Three-faced Man
Folk and Self-Taught Art

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Three-faced Man
Artwork Details
Artist/Maker
Ulysses Davis
American, 1914–1990
American, 1914–1990
Date
1940–1985
Medium
Wood
Accession #
2010.174
Dimensions
Please contact the Museum for more information.
Location
Currently Not on View
Description
Ulysses Davis began carving as a child and continued to create work on the side while barbering for a living as an adult. Davis’s artwork is a paradox in many ways. His sources range from prosaic advertising images to the artist’s extravagant imagination, its moods from whimsical fantasy to solemn dignity, its forms from lavishly ornamental to radically simplified. Yet despite these extremes, it is always recognizable as his. With its skilled carving, refined finish, intricate textures, and keen attention to humorous detail, this delightful carving of a humanoid with three faces exemplifies Davis’s fantasy sculpture.