147
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THORNTON DIAL (1928 - )
Clinton Campaigning as the Sun Rises.
Watercolor, pastel and charcoal on heavy wove paper, circa 1992. 775x552 mm; 30
1
/
2
x21
3
/
4
inches.
Initialed in pencil, lower right.
Thornton Dial was born in 1928 in Emelle,AL, where he was raised by his great-grandmother. He
moved to Bessemer, and became a metalworker at a local Pullman-Standard boxcar factory until its
closing in 1981. Not completing school beyond the third grade, Dial is a self-taught artist, known
for utilizing welded metal scraps and other found objects in his assemblages. Both his assemblages
and his works on paper are often imbued with a political framework, yet are viewed as having an
“outsider” perspective.
In the late 1980s, Dial was able to focus on his art full time with a monthly stipend from Atlanta art
patron William Arnett. Dial’s career quickly blossomed, as by 1993, he had two concurrent solo
exhibitions in New York City—one at the Museum of American Folk Art, the other at the New
Museum of Contemporary Art. His work has also been included in the 2000Whitney Biennial and
in a solo exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston in 2005. His first career retrospective,
Hard
Truths:The Art of Thornton Dial
, was recently exhibited at the Indianapolis Museum of Art and will
continue to New Orleans,Atlanta and Charlotte, NC.
[3,000/5,000]