There are a number of years floating out there for Mose Tolliver’s birth year. Sometime 1918-24…born in the Pike Road community just outside of Montgomery, Alabama and later moving in to town.
He married his childhood friend, Willie Mae and she was a repeated subject of his paintings over the years.
Mose said he painted landscapes prior to his work accident which left him with disability of using crutches (another repeated subject).
We drove to visit Mose in the early 1990’s after we had spent time with him years previously at the Kentuck Festival of Art in Alabama. We wanted to visit and see where he worked.
Mose Tolliver always signed his paintings Mose T and we love his direct narrative sense.
We love his love of color, his subtle salacious works, and how the subjects float on it’s background.
Mose Tolliver’s work is modern and contemporary in it’s design, but the beauty is was what Mose was after. He just enjoyed painting.