Thornton Dial, Sr.

Big Black Bear Trying to Survive, 1993

mixed media, 48” x 36”

Gift of Lou and Calynne Hill, December 2009
2009.1.1

This artist, Thornton Dial Sr., is the most famous vernacular artist from the Southeast, and his work has shattered the art world’s notion of “folk” and “outsider” art. Big Black Bear Trying to Survive is typical of the large sculptural assemblages he was creating in the 1990s. These works are intricate, thoughtful compositions always contain a message, often dealing with race and inequality in America and male-female relationships. These large-scale works are created with items Dial would find in his yard or in the trash. Dial liked to create his artwork with materials others have thrown away. Big Black Bear Trying to Survive is composed of various scrap metal, carpets, and trash bags and depicts a large black bear laying on its side intently staring out at the viewer. The Gadsden Arts Center exhibited this work in the exhibition, Vernacular Art from the Hill Collection, August 28–October 25, 2009.

Dial was born in Alabama in 1928 and is an artist who began with little exposure to the formal art world. He is one of twelve children and never knew his father. His family made their living sharecropping, and he grew up helping out on the farm. Dial went to school on and off for a few years, but dropped out completely after he was ridiculed for being 13 years old in the 2nd grade. Instead of going to school, Dial snuck off to work different odd jobs including carpenter, house painter, cement mixer, and ironworker. Dial says he was always making art and expressing his ideas; however, he didn’t know it was art until he met William Arnett in 1987.

Arnett is an art dealer and collector from Atlanta, Georgia, who traveled throughout the Southeast meeting and discovering artists like Thornton Dial. This type of art, known as “self-taught”, “folk art”, “outsider art”, or “vernacular” was unknown to the larger art community and was not truly considered “fine” art until artists like Thornton Dial exhibited at museums like the High Museum of Art in Atlanta and the Whitney Museum of Art in New York.

Thornton Dial is now in his 80s, and although he doesn’t create his large sculptural paintings anymore, he still draws and paints works on paper continuously. He is an artist who has created art his entire life, from a deep-rooted need to “make things”, and who didn’t know that he was making “art” until late in his life. Although Dial has never had any education or art training and is from a rural town in the Deep South, his work touches on themes of racial inequality, struggles in a modern world, and relationships between men and women, themes that resonate with audiences around the world.

Thornton Dial, Sr.

Everything is Under the Black Tree, n.d.

paint on plywood, 48” x 31.5”

Gift of Lou and Calynne Hill, December 2009
2009.1.2

Thornton Dial, Sr. is a prolific artist and has mastered many media. Everything is Under the Black Tree is a painting of a large white fish surrounded by a flowering black tree against a yellow background. The fish has blue and pink flowers and a face in profile painted on its side. The collectors had this piece in their collection for at least twenty years, and we can estimate it was created in the 1980s, before Dial began his large sculptural assemblages and his drawings on paper. This style seems more rigid than his later painting style, and the large number of images and forms squeezed into one piece is like a precursor to Dial larger, form and image filled sculptural assemblages. Dial’s drawings and paintings on paper, which he began painting in the 1990s, have less figures and animals filling the space.

Thornton Dial, Sr.

Life Go On, 1990

watercolor on paper, 22.5” x 30”

Gift of Lou and Calynne Hill, December 2009
2009.1.3

This work is a painting of the upper torso of a nude female executed in colors of purple, blue, red, and green. Two tigers, on either side of the woman, may be trying to comfort the woman by placing their paws on her shoulders. Two large trees flank the woman’s head, while one large blue bird flies above her head, and a small bird hides behind one of the tigers.

Thornton Dial began painting and drawing images of women on paper after an exhibition of his work in 1990 called Ladies of the United States, at Kennesaw State College in Marietta, Georgia. An art critic wrote that Dial couldn’t draw and made women look ugly, which was particularly hurtful to Dial, as he has a huge respect for the female race. He was raised by women, and believes women carry strength, power, and love. Dial says that man would lose his “struggle” without women’s strength and love. Now in his 80s, Dial still draws and paints on paper, primarily images of women with animals and nature.

Thornton Dial, Sr.

Fishing for Love, 1990

watercolor, ink, pencil, crayon on paper, 22.5” x 30”

Gift of Lou and Calynne Hill, December 2009
2009.1.4

Fishing for Love is an image Dial has reworked in several of his drawings on paper. In this version, a large pink fish hangs upside-down while flanked by women on either side. One woman, with long brown hair, touches the fish’s face, which also holds another woman’s face. In the upper left corner, another female watches the scene.