Thornton Dial was born in 1928 in Emelle, Alabama, a tiny town that has all but disappeared. His artworks are made from recycled materials and found objects that dotted the landscape where he grew up. Residents created dialogues by displaying their artwork in their yards: These “yard shows” are now recognized as part of the southern African American vernacular artistic tradition. Dial always made things, but he did not think of himself as an artist. Unknown to anyone outside of his family, he created assemblages and sculptures privately for many years.

After hearing a negative review for his first exhibition in an Atlanta gallery, which questioned his sophistication and his ability to draw, Dial responded by vigorously pursuing drawing and watercolor as a challenge to this assertion. William Arnett was sympathetic to Dial’s concerns about being marginalized as a folk artist and provided him with a wide variety of art supplies: archival paper, watercolors, pencils, pastels, charcoal, acrylic paint, crayons, and brushes. Dial enjoyed experimenting with new mediums, incorporating them in his works on paper.

The figurative aspect of Dial’s drawings focuses largely on the relationships of women and men. Women are lyrically formed and sexualized. They are depicted as emotional, intellectual, and seductive, as refuge and as wellsprings of strength. Dial incorporates avatars for both women and men. Birds, nests, eggs, and fish represent aspects of women, evoking themes of nurture and the ongoing cycle of life. Tigers, roosters, and birds depict the nature of men. The fit, energetic tiger can be seen as a man (Dial) and is often intertwined with a female figure with whom he is engaged. The drawings playfully give insight to sexual politics while obliquely evoking the politics of race and society. The sinuous tiger is in motion, watchful, dominating the picture plane. Women, more statically poised, are often nude, their breasts sometimes detached from their bodies as floating orbs, their lips red and cheeks flushed. When Dial’s figures appear alone, the lack of counterpoint defines the situation: men struggle when they are alone; a solitary tiger hunts, watchfully waiting; women assert domestic domination or offer themselves to fulfill their desires.

Thornton Dial’s drawings are visual records of his continuous exploration of human nature: The relationships of women and men, power and vulnerability, fragility and strength, and justice and faith. His drawings consider the conflicting and often subtle tendencies of these dynamics.