MOSE TOLLIVER (ALABAMA, 1920-2006) OUTSIDER ART SELF PORTRAIT, oil on plywood panel, signed lower right, inscribed verso "18 / 8/88 / SELF PORTRAIT". Retaining possibly original soda can hanger applied verso. Dated 1988. 24" SQ.
Provenance: From an important Washington, DC private collection.
Catalogue Note: Born in Montgomery Co., Alabama to impoverished sharecropper parents, Ernest Mose Tolliver (1920-2006) grew up in the heavily segregated Deep South. After dropping out of school in the third grade, Mose began a succession of jobs involving maintenance work and landscaping. After a workplace accident in the 1960's left him handicapped and unable to move without assistance, Mose began to explore his own artistic interests, often working with house paint and found materials to create portraits and other works characterized by a bright palette, whimsy, and humor. By 1981, he had secured his own private exhibition at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, and his reputation as one of the South's leading Outsider artists began to grow. Today, his work resides in numerous institutions and private collections around the world.

Excellent overall condition with minor surface abrasions and surface dirt.