Bowdoin College Homepage
Bowdoin College Museum of Art Logo and Wordmark

Advanced Search
Preview image of work. charcoal, pastel and graphite on paper,  Movie Star 32721

2017.8.4

Recommend keywords

Help us make our collections more accessible by providing keywords to describe this artwork. The BCMA uses the Getty Art & Architecture Thesaurus to provide consistent keywords. Enter a keyword in the field below and you will be prompted with a list of possible matching AAT preferred terms.

 
 

Movie Star

Export record as: Plain text | JSON | CDWA-Lite | VRA Core 4

Artist

Thornton Dial (Emelle, Alabama, 9/10/1928 - 1/25/2016)

Title

Movie Star

Creation Date

1994

Century

late 20th century

Dimensions

30 x 22 1/4 in. (76 x 57 cm)

Object Type

drawing

Creation Place

North America, United States

Medium and Support

charcoal, pastel and graphite on paper

Credit Line

Gift of halley k harrisburg, Class of 1990, and Michael Rosenfeld

Copyright

This artwork may be under copyright. For further information, please consult the Museum’s Copyright Terms and Conditions.

Accession Number

2017.8.4

“Art is like a bright star up ahead in the darkness of the world,” artist Thornton Dial explained in 1996. “It can lead peoples through the darkness and help them from being afraid of the darkness. Art is a guide for every person who is looking for something.” A child of Alabama sharecroppers, Dial worked as a farmer and created assemblage art in relative obscurity for decades. He only began working on paper around 1990 at the time of his first museum exhibition. In this drawing, Dial uses charcoal and graphite to sketch a nude female figure and then red pastel for her skin and blue for her eyes.