Saturno Press

03/22/2022

First Lady Nancy Reagan visits the groundbreaking 1982 exhibition, “Black Folk Art in America 1930-1980”, at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Photographed with participating artist Mose Tolliver. More on the Corcoran Exhibit is in the book, Mose T A to Z: The Folk Art of Mose Tolliver, by Anton Haardt.

03/08/2022

I first encountered Mose in the summer of 1970, about a year after he began painting. His wife, Willie Mae, had collard greens simmering on the stove, emitting a pungent smell only a Southerner could identify. I gingerly knocked on the screen door, and a thickly accented voice hollered, "Come on in!" So I did. And there in the middle room, was Mose, sitting on the edge of his bed painting on a board that he held in his lap. He wiped his brushes on the bedspread, and his shoes and pants were covered with splatters of paint. Cans of cast off house paint in random colors were stacked all around his bed, ready for the next picture.
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From Mose T A to Z: The Folk Art of Mose Tolliver, by Anton Haardt.

03/08/2022

Mose Tolliver's paintings of people, animals and flowers are unique in their style. He especially loved to paint fish. The Alabama River is not many blocks from Mose's home and in the earlier years he sometimes went fishing there. There are huge catfish in the river and also prehistoric monster-like fish called Gar. One day Mose explained his Mud Fish: "A mud fish is a big fish. In 1970, I was up on the Back Water and I seen one long as that gate over there that would pull you, or anybody out of the boat."
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See page about the Gar fish from Anton Haardt's book, Mose T A to Z: The Folk Art of Mose Tolliver.
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Anton will be signing Mose T books at Gallery One in Montgomery, Alabama on Thursday, March 10th.

03/06/2022

Mose said, "I just want to paint my pictures."
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Here is a photo of Mose taken in Anton Haardt's Gallery circa 1992. The photograph is reproduced in the book, Mose T. From A to Z: The Folk Art of Mose Tolliver by Anton Haardt. Robert Bishop, then director of the Museum of American Folk Art, went so far as to declare that Mose's art was of "equal value" to Picasso's, commenting that "you can hang him beside a Picasso and you have the same creativity and deep personal vision.”
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Anton will be at Gallery One in Montgomery for a book signing on Thursday, March 10.

03/05/2022

Mose Tolliver's Tico Bird
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In Anton’s book, Mose T: from A to Z: The Folk Art of Mose Tolliver, she explains that the Tico Bird is the nickname for the complex and beautiful sounds of the Mockingbird, who sings in the wee hours of the morning. From the days when Mose T hung his paintings in a tree in his front yard in Montgomery, Alabama, selling them for a dollar each, to his rise in the folk art world, the Tico Bird has remained one of his popular images.

03/01/2022

Mose Tolliver Book is an intimate portrait of unique African-American who saw fame in his own lifetime after a disaster caused him to pick up a paintbrush.

03/01/2022

Here is a page from my book, "Mose T: A to Z: The Folk Art of Mose Tolliver", with a photo that I took of Mose sitting on the side of his bed. In the background a Dianna Lady and self-portrait hang on his walls. After he stopped hanging his paintings in trees, Mose’s bedroom became his gallery.

07/03/2019

The book "Mose T From A to Z: The Folk Art of Mose Tolliver" has a page dedicated to L.W. Crawford, Mose T's son in law. L.W. said he's the one who taught Mose how to paint.

07/03/2019

Greetings from Saturno Press! It's Been a while since I've posted. Here is some info on Folk artist, Juanita Rogers and my book on her, titled "Run Toward the Sun: Remembering Juanita Rogers". More Outsider Art can be seen at The Anton Haardt Gallery and on Deep South Vintage Antiques Ebay Store at deepsouthc.

08/23/2018

Remembering Juanita Rogers
As many of you are already aware, over the last couple of decades I have been diligently working on a manuscript about folk artist Juanita Rogers, and this month I am pleased to say that you can finally read the first chapter in Deep South Magazine. “A Sirius Call” is the beginning of the book to be published, titled “Run Toward the Sun: Remembering Juanita Rogers”. It is the celebration of this unique and obstinate artist and my quest to document and elevate her life’s work. For several years until her death, our friendship grew. I photographed and videoed her and learned more about her mentor Mr. Stonefish, an enigmatic character who was forever absent, and her primitive mud sculptures, reminiscent of voodoo although she denied any participation..

Tom Patterson, writer/curator from Winston Sales, North Carolina states in his introduction to the book:

"Run Toward the Sun: Remembering Juanita Rogers” represents Haardt’s coming-to-terms with the enduringly unanswerable questions surrounding her old friend. Nearly 30 years after Rogers’ death, we’re left with this remarkable body of work--the rivetingly grotesque sculptures and eccentrically whimsical drawings--and with Haardt’s recollections and musings about the woman who made them. Who was Juanita Rogers? This book is as close as we’ll come to knowing, and to understanding what her art meant to her. A deep bow of gratitude goes to Anton Haardt for saving Rogers’ work from oblivion and sharing the story of their singular relationship."

This is a personal invitation for you to check out "A Sirius Call" and share with your friends.
http://deepsouthmag.com/2018/08/07/a-sirius-call/

I am requesting pre-publication book reviews of the book. If you would be interested in giving a book review I can send you a digital copy to read.

by Anton Haardt