Title in English: From Folk Art to Artistic Folklorism
Folk art has been an integral part of ethnology since the 19th century. Objects considered to have aesthetic value from a contemporary perspective were regarded as folk art, regardless of their original function in rural settings, the materials used, or how they were made. These material artifacts were the first to become part of museum collections and were seen as examples of national art. Until the second half of the 20th century, the term folk art was not defined in any way and its content changed rather intuitively. Until then, professional interest had been focused almost exclusively on the past. In the 1970s, however, ethnology found itself at a crossroads and asked itself what should continue to be the subject of study in the present. It was necessary to turn attention to manifestations of mass culture and artistic folklorism. This was accompanied by a re-evaluation of terminology and the adoption of the broader term folk visual culture, which does not explicitly imply aesthetic value.
