Featured
RaZoO GaLLeRy Artist Mose Toliver Sometimes referred
to as America's
Black Picasso,
Moses
Toliver
was born around 1919 or 1920 into a family of Alabama sharecroppers.
One
of a dozen children himself, he fathered eleven children. Moses supported his
family with a series of odd jobs until the late 1960s when a crate
of marble crushed his legs while he was working in a furniture
factory. Depressed, disabled, and drinking, Mose began painting as a diversion
to pass the time. His earliest work was given away or hung in
his yard offered for a few dollars each.
In 1982, his work
was featured in the landmark exhibition "BlackFolk Art of America"
at
Washington's Corcoran Gallery.
Critically acclaimed
as aesthetically similar to the legendary Bill Traylor, yet a
true American original, Moses was well on his way to becoming one of the
most significant folk painters in the nation. Considered the prototypical
stylistic
example
of American Art Brut delineation, his work is in every
important museum and serious private collection devoted to vernacular
art. Toliver continues to
produce paintings while perched on the edge of his bed. He is
well-known as a storyteller by the lucky few who are allowed to
visit and his seemingly simplistic paintings reveal a deeper inner narrative.
Toliver's paintings often
depict brightly colored birds, animals, plants and characters
of his own imagination in flat perspective, but stylistically
refined in elementary shapes and symbols. Usually working with house paint
on plywood paneling or even cardboard, the artist creates a wide assortment
of wonderfully straightforward minimalist images but never frames
his work himself. Admittedly, Mose Toliver's favorite subject matter continues to be his family, nature,
erotica, and himself.
