Homemade Finster
by Art Howard
Published circa April
22nd, 2005
If
you have a passing knowledge of the music
of R.E.M. or the Talking Heads the name
may be familiar. If you have any interest
at all in the genre known as folk art, or
Outsider art, his name is branded across
your consciousness. Summerville,
Georgia's Howard Finster passed away in
2001 but interest in his work is strong,
as evidenced by the High Museum of Art's
ownership of 77 Finster pieces.
The Alabama-born Reverend Finster began
painting in 1976 after, he claimed, he
was repairing a bicycle and a drop of
paint on his thumb said, "Paint
sacred art." He went on to paint
over 40,000 works using what anyone else
would have left by the curb for trash
pickup as his canvas. The paintings
usually crossed Southern pop culture
images such as Elvis Presley and
Coca-Cola bottles with religious text,
either Bible scripture or the Reverend's
own sermons. These productions were
arranged around a two-and-a-half acre
swamp behind his home that he dubbed
Paradise Garden. Stardom found the rural
Reverend and he designed covers for rock
n' roll bands ("The rock `n' rollers
are my missionaries," Finster once
said), appeared on "The Tonight
Show" with Johnny Carson and hosted
exhibits of his work across the country.
Susan Crawley, the High's Associate
Curator of Folk Art, explains the appeal
of Howard Finster's work, "Part of
its strength comes from the singularity
of Finster's vision. Everything he did -
including pieces like Elvis Presley
portraits that seem secular at first
glance - was done to evangelize."
She says concerned fans of Finster
started the High's collection, "By
the early 1990s Finster's masterpiece,
Paradise Garden, was being sold off bit
by bit. A group of local collectors,
concerned that at least a portion of the
garden be preserved and kept together,
started the Paradise Project to raise
funds to buy a group of significant
objects to give the museum. This made the
High the first museum to conserve and
display such a large portion of an
outdoor environment." The High is,
in fact, the only major general art
museum in North America to have a
department dedicated to
folk/Outsider/self-taught art.
The High's folk art collection of over 500
works is currently being moved from the
Georgia-Pacific building downtown to the
main building at 1280 Peachtree Street
and so only a few items are on display.
Crawley says when the expanded High opens
in November about three dozen of
Finster's pieces will be on display,
"While we cannot recreate even a
portion of Paradise Garden, we hope this
installation will give the visitor a
sense of what it was like to experience
Finster's vivid environment."
Read the companion piece
about the High Museum here .
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