PERMANENT COLLECTION
The Gadsden Arts Center has several outstanding works of art on permanent loan or as part of the permanent collection. The Center is in the process of expanding the collection through the generous donations of local art colletors.
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 Thornton Dial, Jr.
untitled, n.d.
mixed media, 39” x 48”
Gift of Lou and Calynne Hill, December 2009
2009.1.5
This assemblage, by Thornton Dial, Jr., depicts an image of a large blue butterfly on a flower, with insects sporting human faces flying nearby. A large tree branch, carpet and scrap metal were attached to the plywood support and painted with saturated primary and secondary colors. The Gadsden Arts Center exhibited this work in its exhibition, Vernacular Art from the Hill Collection, August 28–October 25, 2009.
Thornton Dial Jr. is a son of Thornton Dial, Sr. who was born in 1953 in Bessemer, Alabama. In 1986, inspired by his father’s art, he began creating artwork of his own. Dial Jr. works in several mediums including painting, sculpture, and assemblage. He prefers to paint with oil-based enamel house paint, which he considers to be a basic material, as opposed to using “artist’s paint”, or more traditional materials. His assemblages are made from found and purchased materials, and his sculptures are made from cut and molded sheet metal and iron. Dial’s paintings are characterized by the use of strong colors, bold lines, and often repetition to emphasize his message. He uses animals and nature in his work to symbolize social conditions within modern society. Much of his work focuses on the relationships between blacks and whites, as well as man’s relationship to nature. Over the years, Thornton Dial Jr. has gained much recognition for his art and has exhibited around the country.
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Works on Loan:
Florida Shirt
Leo McMillan
mixed media
On loan from the artist
This large-scale mixed media sculpture represents all things associated with the state of Florida, included dolphins, oranges, flamingos, NASA, snakes, alligators, and more while posing as a “Florida Shirt”. Artist Leo McMillan teaches 3D Design and Art Tools and Techniques at Florida State University and has maintained a professional art studio for thirty years. He is a past recipient of an Individual Artists Fellowship from the State of Florida and was one of three artists chosen statewide to design a monumental sculpture for the front of the State Capitol. Currently, McMillan resides in Quincy, and sits on the Gadsden Arts Center Exhibition Committee.
 Ichiboku Sculptures:
Natabori, Mongaku, Yama Uba
Mark Lindquist
wood
On loan from the artist
Mark Lindquist has been an innovator and leader in the field of woodturning/sculpture since the late 1960s. Lindquist's thirty-plus years of contributions to contemporary art have altered the direction of woodturning and sculpture worldwide. Through exhibiting, writing and teaching, Lindquist was instrumental in bringing about the acceptance of the craft of woodturning as a serious art form, and inspired and nurtured the followers of this fledgling movement. Mark Lindquist's sculpture has evolved out of his art historical studies and his mastery of, and experimentation with, the craft of woodturning. Beginning in the late 1960s, he developed many of the techniques and aesthetic concepts which underlie the current studio woodturning movement, including the use of flawed materials (especially spalted wood), the application of modern abrasive technology, and the integration of Japanese ceramic sensibilities.
These sculptures are from one of Lindquist’s several series of sculpted wood. Ichiboku, literally "one tree," is a type of Japanese sculpture made from a single block of wood. This technique flourished in the ninth century when a spirit of religious revivalism prevailed, and the spirit of the tree was invoked to lend strength to the image carved from it.
Lindquist’s works have been exhibited in galleries and museums throughout the world, and have been acquired by prestigious museums such as the National Museum of American Art of the Smithsonian, the Art Institute of Chicago, the White House Collection of American Craft, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the High Museum in Atlanta, and numerous other public and private collections.
In September of 2010, the Gadsden Arts Center will host and exhibition that explores the 40-year evolution of Lindquist’s work, from wood vessels and furniture to large-scale totems to abstract photography.
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Gadsden Arts, Inc.