Everything is Under the Black Tree

Name/Title

Everything is Under the Black Tree

Entry/Object ID

2009.1.2

Description

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.

Artwork Details

Medium

Wood, paint

Collection

Southern Vernacular Art Collection

Acquisition

Accession

2009.1

Source or Donor

Lou and Calynne Hill

Acquisition Method

Gift

Made/Created

Artist Information

Artist

Dial, Thornton Sr.

Role

Artist

Date made

1990 - 1992

Dimensions

Height

31-1/2 in

Width

48 in

Interpretative Labels

Label

Thornton Dial, Sr. (1928-2016) Thornton Dial, Sr. is the most famous vernacular artist from the Southeast, whose work has shattered the art world's notion of "folk" and "outsider" art. Although Dial has never had any education or art training and is from a rural town in Alabama, 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.

Created By

admin@catalogit.app

Create Date

October 1, 2009