African Athlete

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    Photo: Stephen Pitkin/Pitkin Studio
1998
Pencil, charcoal, and pastel on paper
44 x 30 inches
Collection of
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Gift of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation
Description

From the beginning, the most prevalent subjects of Dial’s drawings have been women. His earliest works on paper are sinuous female figures in communion with emblems of nature—birds, egg-filled nests, tigers and fish. Beginning in the 1990s, he also began to create portraits of real-word women, from the athlete Florence Griffith Joyner (African Athlete) to the scandal-ridden Monica Lewinsky (Monica) to Princess Diana on the day of her funeral (Last Trip Home).