Richly illustrated with full-page stunning reproductions, this is a unique and original approach to the work of Bill Traylor. Born into slavery around 1853/4 on a cotton plantation in Benton, Alabama, Traylor, who died in 1949, is one of the most celebrated self-taught American artists. A sharecropper until around 1930, he moved to then-segregated Montgomery in his 80s and began to create art, layering references to religion, politics, and African American life in his many drawings and paintings. Here, Traylor specialists Valérie Rousseau and Debra Purden consider his artworks in response to one another, forming a series of intricate and consistent narratives, intriguingly cinematic in their development, to present a fresh picture of the artist.

Published in collaboration with the American Folk Art Museum, New York.
Note: a major exhibition, "Between Worlds: The Art of Bill Traylor," is on view at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC, Sept 28, 2018-Mar 17, 2019.