Decoded

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

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Installation ViewsIndividual WorksPress Release 

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

A painting by Mose Tolliver titled Soft Shell Turtle, dated late 1980s.

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

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A painting by Mose Tolliver titled Mud Turtle and Alligator, dated late 1980s.

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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A painting titled Mountain Turtle by Mose Tolliver, dated late 1980s.

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

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Detail of Mose Tolliver, Mountain Turtle, late 1980s, paint on wood panel, metal soda tab, 22 1/2 x 23 inches.

A painting by Mose Tolliver titled Antique Chair with a Lamp in Front, dated late 1980s.

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

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An untitled painting of a bedroom by Mose Tolliver, dated late 1980s.

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

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A painted table by Mose Tolliver, dated late 1980s.
A painted table by Mose Tolliver, dated late 1980s.
A painted table by Mose Tolliver, dated late 1980s.
A painted table by Mose Tolliver, dated late 1980s.

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

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A painting by Mose Tolliver titled Nall, dated 1988.

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

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A painting by Mose Tolliver titled Nall Man, dated late 1980s.

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

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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.

A painting by Mose Tolliver titled Chinese Fruit Bowl, dated late 1980s.

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

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A painting by Mose Tolliver titled Chinese Fruit Basket. Courtesy of the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia

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

 

An untitled painting by Mose Tolliver dated late 1980s.

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

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A untitled painting by Mose Tolliver, dated 1980s.

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

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A painting by Mose Tolliver titled Black Jesus, dated late 1980s.

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

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A painting titled Frame Eagle in the Snow and Clouds by Mose Tolliver, dated 1980s.

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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A painting by Mose Tolliver titled Golden Eagle Going Overseas, dated late 1980s.

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

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A painting by Mose Tolliver titled Willie Mae and Mose T.: That's When They Was Young, dated late 1980s.

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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“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

An untitled painting of a bus by Mose Tolliver dated late 1980s.

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

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A painting by Mose Tolliver titled Love Bus, dated late 1980s.

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

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A painting by Mose Tolliver titled Love Bus date, late 1980s.

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

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A painted wood sculpture of a house by Mose Tolliver, dated late 1980s.
A painted wood sculpture of a house by Mose Tolliver, dated late 1980s.
A painted wood sculpture of a house by Mose Tolliver, dated late 1980s.
A painted wood sculpture of a house by Mose Tolliver, dated late 1980s.
A painted wood sculpture of a house by Mose Tolliver, dated late 1980s.
A painted wood sculpture of a house by Mose Tolliver, dated late 1980s.
A painted wood sculpture of a house by Mose Tolliver, dated late 1980s.
A painted wood sculpture of a house by Mose Tolliver, dated late 1980s.

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

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“Mose Tolliver today remains above all a picture maker, a master of American art.“

–Lee Kogan

An untitled painting of a figure wearing a hat by Mose Tolliver, dated late 1980s.

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

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A painting by Mose Tolliver titled Self Portrait, dated late 1980s.

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

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Mose Tolliver, 1987
Photo by William Arnett.

Press Release

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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