Explaining that "nothing was too good for Jesus,” Davis found the finest piece of cedar possible for one of his largest religious sculptures, "Jesus on the Cross,” 1946. He worked painstakingly to get the sculpture right, including reducing the figure's anatomy to pure geometric shapes and shaping the crown. High Museum of Art.
:One of the most intriguing aspects of American folk art is the continuing discovery of talented self-taught artists who, in many cases are virtually unknown to national audiences and the collecting community.
That is the case with Ulysses Davis (1913–1990), arguably the nation's best self-trained woodcarver, who created sculptures in spare time from working as a barber in Savannah, Ga., and is little known outside his home state. Davis's body of highly refined sculpture reflects wit, dignity, religious faith, patriotism, a fertile imagination and impeccable skills.
His talent is readily apparent in his idiosyncratic portraits of historical and biblical figures, likenesses of African leaders, realistic animals, fantastic beasts, patriotic symbols and utilitarian objects. Represented among his masterpieces are 41 carved busts of every US President through George H.W. Bush.
In spite of persistent pleas from art collectors and dealers, Davis refused, with few exceptions, to sell his works. "They're part of me," he insisted. "They're part of my treasure. If I sold these, I'd really be poor." Davis's wish to have his oeuvre kept intact was realized when the King-Tisdell Cottage Foundation in Savannah acquired the bulk of his work after his death.
It is fitting that the first comprehensive Davis exhibition in years, "The Treasure of Ulysses Davis
,
"
has been organized by the High Museum of Art, in collaboration with King-Tisdell. The High is among the only major museums in North America with a curatorial department specifically devoted to folk and self-taught art. On view through April 5 are some 115 Davis objects, drawn largely from the King-Tisdell trove.
"We believe Davis's work is sure to excite visitors with its energy, whimsy and drama," said High director Michael Shapiro. The High's curator of folk art, Susan Mitchell Crawley, assembled the show and wrote the accompanying catalog, the first monograph on the artist. Davis's work, she says, "is widely esteemed but too rarely seen." Indeed, his carvings are rarely shown outside of Savannah.
Born in rural Fitzgerald, Ga., Davis learned metalworking from his blacksmith father, and began whittling wood scraps as a youngster. His mother, to help keep the family warm, tossed most of his creations into the fire. The only early effort to survive, "First Man," carved around 1924 when Davis was 11, shows considerable promise for a beginner. Leaving school after the tenth grade to help support his family, Davis worked as a blacksmith's assistant on the railroad, an experience that enabled him to make many of the tools he later used in woodcarving.
Here is Ulysses Davis sitting next to the barber shop and work space in a converted outbuilding behind his house in Savannah that he decorated with his handiwork. He saved space inside for restoring furniture and carving. Courtesy High Museum of Art.
After being laid off in the early 1950s, he began barbering in a shop he built behind his home in Savannah. He and his beloved wife Elizabeth raised nine children.
A modest man, Davis called himself simply a whittler, but he was clearly much more than that. In his spare time he carved figures from shipyard lumber, wood he bought at lumberyards and reclaimed pieces donated by friends. He rarely made preliminary drawings or models, instead reducing the mass of wood with a hatchet, or later a band saw, before refining the form with a chisel and knives.
He was said to believe there was art hidden in every piece of wood and that his job was to carve away the excess.
Davis's work is characterized by fine, textural detail, often obtained by using tools of his barbering trade, such as the blade of his hair clippers, and stamps he learned to fabricate while working on the railroad. He stained and painted more than 300 carvings, ranging in height from 6 to more than 40 inches.
