This self-portrait by Moses (or Mose) Ernest Tolliver, a prolific artist from Montgomery, Alabama, is one of his most intense works. The red paint dripping from the upper lip and the strong red line separating the bared, gleaming white teeth evokes power and terror, while the red border further enlivens the composition. Facial features are lopsided, nostrils and eyes are of different sizes, and the unnerving eyes are shaped like vertical drawer handles. The dark brown face is crowned by the close-cropped, curly white hair Tolliver had from an early age. And on top of Tolliver's head is a decorative handlelike object that the artist called a "head bob."

Tolliver's father was a tenant farmer on the Rittenour farm in the Pike Road area of Alabama where the artist was born. Tolliver received limited formal education, and much of his early life revolved around farm-related chores. When he was a teenager, he and his mother moved to nearby Montgomery, where he performed odd jobs and took special pleasure in yard work and gardening. He married Willie Mae Thomas in the early 1940s, and they had eleven children. For decades, Tolliver worked in the shipping department of the local McClendon Furniture Factory. After an injury to his legs forced him to leave his job, he took up art.

Tolliver painted abstract single images of people, animals, fantastic half-man/half-animal hybrids, plant life, and vehicles, as well as multifigured narratives. Sexual imagery prevails in what the artist called his "nasty" pictures. And a wry sense of humor is evident in all the paintings, many of which have imaginative titles. Tolliver used house paint in a palette typically limited to a few colors—brown, blue, white, and red in this work—from which he was able to create a variety of tonal gradations with wet-on-wet application.

Lee Kogan, "Self-Portrait," in Stacy C. Hollander, American Anthem: Masterworks from the American Folk Art Museum (New York: Harry N. Abrams in association with American Folk Art Museum, 2001), 386.