I happened to come upon this Mose Tolliver at the estate sale of an artist and collector near me, and of course scooped it up. Moses Ernest Tolliver (1918-2006), better known as Mose T after the signature on his paintings, was raised as one of 12 children to sharecropper parents near Montgomery, Alabama. Following a severe injury at a furniture factory that crushed his legs, he turned to making paintings, using house paint on plywood, masonite, old furniture, etc. His work gained recognition in the 1980s with its inclusion in exhibitions at the at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, and the Corcoran Gallery, and is now featured in major museum collections including the Met, High Museum, Smithsonian, Pompidou, etc. etc.
This haloed "angel" figure recurred in his work, and can be also be read, intentionally, as erotic, as can many of his paintings, most notably a series of spread-leg "Moose Lady" paintings(aka Girl on an Exercise Rack, Oyster Girl, and Girl on a Tricycle). Still attached to the painting, on plywood, is is a tag from the The Old Firehouse in Charlotte NC, dating it to 1995.
24" x 11", house paint on plywood, very good condition.
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