Folk Art of Europe & Rest of World »
Folk Art Owl Carving Wall Shelf
Ref: 1947
Another charming example of bird folk art from Bohemia or Moravia, modest but with stand out primitive art look.
Two carved owls, perched on a branch attached to a bracket shelf made from a chunk of birch tree topped by a pine lamp shelf painted turquoise, and with some cheap perforated metal strip applied, all quite gaudy and gauche. The placement however in the branches gives a sense of naturalism, this is how owls are observed at night in life, as unmoving silhouettes, tree-snug somewhere t′other side of field, one to the fore and one aft, eye-glow moon faces, staring so directly at us that they provoke unease as we intuitively realise that they must have been watching us before we saw them. And the owls themselves are nicely carved from wood, they are flattish to the back and more modelled to the front, the colouring is vivid and close to nature and as suggested they have an eerilly real presence, they could have been made by Picasso or more likely of course a good local primitive artist.
One wonders too whether there is not a period style of representation here as the ensemble has a similar look to the Wolf Man′s sketch of his phobic dream as recorded in Sigmund Freud′s classic case-study, a document produced in the same place and time as this work.
Central Europe c.1880-1920
H: 25cm (9.8in)
W: 15cm (5.9in)
D: 14cm (5.5in)
SOLD
Print Back