Bill Traylor was an American artist born into slavery in Alabama. After the American Civil War and the abolition of slavery, he spent most of his life working as a laborer and sharecropper in the American South. It was not until his eighties that he began drawing on pieces of cardboard and recycled paper on the streets of Montgomery.

His images move between memory, everyday life, fantasy, and symbolism: dogs, people, birds, fights, music, city life, and strange dreamlike scenes. Using simple forms, he created a completely unique visual language, shaped by his experience of slavery and segregation in the American South. Today, Bill Traylor is regarded as one of the most important artists in American art history.