Saturno Press Publishing Folk Art & Creative Works
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For ten years I have been working on this manuscript, and I'm proud to announce that the book is officially finished and waiting to be published. The book is a first-hand view of Mose from the days when I chaperoned him and his wife to the Corcoran exhibit through his rise to national recognition in the folk art world. Folk art scholar Regenia Perry has contributed a preface on the significance and appeal of Tolliver's work. Lee Kogan, curator of The American Folk Art Museum in New York, has also written a wonderful introduction. I have included an essay along with stories and anecdotes from my close friendship with Mose dating back to I've presented some of the finest vintage pieces in my collection in  an A to Z format of one-of -a- kind Mose titles (J is for Jimma Jamma Girl-She does the wild dance). These high quality reproductions are complimented by multiple photographs of Mose at home with his family and working on his art.

This beautiful full color, 90-page volume will be available November 1st, but you can reserve your copy in advance, exclusively through the Anton Haardt Gallery. Anton will be signing the first 100 copies. Price is $46 plus $5.00 Shipping and handling.

 Please call or email-334-261-3323 or antonhaardt@hotmail.com

"In terms of the art history of our country, I would say in comparing Tolliver's work to Picasso - Mose's art is of equal value - you can hang beside a Picasso and you have the same kind of creativity and deep personal vision."

Robert Bishop, Director of the American Folk Art Museum

"Haardt leaves no doubt that Mose Tolliver has made a lasting contribution to the cultural memory of the South"

Jason Berry, Best Selling Author

"Locomotives behind artists are as necessary as the art itself, and thanks to Anton Haardt, many of our regional artists have been able to live and even flourish from their craft.”

Nall - Artist, Writer, Director of Nall Foundation

"Bill and Hillary Clinton gave Ted and I a Mose Tolliver painting as a wedding present. I smile every time I pass it no matter what else my day has brought me. That's art."

Mary Steenburgen,
Academy Award Winning Actress

"I must thank Anton Haardt for sharing Mose's story with us. It's an excellent story and excellent journal of an amazing artist who will see fame in his own lifetime after a disaster that caused him to pick up a paintbrush ­ and share his inner thoughts with us."

Tyrone V. Banks, Author of "Under the Melting Pot"

"Mose T, A to Z is the first book dedicated to Tolliver's work... Haardt's true heart comes through in this book... a worthy investment for fans of Mose, aficionado's of folk art and curious readers everywhere".

Clarence V. Reynolds, "Black Issues" January - February 2005

"Haardt gives a brief, yet highly informative, definition on each of Tolliver's whimsical monikers for his paintings. This book should hold a special appeal for those who have come to know and love the old man on Sayre Street, and may capture interest of art enthusiasts worldwide."

Cane Bowden, "Kudzu Review," Montgomery, Alabama August 2004

Juanita Rogers: Run Toward the Sun

Anton Haardt has a manuscript about her friendship with Juanita Rogers. Juanita's incredible mud sculptures and fantastic stories seem almost too strange to be true.  Excerpts appeared with the support of John Foster in his ENVISIONS magazine out of St. Louis.  Anton also has an essay, as well as photographs, of Juanita and her work in Souls Grown Deep by Bill Arnett.  This past year New Orleans author, Jason Berry, helped edit the manuscript on Juanita, whose mud sculptures and drawings Anton began to collect in 1980.  Author Anton Haardt calls Run Toward the Sun: Remembering Juanita Rogers a magical realist biography crossed with an anthropological detective story. 

Mose Tolliver, born in 1915 near Pintala, Alabama, now lives in Montgomery. During the late 1960's, boredom and long hours of idle time spawned his creativity. Mose works with "pure house paint" on plywood; creating whimsical, haunting and sometimes erotic pictures of wonderfully balanced animals, humans, and flora. A "Quail Bird" may glide over a cotton field, or a spread-leg "Diana" may be straddled over "An Excercise Rack Bicycle. Self portraits with crutches are a repeated image.

Mose is dyslexic, which may have encouraged his artisitic efforts by limiting his reading and writing abilities. He will often turn his paintings upside-down and paint the picture of perhaps an animal and landscape positioned from various directions. Tolliver's titles exhibit a fantastic imagination; "Smoke Charlies," "Scopper Bugs,"or "Jick Jack Suzy Satisfying her own Self."

Tolliver's work has been exhibited at the Philadelphia College of Art, Montgomery Museum of Fine Art, and the Cocoran Gallery of Art. In 1993, a retrospective of his work was held at the Museum of American Folk Art in New York City.

Art by Mose T