"The Treasure of Ulysses Davis"

We didn’t expect to find Bill Cosby among the heroes whose portraits Ulysses Davis (1914–90) carved in wood. But a small-scale bust of the actor and comedian—wearing what we think is one of Mr. Huxtable’s sweaters—is one of the 109 sculptures on display in a fun retrospective that’s full of surprises.

Davis filled his barbershop in Savannah, Georgia, with his wood carvings, refusing to sell most of them. His work includes devotional images, fantastic animals and aliens he dubbed “created beasts,” and homages to famous figures from African and American history. (The most elaborate of these, Presidents of the United States of America and the Great Seal, is a series of 40 portrait busts that took two decades to complete.)

Though his likenesses aren’t perfect, the formal complexity of Davis’s sculptures demonstrates his considerable talent. Elaborate pedestals support most of his pieces—some balanced, incredibly, on four delicate carved talons. Every surface seems to have a different texture, and Davis makes judicious use of “twinklets”: rhinestones and other shiny adornments raided from his wife’s jewelry collection.

Susan Crawley of Atlanta’s High Museum curated this exhibition in association with Savannah’s King-Tisdell Cottage Foundation, which acquired most of Davis’s work after his death. The show’s informative wall text leaves a few questions unanswered. Why did Davis deny he was influenced by African art, which he’d studied extensively? Did he deliberately choose materials that make some of his Presidents look black? Fortunately, Davis’s originality comes through even if his story’s incomplete.

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