Untitled (Man and Woman), 1939-1942

Born into slavery around 1853, Bill Traylor made his first extant art in 1939, at age 86. Having spent his entire working life on plantations and farms, he moved to Alabama's state capital of Montgomery in 1928. From a doorstep on Monroe Street, in the African American section of the city, he composed starkly modernist images of lively animals, elaborate constructions and active people.

Here, a poised woman and dapper man embody the energy of Traylor’s working environment. Seeming almost in motion, the two appear simultaneously ready to interact and to pass straight past each other amidst the bustle of Montgomery. Traylor embraced the parameters of his surfaces, and in this instance, almost entirely fills his card to create a high-energy scene. The blue paint splatter, fantastically positioned between the figures’ faces, was likely there when Traylor began the work, as the other elements of the composition seem to align perfectly around this evidence of the artmaking process.