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Self-taught painter, sculptor Thornton Dial dies

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FILE- In a Oct. 11, 2005 file photo, Museum of Fine Arts Houston intern Kurt Rankin takes a closer look at artist Thornton Dial\'s sculpture "New Light", in Houston. Dial, a self taught artist who transformed discarded junk into sculpture and painted in bright colors and bold lines, died Monday, Jan. 25, 2016, at his home in Alabama. He was 87. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan, File)

MCCALLA, Ala. – Self-taught painter and sculptor Thornton Dial has died at his home in Alabama.

Maria May, of the African-American art-preservation group the Souls Grown Deep Foundation, says Dial’s family passed along the information that the artist died Monday.

Born in 1928 to sharecroppers in rural Alabama, Dial had made things from found materials for years but didn’t come to wider attention in the art world until 1987. His work frequently dealt with history, politics and race relations.

His works are in collections including the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington and the High Museum in Atlanta.

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