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ABSTRACT The creativity of ordinary folk in the realm of the visual arts, commonly referred to as ‘folk art,’ is the subject of this work.The author invites us to follow his investigations in the field as he discovers creators in the various regions of Quebec.Appointed Curator of Material Culture at the National Museum of Man in 1979, he arrived at the museum just as his colleagues were in the process of cataloguing, with Nettie Covey Sharpe, the largest collection of Quebec folk art and antiques acquired up to that time. His meeting with Mrs. Sharpe, which he shares with the reader, along with the research he undertook in order to understand the context within which this exceptional woman had developed her collection, a veritable national treasure, allow us to better comprehend the pioneering role she played. He uses this collection as well as other pieces acquired by the national museum, from Marius Barbeau in the 1920s up to acquisitions made at the turn of the third millennium , to show how folk art has developed through the ages, from the foundation of the French colony in America at the beginning of the 17th century.The art form has changed over the years, as Quebec society evolved from traditional—traditional folk art—to the modernity of today—the unconventional, unruly folk art—, coupled with the utopia of artistic freedom. Finally, the author presents his interpretation of the art as a reflection of society, based on a selected presentation of works drawn from the Museum’s collection. vi ...

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