Bill Traylor was born to a family of slaves on a cotton plantation in Alabama, USA. When he was over 80 years of age he left the plantation and moved to Montgomery, a city with a large African-American population. Twice married, he had 20 children. In the 1930s he began painting on cardboard and paper, sitting on a street corner in Montgomery where he put his paintings on view and for sale.

- The discovery -
Artist Charles Shannon saw Traylor in 1939 seated on a street corner.
Enchanted by the originality and beauty of his works, he purchased
some pieces and even arranged two exhibitions for Traylor, still in his
lifetime. Recognition of Traylor's work, however, came only later, in the
1970s, with the growing awareness of African-American culture, which was reinforced following inclusion of his works in the exhibition "Black Folk Art in America, 1930-1980" curated by Jane Livingston and John Beardsley at Corcoran Gallery, Washington in 1982.

- The work -
Traylor's major body of work was created in the course of three years,
1939-1942. During that time he painted on cardboard and paper scenes based on his memories from the plantation where he grew up and on urban African-American culture in the period of open racism in the American South. Unlike the typical characteristics of most Art Brut works, Traylor's are neither dense and compressed, nor do they ref lect a horror vacui. They are distinguished by f inesse and great painterly sophistication. Some resemble pictographs awaiting to be deciphered; some have the quality of abstract and minimalist painting.