Red Devil Bird

Accession Number
2002/1.211

Title
Red Devil Bird

Artist(s)
Sherman Lambdin

Object Creation Date
1970-1991

Medium & Support
painted wood twig

Dimensions
19 11/16 x 9 11/16 x 6 15/16 in. (50 x 24.5 x 17.5 cm)

Credit Line
Gift of The Daniel and Harriet Fusfeld Folk Art Collection

Label copy
Ronald E. Cooper
United States, born 1931
He’s Got You and Me Brother
1992
Carved and painted wood
Gift of the Daniel and Harriet Fusfeld Folk Art Collection, 2002/1.213
Earnest Patton
United States, born 1935
Man in Business Suit
1970–92
Carved and painted wood
Gift of the Daniel and Harriet Fusfeld Folk Art Collection, 2002/1.212
Sherman Lambdin
United States, born 1948
Red Devil Bird
1970–91
Painted wood twig
Gift of the Daniel and Harriet Fusfeld Folk Art Collection, 2002/1.211
Cooper, Lambdin, and Patton are all professional Kentucky “whittlers,” or folk carvers. Southern carvers often include religious references in their works. Here, Cooper’s figure refers to the lyrics of a traditional African American spiritual, while Patton’s cane snake is a common nineteenth-century folk art symbol that has survived to contemporary times. Carved cane snakes were an African art tradition carried to the American South by enslaved West Africans, for whom snake imagery held spiritual significance.
(Out of the Ordinary, 2010)

Primary Object Classification
Sculpture

Primary Object Type
figure

Additional Object Classification(s)
Sculpture

Collection Area
Modern and Contemporary

Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.

Keywords
Birds
Figures
figures (representations)
red
standing

6 Related Resources

Folk, Self-taught, Amateur, and Visionary Art
(Part of 2 Learning Collections)
Monsters
(Part of 4 Learning Collections)
W19 Angell School Study Cases
(Part of: Resources Made by Isabel Engel)
Cabinet Y: Shelf 1
(Part of: Albertine Monroe-Brown Study-Storage Gallery)

& Author Notes

All Rights Reserved

On display

UMMA Gallery Location ➜ AMH, 2nd floor ➜ 205 (Albertine Monroe-Brown Study-Storage Gallery) ➜ Cabinet Y ➜ Shelf 1