Thornton Dial, Sr.

Nobody at Home

In Thornton Dial's assemblage, masklike faces with staring eyes and open mouths emerge from a dense maze of layers streaked in red, white, blue, and black. Ropes painted brown snake over the surface, twisting into bodies that stretch from one side of the painting to the other. Additional objects have been attached to the surface—a paint-covered metal grill at the top and a wire rack on the right edge, for example—which accentuate the artwork's sculptural appearance. The resulting lattice of colors, forms, and objects gives the impression that, if the artwork's strata were excavated, much more could be discovered. In many respects, "excavation" is an appropriate way to approach Top of the Line (Steel).By layering paint and objects that Dial collects from around his home in Bessemer, Alabama, a suburb of Birmingham, the artist creates a series of evocative relationships. Dial encourages viewers to look closely at the artwork, excavating meaning from the interplay of forms and even from the title, which has several interpretations. For example, "top of the line" refers both to a position in an assembly line...

In Thornton Dial's assemblage, masklike faces with staring eyes and open mouths emerge from a dense maze of layers streaked in red, white, blue, and black. Ropes painted brown snake ...

You meet the Spanish artist Alexandro Santana and you think, cripes, can he be for real? So handsome, so flamboyant, so seductive, so amusing -- you’re not sure whether it’s intentional or inadvertent. And then you discover he is the son of a notorious Dominican admiral, that the tyrannical dictator Trujillo was best man at his parents’ wedding, that his mother was a fabled high-society beauty, that he grew up on battleships and estancias before going, inevitably, to Brown. Even more surprisingly, Santana stayed in Providence for graduate studies at the Rhode Island School of Design, where he received his degree in architecture, soon plying his trade in Manhattan and his adopted city of Savannah, where he eventually set up his own firm. Astonishingly, in this era of CAD, he draws every detail entirely by hand. Considering his tweeds, his bow ties, his drawl and debonair dress, it is perhaps not surprising to learn that Santana’s architectural taste is strongly neo-classical, inspired by the vernacular Palladianism of antebellum Georgia, with of course a touch of the Postmodern. Santana’s detailed and decorous architectural plans for his clients are complemented by drawings created for solely for himself -- exotic imaginary cityscapes and urban fantasias, like the dreams of Sir John Soane channeled through Aldo Rossi or John Hejduk...

You meet the Spanish artist Alexandro Santana and you think, cripes, can he be for real? So handsome, so flamboyant, so seductive, so amusing -- you’...

This original etching and aquatint in colours is hand signed in pencil by the artist "Zao Wou-Ki" in Chinese and Pinyin at the lower right margin. It is hand numbered in pencil from ...

A magnificent work in Indian ink and "levi" ink, counter glued on strong paper and accompanied by a certificate from the Zao Wou-Ki Foundation. Zao Wou-Ki was born in Beijing on 1 F...

Lithographie originale en 8 couleurs, édition en 99 exemplaires sur papier Arches, 26 épreuves sur papier Japon et 25 épreuves d'artistes. Epreuve signée et datée 98, numérotée 28/99...

This painting is from my series titled "The Untethered Soul." This series delves into the transformative power of nature, capturing the essence of what one feels rather than sees. In...