folk art

American  

noun

1. artistic works, as paintings, sculpture, basketry, and utensils, produced typically in cultural isolation by untrained often anonymous artists or by artisans of varying degrees of skill and marked by such attributes as highly decorative design, bright bold colors, flattened perspective, strong forms in simple arrangements, and immediacy of meaning.

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folk art British  

noun

1. the visual arts, music, drama, dance, or literature originating from, or traditional to, the common people of a country

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Other Word Forms

• folk-art adjective
• folkartist noun

Etymology

Origin of folk art

First recorded in 1920–25

Example Sentences

The back of the distillery unofficially doubles as one of the city’s great galleries, displaying the owners’ expansive folk art collection from floor to ceiling.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 2, 2026

Lili Todd is an L.A.-raised illustrator and ceramic artist based in Yucca Valley whose work reflects her inherently optimistic spirit and interest in folk art, traditional craft and risograph printing.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 3, 2025

The London-based Canadian-Korean artist has created cloth patchwork paintings using the bojagi technique - resulting in stained glass-style pictures showing scenes inspired by Korean folk art and ocean creatures.

From BBC • Sep. 26, 2025

Minhwa is a style of Korean folk art popular during the Chosun era, with the Hojak-do genre specializing in images of tigers, magpies and pine trees.

From Salon • Jul. 2, 2025

This is the kind of touch they like: folk art, archaic, made by women, in their spare time, from things that have no further use.

From "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood