Jo Farb Hernández

Jo Farb Hernández is a folklorist, curator, and award-winning writer based in Watsonville, California and Catalunya, Spain.[1] Succeeding founder Seymour Rosen as the second Executive Director of Saving and Preserving Arts and Cultural Environments (or SPACES Archives), she helped develop the most extensive public archive on the subject of art environments in the world, and is recognized globally as one of the experts in the field.[2]

Executive Director Jo Farb Hernández at SPACES Archives in Aptos, California. Photo by Jennifer Joy Jameson, 2017.

Career

Hernández has worked for over 45 years in the art world, and is currently Director Emerita of the Natalie and James Thompson Art Gallery and Professor Emerita in the Department of Art and Art History at San Jose State University.[3] She earlier served as Director and Chief Curator of the Triton Museum of Art (Santa Clara, California, 1978-1985) and the Monterey Museum of Art (1985-1993). Hernández is internationally recognized as one of the foremost scholars in the field of art environments,[4][5] and has received the distinguished Chicago Folklore Prize from the American Folklore Society for her writing on the subject. Other awards include a Fulbright Senior Scholar Research Award (2008), and being named as the 2014 President's Scholar at SJSU.[6][2] Her book, Singular Spaces: From the Eccentric to the Extraordinary in Spanish Art Environments (2013), has been described as the “most impressive single volume ever published in the field of self-taught art.”[7] She is a contributing editor for Raw Vision magazine (UK), serves on the International Editorial Board for Elsewhere – the International Journal of Self-Taught and Outsider Art (Australia) and on the Advisory Council for Bric-a-Brac Arte Outsider journal (Italy), and is a member of several national and international boards for nonprofit arts organizations and art environments.[8]

Hernández has published 50 books and exhibition catalogs, as well as almost 100 articles in journals and encyclopedias in four countries. She has curated 237 exhibitions in the United States, Japan, Switzerland, and Spain, and has received over 30 honors and awards, including a Fulbright Senior Scholar in Residence Award to undertake extended research in Spain for Singular Spaces.[2] She has been on juries for national, statewide, and regional exhibitions; and a panelist for the California Arts Council and the U.S. Information Agency.[9][10]

Among Hernández's other book-length works are A. G. Rizzoli: Architect of Magnificent Visions (Harry N. Abrams, 1997) and Forms of Tradition in Contemporary Spain, the latter published in 2005. In addition, as part of her curatorial work, Hernandez has authored exhibition catalogue texts on the works of Lorser Feitelson, Shoji Hamada, Jeremy Anderson, August François Gay, and Misch Kohn, among others.[11][12]

Coauthored with John Beardsley and Roger Cardinal, A. G. Rizzoli depicts the life and work of San Francisco draftsman and artist Achilles G. (A. G.) Rizzoli (1896-1981). Publishers Weekly described the book as full of "perceptive essays offer a tantalizing introduction to Rizzoli's extraordinary visions."[13]

Service
Jo Farb Hernández at Prophet Isaiah Robertson's Second Coming House in Niagara Falls, NY. Photo by Fred Scruton, 2015.

Hernández's expertise has been consulted on the preservation of a number of art environment sites, including Leonard Knight's Salvation Mountain, as well as a number of sites in Spain, often providing strategic advocacy to sustain, support, or save a site.[14][15] She has been particularly active in saving the Spanish art environments of Josep Pujiula in Argelaguer, as well as those of Francisco González Gragera, Blas García, and Julio Basanta.[16][17][18]

Hernández served as President of the California Association of Museums from 1991-1992, and has served the Association in different capacities between 1985 and 1994.[8]

Jo Farb Hernández at Josep Pujiula i Vila's site in Argelaguer, Spain, 2013. Photo by Sam Hernández.
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References
  1. "Watsonville's Jo Farb Hernandez details newest book". Retrieved 2017-08-02.
  2. "President's Scholar: Jo Farb Hernández | SJSU Newsroom". blogs.sjsu.edu. Retrieved 2017-08-02.
  3. Del Guidice, Luisa (15 June 2014). Sabato Rodia's Towers in Watts. Oxford University Press. p. 461. ISBN 0823260666.
  4. National Center for Preservation Technology and Training (NPS). "Art Environments: Curatorial Roles and Responsibilities". Retrieved 1 August 2017.
  5. TOKY Branding + Design. "SPACES Board Members". spacesarchives.org. Retrieved 1 August 2017.
  6. "Chicago Folklore Prize - American Folklore Society". afsnet.org. Retrieved 1 August 2017.
  7. "Book Review: Singular Spaces: From the Eccentric to the Extraordinary in Spanish Art Environments". Interesting Ideas. Retrieved 1 August 2017.
  8. "Jo Farb Hernandez | Department of Art and Art History | San Jose State University". www.sjsu.edu. Retrieved 2017-08-02.
  9. "Hallie Ford Museum of Art: Hernández Lecture | Willamette University". willamette.edu. Retrieved 2017-08-13.
  10. Henry, Rowanne. "Fowler Museum exhibition explores the fanciful art environments of 8 self-taught Spanish artists". UCLA Newsroom. Retrieved 2017-08-13.
  11. Hernández, Jo Farb; Fern, Alan Maxwell; Kohn, Misch; Art, Monterey Museum of (1998). Misch Kohn: beyond the tradition. Monterey Museum of Art.
  12. "A.G. Rizzoli". SFMOMA. Retrieved 2017-09-04.
  13. "Hernandez, Jo(anne) Farb 1952- - Dictionary definition of Hernandez, Jo(anne) Farb 1952- | Encyclopedia.com: FREE online dictionary". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2017-09-04.
  14. "KPBS: Art Professor Shares Outsider Art Expertise | SJSU Newsroom". blogs.sjsu.edu. Retrieved 2017-08-02.
  15. Solanilla, José Luis. "La experta norteamericana en arte bruto Jo Farb pide conservar la casa de Épila". heraldo.es. Retrieved 2017-08-02.
  16. "Garrell - El Tarzan d'Argelaguer". Vimeo. Retrieved 2017-08-13.
  17. Girona, Diari de. "Les cabanes". Retrieved 2017-08-13.
  18. Internet, Unidad Editorial. "La casa castillo del 'Gaudí extremeño' cruza el Atlántico | Vivienda | elmundo.es". www.elmundo.es. Retrieved 2017-08-13.
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