By Vicki Prichard
NKyTribune reporter
In the newly released, The Gift of Color: Henry Lawrence Faulkner, the life and art of the prolific Kentucky artist unfolds as a compelling page-turner.
A young Henry Faulkner, 1950s
Born beneath a Wolf Moon in the backwoods of south-central Kentucky, Faulkner’s tenacity to pursue his art took him from a childhood defined by a succession of foster homes, to a career that spanned the globe and saw his work collected by such silver screen icons as Bette Davis and Greta Garbo.
The tenth of 13 children born to Bessie Lee and John Milton Faulkner, Henry Faulkner was but one more mouth to feed in the family’s tiny one and a half room log house in the backwoods of Simpson County.
When his mother died when he was barely three years old, Faulkner’s father committed the children to the Kentucky Children’s Home in Louisville. Over the next four years, the young Faulkners would be dispersed to a range of foster homes. When Faulkner was six years old, he was placed in the home of Dan and Dora Whittimore in the mountain town of Falling Timber Branch in the remote hills of Eastern Kentucky’s Clay County. He would “take root” with these new foster parents but would still search for his tribe.
Faulkner’s foster mother, Dora Wittimore, and presumably her husband Dan, in Falling Timber
From his early writings, it was evident that the young Faulkner came to feel ostracized from much of the Falling Timber community, who found his “defiant drag performances, evangelical ecstasies on the church lawn, or his klepto-inclined sticky fingers,” unacceptable. He would go on to embrace what others saw as different and pour his energy into his vision, writing, and art. He began his education at Berea College, then went on to study art at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C. and the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles. By 1957, his art emerged on the New York gallery scene with his first sale to Collectors of American Art on 62nd Street.
Through powerful narrative, artwork, and Faulkner’s own poetry and selected writings. The Gift of Color sets the tone for the artists emotions and moods.
“When you look at his early history of being an orphan from Eastern Kentucky, you look at his early history of losing his mom, in and out of foster homes, it starts to make a psychological profile,” says the book’s producer and publisher, John S. Hockensmith. “And to be gay in the ‘50s and ‘40s – and he was defiantly gay, he flaunted it. He wore women’s clothes in Clay County.”
Propelled into the world of art with a magical imagination, once Faulkner launched his professional art career in 1958, the demand for his work never ceased. By 1959, he introduced himself in letter to the Worth Gallery in Palm Beach, Florida, stating, “I am endowed with that gift of color and personal touch which makes my art more than ordinary.” The gallery’s proprietors were charmed and proceeded to open more doors for Faulkner to pursue his path toward national and international acclaim. His art — and personality — drew the company of writers such as Ezra Pound, playwright Tennessee Williams, and James Leo Herlihy.
Hockensmith met Faulkner in Lexington in 1978. Hockensmith, a photographer and printmaker, who owns Fine Art Editions Gallery & Press in Georgetown, had just opened his frame shop at the time.
“So, he started coming to Georgetown and he brought early works and had me frame them so he could sell off inventory that he had created, then pay me later for the framing,” says Hockensmith.
Involving more than a decade of research, The Gift of Color is informed through a range of sources that include the Greene A. Settle collection papers and memorabilia, The University of Tennessee Special Archives, Charles House’s papers, including his 1988 book, The Outrageous Life of Henry Faulkner, as well as interviews with living friends, confidants, and patrons who shared their collections of artwork for inclusion in the book.
Just as Faulkner’s career was made possible through the generosity of patrons, Hockensmith points out that it was the collaborative patronage of The First Southern National Bank, which underwrote his efforts to bring forth The Gift of Color, a labor of love. Early in the book, Hockensmith writes an ode to patrons.
“At the beginning of the book I start with a patron page as an ode to patrons, and how the creation of art requires two people – it requires an artist that is committed to the vision and it requires the patron who is committed not only to the acquisition but the flourishing, the perpetuating, and making known that this is viable art,” says Hockensmith. “An artist without a patron, I say in the beginning of a book, is like a kite without wind.”
Hockensmith says that in 1962, Cincinnati’s Closson’s was selling enough of Faulkner’s work that they took 40 percent from the sales and were still handing him checks for $6000.
“That was in 1962, which today would be like handing a check for $30,000, so he was on a roll,” says Hockensmith.
Because he sold a substantial amount of his art through Closson’s, Hockensmith says it’s likely that much of Faulkner’s art may well be in private collections in Cincinnati homes.
The Gift of Color is presented in two editions. A boxed edition, limited to 500 books, is showcased in a commemorative leather clamshell that includes a giclee print inset inside. The bookstore edition is a hardbound 12 x 12, first edition coffee table book with more than 100 paintings inside a French-fold dustjacket. Both versions include a selection of Faulkner’s poetry and writings, including a 25,000-word story that recount his international career in the fast-paced world of mid-century European-style American art. The book is available for purchase through Fine Art Editions, and at Soaps and Such, 203 West Main Street, Stanford, Kentucky
Hockensmith celebrated the release of the book at Fine Arts Editions Gallery and Press in Georgetown, where he also featured several original Faulkner paintings for sale. Fine Arts Edition Gallery is located at 146 East Main St., Georgetown
