About the Artist Thornton Dial

Thornton Dial (b. 1928) is a self-taught artist who only began seriously making art after his retirement. He worked in and around Bessemer, AL, as a carpenter, brickleayer, welder, and steelworker, finally starting his own family business making painted steel furniture. With more time to make things simply for his own pleasure, Dial started constructing figurative sculptures, then branched out to painting and mixed-media assemblages. It wasn't very long before he was discovered by the outside art world, and showing his 'things' at galleries and museums, including The New Museum in New York and the Whitney Biennial. His art functions like folk tales, combining African and American traditions to tell stories that are at once personal, political, and spiritual.

Art ain’t about paint. It ain’t about canvas. It’s about ideas. Too many people died without ever getting their mind out to the world. I have found how to get my ideas out and I won’t stop. I got ten thousand left.
- Thornton Dial