" Antiopolia Of 1436 " Wood Cutout " #3039"Antiopolio" cutout 16.000. 736 works since 1976
Size: 19.5 x 9" x 4"
On Wood Base
May 7 1989
Description: Lady Portrait dressed in Blue top with black necklace and earrings . Brown hair
This is a colorful, Rev. Howard Finster painting done on wood cut out . It has predominately blue and other colors paint from the enamel tractor paint he used and many designs and shapes naturally built-in.Rev. Finster cut out the shape, painted it -- then used a black Sharpie marker to outline the visionary images that he saw.
The front and back of the piece features Finster's hallmark Script
Howard Finster inscriptions on this piece say:
"Antiopolio of 1436 "...... "This Life Has Pain ....... Dont Miss Heaven "...." Get Right with God Today "
with more writing on wood base .
This piece was originally purchased by Andrew Glasgow, noted on back in Finster words---
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Andrew Glasgow is a well reguarded curator, lecturer, and essayist, past Executive Director of Programs and Collections The Folk ArtCenter, as well as Director of Education and Collections at Southern Highland Craft Guild and Assistant Curator of Decorative Arts at Birmingham Museum of Art as well as work with the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans
Signed By Howard Finster Man of Vision
Condition: Good condition for its age.
Date: May ,1989 16,636 since 1976
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WHO IS ANTIPOLIO--?
The front of the piece features a Renaissance styled female in profile.The underlying figure and painter chosen by Finster here is Antonio del Pollaiolo (or Pollaiuolo) an Italian painter, sculptor, engraver and goldsmith during the Renaissance era, who is known for his renderings of the brutal torture and deaths of Catholic saints. He is also regarded for his rendering of the human body in motion, which is the antithesis of Finster's flat self-taught style. The figure chosen for this piece was actually painted by Antonio's brother, Piero del Pollaiolo (c. 1443 – 1496), also known as Piero Benci.
Provenance: In the late 1980's I visit Howard at Paradise Gardens and photoed him and his environment. I purchased most of my Finsters directly from the artist and a few from I purchased from collectors in this genre over the years.
Outsider Artist Howard Finster was born into a lumberjack's
family of thirteen childr. Young Howard had his first vision at the age of three. While looking
for his mother in the family's vegetable garden, he saw his dead sister wearing
a white robe, descending from heaven.
Howard once said: "I
get my inspiration from God. .I've been having visions ever
since I was a small kid."
In the mid -1970's, Howard saw a human face
in his own fingerprint. The face spoke and told him to paint sacred art. Howard
interpreted this as a sign from God that he should create works of art in order
to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He abandoned his career as a preacher and, at
the age of sixty-one and without any artistic training, began to paint toward
his initial goal of 5,000 works of art.
From
then until his death, Howard Finster painted almost non-stop. He slept very
little and painted detailed accounts of his visions and dreams.
Howard claimed to have regular visions of God
and Elvis. He supposedly once told a crowd at Ol’ Miss College:"I turned around and looked up and saw Elvis’s
face. The only thing I could think of to say to
him was, ‘Elvis, can you stay a while
with me?' , and Elvis replied, ‘Howard, you know that I’m on a tight
schedule' ".
Finster produced
some 48,000 works. before his death. Howard Finster usually wrote on the back of
each piece that he created, numbering each piece, with the date of
the creation and often prophetic words by the legendary outsider artist.
Howard Finster passed away on
October 22nd, 2001.
VISIT MY EBAY SHOP FOR MORE FOLK ART FROM THE DEEP SOUTH
I plan to list more Folk Art in the future. Some of the pieces to be listed on my ebay shop contains early Sudduths, a time when Sudduth used more "mud" in his paintings. There also are more early Tollivers and a large number of strong Sybil Gibson’s etheral dusty, muted pastel paintings on grocery bags…Some great abstract works by Willie White, and Roy Ferdinand urban ghetto memory paintings.A few pieces by Mary T Smith, and a number of Calvin Livingston's African hammered tin cutouts. Many of his paintings hang prominently in New Orleans House of Blues. New Orelanian Welmon Sharlhorne who is known for his brilliant detailed line drawings done during his long stint at Angola Prison.
I first purchased a Mose T titled "Tico Bird" in 1969. The strength his work is his lack of self-consciousness as to what his art is or should be. It was his sheer impulse to create, and therein lies its power.You can see my book on Mose Tolliver in my Ebay store.
I am in process of publishing my second book on Folk Artist Juanita Rogers, and in need of an Agent/Publicist. You can read about her on my website and In Souls Grown Deep: African American Vernacular Art, Volume One: There is an essay and photography on Juanita Rogers (1934-1985), who best exemplifies the Outsider Artist.Her clapboard and tin two-room shack was nestled in the middle of a cow pasture fenced in by barbed wire. Her porch was filled with strange sculptures. There were human, animal, and vessel forms of cracking clay embedded with mule and cow bones, teeth, fossil shells, glass, Spanish moss, and coffee grounds.