Born enslaved, Bill Traylor (1854-1949) spent much of his life after the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation working as a farm laborer and then as a shoemaker and factory worker. At the age of eighty-five, having never formally studied art, Traylor began making drawings and works on paper using gouache and other media. He was most prolific between 1939 and 1942, creating a body of work that offers a unique and rich registry of his life and insights. In their simplified yet lively compositions, focused palettes, and use of vernacular materials such as supports from found cardboard, they exemplify the subtle complexity and nuanced subversiveness of the artist’s oeuvre. Through the directness of their depictions, the figures, animals, and visual narratives ask to be considered apart from much historical or geographical context.