Thornton Dial

(American, 1928–2016)

untitled (seated female nudes with bird) by thornton dial

Thornton Dial

Untitled (Seated Female Nudes with Bird), 1997

Price on Request

untitled (mother and child) by thornton dial

Thornton Dial

Untitled (Mother and Child), 1995

Price on Request

Biography

Timeline

1928
Born in Emelle, AL

Exhibitions

2013
Thornton Dial: Daybreak. Bill Lowe Gallery, Atlanta (*with works by Dial family members)
Seismic Shifts: Ten Visionaries in Contemporary Art and Architecture. National Academy Museum & School, New York, NY
2012 - 2013
Thoughts on Paper. Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill, NC, Fleming Museum of Art at the University of Vermont, Burlington, Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts (solo)
2012
Thornton Dial: Viewpoint of the Foundry Man, Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York, NY (solo)
Thornton Dial, Virginia Union University and Art Gallery, Richmond, VA (solo)
Thornton Dial and Lizzi Bougatsos, James Fuentes, New York, NY
The Soul of a City: Memphis Collects African American Art. Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, TN
Creation Story: Gee’s Bend Quilts and the Art of Thornton Dial. The Frist Center for Visual Arts, Nashville, TN
2011 - 2013
Hard Truths: The Art of Thornton Dial. Indianapolis Museum of Art, New Orleans Museum of Art, Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, NC, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA (solo)
Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York, NY (solo)

Public Collections

Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
New Orleans Museum of Art, LA
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
Milwaukee Art Museum, WI
Intuit, Chicago, IL
Indianapolis Museum of Art
Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, GA
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.
The Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, MA

Literature

2012
Thornton Dial: Viewpoint of the Foundry Man. catalogue, Andrew Edlin Gallery
Creation Story: Gee's Bend Quilts and the Art of Thornton Dial. catalogue, Frist Center for the Visual Arts and Vanderbilt University Press, Nashville
2011
Thornton Dial: Thoughts on Paper. edited by Bernard L. Herman, Ackland Art Museum and University of North Carolina Press Chapel Hill
Hard Truths: The Art of Thornton Dial. catalogue, Prestel
Kuspit, Donald. Review, Art Forum, Summer
Wilkin, Karen. “Biography, History, Self-Evident Beauty.” The Wall Street Journal, April 21
Doran, Anne. Review, Time Out New York, April 14-20
Review, The New Yorker, April 11
Lacayo, Richard. “Outside the Lines.” Time, March 14
Kino, Carol. “Letting His Life’s Work Do the Talking.” New York Times, February 20