Arthur Dial (born 1930) is an American painter and sculptor living and working in

Bessemer, Alabama Bessemer is a southwestern suburb of Birmingham in Jefferson County, Alabama, United States. The population was 26,019 at the 2020 census. It is within the Birmingham- Hoover, AL Metropolitan Statistical Area, of which Jefferson County is the ...

. He is a part of the Dial family of artists, which include his older brother,

Thornton Dial Thornton Dial (10 September 1928 – 25 January 2016) was a pioneering American artist who came to prominence in the late 1980s. Dial's body of work exhibits formal variety through expressive, densely composed assemblages of found materials, oft ...

, and his nephews, Thornton Dial Jr., Richard Dial, and

Ronald Lockett Ronald Lockett (1965–1998) was an American visual artist, combining painting with three dimensional objects. “Lockett's primary artistic mentor” was the painter Thornton Dial, his cousin. In describing his work, Holland wrote of the influen ...

Life

Arthur Dial and his older half-brother Thornton "Buck" Dial were born in

Emelle, Alabama Emelle is a town in Sumter County, Alabama, Sumter County, Alabama, United States. It was named after the daughters of the man who donated the land for the town. The town was started in the 19th century but not incorporated until 1981. The daught ...

Sumter County, Alabama Sumter County is a county located in the west central portion of Alabama."ACES Winston County Office" (links/history), Alabama Cooperative Extension System (ACES), 2007, webpageACES-Sumter At the 2020 census, the population was 12,345. Its cou ...

. They were raised by their grandmother until Arthur was seven years old. After that, they were raised by their aunt, Lillian Bell, in

, where Dial still lives today. Dial reached the third grade before foregoing school to join the workforce. His first job was at a sawmill, followed by a string of jobs with Water Works, Jefferson County, and the

Pullman Standard The Pullman Company, founded by George Pullman, was a manufacturer of railroad cars in the mid-to-late 19th century through the first half of the 20th century, during the boom of railroads in the United States. Through rapid late-19th century d ...

boxcar factory before settling into a job with U.S. Pipe. Dial remained at U.S. Pipe (known as the "Pipe Shop") for thirty-seven years until he was forced to retire at 62 years old due to work-related pulmonary issues.

Career

Although Arthur Dial drew when he was a child, he became very invested in making art in adulthood. He sought a way to unwind and decompress after days working in the high stakes environment of the U.S. Pipe foundry and found refuge in gardening, fishing, and making art. He began using discarded materials from the foundry like scrap pipe. steel, and other materials to create people, animals, and religious icons. His studio is a shed adjacent to his home, which he called, his "home away from home":

"In the shed out back, my ideas get turned into something. That junkhouse shed is my home away from home. I got my spinners and tackle box for fishing, all my tools for gardening, all my chicken feed, medicine for the chickens, and my boards, paint and materials for art making. I got a lot of stuff out there. My shed is my pride and joy."

Dial created reliefs and paintings that narrowed in on a specific moment within the broader narrative that he wished to convey. He uses these moments, such as Eve reaching for the forbidden fruit or "

George Wallace George Corley Wallace Jr. (August 25, 1919 – September 13, 1998) was an American politician who served as the 45th governor of Alabama for four terms. A member of the Democratic Party, he is best remembered for his staunch segregationist and ...

blockading the entrance to the University of Alabama in Montgomery," to highlight historical or folkloric moments of extreme tension. Dial's focus on scenes of conflict in humanity's real or imagined history come from his direct observation of southern life throughout the 20th century. He describes his narratives as "a record of what went by"

Exhibitions and permanent collections

Dial's work has been documented in the following exhibitions: # ''Living Traditions: Southern Black Folk Art''. 17 Aug- 27 Oct. 1991, The Museum of York County, Rock Hill, North Carolina. # ''Wrestling with History: A Celebration of African American Self-Taught Artists from the collection of Ronald and June Shelp.'' 1996, Baruch College, New York City. # ''Testimony: Vernacular Art of the African American South: The Ronald and June Shelp Collection.'' 15 Sep., 2000- Jan. 2004,

Kalamazoo Institute of Arts The Kalamazoo Institute of Arts (KIA) is a non-profit art museum and school in downtown Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States. History In 1924, members of the Kalamazoo Chapter of the American Federation of Arts established an art center "to further ...

, Kalamazoo, MI. # ''Southern Spirit: the Hill Collection.'' 21 Feb. 31 Mar. 2000, Museum of Art,

Tallahassee, FL Tallahassee ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat and only incorporated municipality in Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In 2020, the population ...

. # ''Stories of Community: Self-Taught Art from the Hill Collection.'' 12 Aug- 30 Oct. 2004. Museum of Arts and Sciences, Macon. GA # ''Southern Folk Art from the Permanent Collection.'' 28 Apr. - 22 Jul, 2012, Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, GA. # ''Our Faith Affirmed- Works from the collection of Gordon W. Bailey.'' 10 Sep.- 2014- 8 Aug. 2015, University of Mississippi Museum of Art, Oxford, MS. # ''History Refused to Die''. 2015 Alabama Contemporary Art Center. Mobile, AL. # ''History Refused to Die: Highlights from the Souls Grown Deep Foundation Gift.'' 22 May- 23 Sep. 2018, Metropolitan Museum of Art. Dial's work currently exists in the following museums' permanent collections: # Metropolitan Museum of Art # High Museum of Art # Minneapolis Institute of Art # Rockford Art Museum # Gadsden Arts Center

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dial, Arthur Living people 1930 births 20th-century American painters 20th-century American sculptors 21st-century American painters 21st-century American sculptors 21st-century American male artists People from Sumter County, Alabama People from Bessemer, Alabama American male painters American male sculptors Sculptors from Alabama Painters from Alabama African-American sculptors 20th-century African-American painters 21st-century African-American artists 20th-century American male artists