Dark blue-gray face and pants.

Untitled (Self Portrait with Crutches)

Mose Tolliver

1987

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Polychrome (black and red) abstract forms in watercolor applied to center of paper
A figure sails on a boat. He approaches a stepped port with rocky cliff topped with trees in the background. On the left half of the sheet is a text page.
Untitled (King Tut Treasure), Reverend Benjamin Franklin Perkins, acrylic on canvas
A large-scale installation work comprising an un-stretched canvas painting, metal chains, and various three-dimensional elements. Layout- A small boat/vessel sits on the floor 12 feet 8 inches out from the wall. Four pairs of slender black metal chains attached to its stern connect the vessel to four points on a large rectangular canvas on the wall behind it. (The chains attach to black screws that pierce the canvas and anchor into the wall behind it.) The outer pair of chains are 19 inches 4 inches long when taut; the inner chains are approximately 15 feet 10 inches when taut. Each pair of chains comprises a taut strand and a lower strand suspended below the taut strand in four arcs. Vessel- Black wooden vessel with hand-drawn white conté motifs of arrows and circles on each side. Three inner partitions, each with its own contents. The rear section holds a black metal cauldron, roughly seven inches in diameter. Inside the cauldron is an assortment of roughly twenty sticks, a dark grey stone acting as a counterweight to the sticks, and a miniature Cuban flag. In the middle section stands a 20 inch tall Native American Chief figurine alongside a bottle of rum with a label that reads "Aguardiente de caña / OGGÚN / 100 Proof." In the front section of the vessel is a 13 inch tall male figurine of African descent, clothed in a red and white satin robe, seated in a figurine chair with a partially burnt (actual) cigar near one hand. At the stern of the vessel, 6 strips of colored fabric overlap and trail behind, in order from left to right when viewed from the front: white, yellow, green, blue, red, black Canvas- Large pictorial image of two figures conjoined by a large torso, with two arms, two necks and two heads looking at the other. Largely two-dimensional with few references to perspective. Dense black acrylic with hand-applied patterns and white conté accents of arrows forming an X with a central vertical arrow. Canvas splattered plentifully with black acrylic, extending from the edges of the large central figure. Two slender black figures moving away from central figure, black billowing from their mouths, along perspectival rays towards upper two corners of canvas. Left figure followed by painted word "mpangui". Right figure followed by painted word "jimagua". Motifs include arrows, bones, side-winding pattern and male and female deer figures.