In an age when the rules of art had either been abandoned in favor of an anti-formalist attitude or had

Reclining Nude

Despite his avid study of color and form, Tolliver began to experience a “feeling of emptiness” toward realistic art. At age 13, he discovered the work of another self-taught artist, Vincent Van Gogh. The work of Van Gogh served as a revelation: “Van Gogh painted purely for the love of it,” Tolliver in The International Review of Art, “I can relate to that. I also liked his use of color, the way the light was reflected in his paintings, the powerful feeling in his work.” He was also inspired by Van Gogh’s ability to paint his local countryside and its rural folk with a power of deep human insight. “Van Gogh painted people digging potatoes and struck a universal chord,” Tolliver explained in Upscale Magazine. Relating to the destitute farmers and laborers of Van Gogh’s Holland, Tolliver found even more significance in the study of his own people living within the Mississippi Delta.

At age 14, Tolliver dropped out of school and left Mississippi to join the Job Corps program in Los Angeles. During his yea-and-a-half stint with Job Corps, he studied carpentry at a government-sponsored trade school and brought his reading skills up to the college level. Assisted by an instructor at the trade school who was also a visual artist, Tolliver received additional instruction and information about the techniques of painting.

     From Los Angeles Tolliver moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he served for a time as an assistant to a local sculptor. While there he met a number of other artists whose encouragement and exposure helped him gain a greater appreciate for his own work. The artist eventually returned to Vicksburg, taking a day job in construction and spending his evenings painting.

     He married in 1977 and, in 1981 he moved his family to Lafayette, Louisiana, where an oil boom had created employment opportunities in the construction trades. In Lafayette, he worked as a wallpaper hanger and a house painter. Two years later, however, the city’s building industry fell into decline, leaving Tolliver unemployed. Laid off from his job and without income, he set out to relax in his free hours by painting with his daughters paint kit.

     Tolliver’s wife, Debrah, confident that her husband’s painting would sell, suggested he show them to a gallery. Tolliver, however, believed his works would not be well received and refused. Defying her husband’s decision, Debrah presented nine Cajun landscape paintings to Bob Crutchfield, owner of Lafayette’s Live Oak Gallery. In an interview with Contemporary Black Biography (CBB), Crutchfield pointed out that the works showed great potential and real talent. The nine paintings sold in ten days; requests for more followed.

   Tolliver soon began to paint in a new and unique style that has been termed “representational abstract expressionism.” Bringing these new works to Life Oak Gallery, Tolliver presented them to Crutchfield, who, upon realizing that Tolliver had reached a new creative level, stood speechless, unable to find words to expression his elation. In Galerie Royal’s biography of Tolliver, Crutchfield recalled, “I was silent, not because of anything other than complete awe.” Assuming Crutchfield did not like the works, Tolliver began to gather them in his arms. As Crutchfield related to CBB, Tolliver disappointedly told him, “I knew you wouldn’t like them.” Crutchfield immediately assured Tolliver that he found the paintings to be excellent and that he wanted to show them at his gallery. These new paintings sold within 24 hours.

     Because of Lafayette’s oil industry, the city brought in out-of-state businesspeople and investors who purchased Tolliver’s works. In the late 1980’s, the artist’s abstract-style paintings were shown at museum exhibitions, including the Contemporary Art Center of New Orleans, the New Orleans Museum of Art, and the U.S. Senate Building in Washington, D.C.

     Critically ranked with such famous African American artists as Romare Bearden and Jacob Lawrence, Tolliver soon gained the reputation as one of America’s most renowned contemporary artists.

     Able to work in numerous mediums- oil, acrylic, watercolor, oil pastel, and dimensional reliefs- Tolliver is forever exploring new techniques. By his own desire and inquiry, he has, according to Nanette Jolivette in the Lafayette Times, “managed to bridge the gap between the humanities and the sciences.” In Tolliver’s opinion, the organization of abstract colors is a “mathematical” and deeply analytical process. Using a creative method similar to that of great writers and musicians, Tolliver brings together an astute understanding of formal structure with the inspirational and spiritual nature of the human experience- qualities not often found within the ranks of most academically trained artists.