Born Dec. 2, 1916, Valley Head, Ala.; died Oct. 22, 2001, Rome, Ga.
Reverend Howard Finster is regarded as one of the most well-known self-taught artists of the 20th century. He was born one of 13 children to a farming family in Alabama. At this time, it was not common for kids living in rural areas to attend schooling after the sixth grade, Finster included. He began preaching at the age of 16 and met his wife, Pauline, not long after. Together, they had five children, 15 grandchildren and two dogs. His family remained a constant physical and spiritual support for him throughout his artmaking lifetime. Being a pastor did not provide much monetary support, so Finster took up other hand labor jobs, most notably running a bicycle repair shop.
Finster rose to popularity while creating The Paradise Garden, an expansive art environment on his property, which began as Finster’s Roadside Park Museum. At the age of 60, his Garden well under way, he received what he understood to be a command from the Lord to begin painting. He developed a recognizable style rooted in narratives of historical and biblical figures, pop culture icons, and local friends or family. Using tractor enamel paint, Finster would paint detailed linework on wood or on objects (later, oil paint and canvas), adding dialogue and text to reinforce storytelling. With his experience in carpentry and hand labor, he also made intricate wood-burned and decorated frames for many of his paintings.
Finster received international stardom for his wide variety of artmaking practices. In the 1980s, musical groups the Talking Heads and R.E.M. commissioned Finster for album art and used Paradise Garden as a filming location for music videos—a centerpiece of which was Finster’s World’s Folk Art Church, built in 1982 after receiving a National Endowment for the Arts sculpture grant. The next year, he appeared on Johnny Carson’s The Tonight Show. A musician in his own right, he has two records of original and cover songs, children’s stories, bird songs, and banjo playing. He saw all his work as sacred and fulfilling his duty to spread the Gospel, a motivation that compelled him to make and number multiple pieces daily, eventually tallying upwards of 46,000 works.
—Emily Q. Slavin, Intuit Art Museum curatorial fellow
