The Kangas Collection

The KANGAS COLLECTION of American & International Folk Art began with the modest purchase of a single vintage waterfowl decoy in 1968. Soon after that initial acquisition we were introduced to a contemporary folk artist named Gilbert Craig, living in a nearby community. Slowly, the scope and scale of the collection began evolving as we continued to learn as well as meet other folk artists, whenever an opportunity was presented. Those vital encounters deeply impacted our early understanding of and appreciation for individuality, ethnic heritage and diverse thinking. Although America is regarded as a melting pot nation, many collectors and collections tend to be limited in focus to only those art objects produced within the forty-eight contiguous states and, often more specifically, to collectors' immediate surroundings. We regard that as an artificial restriction. Folk art books and exhibition catalogs sometimes briefly mention ancestral influences but those are seldom explored in-depth. It seemed logical to not only accept a person.s heritage as a significant contributing factor to his or her artwork but to also consider looking beyond the confines of the "lower forty-eight" for examples created elsewhere that excited our sensibilities.

The KANGAS COLLECTION of American & International Folk Art now has representative artifacts from numerous countries in a variety of categories and historical eras: paintings, textiles, calligraphic drawings, decoys, wooden trophy fish, outsider art, and animal and figural sculptures. For example, affluent sportsmen traditionally documented their successes with trophies. In Great Britain about 1880, a well-known painter named John Russell is credited with introducing the first carved and painted piscatorial portraits. Simply stated, sculptural trophy fish carvings replaced stuffed fish skins as preferred artistic documents. That aesthetic idea spread to other countries. The pre-eminent North American trophy fish carver was and remains Tommy Brayshaw, an English immigrant who lived in British Columbia. The Kangas Collection includes four superb Brayshaw carvings from the 1930s and about a dozen additional museum quality examples by various makers. The period 1880 - 1930s is when the best trophy fish were produced.

The KANGAS COLLECTION juxtaposes ancient forms with contemporary expressions, American and non-American arts and crafts, primitives with realistic renderings, and two and three dimensional creations. The wonderful mid-twentieth century wood dioramas by Moise Potvin of Rhode Island, for example, are complimented by extremely rare and dramatic Finnish woolen bed rugs (ryijys) from the early 1700s through the 1800s. Carefully selected waterfowl decoys exhibit interpretive life-like attributes via turned heads, flapping wings and an assortment of other animated body postures. (The Kangases have authored three books on the subject of decoys.)

This brief introduction to the collection and the following photographs are intended to provide a small sampling of what we have enjoyed in our northeastern Ohio home for the past four decades. We cordially invite you for a virtual visit.