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Bill Traylor, Untitled (Brown Pig), April 1940, opaque watercolor and pencil on paperboard, 10 × 23 in. (25.4 × 58.4 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Margaret Z. Robson Collection, Gift of John E. and Douglas O. Robson, 2016.38.70, © 1994, Bill Traylor Family Trust
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Artwork Details
- Title
- Untitled (Brown Pig)
- Artist
- Date
- April 1940
- Location
- Not on view
- Dimensions
- 10 × 23 in. (25.4 × 58.4 cm)
- Copyright
- © 1994, Bill Traylor Family Trust
- Credit Line
- The Margaret Z. Robson Collection, Gift of John E. and Douglas O. Robson
- Mediums
- Mediums Description
- opaque watercolor and pencil on paperboard
- Classifications
- Subjects
- Animal — pig
- Object Number
- 2016.38.70
Artwork Description
(We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection, 2022)
Gallery Label
Bill Traylor was part of the first generation of black people to become American citizens. Born into an enslaved family in rural Alabama, he was an eyewitness to history: the Civil War, Emancipation, Reconstruction, Jim Crow segregation, the Great Migration, and the steady rise of African American culture in the South. In his late years, Traylor put down a lifetime of memories, dreams, stories, and scenes. His images reflect on seven long decades of farm labor and an evolving black citizenry in urban Montgomery. Some of his works are serene, others reflect the violent atmosphere of his time and place. Animals depicted alone on found cardboard are among Traylor's most easily recognizable works. He portrayed them as individuals, creatures he knew well, unique in shape and character in ways that went far beyond their species.