Reviewer Materials of Outsider Artists by Anton Haardt

BOOK REVIEWS
1. Vision Seekers

Outsider artists such as Sister Gertrude Morgan often come to public attention thanks to their unique -- and sometimes controversial -- relationships with art world insiders.

By Jason Berry

*Excerpt

As Bornenstein was drawn to the passionate visions of Sister Gertrude's work, Anton Haardt felt a magnetic pull to the pink "dinosaur birds" and strange shapings of fruits, animals and human bodies that Mose Tolliver, working on scrap wood, was selling in his yard

"Mose Tolliver used to hang his paintings in a tree outside his home in Montgomery, Ala., pricing them at one or two dollars a piece," writes Anton Haardt in Mose T. From A to Z: The Folk Art of Mose Tolliver, a forthcoming biography, lushly illustrated, by the woman whose eponymous Magazine Street gallery has perhaps the city's most extensive inventory of high-quality works by black Southern folk artists. The daughter of a wealthy Montgomery real estate agent, Anton Haardt earned a bachelor's degree in fine arts from the San Francisco Art Institute and was starting her own career as a painter in 1969 when she saw Tolliver's paintings outside his house. Tolliver had been crippled several years earlier in an accident on the job at a Montgomery furniture store when a crate of marble fell from a fork lift, crushing his left ankle and destroying the muscles and tendons in his legs. Forced to use a wheelchair and crutches, he threw himself into painting "to keep [my] head together," he said later.

Haardt began buying pictures from Tolliver. "Mose didn't have much in his bank account," she says. He would sell paintings to her for $10 each. She would drive to New Orleans and sell them to Russell Gaspardi, who had a gallery in the Quarter, for $20 each. "Gaspardi would sell them for $75 a piece," she says. "I'd give all the money from the sales to Mose, and he would give me two paintings in return."

Tolliver's imagination had a vivid erotic streak in his bulbous female figures, which would hardly have endeared him to Sister Gertrude. He also generated a stream of self-portraits -- a man with walking sticks, and heads that resemble animist masks.

  "Mose and I became very close friends," continues Haardt. "I was also doing a lot of traveling back then. I didn't want him to lose anything on my account." Others, including Gaspardi, began making trips to Montgomery to buy art from Mose T at his home.

The friendship that blossomed between Anton Haardt, a daughter of Alabama's upper crust, and Mose Tolliver, a black man in a wheel chair barely scraping by, typifies the way in which many self-taught painters found their way into the art market. Haardt kept buying and selling his works as an agent on a non-exclusive basis. "I love Mose. I wanted to help him," she says.

In 1982, Haardt arranged for Tolliver to show his works in Washington, D.C., at the prestigious Corcoran Museum of Art's landmark exhibit Black Folk Art in America, 1930-1980.

"Before we left Alabama I had made a bet with Mose that if we bought ten of his paintings to Washington, I could sell them for a lot more money than he could ever imagine," she writes. "I aimed to sell them for one hundred dollars each, a lot of money in 1982, and certainly more than their usual selling price. After the opening, I was accompanied to my hotel room by several prominent folk-art collectors who were interested in buying Mose's paintings. Within minutes I had sold all of Mose's pictures and had one thousand dollars cash in my hand. For me, delivering those earnings to Mose was the pinnacle of our trip."

Over time, as Haardt bought more paintings from Tolliver, she held on to many of them. "I probably have 400 pieces by Mose," she says. She also purchased dozens of works by Jimmy Lee Sudduth, a rural artist whose figurative paintings, using red-brown Alabama mud, radiate a warm lyricism.

Although Haardt has made her home in New Orleans for years now, she makes regular trips back to Alabama to visit Tolliver, now 85, whose health is deteriorating. Tolliver's pieces sell for $500 to $1,500 at Anton Haardt Gallery, though some of his more stylized works go for considerably more.

The other artist whose work Haardt championed, the late Juanita Rodgers, lived outside of Montgomery in a shack in an open field. For years, Rodgers made sculptures out of mud. Haardt befriended her as well, spending long stretches watching her work and interviewing her about her obsession with mud sculptures. Haardt is completing a book about Rodgers, whose works she has preserved in storage since Rodgers' death.

Anton Haardt's Essay on Juanita Rodgers appears in the massive 2000 book Souls Grown Deep: African American Vernacular Art. At $100 a copy, Souls Grown Deep was the brainchild of William Arnett, a pioneering folk art dealer in Atlanta, and his son Paul Arnett. The Arnetts produced a second volume of Souls Grown Deep in 2001 with financial support from Jane Fonda, who settled in Atlanta after her divorce from CNN founder Ted Turner.

Local gallery owner Anton Haardt's admiration of Mose T's talent led to both a long friendship and working relationship and a forthcoming book of Mose T's works.

Art is a search for all who make things designed for the inner spaces and public exteriors of our lives. The religious imagery Sister Gertrude Morgan made of her mystical illuminations, the flood of faces and figures that Mose Tolliver generated after his leg was destroyed, and the mythical sensibility of small folk and heroic figures in an African-American landscape wrought by Thornton Dial are three chapters in the annals of Southern folk art. Behind these artists are individuals -- Larry Borenstein, Anton Haardt, Bill and Paul Arnett -- who turned the passion of their own discoveries into commerce, advancing careers and creating public figures in the process.

Jason Berry's essay "New Orleans in the Years of Sister Gertrude Morgan," is included in the catalogue Tools of Her Ministry.

Clarence V. Reynolds, "Black Issues"

Book review

 Self-taught artist Mose Tolliver approached his art if not in a singular fashion, then in a distinct manner from many other artists. After a debilitating accident in the late 1960s confined him to a wheelchair, Tolliver began using house paint, bought on sale, to create images of animals and nature; and he plopped his creations on pieces of plywood and poster board. This exercise of painting was meant to be therapeutic, but it proved to be the catalyst for the true artist within him to come forth. Tolliver then unashamedly displayed his creations in a fashion that was not so unusual in the South--he hung them from trees outside his house in Montgomery, Alabama. In 1981, Tolliver mounted his first one-man exhibit, at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts. His stature as a first-class, albeit self-taught, artist had come, and his career has been flying ever since.  Yet Tolliver once said, "I'm not interested in art. I just want to paint my pictures."

Mose T, A to Z is the first book dedicated to Tolliver's work. Haardt, an artist and gallery owner in New Orleans, befriended Mose and his wife, Willie Mae Tolliver, in the '60s; and Haardt's true heart comes through in the book, as Mose Tolliver's work is carefully laid out with pictures of the artist, his wife and members of their family. Yet it's the commentary from the man himself sprinkled throughout the pages, accompanying the images, that makes the book a worthy investment for fans of Mose.

______________________________

Midwest Book Review

African-American art is as diverse, innovative, and reflective of mind, imagination, and cultural experience as any other form of folk-oriented artistic expression. "Mose T From A to Z" The Folk Art Of Mose Tolliver" by Anton Haardt is the perfect showcase with which to introduce one of the truly talented representatives of this authentic American art genre. When Mose Tolliver was injured on the job, he was able to overcome his disabilities by teaching himself how to paint as a way to pass the time as constructively as possible. After several years of honing his skills as a self-instructed folk artist, his work was discovered by art collectors and critiques, including the best of his creations being displayed in such venues as the Corcoran Art Gallery in Washington DC. Artist, photographer, and writer Anton Haardt provides interested readers with an informative biography and an informed commentary to accompany selected preproductions of Tolliver's work, including a 'pictorial essay'. Enhanced with a Timeline, as well as art captions, "Mose T A to Z" is a seminal work that will well serve to introduce a unique African-American artist to an appreciative new audience and should be considered a seminal addition to personal, academic, and community library 20th Century American Art History collections in general, and African-American Artist reference shelves in particular.

  KING KUDZU MAGAZINE

  Review written by: Kane Bowden

  Mose T A to Z: The Folk Art of Mose Tolliver By Anton Haardt



   Haardt blissfully recalls her aquaintance with Tolliver and his family and  how, in his early years, Tolliver would hang his works from trees outside  his home for interested passers-by.

   The A-Z section of the book is a perfect introduction for anyone with an interest in Tolliver's work, but has never met the man in person or seen his work first-hand.



The full color guide gives 26 examples of Tolliver’s massive body of works,  along with personal quotes from Tolliver himself providing insight on what inspires him to paint a "Jimma Jamma Girl" or a "Tico Bird".



For us laymans, Haardt gives a brief, yet highly informative, definition on each of Tolliver's whimsical monikers for his paintings.

This book should hold a special appeal for those around Montgomery who have come to know and love the old man on Sayre Street, and may capture interest of art enthusiasts worldwide.

Book Review Sunday, April 15, 2007

By Denise Turney 

Mose T A to Z: The Folk Art of Mose Tolliver introduces art lovers and a broad range of eclectic book readers to a natural born, self-taught drawer and painter they may not otherwise meet. The style the book’s author, a writer, artist and photographer named Anton Haardt, uses to bring Mose T to readers is indicative of Mose T’s creative style itself. I couldn’t help but to think that Haardt is perfect to write this book. 

 

The fact that Haardt is an artist in her own right coupled with the fact that she not only has a strong appreciation for Mose T and his work but also the fact that Haardt knows Mose T and has known him for more than thirty years lends a credence, a validity, to the book that gives the book a down home feel. This spirit of ease and familiarity is sufficiently balanced with a sharp Art IQ. 

 It is rare, though not as frequently as it used to be years ago, for a self-taught artist to have his work, that he once hung in his own front yard for passersby to look at and enjoy and perhaps purchase, placed on display at places like The Smithsonian Institute, The New Orleans Museum of Art, the Museum of Birmingham, Moore College of Art and Design in Philadelphia, American Folk Art Museum in New York and the Ogden Museum of Southern Art.  

 Focus and education about the Folk Art world is rich throughout the book’s pages. I especially enjoyed reading about Mose and Willie Mae, Mose’s wife of fifty years and mother of his twelve children, visit to the Corcoran exhibition in Washington, DC. Pictures of Mose’s work are dispersed throughout the book as are photos of the artist himself as he goes about his every day life, seemingly unaware of the talent that he holds. Mose’s artistic IQ is innate; the book celebrates this talent spectacularly.  

 Yet there is another story buried beneath the art in Mose T A to Z: The Folk Art of Mose Tolliver. It is the story of the artist himself, not simply the art he created, and the story of the artist’s family. It is the dance, the love, of a man and a woman who met when they both were children and who went on to share half a century together.   Readers will be inspired by the way Mose T takes up art after a slab of marble falls on his feet at the furniture store where he worked. Mose T would spend his remaining years, as of the writing of the book, in a wheelchair. To bring Mose T out of his depression following the accident, a fellow colleague, Raymond McLendon, encouraged Mose T to paint. 

 The book clearly illustrates the connectedness of life. An unforeseen accident led a man, Mose Tolliver, to unlock his artistic talent, a talent that very well may have otherwise remained dormant, a talent that has been shared with and appreciated by countless people, children and adults, around the world. Mose T did not create to impress. The book’s author created the book with that same spirit. Mose T A to Z: The Folk Art of Mose Tolliver is a book to be enjoyed and treasured now and for years to come - just like Mose Tolliver’s work.     HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

BOOK REVIEW

Title: Mose T A to Z: The Folk Art of Mose Tolliver

Author: Anton Haardt

Publisher: Saturno Press

ISBN: 0975384201

Genre: Nonfiction

  Little-known artists sometimes receive the recognition they deserve and their names become known to the art world. Such is the case of Mose Tolliver, a talented, self-taught folk artist.

  Injured on a job, he 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 several collections and has been included in many shows by famous galleries like the Corcoran Art Gallery in Washington, DC.

  The concept largely held by society that uneducated people are simple is disproved by men and women like Mose Tolliver. If opportunity knocks, they prove they have talents that place them in a special category apart from the rest of society.

  Mose didn't care for the trappings that go along with success, he said he wanted only to paint. And so he did. The subjects of his work cover a wide range and change over the years.

  Author Anton Haardt lets us see beyond the artist into the personality of a complex man who took defeat and turned it into victory, an example for all.

  I'm happy to recommend Mose T as an introduction to folk art, a field I know little of, and a starting point for learning about the artists who create that art. Definitely a book worth reading.

Review by Anne K. Edwards 01/17/07

The Story Of A Remarkable Man Told Through Art.

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

Author: Anton Haardt

Publisher: Saturno Press (January 2005)

Genre: Art

ISBN: 0975384209000

Hardcover: 90 pages



Rating: Highly Recommended.



July 20, 2005

          Well over three decades ago, Mose Tolliver was injured on the job as a load of marble fell on his legs crushing them. To ³clear his head², Mose began to paint a variety of subjects with the hopes of selling his works for a few

dollars or trading them for food. One may call that the end, but this hobby became the beginning of so much more.



Anton Haardt, an artist, photographer and author as well as an inspiration too many in and out of the art world forged a friendship with MoseTolliver. To help him out she began to show his art to larger galleries. She would try to sell his art work for twenty-five dollars or more as opposed to the one or two dollars that he would normally accept.
In 1982,his work was displayed at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. At the Black Folk Art in America 1930-1980 Exhibition. Critics questioned if his art was actually Art...due to the fact that it was so different.

Regardless of the initial reaction by the Art World, his work soon developed a market and the demand and value of his work increased. His unconventional style stretched the boundaries of folk art at that time, but  soon after and today, his work is respected and purchased by people from all walks of life. Today, he is the last surviving artist from the Corcoran

Exhibition.

  Quote by Mose Tolliver:

”I just think of something I want to paint and I¹ll try it and I¹ll keep

working until it looks all right to me, then if someone buys it it must be

all right.”



          The world has spoken and his work exceeds "all right." His use of unconventional media such as house paint on wood eliminates the option of hiding bad art under exciting and expensive materials. His artwork is true and pure and sought after by a diverse audience. Who pay what some would pay for works by more famous artists. He used to sell paintings for a few

dollars, but now that has escalated to thousands of dollars. He is a true inspiration to budding artists, causing them to persevere and never give up the part of their own selves that they paint regardless of the critics!



Anton Haardt does an excellent job of explaining in her book the ideas behind Mose¹s work in his own words. Each painting means something to him and he tries to paint that thought or idea in its purest form. Some of his paintings are done in rich earth tones, causing the subject matter to outweigh the media. Other works have some sexual overtones but it is

handled with charisma and not overdone. He draws inspiration from family members or children playing outside. His paintings have unique titles such as French Magnolia Lily, Hatching Bird House and Jimma Jamma Girl (use your

imagination)! These unique paintings have unique stories and that is a part of the reason for their acceptance and appeal. A lot of his works are various self portraits as he draws from himself for inspiration either way, when you see a ³MoseT² with the signature reverse "S" applied, you know that it was either painted by him or signed by him.

Pick up a copy of MoseT A to Z: The Folk Art of Mose Tolliver today and discover the work of a true artist who¹s transition from obscurity to fame has been documented by his friend of 35 years. I must thank Anton Haardt for sharing Mose¹s story with us. It¹s an excellent story and excellent journal of an amazing artist who will see fame in his own lifetime after a disaster that caused him to pick up a paintbrush and share his inner thoughts with us.



Tyrone V. Banks

Mose T, A to Z: The Folk Art

of Mose Tolliver, by Anton Haardt

Saturno Press, 2006

Whether you refer to him as a self-taught artist or a folk artist, Mose Tolliver is a legend and an inspiration. Disabled when a crate of marble fell on his feet and legs, Tolliver turned to art in order to keep his head together. But not everyone who practices art therapeutically gains the recognition that Tolliver achieved.

So how did Mose T, as he was known, transform from a gardener/housepainter/shipping employee into an internationally known and respected folk artist? The answer to this question can be found in Anton Haardt¹s book Mose T, A to Z: The Folk Art of Mose Tolliver.

Haardt and Tolliver could not be more different. As the Foreword notes, Haardt was an ³accomplished young woman from a socially prominent Alabama family² while Tolliver was a ³middle-aged, partially disabled African American painter.² But, they were both artists in Montgomery Alabama. Haardt was drawn to Tolliver¹s pictures with fantastical titles like Jimma Jamma Girl and X-Ray Dry Bones Charlie which were often displayed in his front yard. Neighbors and artists would often pay him one or two dollars per picture.

In this collection of anecdotes and quotes from Tolliver¹s life, alongside an abecedarian compendium of some of his art, Haardt has given the world an opportunity to know Tolliver the way she did. Haardt even includes a timeline of important dates and exhibitions throughout Tolliver¹s career.

Mose Tolliver died October 31, 2006. He was in his 80s. Haardt¹s book is a must-read for art lovers, as well as for those who think art is only for the wealthy. Most T showed us all there is art in doing what you love and loving what you do.

74 pp.

Bernadette Geyer, editor

berniE-zine: Book Reviews & More

http://rantsravesreviews.homestead.com

This is Haardt¹s first book.

Illustrated by Mose Tolliver