BILL TRAYLOR (CIRCA 1853-1949)

Goat with Kid reveals Bill Traylor’s mastery over space, his subject matter and his media. After a lifetime on a plantation, former slave Traylor moved to Montgomery, Alabama. There, from a doorstep on Monroe Street, he rendered starkly modernist images of lively animals, vibrant landscapes and active people. Goat with Kid exhibits classic trademarks of Traylor’s work: Executed on repurposed card, the adult animal's torso is drawn as a geometric box and the legs are made with a straightedge, while the body shows Traylor's experimentation with mass. Below, her offspring reaches up and feeds. Although reductive in form, the portrayal, with its depiction of the subjects' expressions and relationships in space, demonstrates Traylor's acute understanding of the animals and the intimate interaction between a mother and her young.