Thornton Dial (Alabama, 1928-2016) folk art portrait watercolor on paper depicting a nude female with dark hair, bright red face and fingernails. Signed upper right corner "TD". Housed in a faux burl painted wood frame. Sight – 13 5/8" H x 9 5/8" W. Framed – 21 1/2" H x 17 3/8" W. Provenance: Private Nashville, TN collection. Biography: Thornton Dial Sr. was born into poverty in a rural town in West Alabama. Sometimes known as "Buck" Dial, he became a "jack-of-all-trades", doing mainly iron work and cement work to support himself and his family, while creating assemblages on the side from castoff materials. Fellow self taught artist, Lonnie Holley, brought Dial's work to the attention of art world in 1987 by introducing him to collector Bill Arnett. Arnett championed Dial's works and facilitated his involvement in museum shows, where his two and three-dimensional works began drawing comparisons to Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning. In the fall of 2005, the Houston Fine Arts Museum hosted a show, "Thornton Dial in the 21st Century". His works have been acquired by the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the American Folk Art Museum, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia and most recently the de Young Museum of Art and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Ten of Mr. Dial's works were acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2014. (source: The New York Times obituary, Jan. 26, 2016). CONDITION: Overall very good condition.