Page 165 - Swann Galleries - African-American Fine Art - Sale 2303 - February 14, 2013

134 ● LAWRENCE FINNEY (1963 - )
The Struggle to Understand.
Oil on cotton canvas, 2000. 914x914 mm; 36x36 inches. Signed, titled and dated in pencil, upper
left verso.
Provenance: private NewYork collection.
This dramatic canvas is the first oil painting by this contemporary figurative artist to come to auction.
Born in Brooklyn, Lawrence Finney studied art at the Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, the School of the
Visual Arts, NewYork City andWarren County Community College, New Jersey.This oil is typical
of a series made between 1993 and 2003 with heroic, stylized figures, greatly influenced by Charles
White, George Tooker, the Mexican muralists and social realism in general. Finney’s paintings were
included in the 2002 Studio Museum in Harlem exhibition Black Romantic:The Figurative Impulse
in Contemporary African American Art and the 2006 University of Houston exhibition Highlights from
the Collection of Corrine Jennings and Joe Overstreet. [6,000/9,000]