Thornton Dial Jr. facts for kids

Thornton Dial Jr. (born 1952) is an American artist. He creates paintings, sculptures, and art from different materials. He lives and works in Bessemer, Alabama. He is the oldest son of the famous artist, Thornton Dial Sr. His art is known for its strong messages about politics and society.

Life of Thornton Dial Jr.

Thornton Dial Jr., also known as "Little Buck," is the oldest son of Thornton Dial Sr. and Clara Mae Murrow. He went to William A. Bell High School.

In April 1972, Dial married Angela Campbell. They had one son and one daughter. After they divorced in 1981, Dial married Angela Jackson in April 1986. They raised one son, one daughter, and one stepdaughter together.

Growing Up with Art

Dial and his brothers, Richard and Daniel, grew up in a very creative family. His uncle, Arthur, and cousin, Ronald Lockett, were also artists. They all learned from and inspired each other, especially from Thornton Dial Sr.

After high school, Dial worked for a construction company. This was in the Bluff Park area of Birmingham. He worked there for eight years. Then, he started working at the Pullman Standard Company. There, he learned how to bend and shape metal. Many men in the Dial family worked at Pullman. Their experiences with industrial materials helped inspire their art.

Artistic Career

The year 1986 was important for the Dial family's art. That year, Thornton's brother, Richard Dial, opened Dial Metal Patterns. He started making his special metal "comfort" chairs. It was also the year Thornton Dial Jr. began making his own art.

Art with a Message

Thornton Dial Jr.'s art often talks about social, racial, or political issues in the United States. He uses powerful images to show his ideas. For example, in The Gorilla Lends a Helping-Hand to the United States and the Telephone Company, he showed how African Americans helped build America. His messages were always clear.

Dial often uses animals to represent people in his art. Lions are his symbol for black men in Africa. An example is King of Africa. Lions also stand for people in charge, like in Three Lions (Honoring Dr. King and the Kennedy's)[1].

However, Dial often shows working-class black men in America as gorillas. This is a strong way to make a point. In his work Trees to Climb, the small trees show the lack of chances for black working-class people in America. Many experts also notice that Dial loves to use patterns. He often uses the American flag, dots, stars, stripes, and flowers in his art.

Materials and Techniques

Dial's past jobs in construction and welding help him with his art. He uses common industrial materials. These include oil-based paint, Bondo, enamel, sealant, corrugated tin, and plywood. These are the main materials in most of his artworks. Because he knows these materials so well, he uses them in new and creative ways. His paintings are usually larger than four feet square. His sculptures and assembled artworks are often three feet tall or more.

Exhibitions (selected shows)

Thornton Dial Jr.'s art has been shown in many exhibitions:

• Outside the Main Stream: Folk Art in Our Time. May- Aug. 1988, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA.
• Living Traditions: Southern Black Folk Art. 17 Aug.- 27 Oct. 1991, The Museum of York County, Rock Hill, SC.
• Give Me a Louder Word Up: African American Art. 10 Jul.- 22 Aug. 1992, Metropolitan State College of Denver, Denver CO.
• Wrestling with History: A Celebration of African American Self-Taught Artists from the collection of Ronald and June Shelp. 1996, Baruch College, CUNY, New York.
• Southern Spirit: The Hill Collection. 21 Feb.- 31 Mar. 2000, Museum of Art, Tallahassee, FL.
• Testimony: Vernacular Art of the African American South. 15 Sep. 2000- Jan. 2004, Various Institutions.
• Ancestry and Innovation. 2008, Various Institutions (organized by the American Folk Art Museum).
• Negritude. 20 May- 25 Jul. 2009, Exit Art, New York.
• Vernacular Art from the Hill Collection. 28 Aug.- 25 Oct. 2009, Gadsden Arts Center, Quincy, FL.
• Our Faith Affirmed - Works from the collection of Gordon W. Bailey. 10 Sep. 2014- 15 Aug. 2015, University of Mississippi Museum of Art, Oxford, MS.
• History Refused to Die. 2015, Alabama Contemporary Art Center, Mobile, AL.
• Revelations: Art from the African American South. 3 Jun.- 1 Apr. 2018, Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco.
• Expressions Unbound: American Outsider Art from the Andrew and Linda Safran Collection. 29 Aug.- 16 Dec. 2018, The Tufts University Art Galleries, Boston, MA.
• What Carried Us Over: Gifts from the Gordon W. Bailey Collection. Sep 13, 2019 - Apr 18, 2020. Pérez Art Museum Miami, FL.
• Called To Create: Black Artists of the American South, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, September 18, 2022 – March 26, 2023.

Museum Collections

You can find Dial's art in the permanent collections of these museums:

• Fine Art Museum of San Francisco
• American Folk Art Museum
• Ogden Museum of Southern Art
• National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
• Pérez Art Museum Miami