Photo by Guy Mendes, 1986.
Mose Tolliver
Decoded
February 8–March 25, 2023
MARCH is pleased to present Decoded, a humble attempt to de-mystify and contextualize the work of one of America’s most well-known but least understood painters. Organized into small groupings of archetypes, the exhibition employs written passages from artists, writers, scholars, and gallerists, to both clarify and interpret Tolliver’s visual vocabulary, honed and developed over many years.
Mose Tolliver paints what he sees. As if guided by some internalized blues conductor, the artist’s strokes reveal a wet-on-wet painting technique, layering flattened planes and blending surfaces to create chromatically harmonious works of art. Unable to stand without crutches, Tolliver sat on his bed to paint, balancing the board on his knees, and rotating them when necessary. The resulting works employ homegrown visualized forms of syncopation, rhythm, lyrics, percussion, and other musical elements…read more
Tolliver’s turtle paintings present themselves as perfect illustrations of the musical correspondences in his art. Vivid dots of paint vary from short staccato bursts in some paintings, to more vigorous and generally larger dabs in others, and form optical “flickers” through their variation in size and placement, and the alternation of dark and light tones.
–Lee Kogan
Mose Tolliver
Soft Shell Turtle, late 1980s
Paint on wood panel, metal soda tab
24 x 24 inches
Mose Tolliver
Mud Turtle and Alligator, late 1980s
Paint on wood panel, metal soda tab
24 x 23 1/2 inches
Mose Tolliver
Mountain Turtle, late 1980s
Paint on wood panel, metal soda tab
22 1/2 x 23 inches

Detail of Mose Tolliver, Mountain Turtle, late 1980s, paint on wood panel, metal soda tab, 22 1/2 x 23 inches.
Mose Tolliver
Antique Chair with a Lamp in Front, late 1980s
Paint on artboard
18 x 14 inches
Mose Tolliver
Untitled (Interior), late 1980s
Paint on wood panel, soda tab
22 x 18 1/2 inches
Mose Tolliver
Untitled (Birds), late 1980s
Paint on wood table, metal
17 x 26 x 16 1/2 inches
Mose Tolliver
Nall, 1988
Paint on wood panel, metal soda tab
29 x 24 inches
Mose Tolliver
Nall Man, late 1980s
Paint on wood panel, metal soda tab
26 x 26 inches
As if guided by some internalized blues conductor, the artist’s strokes reveal a wet-on-wet painting technique, layering flattened planes and blending surfaces to create chromatically harmonious works of art.
Mose Tolliver
Chinese Fruit Bowl, late 1980s
Paint on wood panel, soda tab
22 x 24 inches
Mose Tolliver
Chinese Fruit Basket, c. 1987
Paint on wood board
23 7/8 x 24 1/4 inches
T. Marshall Hahn Collection
High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia
Mose Tolliver
Untitled, late 1980s
Paint on fiberboard, metal soda tab
15 x 21 inches
Mose Tolliver
Untitled (Blue lady), late 1980s
Paint on wood panel, metal soda tab
23 x 23 1/2 inches
Mose Tolliver
Black Jesus, late 1980s
Paint on wood panel, metal soda tab
36 x 25 1/2 inches
Mose Tolliver
Frame Eagle in the Snow and Clouds, late 1980s
Paint on wood panel, metal soda tab
20 x 27 1/2 inches
Mose Tolliver
Golden Eagle Going Overseas, late 1980s
Paint on wood panel, metal soda tab
24 x 25 inches
Mose Tolliver
Willie Mae and Mose T.: That’s When They Was Young, 1986
Paint on wood panel, soda tab
22 1/2 x 16 inches
“You can hang him beside a Picasso, and you have the same kind of creativity and deep personal vision.”
– Dr. Robert Bishop, Former Director of the Museum of American Folk Art
Photograph of Montgomery, Alabama Bus Boycott, 1956
Dan Weiner; copyright John Broderick
National Archives Identifier 7452358
Mose Tolliver
Untitled (Bus), late 1980s
Paint on fiberboard
14 x 21 inches
Mose Tolliver
Love Bus, late 1980s
Paint on wood panel, metal soda tab
12 x 23 1/2 inches
Mose Tolliver
Love Bus, late 1980s
Paint on fiberboard, metal soda tab
13 x 22 inches
Mose Tolliver
Untitled (Birds), late 1980s
Paint on wood
18 x 16 x 18 inches
“Mose Tolliver today remains above all a picture maker, a master of American art.“
–Lee Kogan
Mose Tolliver
Untitled (Self-Portrait), late 1980s
Paint on wood panel, metal soda tab
25 1/2 x 16 inches
Mose Tolliver
Self Portrait, late 1980s
Paint on wood panel, metal soda tab
18 1/2 x 13 1/2 inches
Mose Tolliver, 1987
Photo by William Arnett.
Mose Tolliver
Decoded
February 8–March 25, 2023
“A good musician could play a Tolliver painting.”
–William S. Arnett
Mose Tolliver paints what he sees. As if guided by some internalized blues conductor, the artist’s strokes reveal a wet-on-wet painting technique, layering flattened planes and blending surfaces to create chromatically harmonious works of art. Unable to stand without crutches, Tolliver sat on his bed to paint, balancing the board on his knees, and rotating them when necessary. The resulting works employ homegrown visualized forms of syncopation, rhythm, lyrics, percussion, and other musical elements. Buses glide, turtles lie, faces grin, women dance, and fantasies unfold in these works. Many of these playful, occasionally whimsical, images conceal more complex stories or other truths, even ugly ones.
Sophisticated and accessible, Tolliver’s paintings possess a flattened and graphic style that can disguise their metaphorical significance, hiding in plain sight. Paintings of comically elongated buses refer to the Montgomery bus boycotts while the Nall paintings pay tribute to an artist he admired, an Alabama native named Fred “Nall” Hollis who lived and worked in Europe, creating a visual dialogue between them and a suggestion of Tolliver’s ambitions. Rhythmically splattered turtles speak to the physicality of an old man slowed by age and without full use of his legs, while the more directly titled self-portraits blend Cubist aesthetics with recurring motifs: long faces, round and toothy mouths, bright, watering eyes.
Tolliver describes the genesis of his painting: “When I got hurt, I had more time to paint, and wood was a whole lot easier to get hold of. The first picture I did on wood was a red bird. People brought me books to copy out of so I started doing that.” Indeed, the vast majority of Tolliver’s imagery is gleaned from books, magazine advertisements, and other readily-available printed materials. This was not, however, the artist’s first form of visual expression. Tolliver’s initial foray was through the lens of landscaping and the creation of root sculptures. “Peoples say I first painted when I hurt my feet, but I painted way before that. I did what you call landscapes. I was in the landscaping business. And I loved it.”
Much like the origins of his artistic career, Tolliver’s work is frequently misunderstood, and perhaps underestimated. His paintings are in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Centre Pompidou, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and dozens of other prominent institutions. They also hang in kitchens, bedrooms, and living rooms across the country, providing visual humor, wit, and graphic sensibility to those who live alongside them.
Mose Tolliver: Decoded is a humble attempt to de-mystify and contextualize the work of one of America’s most well-known but least understood painters. Organized into small groupings of archetypes, the exhibition employs written passages from artists, writers, scholars, and gallerists, to both clarify and interpret Tolliver’s visual vocabulary, honed and developed over many years.

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Mose Tolliver
Soft Shell Turtle, late 1980s
Paint on wood panel, metal soda tab
24 x 24 inches

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Mose Tolliver
Mud Turtle and Alligator, late 1980s
Paint on wood panel, metal soda tab
24 x 23 1/2 inches

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Mountain Turtle, late 1980s
Paint on wood panel, metal soda tab
22 1/2 x 23 inches

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Mose Tolliver
Antique Chair with a Lamp in Front, late 1980s
Paint on artboard
18 x 14 inches

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Mose Tolliver
Untitled (Interior), late 1980s
Paint on wood panel, soda tab
22 x 18 1/2 inches

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Mose Tolliver
Untitled (Birds), late 1980s
Paint on wood table, metal
17 x 26 x 16 1/2 inches

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Mose Tolliver
Nall Man, late 1980s
Paint on wood panel, metal soda tab
26 x 26 inches

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Mose Tolliver
Nall, 1988
Paint on wood panel, metal soda tab
29 x 24 inches

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Mose Tolliver
Chinese Fruit Bowl, late 1980s
Paint on wood panel, soda tab
22 x 24 inches

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Mose Tolliver
Untitled, late 1980s
Paint on fiberboard, metal soda tab
15 x 21 inches

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Mose Tolliver
Untitled (Blue lady), late 1980s
Paint on wood panel, metal soda tab
23 x 23 1/2 inches

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Mose Tolliver
Black Jesus, late 1980s
Paint on wood panel, metal soda tab
36 x 25 1/2 inches

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Mose Tolliver
Frame Eagle in the Snow and Clouds, late 1980s
Paint on wood panel, metal soda tab
20 x 27 1/2 inches

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Mose Tolliver
Golden Eagle Going Overseas, late 1980s
Paint on wood panel, metal soda tab
24 x 25 inches

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Mose Tolliver
Willie Mae and Mose T.: That’s When They Was Young, 1986
Paint on wood panel, soda tab
22 1/2 x 16 inches

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Mose Tolliver
Untitled (Bus), late 1980s
Paint on fiberboard
14 x 21 inches

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Untitled (Birds), late 1980s
Paint on wood
18 x 16 x 18 inches

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Mose Tolliver
Self Portrait, late 1980s
Paint on wood panel, metal soda tab
18 1/2 x 13 1/2 inches

Inquire
Mose Tolliver
Untitled (Self-Portrait), late 1980s
Paint on wood panel, metal soda tab
25 1/2 x 16 inches

Inquire
Mose Tolliver
Love Bus, late 1980s
Paint on wood panel, metal soda tab
12 x 23 1/2 inches

Inquire
Mose Tolliver
Love Bus, late 1980s
Paint on fiberboard, metal soda tab
13 x 22 inches