A Century of Baltimore Folk Art
Alongside marble steps, stained glass transoms, and Formstone facades, painted window screens are part of the fabric of Baltimore City. Painted screens,famously and frequently depicting a red bungalow landscape scene, used to be found on rowhouse windows and screen doors across the city. They were a staple of the 1900s, in the decades following the widespread popularization of woven wire window screens (to keep bugs and disease out and let air flow in) and before the invention of central air conditioning.
The Origins in Little Bohemia
The original Baltimore painted screen stems from one corner grocer, William Oktavec, who in 1913 was the first to paint a colorful still life for his shop doors in what was then Little Bohemia (now Eager Park). His neighbor asked him to copy a red-roofed mill calendar scene for her front window and once installed, residents from nearby and across the city began requesting their own. The fad took off in the hands of legions of self-taught artists and dabblers from every ethnic enclave.
The Art of Practical Privacy
The simple trick of paint ON wire (not in the holes) had an unintended benefit – people indoors could see out, while pedestrians outside the home could not see in (but only when interior lights are off). They provided additional privacy in the sidewalk-friendly rowhouse communities, where front windows were at eye level and needed to be left open to maximize ventilation during warmer months.
A Lasting Legacy in East Baltimore
There were as many as 200,000 screens in their heyday – and artists are still at it! While painted screens are not as plentiful as they once were, you can still be treated to an unexpected outdoor art show, in the neighborhoods of East and Southeast Baltimore.
Preserving the Tradition for the Future
Today you will find painters carrying on the tradition by filling custom orders on every conceivable woven material for windows, doors and walls, offering workshops for all ages in schools and cultural centers, demonstrating their techniques at festivals and events, and offering apprenticeships to inspire future generations. As long as Baltimore continues to be a city of rowhouses it will be a city of painted screens and screen painters.
Where to Experience Painted Screens
We invite you to explore the streets of East and Southeast Baltimore to encounter painted screens “in the wild” or visit local museums to discover the artists and their works that stretch back more than a century.
Connect with the Painted Screen Society at www.paintedscreens.org
Visit: Maryland Center for History and Culture (MCHC). 610 Park Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21201. Collection on view.
Visit: American Visionary Art Museum (AVAM), Jim Rouse Visionary Center, 800 Key Highway, Baltimore MD 21230. Exhibit on view.
Attend: Maryland Folklife Festival, www.mdfolkfest.com Salisbury MD, September
View: The Screen Painters, 1988. 20-minute documentary film available on You tube
View: CBS Sunday Morning, “Screen Gems” Painted Screens Oct 19, 2014
Read: Elaine Eff, The Painted Screens of Baltimore: An Urban Folk Art Revealed, University Press of Mississippi, 2013.
Explore: A Walking Tour of Highlandtown Painted Screens in Highlandtown Main Street + Highlandtown Arts District (programs of Southeast CDC).
Link – https://www.ihearthighlandtown.com/2015/03/04/to-see-highlandtowns-painted-screens-simply-look-up
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