Art Mon Feb 15 2010

The Treasure of Ulysses Davis @ Intuit

By J.H. Palmer

Of all the pieces in the exhibition: The Treasure of Ulysses Davis, Sculpture from a Savannah Barbershop, perhaps the most striking is the glass case filled with busts of US presidents, from George Washington to George H.W. Bush, who was in office when the artist died. They were created largely in the 1970's using stock illustrations from textbook covers as source material. Individually they are unique pieces of work, together they create a wall of patriotic wonder. Gazing at the wood-rendered likenesses of the first through the forty-first presidents, you can trace the progression of men's fashion; from George Washington's ruffled shirt to James Monroe's ascot, and from Andrew Johnson's bowtie to full length neckties, which make their first appearance in the bust of Theodore Roosevelt. Centered among the busts is a presidential seal with the words "The Greatest" carved into it. The detail carved into the busts is remarkable: barber clippers were used to make grooves representing hair; Nixon grins menacingly; Franklin D. and Teddy Roosevelt each wear a pince nez; Harry Truman sports a pair of glasses; and the hair on Reagan's head fairly jumps out of the case.

During her talk last Saturday, Curator Susan Mitchell Crawley of the High Museum of Art in Atlanta explained that on election nights Davis would sit in front of the TV with a block of wood in one hand and a knife in the other, waiting for the results to come in so he could get to work on his next presidential bust. He held President Jimmy Carter in particularly high esteem, as the two were both from Georgia, and carved the 39th president's likeness at least five times. The two met in person in 1978; a photo of them posing with one of Davis' sculptures hangs on a wall at Intuit as part of the exhibit.

Ulysses Davis was born in Fitzgerald, Georgia in 1914, became a blacksmith's assistant on the Alabama, Birmingham and Coast Railroad, and moved to Savannah in 1942 to follow his boss, who refused to move without him. Nine years later he was laid off by Seaboard Air Line Railroad (now CSX), opened a barbershop in his house, and began whittling carvings between customers. He was the father of nine, a self-taught barber and artist, and was reluctant to sell his pieces. The title of the exhibition at Intuit comes from a quotation from Davis: "These things are very dear to me. They're part of me... I've been poor all my life. If I sold these, though, I'd be really poor. With these here, I feel like I have a treasure."

Davis kept his sculptures in his barbershop, which became an informal school of African-American art. After his death in 1990 much of his work was sold to the King-Tisdell Cottage Foundation of Savannah. Before traveling to Chicago, the exhibition debuted at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, the American Folk Art Museum in New York, and the Mennello Museum of American Art in Orlando.

Davis' works can roughly be broken into three main themes: patriotic works and portraits; religious carvings; and creatures. Davis sculpted portraits of presidents, historical figures, and men from his own time. The busts of Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King Jr. and Bill Cosby are all represented, as well as those of Uncle Sam and General Oglethorpe, the founder of the Georgia Colony. His religious sculptures include The Garden of Eden, which he completed in the last days of his life, and which he considered his masterpiece. At over three feet tall the sculpture dominates the exhibition hall at Intuit, its red-tongued serpentine figure rising above a golden tabletop that shelters the figures of Adam and Eve below.

Perhaps the most imaginative of Davis' sculptures are those that he called "created beasts", with their protruding tongues, red and white accents, and often impossible anatomies. One named Stumpy has dinosaur-like spines made from the broken off teeth of barbershop combs protruding from its back and nose, and No No Bird has a mouth as long as its body. Throughout his work are tiny sparkling objects which he referred to as "twinklets"; he used bits of his wife's jewelry and dresses to create Goddess of Peace and Love, a sculpture he created in her memory.

To really appreciate the works of Ulysses Davis requires seeing them in person; Intuit will be exhibiting his work through May 15, and hosting a number of special events related to the exhibit including a series of lectures: The Creativity of Freedom: Black Barbers and the Artistry of the Barbershop, on March 13; Presidential Corpus: Politics of the Black Body on March 27; and a hands-on workshop on April 24. Intuit is free and open to the public, for more information call 312-243-9088 or visit Intuit.