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USA
South
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Summerville, GA
Roy Finster
1941-
Painter
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Information:
Howard Finster's son and grandson have also taken up painting, both in a style which closely resembles the senior Finster's.
I spoke with Roy on the phone, and he explained that he had recently quit his job as handy-man at the Chatooga County Hospital in order to paint full-time. Among his accomplishments, he claims that Johnny Cash owns one of his "Johnny Cash" series and that President Bill Clinton has a painting Roy made of him. His other subjects include historical figures, religious visions, devils, angels, and the '57 Chevy Bel Air. One might get the sense that Roy has simply jumped on the folk art bandwagon, led by his father. In talking with him, though, I began to feel like maybe Roy is the real naif.
Roy displays little of the histrionic sermonizing his father has become famous for. In conversation, he actually seems to have little understanding of why he paints, besides the fact that it now "pays the bills." But even his consciousness of the marketplace is cloudy: "Painting for me is a lifetime of enjoyment...and other people seem to like what I do." Asked if Howard has taught him or given him advice on his work, Roy says that he hasn't and further explains that his work is very different from his father's because he spends more time on each painting than the elder Finster, regardless of the fact that some of their works look virtually identical. He several times referred to himself as a "folk artist," by which he means "self-taught."
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Reference / Links: |
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(Detour Art is not responsible for the content of external web sites.) |
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Bibliography:
"20th Century American Folk, Self Taught, and Outsider Art" by Betty-Carol Sellen, Cynthia J. Johnson, Neal-Schuman Publishers, New York, 1993.
"Contemporary American Folk Art - A Collector's Guide" Chuck and Jan Rosenak, Abbeville Press, 1996.
"Self Taught, Outsider, and Folk Art—A guide to American Artists, Locations and Resources" by Betty-Carol Sellen with Cynthia J. Johnson, 2000.
"American Self-Taught Art: An Illustrated Analysis of 20th Century Artists and Trends with 1,319 Capsule Biographies" by Florence Laffal and Julius Laffal, 2003. |
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