Henry Faulkner Folk Art Painting on Masonite in Artist's Frame

Item Details

Henry Faulkner (Kentucky/California/Florida; 1924 – 1981)
Amalfi – Sunflower Sky
Tempera on masonite in artist’s found frame
Signed lower right
Closson’s of Cincinnati gallery label attached to verso

A tempera folk art painting on masonite by well-listed and prolific Folk and Outsider artist Henry Faulkner (Kentucky/California/Florida; 1924 – 1981), titled Amalfi – Sunflower Sky. This lively, whimsical work remains mounted within the original gold tone wood frame found and salvaged by the artist, and inside which the actual work was executed. Remnants of rogue paint can be found along the interior edges of the frame, and is as much a part of the art as the painting itself. Faulkner often made his painted works in this tradition of repurposing cast-aside antique and vintage frames and giving them new life. The imaginative scene depicted here is filled with bright, sun-bleached stucco buildings by the sea that dominate the space, accented by glowing citrus fruits rendered with clean, sparkling pigments. A sunflower ‘sun’ illuminates the sky and earth with a soft, warm glow. Artist’s signature is signed to the lower right.

Faulkner was born in rural 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, and California where he befriended the likes of Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams, Ezra Pound, and many other literary and artistic dignitaries along the way. 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.

Dimensions

- painting measures 14″ × 18″.

Item #

18CIN762-050