SELF-TAUGHT ARTISTS: HOWARD FINSTER

Self-taught artists, also known as “outsider,” folk, or visionary artists, are creators who work outside of traditional art schools and the mainstream art world. Their art is often deeply personal, imaginative, and sometimes inspired by dreams, beliefs, or everyday life. They use a range of materials and unique techniques, often producing art in unexpected ways.

For over 40 years, Lehigh University has collected, celebrated, and highlighted the work of self-taught artists. This tradition began in 1985, when professors Norman Girardot (then chair of the Religion Studies department) and Ricardo Viera (professor of Art, and LUAG director-curator) made the trek to Summerville, GA to visit Paradise Garden, the sprawling, obsessively decorated compound of preacher, poet, musician, and visual artist Howard Finster—regarded by many as a “‘living legend of American folk art.”  Perhaps more surprisingly, Finster and family followed them back (chickens in tow) to “Lee High”—as Finster called it—for an artist residency and related events the following year.  This would be the first of several visits and exhibitions focusing on self-taught artists. Just this past year, LUAG presented Really Free: The Radical Art of Nellie Mae Rowe organized by the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, focusing on yet another self-taught artist sharing her private world with a public hungry for imagination.

With help from our friends in Lehigh Libraries Special Collections, we are also highlighting a newly digitized archive of LUAG’s past publications. Featuring catalogs, calendars, announcements, and even scrapbooks from the earliest days of exhibitions on campus to the present, this archive sheds new light on the formative history of the arts at Lehigh, part of the distinctive DNA inspiring generations of makers.

Explore archived publications related to Howard Finster and self-taught artists below:

1986: The World’s Folk Art Church: Reverend Howard Finster & Family

1990:  Natural Scriptures: Visions of Nature and the Bible

2000:  Four Outsider Artists: The End is a New Beginning

2004: Howard Finster (1916-2001)

2014: Face Work: American Ceramic Vessels from the South and North

2015: New Outsider Art from Cuba

2017: Visionaries of the Light

 

 

PastFORWARD: Past exhibitions that continue to shape LUAG’s vision.

As Lehigh University Art Galleries (LUAG) celebrates its 100th birthday in 2025-2026, we are looking to our roots: revisiting past exhibitions and important themes throughout our network of galleries.  These are the ideas that have shaped our identity and which galvanize our vision for the future.

Technical innovation paired with creative thinking has fueled significant exhibitions in PHOTOGRAPHY and PRINTMAKING, while the questions what is art? and who are artists? led to showcasing LATIN AMERICAN ARTISTS, SELF-TAUGHT ARTISTS, and members of the LGBTQ+ community.  These works have become part of LUAG’s extensive collection of over 20,000 works of art, a resource ready to shape minds for the next 100 years.

PHOTOGRAPHY: INTENTIONS & TECHNIQUES
Dubois Gallery, Maginnes Hall

SELF-TAUGHT ARTISTS: HOWARD FINSTER
Siegel Gallery, Iacocca Hall • September 2, 2025 - March 13, 2026

LGBTQ+ ARTISTS: SHOW AND TELL
Fairchild-Martindale Study Gallery

PRINTMAKING: A PRINT IS A PARADOX PART 1
Alumni Memorial Gallery • September 2, 2025 - December 12, 2025

PRINTMAKING: A PRINT IS A PARADOX PART 2
Alumni Memorial Gallery • January 19, 2026 - May 22, 2026

LATIN AMERICAN ARTISTS: ART HAS NO HOMELAND
The Gallery at Rauch Business Center