William Dawson carved stacks of faces from old table and chair legs before he even knew what a totem pole was. These pieces show his distinctive carved faces, with wide, staring eyes painted a stark white against different colored backgrounds. He made totems in a variety of heights depending on the piece of wood, and they can reach up to four feet.
“I had never seen a totem. I was in the park one day. I was carving and a fellow came up and said, ‘Oh, you make totems.’ But I didn’t know what they were. My wife looked it up in a book in the library, and sure enough, I was making totems.” The artist, quoted in Folk Art Messenger, Winter 1990
- Title
-
Totem
- Artist
- Date
- ca. 1975
- Location
- Dimensions
- 13 x 3 1⁄8 in. (33.0 x 7.8 cm)
- Credit Line
-
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Gift of Chuck and Jan Rosenak
- Mediums
- Mediums Description
- acrylic and felt-tipped pen and ink on carved wood
- Classifications
- Keywords
-
- Ethnic – African-American
- Figure – fragment – face
- Object Number
-
1981.136.1
- Palette
- Linked Open Data
- Linked Open Data URI
