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Unlike other southern
African American artists who found human forms in inanimate objects, namely Bessie Harvey, Archie Byron, and Ralph Griffin, Richard Dial chose metal and mechanics over wood. He found human forms in the mechanics that humans ultimately created and "enjoys playing with the magic
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where his father and uncle, Arthur Dial, also worked. After
Pullman shut down, he did maintenance work for the Mayfield Manufacturing Company. In 1984, with help from his father and brother, Dan, Richard left the Pullman Standard Company and began his own business, Dial Metal Patterns. Dial Metal
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at the same time that they transform these seats into personifications of tradition." Expressive faces are bent and welded into the backs and tops of the chairs, giving them a distinct personality. Extra legs or angles were added to chairs, such as in
38:, Daniel Dial, and Matte Dial. He graduated from Hueytown High School and earned two years of technical training at Bessemer Technical School. In 1976 he married Belinda Davis and together they raised two sons. He began working as a machinist at the
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From metals discarded in his shop, Richard Dial welded single, metal chairs into anthropomorphized narratives of the people and communities that they could hold. In his analysis of Dial's
22:(born 1955) is an African–American designer and sculptor known for his metal works and anthropomorphic furniture. Dial lives and works in Bessemer, AL.
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Patterns designs, creates, and distributes metal patio furniture inspired by
Thornton Dial's furniture that he made in the early 1980s.
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Wrestling with
History: A Celebration of African American Self-Taught Artists from the Collection of Ronald and June Shelp.
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Richard Dial grew up in
Bessemer, Alabama with his father, within a prolific artistic family that included his father
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Coker, Gylbert Garvin; Arnett, William (2001). "Souls Grown Deep: African
American Vernacular Art of the South".
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Other chairs portray political, historical, and religious narratives in very concise strokes and movements.
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Testimony : vernacular art of the
African-American South : the Ronald and June Shelp Collection
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of chairs Robert Hobbs wrote "Richard Dial's sculptures give new life to the dead metaphors of chair
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conveys the syncretism of the
Abrahamic religions into the African-American southern tradition.
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Testimony: Vernacular Art of the
African American South: The Ronald and June Shelp Collection.
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Museum of
American Folk Art Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century American Folk Art and Artists
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The Comfort and Service My Daddy Brings to Our Household (1988).
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Stories of Community: Self-Taught Art from the Hill Collection.
444:"High Museum makes major acquisition of African-American art"
354:"The Comfort of the First Born | Souls Grown Deep Foundation"
462:"The Comfort and Service My Daddy Brings to Our Household"
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His work is included in the permanent collections of the
336:"The Comfort of Prayer | Souls Grown Deep Foundation"
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12 Aug.- 30 Oct. 2004, Museum of Arts and Sciences,
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The Comfort of Moses and the Ten Commandments (1989)
218:Wertkin, Gerard C. (2004-08-02). "Richard Dial".
138:15 Sep.- Jan 2004, Kalamazoo Institute of Art,
480:"Folk Art Revealed | American Folk Art Museum"
102:Outside the Main Stream: Folk Art in Our Time.
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425:"Richard Dial | Souls Grown Deep Foundation"
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203:Rosenak, Chuck and Jan. "Richard Dial".
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498:"Richard Dial – Artists – eMuseum"
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220:Encyclopedia of American Folk Art
92:of wit in a machine-made world."
86:Which Prayer Ended Slavery (1989)
542:20th-century American sculptors
442:Kelley, Colin (25 April 2017).
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302:Conwill, Kinshasha H. (2002).
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181:American Folk Art Museum
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258:African American Review
156:History Refused to Die.
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522:1955 births
167:Collections
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410:2019-08-09
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