ARTNET | NEWS
By Andrew Russeth
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| Thornton Dial, Out of the Darkness, the Lord Gave Us Light, 2003, collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. STEPHEN PITKIN, PITKIN STUDIO/©THORNTON DIAL |
Artist
Thornton Dial, who used found objects, fabric, and paint to make astounding, intricate wall reliefs and sculptures that harbor nuanced narratives at once grand and intimate, died yesterday, Monday, January 25, at his home in Emelle, Alabama. The cause of death was not released. In recent years he had been ill and had strokes. He was 87. The dense surfaces of Dial’s art, loaded with everything from slices of metal to doll parts to carpeting and bedecked with intriguing combinations of color, radiate carefully controlled energies. The undulating compositions can bring to mind titans like Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock. [
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| Thornton Dial.
STEPHEN PITKIN, PITKIN STUDIO/©THORNTON DIAL |
