FRANK X. TOLBERT 2 (1945 - 2023)


Frank X. Tolbert 2 was a well-known, Texas-based artist who lived and worked in Houston. Tolbert 2's work is highly narrative and his earlier work reflects the traditions of the Texas Modernists and the work of Otis Dozier, under whom he studied. He also shares some stylistic elements with Latin American art and the Surrealists. Tolbert 2 created a visual language all his own through the recurrent use of personal iconography, and his work is often interlaced with ambiguity and humor.

Tolbert 2 attended Texas Tech University in Lubbock, the Texas Tech Art Extension Course at Taos, and North Texas State University in Denton. His works are part of important permanent collections at the Dallas Museum of Art, the Fort Worth Museum of Modern Art, the San Antonio Museum of Art, and the Houston Museum of Fine Arts.

Frank X Tolbert 2 had a magical way of interpreting the world with line and color. He explored the birds of Texas in paintings, etchings and drawings. In the process, Tolbert’s birds have been transformed through his work into darkly familiar personalities. Flatbed was honored to exhibit the large-scale paintings, prints, and drawings that emerged from his ornithological sojourn. Expect the unexpected for these are no ordinary birds. Tolbert’s Texas Birds fly artistic boundaries.

Recently Tolbert's Texas Bird Suite was featured in the September 2019 Texas Highways magazine.  Read the article here:  TEXAS HIGHWAYS

This quote is from D Magazine:

"In 2022, he exhibited work at the William Campbell Gallery in Fort Worth. The paintings were a continuation of his Texas Bird Project, an ongoing body of work that is exactly what the name indicates: native avians. But what would be his final exhibition during his lifetime, “Live Wire,” zoomed in on the grackle, a particular bird familiar to all Texans. Tolbert wanted to pay homage to the frequenter of parking lots, the underdog of birds. In the press release for the show, Tolbert was described as being attracted to the grackles for “their strong silhouette, their intelligence, their iridescence, and their odd vocalizations.” Those paintings are filled with birds that are sometimes wild, sometimes eccentric and utterly charming, a bit like Tolbert himself. 

Tolbert’s family asks that anyone who would like to pay tribute to him, do so by donating in his name to the nonprofit Texas visual art magazine, Glasstire. "