The Last Folk Hero: A True Story of Race and Art, Power and Profit

The lives and works of blue-collar, African American artists Thornton Dial and Lonnie Holley are documented in this true story of outsider art, ego, exploitation, and race. Following the interaction between Dial, an illiterate factory worker with creative genius, his comrade-in-arts Holley, and Bill Arnett, a wealthy, white, and infamous art patron, this account details the obsessions and exploitations found in the soap-opera world of modern art. Congressmen, business tycoons, movie stars, academics, and the cultural elite all play roles in a story where the distinction between hero and villain evaporate amid the twisted motivations of the art market.