I, Too, Am Alabama — the first retrospective covering Thornton Dial’s entire career — is making headlines in Alabama and across the nation.
‘This show is long overdue’: Thornton Dial’s artistic legacy on display in Birmingham
AL.com, December 10, 2022
“Why didn’t more people in Alabama, specifically the Birmingham area, recognize and appreciate his talent?” wrote Gail Andrews, former director of the Birmingham Museum of Art. “We can say the same about many other artists from our state, but this artist had a particularly stellar exhibition and gallery record.”
That lack of recognition stands to change with three exhibitions that make up the largest — and most historic — examination of Dial’s work to date in his home state of Alabama.
The centerpiece of the biggest exhibition, “I, Too, Am Alabama” opened at the Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts (AEIVA) on Sept. 9. Flanked with panels of facts and timelines about Dial’s life, the massive retrospective features the artist’s sculptures and assemblages on loan from institutions, private collections and the estate of the Arnett family.
Bringing Home Thornton Dial
I, Too, Am Alabama, the first-ever retrospective of Dial’s work in the state, honors the artist’s homeplace, creativity, and community
Garden & Gun, November 8, 2022
For Thornton Dial, creative expression was a way of being: In interviews with the art collector William Arnett, the self-taught Alabama artist recounted, “My art is the evidence of my freedom.” For his entire life, Dial created artwork in response to his everyday joys and the struggles he faced as a Black man living in the rural South. Even after he suffered a stroke, he adapted his artistic style to his declining health.
During the last few years of his life, and after his death in 2016, his artwork traveled to prestigious museums in New York, Washington, D.C., and Houston. This fall, much of his artwork has returned to the place where he grew up and raised his own family. The latest show at the Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts (AEIVA) at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, I, Too, Am Alabama offers a homecoming for Dial, showcasing his drawings, paintings, and giant found object assemblages—including massive never-before-seen paintings that sat in his Bessemer studio after his death. I, Too, Am Alabama is free and open to the public and will run until December 10, 2022.
Read full article in Garden & Gun
Spotlight Finally Shines On Thornton Dial Sr. In Birmingham, Alabama
Forbes, October 19, 2022
Sometimes, the home folks are the hardest to impress. Long after the wider world has opened its arms, home folks continue casting a leery eye....
His work is in the permanent collections at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Virginia Museum of Fine Art, the de Young Museum in San Francisco and dozens more.
The most prestigious art museums and events in America have long considered him an essential.
Not the home folks.
The first comprehensive survey of Dial’s work in Alabama opened September 9, 2022 at the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts.