This entry was taken directly from the “Museum of American Folk Art Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century American FOLK ART and ARTISTS,” by Chuck and Jan Rosenak.  (Abbeville Press, NYC, 1990).

Thornton (“Little Buck”) Dial, Jr.—“Man Can’t Stop the Termite.”

BIOGRAPHICAL BACKGROUND

Born December 21, 1953, Bessemer, Alabama.  Attended William A. Bell High School through eleventh grade, Bessemer, Alabama.  Married Angela Campbell, April 1972; divorced 1981.  Married Angela Jackson, April 11, 1986.  One son, one daughter by Campbell; one son, one daughter, one stepdaughter by Jackson.  Now resides Bessemer, Alabama.

GENERAL BACKGROUND

Thornton Dial, Jr., known within his family as “Little Buck”—is an artist who is developing his own potent style in the compelling painting/assemblages that he produces. 

                  Dial grew up in Bessemer as part of a large and close-knit extended family.  After leaving high school, he worked for seven or eight years for a construction company in the Bluff Park area of Birmingham, Alabama.  He then returned to Bessemer, where he operated punch-and-shear machines for the Pullman Standard Company; he ways that it was on this job that he learned to bend and shape iron, a skill that he put to good use when he turned to art. 

ARTISTIC BACKGROUND

“Little Buck” Dial began his artistic activity about 1986, inspired by works of art in his father’s backyard.

SUBJECTS AND SOURCES

The paintings, sculptures, and assemblages of Thornton Dial, Jr., almost always deal with social conditions and the relationships between blacks and whites or man and nature.  His subject matter is often complex—a gorilla lending a helping hand to the United States and to the telephone company symbolizes the role of Blacks in building the country—and he sometimes repeats images in series in order to make his point.  For example, one of his series uses insects as symbols of the social conditions prevailing in the black world; a work in this group entitled Role Model shows a butterfly emerging from a cocoon.

MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES

The artist expresses himself through bold lines and strong colors.  His paintings are usually done with oil-based enamel house paints on board.  Dial says he prefers basic materials to “artist’s paint.”  His sculptures are most often made of cut-out sheet metal, although his work also includes some crucifixes made of iron.  The assemblages are combinations of various materials, some found, some purchased.

                  Dial has made about 150 pieces to date.  They range in size from about 4 feet square to 4 by 6 feet.

ARTISTIC RECOGNITION

The work of Thornton Dial, Jr., as well as that of other members of this artistically prolific a family, provides a good illustration of where black folk art is today.  His pieces are stimulating and thought-provoking, as much for their social statements as for their intrinsic artistic merit.  He is receiving much-deserved attention from collectors, galleries, and museum personnel and was included, along with the work of other family members, in an exhibition at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1988.  One of his works is now in the permanent collection of the Museum of American Folk Art in New York City.