Collection: Bill Trayor

Bill Traylor (nee William Traylor; April 1, c. 1853 – October 23, 1949) was an African-American self-taught artist from Lowndes County, Alabama. Born into slavery, artist Bill Traylor spent most of his life after emancipation working as a sharecropper. It was only after 1939, following his move to Montgomery, Alabama, that Traylor began to draw.  From 1939 to 1942, while working on the sidewalks of Montgomery, he produced nearly 1,500 pieces of art.

While Bill Traylor art received his first public exhibition in 1940, it was not until 30 years after his death that his work finally began to receive broader attention, in the late 1970s.