Marvin Finn Wood Rooster Folk Art Outsider Art Kentucky

Description

Original hand-crafted double sided wood rooster with raised eyes by Louisville folk artist Marvin Finn (1913-2007), signed and dated "Finn 91".
ARTIST
Marvin Finn
Size
19” x 24”
Marvin Finn was a familiar resident of Louisville’s artistic community for more than thirty years. The work of this beloved urban folk artist was highly sought after by collectors of toys and contemporary folk art during his lifetime and continues to be sought after by discerning collectors today. He was a living treasure in Louisville; one of a rare breed of truly self-taught visionary artists working at the turn of the century. His personal story is often comical, sometimes tragic and always inspirational.
Marvin Finn didn’t have much as a child growing up in Clio, Alabama. Born in 1913, the son of a sharecropper, he had to leave school in the first grade to go to work in the fields. His father often whittled on wood and from an early age he would stand alongside him to learn carving skills from him. Marvin also liked drawing, painting and building.
“There were ten boys and two girls in my family, and most of them older than I was, so I didn’t have toys except I made them,” said Finn when recalling his childhood on the farm in Clio. “I thought my old man was everything. When I was little I stood right up under him when he was whittling, and I learned it from him. I always tried to make my own toys when I was coming up as a kid. Anything that looked like a toy I would go into the woods and find me a tree and make it. But I remember a lot of Christmases when I never even seen me a toy.”
Marvin came to Louisville after the outbreak of World War II. It was here that he met and married his wife, Helen Breckenridge.
After they married in 1952 he continued to make toys for the enjoyment of his five children. It was Helen who used an electric jig saw to help him cut out the toy shapes that he drew on salvaged plywood and boards. When Helen died in 1966, Marvin was devastated but kept making toys to help him through his grief, all the while raising his two boys and three girls as a single parent.
Finn is perhaps best known for his haughty, fun and imaginative roosters. His systematic use of bold stripes, dots and dashes painted on scrap wood against a solid background in unconventional color combinations is his signature style.
Please look at the pictures and ask questions.  I am happy to reply.