‘He’s telling a story of his time’: how Bill Traylor, born into slavery, became an art titan

Referred to as the greatest artist you've never heard of', Bill Traylor's compelling life is put under the spotlight in a new documentary

Bill Traylor had already lived a full life before he was born as an artist. Enslaved at birth on an Alabama cotton plantation in 1853 and having spent his entire life as a farmer within a 40-mile radius of Montgomery, it was only in his late 80s that he, homeless and alone, parked himself by a bustling intersection in the state capitol's segregated black neighborhood and began to draw and paint.

Related: In the Absence of Light: celebrating the history of black artists in America