Henry Finkelstein (born 1958) is an American artist and teacher. He is best known for his landscape paintings. Finkelstein is the son of artists

Louis Finkelstein Louis Finkelstein (June 14, 1895 in Cincinnati, Ohio – 29 November 1991) was a Talmud scholar, an expert in Jewish law, and a leader of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (JTS) and Conservative Judaism. Biography Louis (Eliezer) Fin ...

and Gretna Campbell. He grew up spending the summers with his family on

Great Cranberry Island Great Cranberry Island is an island located in Maine. It is the largest of the five islands of the Town of Cranberry Isles, Maine. It is roughly long and wide. Great Cranberry Island is a favorite vacation spot for many. Access to the island i ...

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and ...

, and attended Cooper Union art school in New York City, where he studied with Rueben Kadish and Nick Marsicano. In 1983 he received an MFA from

Yale School of Art The Yale School of Art is the art school of Yale University. Founded in 1869 as the first professional fine arts school in the United States, it grants Masters of Fine Arts degrees to students completing a two-year course in graphic design, painti ...

, and has taught at the

National Academy of Design The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the f ...

since 1996. He has maintained the home in Maine, as well as a residence in the north of France. The landscape of both locations figures prominently in his work. Finkelstein has attributed his interest in color to a childhood visit to France. “I noticed that color was relative. Color was not a fixed thing. I began to see colors in nature I had not seen before. I never left that, really.” Although he works from life, Finkelstein is influenced especially by painters of the Abstract Expressionism movement. In addition to instructing at the National Academy and the Art Students League of New York, Finkelstein has taught and lectured at Brooklyn College, Haverford College,

Maryland Institute College of Art The Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) is a Private university, private art school, art and design college in Baltimore, Maryland. It was founded in 1826 as the Maryland Institute for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts, making it one of t ...

Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch language, Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appa ...

, the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and

Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts The Lyme Academy of Fine Arts is an art school in Old Lyme, Connecticut. From 1992 to 2019 it was a degree-granting institution, and from 2016 it was constituent college of the University of New Haven, as Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts. Hist ...

. Among the awards he's received are a

Fulbright Fellowship The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...

for Painting in Italy in 1983, the Julius Hallgarten Prize at the National Academy, and a French government grant.Biography, National Academy of Design

Notes

References

Bob Keyes, Henry's Place, ''Portland Press Herald'', October 17, 2010

Artists Conversations, March 20, 2010

Edgar Allen Beem, Art and Artists of New England Islands: Drawn to Islands, ''Yankee Magazine'', May 2013

Biography, National Academy of Design

Art Students League of New York

External links

henryfinkelstein.com

Henry Finkelstein interview at the Jerusalem Studio School blog, Painting Perceptions, January 14, 2010
{{DEFAULTSORT:Finkelstein, Henry Painters from New York City 20th-century American painters American male painters 21st-century American painters 21st-century male artists People from Hancock County, Maine 1958 births Living people Yale School of Art alumni Cooper Union alumni Brooklyn College faculty