Untitled (Cane)

Ulysses Davis, Untitled (Cane), ca. 1950-1990, carved and stained wood, 34 ⁷⁄₈ × 2 ¹⁄₂ × 2 ¹⁄₈ in. (88.6 × 6.4 × 5.4 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Margaret Z. Robson Collection, Gift of John E. and Douglas O. Robson, 2016.38.21

Artwork Details

Title: Untitled (Cane)
Artist: Ulysses Davis
Date: ca. 1950-1990
Location: Not on view
Dimensions: 34 ⁷⁄₈ × 2 ¹⁄₂ × 2 ¹⁄₈ in. (88.6 × 6.4 × 5.4 cm)
Credit Line: The Margaret Z. Robson Collection, Gift of John E. and Douglas O. Robson
Mediums Description: carved and stained wood
Classifications: Sculpture
Subjects: Dress — accessory — cane
Figure male — head
Object Number: 2016.38.21
Linked Open Data: https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/2016.38.21

Artwork Description

Davis made utilitarian items such as tables and canes, imaginative sculptures, and decorative pieces that defy easy description, like this untitled scene of houses and trees—part hanging picture, part carved box. The cane seen here shows a serpent crawling toward a bearded man with dark, wavy hair and thick eyebrows: a Moses figure portrayed with distinctly Black features. In the Book of Exodus, God sends poisonous snakes to punish those who complained about his judgment of their sins with a fatal bite. Yet he also showed mercy, by giving Moses the power to heal the bitten: “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a snake image and mount it on a pole. When anyone who is bitten looks at it, he will recover.’ So Moses made a bronze snake and mounted it on a pole. Whenever someone was bitten, and he looked at the bronze snake, he recovered.”
(We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection, 2022)