After the death of Martin Luther King Jr., Alabama produced an impressive number of African American self-taught artists whose work particularly focused on the Civil Rights Movement and on aspects of history that led to it. This happened, in part, because the action was right on their doorsteps: Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Selma March, the murder of four little girls in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham. It was a spontaneous response to an emerging opportunity, and it occurred all over the South. History Refused to Die documents this phenomenon by highlighting the men and women whose artistic accomplishments deserve to be recognized by American art history, identifying six various themes that run through the works of almost all of these Alabama artists: Slavery, Agricultural and Industrial Alabama, The African-American Woman, The Civil Rights Era, Surviving Modern Times, and Autobiography and Commemoration. Featuring the work of fourteen African American artists from Alabama, including Thornton Dial, Lonnie Holley, Joe Minter, Ronald Lockett, Mose Tolliver, and several quilters from Gee's Bend, Alabama, this volume provides insight into black Alabama and African American visual expression through the presentation and analysis of more than 100 works of art.

History Refused to Die: The Enduring Legacy of African American Art in Alabama

Arts & Photography

Williams, Horace Randall

Wilkin, Karen

Holland, Sharon

History & Criticism

Tinwood Books

The first comprehensive overview of an important genre of American art, Souls Grown Deep explores the visual-arts genius of the black South. This first work in a multivolume study introduces 40 African-American self-taught artists, who, without significant formal training, often employ the most unpretentious and unlikely materials. Like blues and jazz artists, they create powerful statements amplifying the call for freedom and vision.

Souls Grown Deep, Vol. 1: African American Vernacular Art of the South: The Tree Gave the Dove a Leaf

African-American quilts possess two unique qualities: more than any other American visual art, they most fully realize the expressive force of jazz, and they bind together generations of African-American families who have made and cherished quilts. In Signs and Symbols, quilt expert Maude Southwell Wahlman introduces readers to a third powerful force in these quilts: their African-derived meanings, patterns, and iconography. She explores the religious, ritual, philosophical, and aesthetic beliefs that have been retained by descendants of Africans in the New World and demonstrates how these beliefs are represented in their textiles. Now back in print, Signs and Symbols remains the most complete illustrated work on this art form; featuring over 150 high-quality full-color reproductions.

Signs and Symbols: African Images in African American Quilts (2nd Edition)

Wahlman, Maude Southwell

Completing the two-volume set, Souls Grown Deep, Vol. 2 takes the visual and historical presentation of the first volume to a richer level, offering an even broader array of artistic styles and media. Published in 2000, the first volume explored the diverse historical roots of the genre and introduced artists whose work recalled the South of the pre€“civil rights era. This sequel brings the movement into the present, delving into the work of the current generation of artists who are creating a complex form of art that blurs the boundaries between folk and contemporary art.

Souls Grown Deep Vol. 2: African American Vernacular Art

Arnett, Paul

Arnett, William

Arnett, William S.

Sims, Lowery

Livingston, Jane

Since the 19th century, the women of Gee’s Bend in southern Alabama have created stunning, vibrant quilts. Beautifully illustrated with 110 color illustrations, The Quilts of Gee’s Bend includes a historical overview of the two hundred years of extraordinary quilt-making in this African-American community, its people, and their art-making tradition. This book is being·released in conjunction with a national exhibition tour including The Museum of Fine Art, Houston, the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Corcoran Gallery of Art, The Museum of Fine Art, Boston, The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Milwaukee Art Museum, The High Museum of Art, Atlanta, The Mobile Museum of Art, and The Memphis Brooks Museum of Art.

The Quilts of Gee's Bend

Beardsley, John

Wardlaw, Alvia

In the Spirit of Martin is the companion book to the first museum exhibition -- opening in January 2002 at the Smithsonian Institution -- to demonstrate the compelling outpouring of responses to Dr. King’s life. This richly illustrated, large-format book features the work of more than 150 important African American artists as well as other prominent traditional and visionary artists. Original essays by Bernice Johnson Reagon, Julius Lester, June Jordan, John Lewis, Stanley Crouch, and others enrich this celebration of the leader of the Civil Rights movement, one of history’s most important figures.

In the Spirit of Martin: The Living Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Gretchen Sullivan Sorin

Based on the critically acclaimed Souls Grown Deep books, this calendar showcases 13 of the most innovative self-taught artists, among them Thornton Dial, Lonny Holley, Mary Smith, Purvis Young, Jimmy Lee Sudduth, and Joe Light.

Signs and Symbols 2003 Calendar: African Images in African American Quilts

Calendars

Crafts

In the Spirit of Martin 2003 Calendar: The Living Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr

Gee's Bend: The Women and Their Quilts

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

Cubbs, Joanne

Metcalf Jr., Eugene W.

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