[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 7]
[House]
[Pages 9165-9166]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               HONORING THE LIFE OF ARTIST THORNTON DIAL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Alabama (Ms. Sewell) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. SEWELL of Alabama. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to honor one of 
America's most prolific and self-taught artists, Mr. Thornton Dial of 
Bessemer, Alabama.
  Today at the age of 86, Thornton Dial has lived, worked, and created 
art in Alabama for his entire life. From childhood, Dial was creating 
symbolically dense pieces of art by using castaway objects, anything he 
could find in his environment: pieces of wire, scrap metal, bones, tree 
roots. He used his environment to define his environment.
  Dial's work provides a forceful and compelling narrative of the most 
insidious challenges and remarkable triumphs of African American 
history in the Deep South. His work contains layers of rich history and 
reflects on race and class struggles that he witnessed in the Deep 
South.
  Dial rose to prominence in the 1990s while in his sixties through his 
large-scale assemblages, paintings that were made of scrap metal, 
pipes, very interesting visual interpretation of the history and 
politics that he saw around him.
  Dial is described as having been one of the most amazing art 
biographies in art history. He is described as being a very quiet man, 
a listener who dressed impeccably. What he lacked in terms of formal 
education he more than made up for in his highly visual and historic 
vocabulary.
  Dial's created brilliance is truly illuminating and inspiring. Dial 
has stayed in Alabama in the heart of the Seventh Congressional 
District to live and work his entire life. He was born in 1928 in 
Sumter County, Alabama. He was one of 12 children. And in childhood, he 
built his own toys because, as he said: We didn't have much.
  Thornton began full-time farming at the age of 5. In his early teens, 
he was sent to live with his aunt in Bessemer, Alabama, where he 
attended Sloss Mining Camp. His peers made fun of him for his large 
size and for being ``country.'' His teachers told him that he would 
never amount to much.
  I want you to know that we in the Seventh Congressional District are 
extremely proud of Thornton Dial because we know that he really 
interpreted what he saw around him in the Deep South. He interpreted it 
in a very

[[Page 9166]]

creative way, and only now is he gaining such preeminence for that form 
of art.
  Dial never really made a living as an artist. He worked for over 30 
years at the Pullman Standard factory. Yes, he made boxcars for a 
living.
  ``People have fought for freedom all over the world,'' he said. ``I 
try to show that struggle. It is a war to be fought. We are trying to 
win it.''
  In his time off from the Pullman factory, Dial would escape to his 
garage or backyard and create masterpieces out of whatever he could 
find. Out of fear that people would laugh at his art, he would bury his 
work. Later, he would dig it up and deconstruct it and reuse materials 
for new masterpieces.
  Dial began to dedicate himself to his artwork in 1981. He founded 
Dial Metal Patterns, a garden furniture business, with his sons in 
1983, after the Pullman Factory closed.
  Dial's handmade designs were discovered by Lonnie Holley, a 
neighboring Black artist, in 1987. Holley brought Bill Arnett, an 
artist himself and a collector of African American art, from Atlanta to 
see Dial's work. Arnett helped him to get national attention about his 
art. The two finally, working together, agreed on a price for his first 
sculpture.
  Initially, Dial offered Arnett the piece for $20, and Arnett refused 
the low price. He said to Mr. Dial that this piece deserves more than 
$20. They agreed on $200. This was the first transaction that Mr. Dial 
had as an artist.
  Dial's work has been the subject of exhibitions across this country. 
At the New Museum of contemporary art and the American Folk Art Museum 
in New York. His work can be found in more than 15 public collections, 
including those of, among others, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta and 
the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. Many, many people now collect his 
art. An art form that was considered outside art now is considered 
world-class art. With no formal training and education, Dial's powerful 
artwork stands out in the world of highly degreed artists.
  Dial continues to create art today, and this weekend he will be 
honored by his hometown of Bessemer, Alabama. He will be honored as a 
great American hero and a great American artist.
  I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring this great, wonderful 
Alabama treasure, Thornton Dial.

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