Thornton Dial's 'Hard Truths' at NOMA: A World-Class Artist, Misunderstood

A 2011 exhibition at the New Orleans Museum of Art, 'Hard Truths: The Art of Thornton Dial,' showcased the late artist's work, who died recently. Dial, born September 10, 1928, in Alabama, was illiterate and never studied art, working 30 years in a rail car factory. His constructions, like 'Don't Matter How Raggly the Flag' (2003) and 'First Butterflies' (2002), rival Jasper Johns, Larry Poons, and Robert Rauschenberg. The critic argues the catalogue overemphasizes Dial's outsider status and Southern racism, failing to treat him as a serious artist alongside modernist peers. Some works, like 'Trophies (Doll Factory)' (2000) and 'Everybody's Welcome in Peckerwood City' (2005), are less convincing. The exhibition originated at the Indianapolis Museum of Art and traveled to the Mint Museum in Charlotte and the High Museum, notably skipping New York, Chicago, and California.