“I, Too, Am Thornton Dial” at the LSU MOA

A comprehensive overview of the seminal vernacular artist Thornton Dial’s works, curated by Birmingham author and art collector Paul Barrett, is coming to the LSU Museum of Art. Dial, who was born to a sharecropping family in rural Alabama in 1928, lived through major events from the Great Depression through the Civil Rights Movement. These experiences and themes make appearances in his artwork, which he fully committed himself to in the early 1980s when the Pullman Standard Plant in Bessemer, Alabama that previously employed him closed.

A panel discussion featuring Dial’s son and artist in his own right Richard Dial; curator Paul Barrett; art historian Paul Arnett; cultural curator and art historian Anne Collins Smith; and senior curator and director of programs at the LSU Museum of Art Michelle Schulte will take place May 11 at 6 pm. Free. lsumoa.org.