Mose Tolliver, Folk Artist, 80's

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It was reported from Montgomery, Alabama, that folk artist Mose
Tolliver, whose self-portraits and vivid images of nature, people,
animals and the female form, done in humble house paint, made him one
of the leaders of the modern-day "outsider art" movement, died Monday,
October 30, 2006, in his 80s.

The self-taught artist, who signed his work Mose T, died of pneumonia
at Baptist Medical Center East after years of declining health, family
members said. Various dates have been given for his birth, with 1920
listed by some collectors and galleries.

Tolliver began painting in the 1960s after being severely injured while
working in a furniture factory. He was said to have first gained notice
when he hung his paintings on trees in his front yard and sold them for
a few dollars to passers-by.

Anton Haardt, author of "Mose T from A to Z: The Folk Art of Mose
Tolliver," was an early admirer and began buying his work and reselling
it, getting it noticed by dealers.

His self-portraits over the years conveyed a range of emotions, she
said, from the early years when he painted himself with a pipe to the
later years when he included a crutch. Some could be "grotesque."

Mose T's paintings can sell for thousands of dollars today and are in
museum collections, including the Museum of American Folk Art in New
York, New York, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia, the
Milwaukee [Minnesota] Art Museum, the Smithsonian Institution and the
New Orleans [Louisiana] Museum of Art.

But collectors say it can be hard to find an original since his
relatives adopted a similar painting style and signed "Mose T" to their
art as his fame grew.

Ross-Clayton Funeral Home in Montgomery, which was handling
arrangements, did not have a confirmed date of birth.

AP