Self-taught African American artist Thornton Dial (born 1928) is an acclaimed, original artist. This tribute to his work includes nearly 150 images and focuses on his post-9/11 output, including a haunting suite inspired by that event, homages to his famous friends the Gee’s Bend quiltmakers, and pieces drawing on his memories of an impoverished Southern childhood. The book also has a rich overview of Dial's pre-9/11 work. An in-depth biography and contextualizing essays by leading art historians shed new light on Dial's life and work.

Thornton Dial in the 21st Century

Arts & Photography

Cubbs, Joanne

Arnett, Paul

Metcalf Jr., Eugene W.

History & Criticism

Tinwood Books

In 2002, Gee’s Bend burst into international prominence through the success of Tinwood’s Quilts of Gee’s Bend exhibition and book, which revealed an important and previously invisible art tradition from the African American South. Critics and popular audiences alike marveled at these quilts that combined the best of contemporary design with a deeply rooted ethnic heritage and compelling human stories about the women. Gee's Bend: The Architecture of the Quilt is a major book and museum exhibition that will premiere at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), in June 2006 before traveling to seven American museums through 2008. The book's 330 color illustrations and insightful text bring home the exciting experience to readers while displaying all the cultural heritage and craftsmanship that have gone into these remarkable quilts.

Gee's Bend: The Architecture of the Quilt

Gordon, Maggi

Wallach, Amei

Arnett, William

Herman, Bernard

Mott, Diane

Blum, Dilys

Whitley, Lauren

Mary Lee Bendolph’s extraordinary patchworks garnered national attention when they were featured among the works of other quiltmakers from her tiny, predominately African American community in the 2002 blockbuster exhibition and book, The Quilts of Gee’s Bend. This beautiful book examines Bendolph’s inspiration, creative process, and individual genius, as well as her profound connection to the cultural practices and expressive traditions out of which her work arises. It studies her artistic relationships with other artists her mother, Aolar Mosely; her daughter, Essie Bendolph Pettway; her daughter-in-law Louisiana P. Bendolph; and two self-taught Alabama artists, Lonnie Holley and Thornton Dial. Bendolph’s conception of herself as an artist is intimately connected to all of these aesthetic relationships, which together provide contexts for understanding the full scope and power of her work. As they intersect in Bendolph’s life and art, these deep social and aesthetic networks give rise to new pathways of artistic influence and exchange, to a body of work that is a powerful mixture of communal and individual creative energies.

Mary Lee Bendolph, Gee's Bend Quilts, and Beyond

Friis-Hansen, Dana

Arnett, Matt

During 1996 and 1997 T. Marshall Hahn donated a substantial portion of his collection of contemporary folk art to the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. His gift was the first major collection of self-taught art primarily from the South to be given to a general interest American museum. This book is published in conjunction with the first public exhibition of the Hahn Collection. 
The collection comprises more than 140 paintings, works on paper, and sculptures-the creations of more than thirty artists. Especially strong in works by African Americans from the South, it includes work by Ned Catledge, Thornton Dial, Sr., Sam Doyle, Howard Finster, William Hawkins, Mattie Lou O'Kelley, Elijah Pierce, Nellie Mae Rowe, Bill Traylor, Raymond Coins, Henry Darger, Minnie Evans, Lonnie Holley, Sister Gertrude Morgan, John W. Perates, Martin Ramirez, Herbert Singleton, and Joseph E. Yoakum. 
Let It Shine, a full-color catalog of the exhibition, features works by these artists as well as an interview with Marshall Hahn conducted by Lynne Spriggs, curator of folk art at the museum. 
An essay by Joanne Cubbs explores conceptual and aesthetic themes common to southern folk art and the place of the Hahn Collection in this field. An essay by Lynda Hartigan, chief curator of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, presents an overview of the development of a marketplace for southern folk art, a history which remains largely undocumented. 
The broad range of art and artists showcased in this spectacular volume reveals why the Hahn Collection is one of the most notable in the world. 
Distributed for the High Museum of Art

Let It Shine : Self-Taught Art from the T. Marshall Hahn Collection

Spriggs, Lynne E.

Hartigan, Lynda Roscoe

Crawley, Susan Mitchell

Shapiro, Michael E.

Harholdt, Peter

UNIVERSITY PRESS OF MISSISSIPPI

Celebrating Thorton Dial's contributions to American art, this book surveys the career of one of our most original contemporary artists, whose epic work tackles the most compelling social and political issues of our time. Born in poverty in Alabama, Dial has lived his entire life in the American South, and his art, informed by decades of struggle as a black working-class man, reveals a unique perspective on America's most difficult and pervasive challenges, such as its long history of race and class conflict, the war in Iraq, and the 9/11 tragedy. This monograph includes reproductions of 70 of Dial's large-scale paintings, drawings and found object sculptures spanning twenty years of his artistic career. Drawing inspiration from the rich symbolic world of the black rural South and with no formal education, Dial has developed a truly distinctive and original style. Incorporating salvaged objects in his work-from plastic grave flowers and children's toys to cow skulls and goat carcasses-he creates highly charged assemblages combined with turbulent fields of expressionistic painting. With commentary from historian David Driskell, cultural critic Greg Tate, and art historian Joanne Cubbs, this volume brings long-overdue recognition to Dial's remarkable career and offers audiences an unprecedented look into the creative world of this important artist.

Hard Truths: The Art of Thornton Dial

Metcalf, Eugene W.

Individual Artists

Prestel

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