Howard Finster (American, 1916–2001)

Born in rural Alabama, the youngest of thirteen children, Finster received his first religious vision at the age of three. Later, at the age of thirteen, he was born again at a Baptist revival, and at 16 he began to preach. Finster, an incredibly devout man, began making artwork to preach the word of God when his sermons alone could no longer quell his religious expression. One of his first and most profound projects was Paradise Garden, located in Summerville, Georgia, a botanical park created to fulfill the artist’s vision of the Garden of Eden. Paradise Garden grew quietly for nearly fifteen years until an article in the December 1975 issue of Esquire magazine introduced Finster to the world. As his reputation began to spread, he received another vision in which a splotch of paint on one of his fingers spoke to him and commanded him to make “sacred art.” He turned to painting with the same frenetic energy and enthusiasm that had guided him in the construction of the garden. Operating under the conviction that the more he painted the more souls he could save, Finster created a prodigious output, making over 14,000 paintings between 1976 and 1990. In his Jesus Saves Angel, characteristically painted on shaped plywood, a colorful, winged female figure is decorated with smiling faces and carries a divine message. The bold outlined figure and childlike drawing style result in a straightforward delivery of a simple theme of salvation.