Like many I am listing today, this carved face came from the Rockport, MA estate of the late Ellen Gabin, an artist, activist, world traveler, friend and great inspiration to me when I was just get started with Critical Eye Finds. It is signed B. McInnis Bickerton on the back, which has lead me nowhere definitive, but I think it is possible the Bickerton refers to Port Bickerton in Nova Scotia. In some ways seeming to reference Inuit masks, but I believe its own special folk art thing, second half 20th century I think, with wonderfully curvaceous hand-carved form, glass eyes (which appear to have been reverse painted with blue centers then plugged from the back side of the head) and crooked smile that looks to me as if sitting on a secret. Thinly stained a warm reddish brow, with blacker stain on the top of the head and apples of the cheeks. Unusual and with a warm, strong presence.
10 1/4 x 6 3/8 x 3 and in very good condition, with a small hanger nailed to the back.
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