Thornton Dial’s inclusion in the 2000 Biennial Exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York ensures his place in the pantheon of contemporary American artists. His oeuvre comprises paintings, assemblages, sculptures, and a few thousand works on paper, and he uses a wide variety of found objects and cast-off materials. Drawing inspiration from personal experience as well as wider issues, his messages focus on the human condition: interpersonal relationships and relationships to community, government, and the world at large.

Dial was born on September 19, 1928, in Emelle, Alabama, and had a difficult childhood. He never knew his father, and his mother was very young when he was born; he grew up under the care of several different relatives. When he was just a small child, he worked as a farmhand, and at the age of 9, he left school and moved with his brother Arthur to Bessemer to live with his great aunt Sara Lockett. Throughout his teen years he worked at an ice house and a brickyard, and as an adult he held jobs as a carpenter, a highway laborer, a housepainter, a pipe fitter, and an ironworker at the Pullman Standard boxcar factory, where he worked from 1952 until 1980. In 1951 he married his childhood neighbor, Clara Mae Murrow; the two have three sons and two daughters. Dial made a serious commitment to artmaking after his retirement in the late 1980s.

The Man Rode Past His Barn to Another New Day was first shown in an exhibition held in Atlanta during the 1996 Olympic Games. In this densely layered work, a man—his head erect and arms outstretched—rides his mule past a tangle of wire and rope that form the walls and roof of a barn, with two shotgun houses in the background. Themes of struggle and progress indicate Dial’s sensitivity to the experience of African Americans who left their country lives, associated with slavery and exploitation, for urban areas in hope of finding or creating better opportunities. The struggle for progress persists, but this painting promotes a “new day” with more opportunities for blacks. The use of subtle pinks and light blues provides bright contrast to the monochromatic grays and black and indicates hope for the future. Before 1988 Dial buried or recycled his artworks, fearing that he would be punished if his criticisms of the white community were discovered or that he needed a license to create art. This “man on a mule” has come a long way on his journey toward recognition as an artist.

Lee Kogan, "The Man Rode Past His Barn to Another New Day," 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), 400.