Joan Brownstein, a noted folk art dealer and artist, will be giving a lecture entitled “The Origins of American Folk Art Portraiture” for the Piscataqua Decorative Arts Society on September 14. The Society is a non-profit organization with a mission to promote original historical research resulting in publication. (Continued below)  

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The primary focus is on the greater Piscataqua region of New Hampshire and Maine, with connecting links to Massachusetts and beyond.  

Joan’s background in art history and painting makes her uniquely qualified to discuss folk art’s relationship to academic art and provide great insights into folk artists themselves. Her approach attempts to connect the artist’s background, training and customers to the economic, social and political influences of their time. She will lecture on early English and French portraits and their relationship with American academic and folk portraitists, including those who painted in the Piscataqua region. 

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Ms. Brownstein received her BFA in painting from Cornell University and her MA from Hunter College in New York City. She did post-graduate work in arts administration at Harvard University and worked at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. She, herself, is an abstract artist whose paintings appear in many public and private collections. A dealer since 1980, she specializes in finding, researching and selling early New England folk painting. She exhibits at all major antique shows in the Northeast. 

Brownstein’s lecture will be given on Tuesday, September 14 at Strawbery Banke Museum’s Tyco Visitor Center just off Hancock Street in Portsmouth, NH. The lecture, preceded by refreshments at 5:00, starts at 5:30 PM. For more information go to the Web site.