The Winker from the collection of South Carolina Arts Commission

The Winker, 1975

black gum

31 x 11 x 18 in

Lin Nelson-Mayson, former curator of collection, Columbia Museum of Art on Dan Robert Miller
Excerpted from Collections, Vol. 2, No. 2, CMA

Greg Blasdel, in the catalog essay to Worth Keeping, refers to artists such as Miller as “grass roots” artists. The term used to describe the creative endeavors of the non-academically trained artists has been the subject of much recent dispute. The subtle distinctions between the “primitive, visionary, folk, outsider and idiosyncratic,” reflect changing attitudes based on the academic background of the speaker and the community traditions. Doug DeNataley, head of folk life at the University of South Carolina’s McKissick Museum, explained that, for an individual such as Dan Robert Miller with no parallel within his immediate community in a traditional anthropologic interpretation, he is integral to the community, but his art is seen as “outsider,” or outside the normal realm or folk traditions of community life. To the classic art historian, the emphasis is on the artist’s specific development within the context of recognition of individual achievement. Thus, the “idiosyncratic” or “visionary” artist is that individual creating without the benefit of academic training or association.