African Athlete
Thornton Dial American
Not on view
In his drawings, Dial often commemorated newsworthy events with particular resonance for African Americans. The surprising death of track-and-field star and Olympic champion Florence Griffith Joyner (Flo-Jo) in 1998 prompted the artist to pay tribute to her life and accomplishments with this work, a languid yet energetic nude figure drawing that features the athlete’s signature brightly colored fingernails. Like many of Dial’s drawings, African Athlete distorts the figure and perspective, providing the viewer a vantage point seemingly from above.
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