore, and Neda A. Walpole
  • Icon painting formed an important bridge between folk art and the fine arts in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

    Area Handbook for Romania | Eugene K. Keefe, Donald W. Bernier, Lyle E. Brenneman, William Giloane, James M. Moore, and Neda A. Walpole
  • A number of contemporary artists utilize the various forms of folk art as their medium of artistic expression.

    Area Handbook for Romania | Eugene K. Keefe, Donald W. Bernier, Lyle E. Brenneman, William Giloane, James M. Moore, and Neda A. Walpole

British Dictionary definitions for folk art

folk art

noun
  1. the visual arts, music, drama, dance, or literature originating from, or traditional to, the common people of a country

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012