Abstract
Language shapes the way we think about art. Terms such as outsider art, self-taught, southern vernacular, and contemporary may all work to describe the same piece of artwork, yet they each communicate slightly different ideas. The use of specific terminology is powerful due to the connotations and associations it evokes. Outsider art, for instance, relates to ideas of “otherness†while southern vernacular art is imbedded in a cultural tradition and, in comparison, implies a sense of belonging. In this paper, I will examine the life and artwork of the autodidactic African American artist Thornton Dial, Sr. while assessing the implications of his placement within a variety of competing categories. Dial’s artwork and biography intersects with a range of definitions, each of which shapes the dialog around his work differently. Notions of “otherness,†power dynamics between the inside/outside dichotomy, as well as Dial’s place within a regional African American tradition will all be explored as a way to further understand how the words we use as a culture shape the way we think about artwork such as Thornton Dial’s.
How to Cite
Johnson, K., (2013) “Dissolving Boundaries: The Politics of Categorizing the Artwork of Thornton Dian, Sr.”, Capstone, The UNC Asheville Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship 26(1).
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