Beverly Buchanan

 

 Beverly Buchanan (1940 –2015)was an African-American artist whose works include painting, sculpture, video, and land art. Buchanan is noted for her exploration of Southern vernacular architecture through her art
"Beverly Buchanan has received widespread acclaim for her studies of Southern vernacular architecture and folk art, which honor the history of Black ingenuity and resilience. In her best-known series of sculptural “shacks,” she created intimate assemblage works replicating small, makeshift dwellings she saw throughout the rural South. In 2016, the Brooklyn Museum organized a landmark posthumous exhibition of Buchanan’s work, “Beverly Buchanan —Ruins and Rituals.” Buchanan earned fellowships from the Guggenheim and the National Endowment for the Arts during her lifetime, but her work has only received substantial mainstream attention since her death in 2015. She earned degrees in science and later studied under Norman Lewis at the Art Students League in New York before moving to Georgia, where she began creating public installations and sculptures to mark significant sites in the fight for racial equality."(artsy.net)

 

 

Thornton Dial - Assamblage & Sculpture

Thornton Dial, a self-taught artist whose paintings and assemblages fashioned from scavenged materials told the story of black struggle in the South and found their way to the permanent collections of major museums.
Thornton Dial was a pioneering African-American artist best known for his large-scale assemblage paintings. He melded complex themes like Civil Rights history, archaeology, and construction, through the use of materials like cow skeletons, American flags, and rebar. Often referred to as an “outsider artist,” Dial’s work is highly biographical. Born on September 10, 1928 in Emelle, AL, Dial's youth was filled with hardship, born into poverty on a sharecropping farm. Though he never received any formal art training, he made sculptures from found objects from a young age. Dial spent much of his life working construction for the Pullman Company, around Birmingham, AL. In 1981, he retired from welding and construction and devoted himself to his art.
"From the complex, exuberant textures of his assemblages to the deft, fluid lines of his drawings, Dial’s facility as an artist was truly extraordinary,” Sheena Wagstaff, the chairwoman of the department of modern and contemporary art at the Met, said on Monday. “He leaves us with a body of work that is a rich visual manifestation of a life history, one that witnessed a remarkable time of change in the world from the perspective of an African-American man.”(nytimes.com)

Thornton Dial - Assemblage Art

"Thornton Dial (American, 1928–2016) was a self-taught artist from Emelle, AL, known for his large-scale assemblages that address issues of racism, war, and homelessness.
Thornton Dial was a pioneering African-American artist best known for his large-scale assemblage paintings. He melded complex themes like Civil Rights history, archaeology, and construction, through the use of materials like cow skeletons, American flags, and rebar. Often referred to as an “outsider artist,” Dial’s work is highly biographical. Born on September 10, 1928 in Emelle, AL, Dial's youth was filled with hardship, born into poverty on a sharecropping farm. Though he never received any formal art training, he made sculptures from found objects from a young age. Dial spent much of his life working construction for the Pullman Company, around Birmingham, AL. In 1981, he retired from welding and construction and devoted himself to his art. In the late 1980s he came to the attention of the influential, Atlanta-based collector Bill Arnett. Arnett went on to bring Dial’s work to national prominence. Since the 1990s, Dial's work has gained cultural acclaim and recognition, leading to inclusion in several important exhibitions, including the 2000 Whitney Biennial. The artist died on January 25, 2016 in McCalla, AL. Today, his work is among the collections of the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York."( artnet )

Nellie Mae Rowe - American Folk Art

"Nellie Mae Rowe was a self-taught African-American artist known for her unique drawings and sculptures of the rural South. Using everyday materials, including chewing gum, markers, egg cartons, and food trays, she melded personal mythology with Christian symbolism. “I feel great being an artist. I didn't even know that I would ever become one. It is just surprising to me,” she once said. Born Nellie Mae Williams on July 4, 1900 in Fayetteville, GA, the artist grew up on her father’s sharecropping farm where she showed an early propensity for drawing and crafts. Married to her first husband Ben Wheat in 1916, she worked mostly as farm hand over the next few decades. After the death of her second husband Henry Rowe in 1948, she began devoting much of her time to creating dolls and paintings. Around this time, Rowe began setting up works in her front yard, inviting visitors to come look as she played gospel tunes on an electric organ. She was first brought to the attention of a larger audience after her inclusion in the 1976 exhibition “Missing Pieces: Georgia Folk Art 1770­–1976.” Rowe died on October 18, 1982 in Vinnings, GA. Today, her works are held in the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, among others."(artnet)