Henry Lawrence Faulkner "Kites of Spring" Poetic Mixed Media
Item Details
Henry Lawrence Faulkner (American/Kentucky, 1924-1981)
Kites of Spring
watercolor and gouache on paper, with elements of newspaper and mixed media
signed to the lower right
housed in a contemporary frame, matted and under Museum glass
The following is a transcription of the poetic verses layered within the work:
The Kites of spring are in a high tide of happiness
the blue eyed summer children
are in this morning glory doorway
God flung ten marbles into the purple thunders of the spring
I saw a bluebird with David’s eyes
LITERATURE
The Gift of Color- Henry Lawrence Faulkner (2018, Hockensmith).
This work is illustrated as the frontispiece
Link to the book – ‘The Gift of Color’:https://www.finearteditions.net/the-gift-of-color-henry-faulkner-look-inside-limited-edition/
While today, Henry Faulkner is most recognized for his stunning visual work, he often regarded himself first and foremost as a poet. Among his many celebrity friends and peers, the great expatriot poet Ezra Pound (1885-1972) was among the first to influence him. In the writings of The Outrageous Life of Henry Faulkner (House, Charles, 1988), Faulkner’s relationship with Pound is well documented, as the two found each other as inmates in the St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, a mental institution, in the early 1950s. While Faulkner was always a poet and visual artist, he credited Pound with steering him in a modernist direction.
Given these dual poetic and artistic tendencies, a number of these examples exist today. Faulkner’s Kites of Spring depicts a semi-abstracted, poetically colorful view, with an interspersed poem drifting between shades of color and form. One can notice the similarities with the work of Marc Chagall, another Faulkner influence (Faulkner met and viewed his work at the 1964 Armory Show). The artist expressed poem and music in visual form and intermingled the genres.
Henry Lawrence Faulkner (American/Kentucky, 1924-1981) was born inrural Egypt, Kentucky in 1924. An orphan, and listless wanderer, the artist lived a Bohemian lifestyle and eventually arrived in Lexington, Kentucky, where he was primarily known. A lifetime of travel took him to Key West, Taormina, Italy, New York, California where he befriended the likes of Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams, Ezra Pound, and many other literary and artistic dignitaries. Anecdotes abound of his pet goat and oft recurring subject in his work Alice, with whom he drove to Florida, took to his gallery openings, and elsewhere. He is remembered as a complicated modernist, who left a body of work in paintings and poetry, and a fond impression by most who met him.
Condition
Some very light but noticeable creasing to the upper right corner, the right perimeter, and lower right corner. Stabilized and housed within frame.
Dimensions
Item #
18LEX034-001
