Details

Title

Howard on a Mule

Artist/Maker

Howard Finster (American, 1916–2001)

Date

ca. 1976

Medium

Enamel on wood

Dimensions

63 1/2 x 47 inches

Credit

Purchase with funds from the Cousins Foundation, Inc., and donors to the Paradise Project Campaign

Accession #

1994.205

On View

On View - Stent Family Wing, Skyway, Gallery 407

In Paradise Garden, Finster captured his visionary repertoire in a vast range of media, including outlined forms that he cut from plywood and painted. This cutout is of “The Man of Visions” himself, astride a mule covered with the Reverend Finster’s spiritual exhortations and a chronicle of his gospel advocacy: “I STARTED OFF ON. A. MULE. AT. AGE. 12. I PREACHED MANY TIMES FROM THE TOP OF MY CAR, BUT THIS IS MY FIRST TIME TO PREACH FROM A MULES. BACK.” Howard on a Mule originally hung between two arched windows in the World’s Folk Art Church, located near blackberry bushes beside a mimosa tree in Paradise Garden.

Image Copyright

© Howard Finster/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York