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Bill Traylor was born into slavery in Alabama around 1853. In 1939, in his mid-eighties and living rough in Montgomery, he picked up a pencil — and in roughly three years produced more than a thousand drawings on scavenged cardboard.

Bill Traylor

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He worked on a sidewalk by day, drawing sharp-edged mules, dogs, dancing figures and memories from plantation life, and slept in the back room of a funeral parlour. A young artist bought him poster paints and saved hundreds of the drawings. Traylor died in 1949, almost unknown. In 2018 the Smithsonian gave him a landmark retrospective — billed as its first for an artist born into slavery.

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Aynı kart, başka bir dilde.

Bill Traylor, Alabama'da 1853 civarında köle olarak doğdu. 1939'da, seksenlerinin ortasında ve Montgomery'de zor koşullarda yaşarken eline bir kalem aldı — ve yaklaşık üç yılda, bulduğu kartonlar üzerine binden fazla desen çizdi.

Bill Traylor

Gündüzleri kaldırımda çalışıyor; keskin hatlı katırlar, köpekler, dans eden figürler ve plantasyon hayatından hatıralar çiziyor, geceleri bir cenaze evinin arka odasında uyuyordu. Genç bir ressam ona boyalar aldı ve yüzlerce çizimini sakladı. Traylor 1949'da neredeyse hiç tanınmadan öldü. 2018'de Smithsonian ona dönüm noktası sayılan bir retrospektif ayırdı — köle doğan bir sanatçıya ayrılmış ilk büyük sergisi olarak duyuruldu.

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Background reading: Bill TraylorAttribution and context are revised when stronger evidence appears. Corrections are welcome through the editorial page.

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Next in the open archiveJulia Child could barely cook when she married at 34. She enrolled at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris at 37, and after one publisher rejected her manuscript, 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking' appeared in 1961 — when she was 49.Q2018

Bill Traylor was born into slavery in Alabama around 1853. In 1939, in his mid-eighties and living rough in Montgomery, he picked up a pencil — and in roughly three years produced more than a thousand drawings on scavenged cardboard.

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