Creating Connections: Self-Taught Artists in the Rosenthal Collection Audio Exhibition
Bill Traylor (American, circa 1853–1949), Exciting Event in Blue: Four Wild Men, Barking Dog, Perched Bird, and Construction, circa 1939–42, tempera, graphite pencil, and ink (or watercolor) on thin cardboard, 14 7/8 x 13 7/8 in. (37.8 x 35.2 cm), Collection of Richard Rosenthal, © Bill Traylor Family Trust
Verbal Description
Hello, my name is Rick Young, and I am a gallery attendant at the museum. I will be reading the verbal description for Exciting Event in Blue: Four Wild Men, Barking Dog, Perched Bird, and Construction by Bill Traylor in Creating Connections: Self-Taught Artists in the Rosenthal Collection.
Exciting Event in Blue: Four Wild Men, Barking Dog, Perched Bird, and Construction was created by Bill Traylor using tempera, graphite pencil, and ink (or watercolor) on thin cardboard between 1939 and 1942. Traylor was an American artist who lived from about 1853 to 1949. This work is in the collection of Richard Rosenthal.
Bill Traylor’s Exciting Event in Blue: Four Wild Men, Barking Dog, Perched Bird, and Construction is a nearly square drawing measuring 14 and seven-eighths by 13 and seven-eighths or 37.8 by 35.2 centimeters. The background of the piece is the blank cardboard, which is a warm creamy tan color. On this ground, Traylor arranges a series of characters around a central fountain-like shape. This shape has u-shaped extensions at the left and right, each surmounted by a platform. Using a vibrant cobalt blue throughout, Traylor includes, in silhouette, moving clockwise, a crane facing to the right, perched on the center of the fountain, and a fierce-looking dog with bared teeth on the shape’s right platform. In the lower right, a male figure extends his right arm and points a rifle toward the edge of the paper. His left arm bends up at a 90-degree angle, and his left leg kicks up to touch the extended right arm. In the lower-left corner, another male figure with a pointy chin and stand-up hair drawn in pencil walks with two hooked canes away from the central fountain. On the left side, a figure stands against the outside of the fountain’s left extension. He points up toward the figure standing above him on the platform. This upper figure bends toward the center of the drawing. His right arm is bent, and his hand rests on his lower back. He is raising his right arm and holding what appears to be a stick or wand. Traylor’s people have large eyes made by leaving circles blank and drawing the pupils in pencil.
Label Text
Hello, my name is Rick Young, and I am a gallery attendant at the museum. I will be reading the label for Exciting Event in Blue: Four Wild Men, Barking Dog, Perched Bird, and Construction by Bill Traylor in Creating Connections: Self-Taught Artists in the Rosenthal Collection.
Exciting Event in Blue: Four Wild Men, Barking Dog, Perched Bird, and Construction was created by Bill Traylor using tempera, graphite pencil, and ink (or watercolor) on thin cardboard between 1939 and 1942. Traylor was an American artist who lived from about 1853 to 1949. This work is in the collection of Richard Rosenthal.
Surrounding what may be a fountain is a circular arrangement of gesturing figures. But what are they doing? In the foreground is an older man walking with two canes and a running man with a rifle. At the top, a dog barks at a bird who stands firm, while a man may be attempting to strike it. Is this bird a stand-in for a man who is threatened but resilient?
Born in rural Alabama, Traylor was a child when legally emancipated from enslavement in 1865. Yet, in the decades after the Civil War, the persistent system of oppression continued to shape the context of his life and his art. Traylor labored for his former owners until the late 1920s, when he moved to Montgomery, the state capitol. It was there that he made over 1000 drawings. Although, as a Black man, Traylor was prohibited from learning to read and write, he created a unique visual (and sometimes subversive) language to share his sharp perceptions of rural and urban life.