Henry Lawrence Faulkner

January 9, 1924 – December 3, 1981

In the spring of 1957, Kentucky native Henry Faulkner emerged onto the New York gallery scene with his first sale to The Collectors of American Art co-op. From that moment forward, his career began a meteoric rise to fame.

Faulkner was deeply rooted in the classics and self-educated. Truly artistic, partly mystic, and by any measure a marketing genius, he synthesized painting, poetry and the performing arts. He could turn a phrase into a song and glean transcendent colors that expressed the music of his very being from a palette of paint. Faulkner’s artwork creatively incorporated mid-century European art styles with a primitive flourish. He produced art shows and filled patron requests throughout the United States and Italy, and during his prolific career he created an estimated 5000 works of art.

Henry’s gifts were apparent to everyone in the room, while his shortcomings and idiosyncrasies glared back at the community at large. Known as an eccentric rebel and bohemian, Faulkner often brought his bourbon-drinking goat, Alice, to parties and art shows and often showered his love upon a menagerie of animals that he expanded throughout his 33-year professional career.

In 2013, First Southern National Bank purchased the Greene Settles collection of Lexington artist Henry Faulkner, which included over 233 pieces in oil on panel, watercolor, and sketch, and displayed many of those paintings in the holding company, bank branches, and in the Bluebird cafe in Stanford for the community to enjoy.

Greene Settles was a highly respected accountant and was Faulkner’s business manager. Mr. Settles painted, made music, and was one of the finest collectors of regional and Kentucky art in the 60s, 70s, and 80s.

A STANFORD CONNECTION

Greene’s wife, Mary Edna Carter Settle, was from Stanford. Her father, Nevin Carter, owned a large farm and raised Tennessee walking horses but lost the farm in the Depression. He moved to a home at the corner of Lancaster Street, and E. Depot Street in front of the railroad tracks just a few blocks from downtown Stanford. The home was situated on a large lot where he continued to raise horses and raised a substantial garden each summer.

First Southern National Bank joins with John Stephen Hockensmith, a friend of Faulkner’s in the art world and owner of Fine Art Editions Gallery, in presenting The Gift of Color, the definitive collector’s anthology of Henry’s life stories, poems, sketches, and paintings.

Kentucky Soaps & Such, in Stanford, Ky, has the books and a selection of giclées available for purchase.

Photos and biographical information courtesy of John Stephen Hockensmith and Fine Art Editions Gallery.