Angel Artists: Howard Finster (1916-2001)

September 1, 2024

Angel Artists: Howard Finster (1916-2001)

Western Christians celebrate Michaelmas on September 29th, the feast day commemorating the Archangel Michael and All Angels. In this month devoted to the hosts of heaven, I'll be highlighting four "angel artists" in the Sacred Art Pilgrim Collection who have often depicted these divine emissaries in their art. Howard Finster, the preacher-folk artist from Georgia, tops the list with countless representations of angelic beings in ecclectic works numbering in the tens of thousands. Finster remembered having his first glimpse of the heights of heaven at the age of three and felt called to be a "man of visions speaking to you through folk art." His images abound with fantastical, futuristic, multi-tiered towers, teeming with brightly colored angelic beings, often painted on wooden cut-outs and reclaimed objects. They zero in on an earth split apart at the end of time and hover above a typical scrawled text from Finster on repentence holding the sign: ANGELS LOVE YOU. I DO TO! (John Kohan)