Accession Number
2002/1.212

Title
Man in Business Suit

Artist(s)
Earnest Patton

Object Creation Date
1970-1992

Medium & Support
carved and painted wood

Dimensions
17 3/4 in x 5 5/16 in x 6 7/8 in (45 cm x 13.5 cm 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)
Wood and Woodcarving

Collection Area
Modern and Contemporary

Rights
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Keywords
Business figures
Caucasian (culture or style)
man
men (male humans)
standing
suits (main garments)