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, often executed on a monumental scale. His range of subjects embraces a broad sweep of history, from human rights to natural disasters and current events. Dial's works are widely held in American museums; ten of Dial's works were acquired by the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

in 2014.

Biography

Thornton Dial was born in 1928 to a teenage mother, Mattie Bell, on a former cotton plantation in Emelle, Alabama, where relatives in his extended family worked as sharecroppers. He lived with his mother until he was around three when Dial and his half-brother Arthur moved in with their second cousin, Buddy Jake Dial, who was a farmer. When Thornton moved in with Buddy Jake, he farmed and learned about the sculptures that Buddy Jake made from items lying around the yard, an experience that influenced him. Dial grew up in poverty and without the presence of his father. In 1940, when he was twelve, Dial moved to Bessemer, Alabama. When he arrived in Bessemer, he noticed the art along the way in people's yards and was amazed at the level of craft exhibited. He married Clara Mae Murrow in 1951. They have five children, one of whom died of cerebral palsy. The late artist Ronald Lockett was his cousin. His principal place of employment was as a metalworker at the Pullman Standard Plant in Bessemer, Alabama, which made railroad cars. The plant closed its doors in 1981. After the Pullman factory shut down, Dial began to dedicate himself to his art for his own pleasure. In 1987 Thornton Dial met

Lonnie Holley Lonnie Bradley Holley (born February 10, 1950) sometimes known as the Sand Man, is an American artist, art educator, and musician. He is best known for his assemblages and immersive environments made of found materials. He was born the 7th of 27 c ...

, an artist who introduced Dial to Atlanta collector and art historian William Arnett. Arnett, whose art historical interests had now focused on African-American vernacular art and artists, brought Dial's work to national prominence. The art historian has also brought

, the Gee's Bend Quilters and many others to the attention of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. Arnett, with Jane Fonda also helped to create a publishing company, in 1996, along with his sons Paul and Matt. He is also the founder and Chairman Emeritus of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation, an organization dedicated to the preservation and documentation of African American art. Dial's work has been continually heralded in international cultural institutions and large survey exhibitions, such as the 2000

Whitney Biennial The Whitney Biennial is a biennial exhibition of contemporary American art, typically by young and lesser known artists, on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, United States. The event began as an annual exhibition ...

. Over time, the context for Dial's work has expanded to showcase the political and social responsiveness of his artwork, expressing "ideas about black history, slavery, racial discrimination, urban and rural poverty, industrial or environmental collapse, and spiritual salvation". Since 2011 the language surrounding Dial's artwork and practice has shifted. This change in perception was the result of the first touring retrospective of Dial's work curated by art historian and cultural critic Joanne Cubbs for the Indianapolis Museum of Art. In reviews of this exhibition, Dial received unprecedented recognition in the national press, which, for the first time, positioned him as a bonafide contemporary artist. For example, Karen Wilkin of ''The Wall Street Journal'' called Dial’s work “first-rate, powerful Art–with a capital ‘A.’” Later, the ''Journal'' also named the Dial retrospective one of the best museum shows of 2011, alongside showings of such major art world luminaries as Degas, Picasso, Kandinsky and Willem de Kooning. In another 2011 review of the ''Hard Truths'' exhibition, art and architecture critic Richard Lacayo published a four-page story on Dial in ''

Time Magazine ''Time'' (stylized in all caps) is an American news magazine based in New York City. For nearly a century, it was published weekly, but starting in March 2020 it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York City on Ma ...

,'' arguing that Dial's work should not be pigeon-holed into the narrowly-defined category of "outsider art":

Dial's work has sometimes been described as "
outsider art Outsider art is art made by self-taught or supposedly naïve artists with typically little or no contact with the conventions of the art worlds. In many cases, their work is discovered only after their deaths. Often, outsider art illustrate ...
", a term that attempts to cover the product of everyone from
naive Naivety (also spelled naïvety), naiveness, or naïveté is the state of being naive. It refers to an apparent or actual lack of experience and sophistication, often describing a neglect of pragmatism in favor of moral idealism. A ''naïve'' may b ...
painters like Grandma Moses to institutionalized lost souls like Martín Ramírez and full-bore obsessives like
Henry Darger Henry Joseph Darger Jr. (; April 12, 1892 – April 13, 1973) was an American writer, novelist and artist who worked as a hospital custodian in Chicago, Illinois. He has become famous for his posthumously discovered 15,145-page fantasy novel m ...
, the
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

janitor A janitor (American English, Scottish English), also known as a custodian, porter, cleanser, cleaner or caretaker, is a person who cleans and maintains buildings. In some cases, they will also carry out maintenance and security duties. A simil ...
... But if there's one lesson to take away from "Hard Truths: The Art of Thornton Dial," a triumphant new retrospective at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, it's that Dial, 82, doesn't belong within even the broad confines of that category....What he does can be discussed as art, just art, no surplus notions of outsiderness required....And not just that, but some of the most assured, delightful and powerful art around.

In still another response to the ''Hard Truths'' exhibition,

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

reporter Carol Kino described Dial's "work's look, ambition, and obvious intellectual reach hew ngclosely to that of many other

modern Modern may refer to: History * Modern history ** Early Modern period ** Late Modern period *** 18th century *** 19th century *** 20th century ** Contemporary history * Moderns, a faction of Freemasonry that existed in the 18th century Phil ...

and

contemporary Contemporary history, in English-language historiography, is a subset of modern history that describes the historical period from approximately 1945 to the present. Contemporary history is either a subset of the late modern period, or it is o ...

masters, from

Jackson Pollock Paul Jackson Pollock (; January 28, 1912August 11, 1956) was an American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. He was widely noticed for his " drip technique" of pouring or splashing liquid household paint onto a hor ...

and Robert Rauschenberg to Jean-Michel Basquiat." Most recently, Alex Greenberger of

ARTnews ''ARTnews'' is an American visual-arts magazine, based in New York City. It covers art from ancient to contemporary times. ARTnews is the oldest and most widely distributed art magazine in the world. It has a readership of 180,000 in 124 countr ...

similarly said: "Thornton Dial has been termed an outsider artist, a

vernacular A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...

artist, and a folk artist—but any of those labels might be a misnomer, since the late painter's work has been gradually moving into the mainstream art world's view in the past few years."

Work

Thornton Dial's work addresses American sociopolitical exigencies such as

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonis ...

bigotry Discrimination is the act of making unjustified distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong. People may be discriminated on the basis of race, gender, age, rel ...

and homelessness. He draws attention to these themes using the overlooked and under-considered material artifacts of everyday American life. Combining paint and found materials, Dial constructs large-scale assemblages with cast-away objects ranging from rope to bones to buckets. Works such as ''Black Walk'' and ''The Blood of Hard Times,'' for example, use corrugated tin and other dilapidated pieces of metal to refer to the destitute bodies and vernacular architecture of the

rural In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are descri ...

South. Dial invokes the history of the American rural South throughout much of his work. The symbol of the tiger is also a primary visual trope in Thornton Dial's oeuvre. Artist and African-American art historian David C. Driskell explained Dial's use of the

tiger The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is the largest living cat species and a member of the genus ''Panthera''. It is most recognisable for its dark vertical stripes on orange fur with a white underside. An apex predator, it primarily preys on ...

as an allegory for survival and an implicit reference to the struggle for civil rights in the United States. In 1993, Dial's work was the subject of a large exhibition that was presented simultaneously at the New Museum of Contemporary Art and the

American Folk Art Museum The American Folk Art Museum is an art museum in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, at 2, Lincoln Square, Columbus Avenue at 66th Street. It is the premier institution devoted to the aesthetic appreciation of folk art and creative expressions of ...

in New York. In 2000, the artist's work was included in the

, and in 2005-06, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston presented a major exhibition entitled "Thornton Dial in the 21st Century," which was followed in 2011-13 by the major touring retrospective "Hard Truths: The Art of Thornton Dial." Dial's works can be found in many notable public and private collections, including those of, among other institutions, the

High Museum of Art The High Museum of Art (colloquially the High) is the largest museum for visual art in the Southeastern United States. Located in Atlanta, Georgia (on Peachtree Street in Midtown, the city's arts district), the High is 312,000 square feet (28, ...

, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the

, New York; the Philadelphia Museum of Art; The

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is an art museum beside the National Mall, in Washington, D.C., the United States. The museum was initially endowed during the 1960s with the permanent art collection of Joseph H. Hirshhorn. It was desig ...

, Washington D.C.; the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C.; and the

Indianapolis Museum of Art The Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA) is an encyclopedic art museum located at Newfields, a campus that also houses Lilly House, The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park: 100 Acres, the Gardens at Newfields, the Beer Garden, and more. It ...

. On November 24, 2014,

The Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

announced that 57 works by contemporary African American artists from the

Southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...

—including 10 works by Dial—were donated to the Museum by the Souls Grown Deep Foundation from its William S. Arnett Collection. An exhibition devoted to the gift opened at the

Metropolitan Museum The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

on May 22, 2018, and ran until September of that year. As Sheena Wagstaff, Leonard A. Lauder Chairman of the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Metropolitan Museum, described the gift, "From Thornton Dial's magisterial constructions to the emblematic compositions by the Gee's Bend quilters from the 1930s onwards, this extraordinary group of works contributes immeasurably to the Museum's representation of works by contemporary American artists and augments on a historic scale its holdings of contemporary art." Two of Dial's major works were included in a March 2016 gift to the

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, or VMFA, is an art museum in Richmond, Virginia, United States, which opened in 1936. The museum is owned and operated by the Commonwealth of Virginia. Private donations, endowments, and funds are used for the s ...

by the president of its board of trustees, William A. Royall, and his wife, Pam. Those works are the iconic, "Old Uncle Buck (The Negro Got to Find Out What's Going On in the United States)," from 2002; and the monumental 2005 sculpture, "Freedom Cloth." The High Museum of Art in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

had a memorial exhibition, on view February 13 to May 1, 2016, that presented a selection of Dial's exuberant drawings and symbolically rich paintings that the Museum has collected over the past twenty years. In April 2016 Marianne Boesky Gallery presented "We All Live Under the Same Old Flag", a show dedicated to Dial since his death.

Artsy Artsy, formally known as Art.sy Inc is a New York City based online art brokerage. Its main business is developing and hosting website for numerous galleries as well as selling art for them. It utilizes a search engine and database to draw conn ...

, the online industry publication, gave the Dial show at Marianne, "We All Live Under the Same Old Flag", top billing among 15 "blockbuster", "must-see" gallery exhibitions on display during the month of May. In 2018, David Lewis Gallery presented "Mr. Dial's America," a survey of Thornton Dial's work from 1989 - 2011. The show garnered significant press, including a review from the editors of ARTnews, who praised the artist's diverse oeuvre of "early self-portraits as well as paintings treating Jim Crow–era America and the struggle for civil rights, the O.J. Simpson trial, and the site of the

World Trade Center World Trade Centers are sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association. World Trade Center may refer to: Buildings * List of World Trade Centers * World Trade Center (2001–present), a building complex that includes five skyscrapers, a ...

after the

9/11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerci ...

." Writing of the show in the New York Times, Roberta Smith commends "Dial's ability to commandeer any material into a painting," and called the works "fiercely formal in ways that connect to

's allover fields of dripped paint and the object paintings of Anselm Kiefer and

Julian Schnabel Julian Schnabel (born October 26, 1951) is an American painter and filmmaker. In the 1980s, he received international attention for his "plate paintings" — with broken ceramic plates set onto large-scale paintings. Since the 1990s, he has been ...

Personal

Thornton married Clara Mae Murrow in 1951. At his death he was survived by three sons, Thornton Jr., Richard and Dan, a daughter, Matte Dial, as well as many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Clara Mae Dial died in 2005.

Exhibitions

Dial's work has been exhibited throughout the United States since 1990. Museum exhibitions include: 2022 * ''Called To Create: Black Artists of the American South'', National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, September 18, 2022 – March 26, 2023. 2019 *''Home is a Foreign Place: Recent Acquisitions in Context,''

, New York, NY 2019 *''Epic Abstraction: Pollock to Herrera'',

, New York, NY 2018 *''History Refused to Die: Highlights from the Souls Grown Deep Foundation Gift'',

, New York, NY 2017 *''Revelations: Art From the African American South,''

De Young Museum The de Young Museum, formally the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, is a fine arts museum located in San Francisco, California. Located in Golden Gate Park, it is a component of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, along with the California Pala ...

, San Francisco, CA *''Self-Taught Genius'', organized by the

, New York, NY, travelled to Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, FL; New Orleans *''Third Space/Shifting Conversations About Contemporary Art'', The Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL *''Inside the Outside: Five Self Taught Artists from the William Louis Dreyfus Foundation'', Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, NY; The Baker Museum *''Known / Unknown: Private Obsession and Hidden Desire in Outsider Art'',

Museum of Sex The Museum of Sex, also known as MoSex, is a sex museum located at 233 Fifth Avenue at the corner of East 27th Street in Manhattan, New York City. It opened on October 5, 2002. History Founder Daniel Gluck wanted to start a museum dedicated t ...

, New York, NY 2016 *''Green Pastures: In Memory of Thornton Dial Sr.,''

, Atlanta 2015 *''I See Myself in You: Selections from the Collection'', Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY *''Social Geographies: Interpreting Space and Place'', curated by Leisa Rundquist, Asheville Museum of Art, Asheville, NC 2014 Thornton Dial Hard Truths

*''When the Stars Begin to Fall: Imagination and the American South'', The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY 2011-13 *''Hard Truths: The Art of Thornton Dial'',

(organizing museum);

New Orleans Museum of Art The New Orleans Museum of Art (or NOMA) is the oldest fine arts museum in the city of New Orleans. It is situated within City Park, a short distance from the intersection of Carrollton Avenue and Esplanade Avenue, and near the terminus of the ...

, The

Mint Museum The Mint Museum, also referred to as The Mint Museums, is a cultural institution comprising two museums, located in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Mint Museum Randolph and Mint Museum Uptown, together these two locations have hundreds of collection ...

, and the High Museum of Art *''Thornton Dial: Thoughts on Paper'',

Ackland Art Museum The Ackland Art Museum is a museum and academic unit of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It was founded through the bequest of William Hayes Ackland (1855–1940) to The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It is located a ...

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

(organizing museum);

Fleming Museum of Art The Fleming Museum of Art is a museum of art and anthropology at the University of Vermont in Burlington. The museum's collection includes some 25,000 objects from a wide variety of eras and places. Until 2014, the museum was known as the Robert ...

, University of Vermont, Burlington; Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, Alabama; and the

Knoxville Museum of Art The Knoxville Museum of Art (KMA), is an art museum in Knoxville, Tennessee. It specializes in historical and contemporary art pieces from the East Tennessee region. According to its mission statement, the museum "celebrates the art and artists ...

, Tennessee. 2005 *''Thornton Dial in the 21st Century'', Museum of Fine Arts, Houston 2002-2004 *''In the Spirit of Martin'',

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

2000 *

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–194 ...

, New York *''Thornton Dial: Drawings'', Ricco/Maresca Gallery, New York, NY, May 11 - June 24, 2000 1998 *''Self-Taught Artists of the 20th Century: An American Anthology'', Philadelphia Museum 1997 *''The Hirshhorn Collects: Recent Acquisitions 1992 - 1996'',

, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. 1993 *''Thornton Dial: Image of the Tiger'', New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York;

, New York; American Center, Paris *''Passionate Visions of the American South: Self -Taught Artists from 1940 to the Present'',

, New Orleans

Public collections

, Chapel Hill, NC *

, New York, NY *

Birmingham Museum of Art The Birmingham Museum of Art is a museum in Birmingham, Alabama. It has one of the most extensive collections of artwork in the Southeastern United States, with more than 24,000 paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings, and decorative arts repres ...

, Birmingham, AL *

Brooklyn Museum of Art The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Cro ...

, New York, NY * Clark Atlanta University Art Museum, Atlanta, GA *

Dallas Museum of Art The Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) is an art museum located in the Arts District of downtown Dallas, Texas, along Woodall Rodgers Freeway between St. Paul and Harwood. In the 1970s, the museum moved from its previous location in Fair Park to the Art ...

, Dallas, TX * de Young Museum of Art,

Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF), comprising the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park and the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park, is the largest public arts institution in the city of San Francisco. The permanent collection of the ...

, San Francisco, CA *

Flint Institute of Arts The Flint Institute of Arts, also called FIA, is located in the Flint Cultural Center in Flint, Michigan. The second largest art museum in Michigan, it offers exhibitions, interpretive programs, film screenings, concerts, lectures, family events ...

, Flint, MI * Gadsden Arts Center and Museum *

Georgia Museum of Art The Georgia Museum of Art is an art museum in Athens, Georgia, United States, associated with the University of Georgia (UGA). The museum is both an academic museum and, since 1982, the official art museum of the state of Georgia. The permanent co ...

, Athens, GA *

Harvard Art Museums The Harvard Art Museums are part of Harvard University and comprise three museums: the Fogg Museum (established in 1895), the Busch-Reisinger Museum (established in 1903), and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum (established in 1985), and four research ...

, Cambridge, MA *

, Atlanta, GA *

, Washington D.C. *

Hunter Museum of American Art The Hunter Museum of American Art is an art museum in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The museum's collections include works representing the Hudson River School, 19th century genre painting, American Impressionism, the Ashcan School, early modernism, ...

, Chattanooga, TN *

, Indianapolis, IN *

Indiana University Art Museum The Eskenazi Museum of Art at Indiana University opened in 1941 under the direction of Henry Radford Hope.Baden, Linda J. Indiana University Art Museum: Dedication. Bloomington, IN: Museum, 1982. Print. The museum was intended to be the center of ...

, Bloomington, IN * Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, Chicago, IL *

, New York, NY *

Milwaukee Art Museum The Milwaukee Art Museum (MAM) is an art museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Its collection contains nearly 25,000 works of art. Location and Visit Located on the lakefront of Lake Michigan, the Milwaukee Art Museum is one of the largest art museu ...

, Milwaukee, WI *

Minneapolis Institute of Art The Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) is an arts museum located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Home to more than 90,000 works of art representing 5,000 years of world history, Mia is one of the largest art museums in the United State ...

, Minneapolis, MN *

Minnesota Museum of American Art The Minnesota Museum of American Art ("The M") is an American art museum located in the Historic Pioneer Endicott building in Saint Paul, Minnesota. The museum holds more than 5,000 artworks that showcase the unique voice of American artists from ...

, St. Paul, MN * Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, AL *

The Morgan Library & Museum The Morgan Library & Museum, formerly the Pierpont Morgan Library, is a museum and research library in the Murray Hill neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It is situated at 225 Madison Avenue, between 36th Street to the south and 37th ...

, New York, NY * Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, MA * Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX *

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

(MoMA), New York, NY * Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA *Rockford Art Museum, Rockford, IL * Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C. * Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Atlanta, GA * Studio Museum, Harlem *

, Richmond, VA *

Virginia Union University Virginia Union University is a private historically black Baptist university in Richmond, Virginia. It is affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA. History The American Baptist Home Mission Society (ABHMS) founded the school as Rich ...

, Richmond, VA *

, New York, NY

Public art

*Road to the Mountaintop (sculpture) (2014), Nashville, TN * The Bridge (sculpture) (1997), Atlanta, GA

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dial, Thornton 1928 births 2016 deaths Artists from Alabama People from Sumter County, Alabama Outsider artists African-American sculptors 20th-century American sculptors Self-taught artists 20th-century African-American artists 21st-century African-American people