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Lot Essay
Untitled (Lynching) is a tragic and poignant picture that is one of three known works by Bill Traylor which directly depict lynching. Scholar Mechal Sobel argues that ‘lynching was a defining experience for Bill Traylor. It forced him to find a way to break through his wall of silence. He painted out of pain’ (Painting a Hidden Life: The Art of Bill Traylor (Baton Rouge, 2009), p. 132).
Traylor was born into slavery and after a lifetime on a plantation, moved to Montgomery, Alabama. There, from a doorstep on Monroe Street, he rendered starkly modernist images of lively animals, vibrant landscapes and animated interactions. The present work is executed on a repurposed Baby Ruth candy package which contextualizes the world and culture which Traylor observed and the visual vocabularies he encountered.
In Untitled (Lynching), Traylor abstracts the gallows or tree into a simplified form, focusing on the figures, their form and relationships. Sobel interprets the composition as an expression of Traylor’s familial history, particularly the lynching of his son Will Traylor who she identifies as the figure at lower right. Like Sobel, curator Leslie Umberger understands the two flanking figures as men lynched. The figure at left is struggling as indicated by the lines around his raised hands and both ‘their brains are white as life drains away’ (Between Worlds: The Art of Bill Traylor (Washington, D.C., 2019), p. 249). The owl perched above is a reoccurring presence in Traylor’s works. It is believed to be a symbolic figure of death as understood within the framework of many folk cultures familiar to Traylor. An indifferent and malevolent creature, the owl stares out at the viewer, disregarding the violent scene below. The central figure, possibly a woman as suggested by her dress, is reaching out with her mouth open in overwhelming grief. According to Sobel, the figure at upper right may be a self-portrait of Traylor and he is directly connected through a series of ties to each of the figures. Regardless of whether Traylor directly rendered himself in the composition, his emotional presence powers this work. His intimate experience with lynching, on display here, is cruel and deeply heartbreaking.
Traylor was born into slavery and after a lifetime on a plantation, moved to Montgomery, Alabama. There, from a doorstep on Monroe Street, he rendered starkly modernist images of lively animals, vibrant landscapes and animated interactions. The present work is executed on a repurposed Baby Ruth candy package which contextualizes the world and culture which Traylor observed and the visual vocabularies he encountered.
In Untitled (Lynching), Traylor abstracts the gallows or tree into a simplified form, focusing on the figures, their form and relationships. Sobel interprets the composition as an expression of Traylor’s familial history, particularly the lynching of his son Will Traylor who she identifies as the figure at lower right. Like Sobel, curator Leslie Umberger understands the two flanking figures as men lynched. The figure at left is struggling as indicated by the lines around his raised hands and both ‘their brains are white as life drains away’ (Between Worlds: The Art of Bill Traylor (Washington, D.C., 2019), p. 249). The owl perched above is a reoccurring presence in Traylor’s works. It is believed to be a symbolic figure of death as understood within the framework of many folk cultures familiar to Traylor. An indifferent and malevolent creature, the owl stares out at the viewer, disregarding the violent scene below. The central figure, possibly a woman as suggested by her dress, is reaching out with her mouth open in overwhelming grief. According to Sobel, the figure at upper right may be a self-portrait of Traylor and he is directly connected through a series of ties to each of the figures. Regardless of whether Traylor directly rendered himself in the composition, his emotional presence powers this work. His intimate experience with lynching, on display here, is cruel and deeply heartbreaking.