Self-Taught Artist Thornton Dial

The Beginning of Life in the Yellow Jungle, 2003
Perhaps because Dial operates free of the standard postures of contemporary art — irony being the most obvious — what he can do is reach, when he wants and without apology or ironic distance, for euphoria. It is hard to imagine another contemporary artist attempting, much less getting away with, the sincere effulgence of The Beginning of Life in the Yellow Jungle, this lush take on the first stirrings of the world.

• Vivian Maier: The Secret Shutterbug