Untitled (Figure), 1985, c.
The self-taught artist Mose Tolliver created paintings of birds, flowers, and people that remain among the most celebrated examples of American folk art. Tolliver was included in the 1982 exhibition “Black Folk Art in America, 1930–1980” at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C., which brought him wider attention in the art world. The son of a tenant farmer in Alabama, Tolliver left school at a young age to support his family. He began painting in the late 1960s after an accident at the furniture factory where he worked forced him to retire from manual labor. Painting in bed, he balanced his board on his knees and signed his works “Mose T” with a distinctive backwards “S.”