The works in “Hard Truths: The Art of Thornton Dial,” at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, are tough, beautiful, disturbing, seductive, improvisatory, unignorable, fierce, exhilarating, ambiguous—and much more. They are also difficult to write about. The intense physicality and raw power of Mr. Dial’s enormous, confrontational collages and constructions, built from a staggering range of salvaged objects, resist description. Reproductions—even carefully chosen, artfully framed detailsonly hint at the fascination exerted by the dense surfaces of Mr. Dial’s most engaging creations. Words, including the string of adjectives above, seem superfluous; the best response would be to point in silence at these wonderful works.
Often, when saying anything pertinent about a work of art proves overly challenging, it’s possible to fall back on discussions of meaning, subtexts or the artist’s biography. But here, too, a problem arises. Knowing the stories that Mr. Dial attaches to his works, the context in which they were created and something of his history makes his achievement more impressive but, at the same time, seems to invite special pleading. Read more…