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Lot Essay
This work was on loan to Red Rooster, the famous Harlem, New York, restaurant, for several years.
Thornton Dial had a long career as a railroad welder for the Pullman Standard Company before he turned to art. His first works developed around metal frames as he used his knowledge of steelworking for new purpose. Even as Dial’s art evolved to wall-mounted constructions, he maintained the aesthetic of twisted metal in his pieces. The rope in this work visually evokes the structure and strength of his earlier armatures.
The artist has been the subject of several retrospectives throughout the United States, including the major 2011 exhibition “Hard Truths: The Art of Thornton Dial,” organized by the Indianapolis Museum of Art. His work is in many notable public collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C., the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Thornton Dial had a long career as a railroad welder for the Pullman Standard Company before he turned to art. His first works developed around metal frames as he used his knowledge of steelworking for new purpose. Even as Dial’s art evolved to wall-mounted constructions, he maintained the aesthetic of twisted metal in his pieces. The rope in this work visually evokes the structure and strength of his earlier armatures.
The artist has been the subject of several retrospectives throughout the United States, including the major 2011 exhibition “Hard Truths: The Art of Thornton Dial,” organized by the Indianapolis Museum of Art. His work is in many notable public collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C., the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.