Lot 50
Mose Ernest Tolliver (American, 1919-2006). House paint on wooden board, n.d. Signed at bottom right. A wonderful folk art interpretation of a bunch of watermelons on a vine created by self-taught Outsider Artist Mose Tolliver, also known as Mose T just like the signature on his paintings which usually features a backwards "S" as we see here. Delineated in house paint (as was Tolliver's practice) on a found wooden board, the composition presents these delectable delights in an intriguing manner - some are whole but others are cut open to reveal their fruity flesh and seeds. All is delineated in a colorful palette of bright red, green, and black hues against a citrine background, with a green border. Size: 22.1" L x 24.1" W (56.1 cm x 61.2 cm)
On the verso is a soda pop or beer can tab presumably to serve as a suspension hook. This was a signature of Tolliver's but we would recommend displaying on a ledge or fitting with a different mounting system.
Mose Tolliver was one of twelve children born to sharecroppers Ike and Laney Tolliver in the Pike Road community near Montgomery, Alabama. He only attended school until the third grade. According to Toliver, "I didn't like school. I remember I wanted to be outdoors working with my older brothers or even stacking wood
One thing I remember about our farm house - it was just a shack, but my Mama had pictures all over the walls." His family moved to Montgomery, Alabama in the thirties where he worked odd jobs to help support the family. He married his childhood friend Willie Mae Thomas in the forties, and the couple had thirteen children. Mose did not begin creating art until the sixties after suffering a serious injury to his legs when a load of marble fell from a forklift as he was sweeping in a furniture factory. Art provided Tolliver with solace from the pain and boredom that resulted from this tragic accident.
In the first article published about Tolliver he declared, "I'm not interested in art. I just want to paint my pictures." Nevertheless, the art world took notice. For example, Dr. Robert Bishop, former Director of the Museum of American Folk Art, stated about Mose's artworks, "You can hang him beside a Picasso, and you have the same kind of creativity and deep personal vision." (Montgomery Advertiser, February 1981). One year later, Toliver's work was included in the blockbuster exhibition entitled, "Black Folk Art in America 1930-1980" at Corcoran Gallery in Washington D.C. thus introducing him to the art world at large. Tolliver's artwork has been exhibited at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Philadelphia College of Art, the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, the American Folk Art Museum in New York (a retrospective), and the Corcoran Gallery of Art. His works have been collected by Birmingham Museum of Art, Akron Art Museum, Smithsonian's National Museum of American Art, and University of Michigan Museum of Art.
Provenance: ex-private Bishop Family Trust collection, the Trust of the late Bill Bishop, a noted antiquarian with shops in Scottsdale, Arizona and Allenspark, Colorado, USA, acquired before 2010
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#174631
- Condition: Signed by the artist at bottom right. Painting was created on a found piece of wood which shows expected imperfections and fissures. Painting has a few scuffs, stains, and nicks/chips as shown, but otherwise presents with vivid imagery and vibrant hues. On the verso is a soda pop or beer can tab presumably to serve as a suspension hook. This was a signature of Tolliver's but we would recommend displaying on a ledge or fitting with a different mounting system.
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