The Birmingham Museum of Art has acquired six new works of art made in and about the American South. The artists represented in this acquisition series are Thornton Dial, Richard Dial, Debra Riffe, Dawoud Bey, Hayward Oubre, and Hale Woodruff.
In a press release announcing the acquisitions, Dr. Graham C. Boettcher, the R. Hugh Daniel Director of the Birmingham Museum of Art, said the museum is committed to strengthening its collection by offering visitors more “complete and expansive” stories of the human experience, particularly relating to life in the South.
“These works offer greater perspectives of the American South, and enrich specific collection areas with work that carry deep connections to Alabama,” Boettcher said in the announcement. “Included in these acquisitions are works by both artists with whom we have enjoyed long-standing relationships, and those whose work is new to our institution.”
The works of art, which include photography, painting and sculpture, represent themes of music, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Black American experience.
“Love Around the Jungle Cat”
Thornton Dial (1993)
“Love Around the Jungle Cat,” Thornton Dial (1993) (Courtesy, Birmingham Museum of Art)
Born in Emelle, Ala., in 1928, Thornton Dial is one of the most celebrated contemporary artists of the Deep South. “Love Around the Jungle Cat,” an oil on canvas painting mounted on plywood, features recurring forms for which Dial’s work is known including lions, roosters, and women. While the Birmingham Museum of Art began collecting Dial’s work in 1991, “Love Around the Jungle Cat” is the first of his major paintings on canvas to enter the collection.
[RELATED: ‘This show is long overdue’: Thornton Dial’s artistic legacy on display in Birmingham]
“The work builds upon the Museum’s significant collection of figurative work, by such artists as Phillip Guston, Kerry James Marshall, and Dial’s friend Lonnie Holley, among many others,” the BMA said in a press release. “Additionally, the work joins a robust collection of work in the museum by renowned Birmingham-area artists including Jack Whitten, Joe Minter, Carolyn Sherer, and Celestia Morgan.”
“Love Around the Jungle Cat” was made available to the BMA by Dial’s family.
“Chuck Berry”
Richard Dial (2017)
“Chuck Berry,” Richard Dial (2017) (Courtesy, Birmingham Museum of Art)
Richard Dial is contemporary designer and sculptor who lives and works in Bessemer, Ala.
Following his employment as a mechanic for the Pullman Standard Company, Dial established his own metal work business in Bessemer called Dial Metal Patterns, where he made outdoor metal furniture. Richard’s father, the famed artist Thornton Dial, also used Dial Metal Patterns as a studio.
Richard Dial fuses his knowledge of industrial techniques and contemporary sculpture to create his work.
The BMA purchased Dial’s life-size sculpture of the music legend Chuck Berry.
“Dial’s portrait of Berry resonates with numerous works in the Museum’s collection inspired by music including Jack Whitten’s ‘Black Table Setting (Homage to Duke Ellington)’, Bob Thompson’s ‘Ornette’, Radcliffe Bailey’s ‘Black and Tan,’ and Rico Gatson’s ‘Untitled (Bluesologists After Gil Scott),’ and the ‘Jazz Bowl’ designed by Viktor Schreckengost,” said the BMA. “Additionally, Dial’s bench connects with numerous sculptures and furniture in the BMA’s vast collection, including African chairs and thrones. Like Jan Jander’s ‘Couture Benchscape,’ this piece blurs the line between sculpture and furniture.”
“Chuck Berry” marks the BMA’s second acquisition of Richard Dial’s work. This year, the museum also acquired Dial’s wrought iron, wood and fabric assemblage, “Praying Angels.”
“The Birmingham Project”
Dawoud Bey (2012)
“The Birmingham Project,” Dawoud Bey, 2012 (Courtesy, the Birmingham Museum of Art)
The purchase of ten photographs by Dawoud Bey completes the Birmingham Museum of Art’s set of large-scale diptychs from The Birmingham Project. In 2012, the BMA commissioned Bey to create a series commemorating the 50th anniversary of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing. In the series, Bey honors Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley, Denise McNair, Johnny Robinson, and Virgil Ware, who were all murdered in Birmingham by white supremacists on September 15, 1963.
In each diptych, Bey pairs young sitters whose ages correspond with the victims at the time of their deaths, along with a photograph of a sitter who was fifty years older, the same ages Collins, Robertson, Wesley, McNair, Robinson, and Ware would have been if the were still alive in 2012.
“Bey forces the audience to consider the enormous loss of potential that each of these children represented,” the BMA said in the announcement. “The complete set of 16 photographs and a video bolsters the Museum’s collection of art focused on the Civil Rights era and adds to a burgeoning collection of American photography.”
“walk, in the direction you goin’ in”
Debra Riffe (2008)
“walk, in the direction you goin’ in, ” Debra Riffe, 2008 (Courtesy, Birmingham Museum of Art)
A native of Tupelo, Miss., Debra Riffe is a Birmingham artist. Her mostly figurative compositions feature images of African Americans performing routine tasks in “timeless, solitary reflective moments – tasks that speak of social status and identity, intimacy and a sense of place,” says the Birmingham Musuem of Art. Riffe was the recipient of the BMA’s Collectors Circle for Contemporary Art 2019 Local Artist award.
Her series “walk, in the direction you goin’ in” is her first of her work to enter the BMA’s collection.
” ‘Walk, in the direction you goin’ in includes themes of labor, Black life, as well as joy and survival. The black and white block prints are inspired by Jacob Lawrence’s Migration series (1940 – 41), and depict people migrating from Mississippi to Birmingham, Alabama,” the BMA said in the announcement.
Several of the works from the series will be on view until Jan. 29 in the BMA’s exhibition, “Light Play,” an exhibition of contemporary art in which artists examine the many meanings of ‘light’ and ‘play’ through medium, expression, meaning, and form.
“Torso”
Hale Woodruff (about 1970)
“Torso,” Hale Woodruff, (circa 1970) (Courtesy, Birmingham Museum of Art)
“Torso” by Hale Woodruff is the first of the artist’s work to enter the Birmingham Museum of Art’s collection. Woodruff explored an abstracted reality through a number of subjects including landscapes, playgrounds, African art, and the human torso.
“Woodruff was a socially motivated and culturally conscious artist throughout his career, and this was only amplified by the Civil Rights Movement. Together with Charles Alston, Romare Bearden, and Norman Lewis, Woodruff founded the artist collective Spiral, the focus of a BMA exhibition titled Spiral: Perspectives on an African-American Collective for the BMA (2010 – 2011),” says the Birmingham Museum of Art. “This painting not only relates to the work of Spiral artists in the collection including pieces by Alston, Bearden, and Lewis, as well as Emma Amos and Richard Mayhew, but also connects to our strong holdings of abstract expressionism and artwork from the Civil Rights era more broadly.”
“Bongo Drummer”
Hayward Oubre ( 1960)
“Bongo Drummer,” Hayward Oubre, 1960 (Courtesy, Birmingham Museum of Art)
Hayward Oubre’s “Bongo Drummer” depicts a musician with his mouth open in song as he drums on a bongo held between his thighs. Oubre fashioned this five-foot tall sculpture from wire coat hangers while he was living in Alabama and teaching at Alabama State College (now Alabama State University) from 1950 to 1965. “Bongo Drummer” is one of only about forty wire sculptures Oubre created during his lifetime.
“The acquisition of Oubre’s work enriches the BMA’s burgeoning collection of mid-century works made by artistsworking in Alabama. Before he began his MFA at the University of Iowa, Oubre studied at Atlanta University for eighteen months with Nancy Prophet and Hale Woodruff,” said the BMA. “The work of friends and colleagues of Oubre’s are also held by the BMA, including the work of Sam Gilliam and Elizabeth Catlett.”
