The Texas art world lost one of its originals this month. Frank X. Tolbert 2—artist, musician, and local legend—died at his home in Houston July 13. He was 77.
Tolbert 2 (decidedly not junior or II), was the son of Frank X. Tolbert, a longtime Dallas Morning News columnist, Texas historian, and chili aficionado. Tolbert 1 was the founder of the Terlingua Chili Cookoff in West Texas, as well as the Texas Chili Parlor, which is still open on Main Street in Grapevine and operated by Tolbert 2’s sister, Kathleen Tolbert Ryan. That original chili cookoff in 1967 was meant to settle a great debate about who knew more about chili, a Texan or a New Yorker. This playful spirit and dedication to all things Texana was passed down to Tolbert 2, whose work on and off the canvas was filled with a maverick spirit.
Tolbert grew up in the “Disney Streets” of Dallas during the 1950s and 60s. He started painting when he was just 10 years old and studied with artist Otis Dozier—a member of the seminal artists, the “Dallas Nine”—at the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts (now the Dallas Museum of Art) when it was still in Fair Park. He went on to study art at North Texas State University (now the University of North Texas) and Texas Tech University.
He and his wife, the talented painter Ann Stautberg, primarily lived in Houston and later on Galveston Island from 1978 onward. He showed at numerous Houston galleries, but Tolbert 2 was also a fixture in the art scene in North Texas. He kept a studio in Dallas for a period and he was often at gallery openings, his own or otherwise. He showed his work in prominent galleries (Kirk Hopper Fine Art, Barry Whistler Gallery, McKinney Avenue Contemporary, to name a few) and his works can be found in the collections of the Dallas Museum of Art and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.
Tolbert was part of a crew of Texas outsider artists. It seemed he preferred to operate on the margins of the art world, in the rowdier, more fun arenas. Fellow artist, musician, and troublemaker Andy Don Emmons remembers meeting Tolbert at the Orange Show Art Car Parade in Houston in the early 90s. He says they talked about art cars, painting, and homemade washtub basses. Those conversations would continue over the next few decades.
“He always flashed a mischievous smile when we met,” Emmons says. “He had a fantastic sense of humor with a wonderful, infectious laugh. A true Texas gentleman and a great washtub bass player.”
Other Dallas artists remember him similarly, for his generous spirit and his wild stories.
Artist Thor Johnson remembers visiting Tolbert in the 90’s at his studio in the Mitchell Building in Exposition Park. They met in the late 1980s when Tolbert painted a mural at the second location of the 8.0 Bar, the very first hotspot created by art patron and restaurateur Shannon Wynne. At the time, Johnson was just building a career as an artist and he thought of Tolbert as legendary.
“I would sit there [in his studio] and watch him paint and we would talk about all kinds of stuff,” Johnson says. “Frank’s art had a subtle magic to it, even if it was just an image of a bird.”
Tolbert’s artistry developed throughout his career, but, like the artist himself, it remained true to his lone star roots. His figurative paintings warrant comparisons to other Texas artists like David Bates or Jerry Bywaters, but he was drawn to more mystical themes and played with light, adopting an almost chiaroscuro technique.
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.
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