Green Construction with Two Men and a Dog, 1939-1942

After a lifetime on a plantation, former slave Bill Traylor (1854-1949) moved to Montgomery, Alabama. Crippled with rheumatism, he began to draw. From a doorstep on Monroe Street he rendered starkly modernist farm animals, architectural elements, dancing, drinking and fighting figures, and other images evoking his current and previous experiences. Green Construction is one of Traylor's "exciting events." The image is animated and alive, with lunging figures energetically pointing fingers while a barking dog leans into the scene, wagging his tail.