Portfolio of Folk Art and Artists such as Mose Tolliver

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Mose T painting in his home at his favorite work area-his bed.

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"Self-Portrait" By Mose Tolliver

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MOSE T Photograph By Henry Cadenhead

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"BIRD HOUSE" By Mose Tolliver
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Mose Tolliver, born in 1915 near Pintala, Alabama, lived most of his life in Montgomery.
During the late 1960's, boredom and long hours of idle time spawned his creativity.
Mose worked with "pure house paint" on plywood; creating whimsical, haunting and
sometimes erotic pictures of wonderfully balanced animals, humans, and flora.
A "Quail Bird" may glide over a cotton field, or a spread-leg "Diana" may be straddled
over "An Excercise Rack Bicycle.
 
Self portraits with crutches were a repeated image for Mose T.

Mose was dyslexic, which may have encouraged his artisitic efforts by limiting his reading
and writing abilities. He would often turn his paintings upside-down and paint the picture of
perhaps an animal and landscape positioned from various directions. Tolliver's titles exhibited
a fantastic imagination; "Smoke Charlies,","Scopper Bugs,"or "Jick Jack Suzy Satisfying her own Self."
 
Tolliver's work has been exhibited at the Philadelphia College of Art, Montgomery Museum of Fine Art,
and the Cocoran Gallery of Art. In 1993, a retrospective of his work was held at the Museum of American
Folk Art in New York City. Mose Tolliver sadly  passed away in  2006, after living a full life. 
 

 
"I paint because that  is all I love to  do.
I reckon I'll paint for the rest of my life if I'm able to."
 
 
 
 
 
MOSE T  A TO Z: THE  FOLK ART OF MOSE TOLLIVER    creates an intimate portrait
of the life of  a  unique African-American  who  overcame his  disabilities through his art making. 
Injured on a job,  Mose Tolliver took up painting as a way to productively fill his hours.
After several years, Mose was discovered by collectors and his work now hangs in numerous
collections and has been included in many shows by famous galleries like the Corcoran
Art Gallery in Washington, DC. . Author Anton Haardt lets us see beyond the artist into
the personality of a complex man who took defeat and turned it into victory.

        
               Haardt's book is a must-read for art lovers. 
 
 
Mose T showed us all there is art in doing what you love and loving what you do.

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Author Anton Haardt and Mose Tolliver , 1998

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The Tolliver Front Porch where he stacked Art.


  

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In the winter of 1982, the American art world was jolted by a controversial exhibition

held at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.The morning after the opening 

reception, art editors questioned in newspapers across the country, "Is this art?"

 That artist is the subject of a new book by Montgomery native Anton Haardt,

 entitled Mose T.  from A to Z:  The Folk Art of Mose Tolliver.


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Visit www.antonart.com for more Folk Art

FOLK ART FROM THE DEEP SOUTH

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 

 

 

 

 

 

Often created on discarded materials,such as grocery bags

and roofing material, their paintings are direct,powerful,

and from the heart. 

 

The strength of these artists work is their lack of

 self-consciousness as to what their art is or should be.

It is their sheer impulse to create, and there in its raw

beauty lies its power.

 

Outsiders,  with its romantic overtone,

has been the most popular term to describe these artists.

They are self-taught , imaginative, and many of them have been

isolated from the contemporary art world. Even though eccentricity

and isolation have in many cases nurtured their creativity, often they

have been misunderstood and shunned by their relatives, friends and peers.


The art is produced by untrained people who draw on their culture

and experiences in an isolated world; made with a true, untutored,

creative passion. It’s raw, and expressive. Anton Haardt has been interested

in this field for over twenty years ,and had over the years become friends

with many of the Southern  Folk and  these  pieces are  from her collection.

Artists such as Mose Tolliver, Jimmie  Sudduth,Royal Robertson,Lonnie Holley,

Charlie Lucas, and more.

 

 

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THE ARTISTS 

   

 

Royal Robertson, a sign painter by trade, was born in St. Helena Parish, Louisiana.

He has been scorned by his neighbors and has turned to obsessive records of his visions in

imagery and writings.His drawings show his accomplished trade of sign painter in their

proportional architectural accuracy.


Howard Finster- In the mid-1970s Howard had a vision. While using his finger to dab paint on a bicycle,
 
he saw a human face in the fingertip. Howard interpreted this as a sign from God that he should
 
create works of art in order to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ. From then until his death,
 
Howard Finster painted almost non-stop. He slept very little and painted detailed accounts of his visions and dreams. 


 Lonnie Holley creates large, figurative works that manage to look naive but sophisticated at the same time.
 
His primitive recycled junk and sandstone scupltures are powerful, as are his drawings. With no formal training
 
he makes constructions from found objects and uses vivid colors, textures, and bold images.
 
 
Lonnie explains,
 
 
"People call me crazy. They call me foolish. They call me Voodoo Man.
They call me Witch Doctor, but I am not
 
a demon-maker. I’m just a reflection of what life is really like."
 


 Juanita Rogers was an uneducated black woman living in a dilapidated shack outside Montgomery,Alabama.
 
She had a powerful , creative talent and mystifying spirit. Juanita´s crumbling sculptures were made
 
 of mud, moss and bones: the  frightening evidence of compulsion. The haunting figures were
 
 
 part of Juanita´s stories of magic stones, nuns and  graveyard dirt.
 
 
 
 
 
 Willie White created  subjects  of fantastic  prehistoric birds, alligators, dragons, and flying horses. His compositions are filled
 
with 
 
bright marker color, a medium which he  began  to  work exclusively  in the   late 1960's until his death.

 

 

Sybil Gibson spent most of her life estranged, from her family

drifting between second-rate hotels and trailers across the United States.

She was seized by an urge to paint on grocery bags, and on this unusual

canvas she poured out her passions. 


 Jimmie Lee Sudduth painted with mud, spinach  juice and sugar! He was  on the Today show in the 1960's and  climbed to fame since then.  He   often was quoted as saying" Im  the most  famoust  artist in the world!" Sudduth's great  paintings of Toto, Staue of Liberty, and   Log Cabins  place  his work as  one of   Alabama's  top self-taught  artists.


Calvin Livingston was born in 1970 in Tuskeegee Alabama was included in the exhibition "Outsider Artists in Alabama" in 1991 and his work is included in the permanent collection of the St. James Place Folk Art Museum in Alabama and in most  House of Blues   clubs across the country. His  juke joint type  hammered tin pieces- almost too bold for most people.

 

 James Purdy, cult author, poet and playwright, whose fans ranged from Dorothy Parker to Gore Vidal, died  in 2009.He is known for   his dark writing, as well , poems and drawings created over the past half-century.( Haardt   acquired these drawings directly  from Purdy in the 1990's).

Email us for more information


 FOLK ART AVAILABLE THROUGH  SATURNO PRESS


001 Dial,Thornton  Movie Star  $4500.00

 

002 Finster, Howard Jesus 1300.00 Howard Finster    

 003 Finster, Howard Lithograph 500.00 Howard Finster    

 004 Finster, Howard Wipe Rag 1300.00 Howard Finster     

005 FOLK ART INFO ON REQUEST  Folk Art Galllery Info     

006 Gibson, Sybil painting Flowers 1374 800.00  Sybil Gibson     

007 Gibson,Sybil painting Wild Face 1781 700.00  Sybil Gibson     

008 HOLLEY,LONNIE-Painting The Wheel 900.00  Lonnie Holley    

 009 HOLLEY,LONNIE-Painting Egyptian 500.00  Lonnie Holley     

010 Huichol Yarn Painting 700.00  Huichol Art    

 011 Livingston, Calvin Blues Bird 500.00  Calvin Livingston    

 012 Livingston, Calvin Red Man 800.00  Calvin Livingston    

 013 LIVINGSTON, CALVIN-3 painting 500.00  Calvin Livingston    

 014 LUCAS, CHARLIE PAINTING Horse 800.00  Charlie Lucas    

 015 LUCAS, CHARLIE PAINTING My cup 800.00  Charlie Lucas    

 016 MOSE TOLLIVER BOOK By Anton Haardt 46.00  Mose T     

017 Persons, Leroi Woodcarvings 800.00 Leroi Persons    

 018 Purdy, James Bird 600.00  JAMES PURDY    

 019 Purdy, James Man 600.00 JAMES PURDY    

 020 Rice, WC Cross 500.00 WC Rice