Head No. 4
David Miller Jr. (1903-1977)
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
c. 1950 - 1962
Materials
Lignum vitae
Measurements
310 x 134 mm
Order this imageCollection
The Argory, County Armagh
NT 565218
Summary
Sculpture, lignum vitae wood; Head No. 4; David Miller Jr. (1903-1977); c. 1950-62. A carved head of a man in lignum vitae wood, signed by the Jamaican sculptor David Miller Junior, who with his father David Miller Senior was a leading representative of the so-called Jamaican Intuitives group of artists. The sculpture was acquired in Jamaica by Walter McGeough Bond (1907-86), who spent his winters on the island over a period of many years.
Full description
A portrait of an unknown man, entitled by the artist 'Head No. 4', carved in lignum vitae wood by David Miller Jr. (1903-1977). The man is bald and thick-necked, and is depicted staring directly ahead, with a slight smile on his lips. Signature and inscription on the underside. With his father David Miller Sr. (1872-1969), David Miller Jr. ran a sculpture workshop from their home in Bray Street, Kingston, Jamaica. They were leading representatives of an increasingly significant local school of self-taught artists known collectively as the Jamaican Intuitives, many of whom emerged from the ranks of self-employed skilled workers. A major group of these painters and sculptors was celebrated in the 1986 Commonwealth Institute exhibition, Jamaican Intuitives. Both the Millers also worked as carpenters, making furniture and helping to build houses. They began their careers by creating curios and carvings to supply the tourist industry in Jamaica. It was from the 1940s that the Millers began to carve in a more three-dimensional mode, becoming increasingly recognised for their individual contributions to modern Jamaican art. Although the two men worked closely together, sometimes signing work as ‘The Millers’, David Miller Sr. generally specialised in more mystical and fetish-like works, inflected with his deep interest in religious questions, which were often left with a deliberately rough natural finish. Examples include Talisman and Rasta I of c. 1940 and Rasta: Do not Touch I of c. 1955 (Perry and Gaither 1989, pp. 89 and 170; Archer Shaw and Robinson 1990, p. 131; Boxer and Poupeye 1998, Pls. 27-28). On the other hand, David Miller Jr. is best-known for his series of long heads that have been described as ‘marvellous essays on the Negro physiognomy’ (Boxer and Poupeye 1998, p. 17) and as ‘a proud consciousness of self and negritude [..] in that sense […] symbols of independence’, referring to Jamaica’s independence from Britain in 1962 (Ute Stebich in Perry and Gaither 1989, p. 89). Miller’s sources for these sculptures included his own family, friends and neighbours, but also photographs in newspapers that he studied at the Institute of Jamaica in Kingston. Cumulatively, the heads are powerful essays in close observation, which ‘convey at once the self-confidence of the subjects and the self-assured talent of the sculptor.’ (Stebich in Perry and Gaither 1989, p. 89). Unlike his father, David Miller Jr. would generally smoothly finish and polish his sculptures, as in Head No. 4 at the Argory. Among the best-known of his works is Girl Surprised of 1949 (National Gallery of Jamaica; Boxer and Poupeye 1998, Pl. 29). In 1975 the younger Miller was described by David Boxer as ‘an exceptional naturalist… like his father under whom he learned to carve he has devoted his life to recording in an endless series of heads, the varied physiognomies of those around him.’ (Boxer 1975, p. 7). The Argory head is close in concept to Large Head in the National Gallery of Jamaica, made in 1949 (Boxer and Poupeye 1998, Pl. 30). Both Large Head and Head No. 4 share a hieratic and timeless quality which set them apart from the more naturalistic treatment of Miller’s Male Head, from 1943 or 1949 (National Gallery of Jamaica; Archer Shaw and Robinson 1990, p. 132; Anderson and Mortimer Evelyn 2016, p. 106). The heads by David Miller Jr. did not change greatly over time. This means that unless sculptures are inscribed with the year in which they were made, it becomes very difficult to date them. The Argory head must however have been made before 1962, the year in which Jamaica became independent, since the address on the underside still refers to the British West Indies. Although it is somewhat smaller than Miller’s two 1949 heads in the National Gallery of Jamaica, Head No. 4 is of particular interest for the material from which it is made, lignum vitae. Lignum vitae (‘Guiacum officinale’; ‘tree of life’) is a small compact tree that is native to the West Indies and tropical parts of the Americas. Discovered by Christopher Columbus, the leaves and wood of the tree have many uses; the wood is especially hard and dense, so that it does not float in water. In Jamaica the tree grows mainly along the coastal regions. It is now a protected species in Jamaica and the flower of the lignum vitae tree is Jamaica’s national flower. There is evidence for occasional use of lignum vitae by the Millers in their sculpture, for example David Miller Sr.’s Rasta I, or another small head of c. 1959 by David Miller Jr (Archer Shaw and Robinson 1990, p. 132). Head No. 4 retains on the underside its original price label, £50, which must have been a large sum in the 1950s or early 1960s, perhaps reflecting the material from which it is made. It has been suggested that the Millers can be seen as the predecessors to the craftsmen who supply work for the modern tourist market, of which another work at the Argory, by J. Spence (NT 565209), is an example. However, in their case ‘the element of pride and superior craftsmanship which was obviously put into each of the Millers’ individual pieces is rarely evident in today’s mass-produced variety.’ (Archer Shaw and Robinson 1990, p. 125). As the critic David Lee wrote in his review of the 1986 Jamaican Intuitives exhibition, in which both Millers were represented by a number of works, ‘trained or untrained, there are half-a-dozen sculptors here who can carve human volume and wraparound form into wood better than any supposedly sophisticated carvers who show in posh London galleries’ (Arts Review, 26 September 1986, p. 510). Jeremy Warren June 2022
Provenance
Acquired in Jamaica by Walter McGeough Bond (1907-86); given to the National Trust in 1979.
Marks and inscriptions
Underside, incised inscription: : DAVID S. MILLER / 8 BRAY ST., / KINGSTON / JAMAICA / B.W.I. Underside, label:: Lignum vitae wd. Head No. 4 £50
Makers and roles
David Miller Jr. (1903-1977), sculptor
References
Boxer 1975: David Boxer, Ten Jamaican Sculptors, exh. cat., Commonwealth Institute, London 1975, pp. 22-23 Boxer 1986 : David Boxer, Jamaican Intuitives. Visionary painting and sculpture direct from Jamaica, exh. cat., Commonwealth Institute, London 1986, pp, 3,23-24, nos. 47-53. Perry and Gaither 1989: Regenia A. Perry and Edmund Barry Gaither, Black Art, Ancestral Legacy. The African Impulse in African-American Art, exh.cat., Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas 1989, pp. 89, 148-49. Archer Shaw and Robinson 1990: Petrine Archer Shaw and Kim Robinson, Jamaican Art. An overview – with a focus on fifty artists, Kingston 1990, pp. 125, 131-32. Boxer and Poupeye 1998: David Baxter and Veerle Poupeye, Modern Jamaican Art, Kingston 1998, p. 17, Pls. 29-30. Anderson and Mortimer Evelyn 2016: Kat Anderson and Graeme Mortimer Evelyn, eds., Jamaican Pulse. Art and Politics from Jamaica and the Diaspora, exh. cat., Royal West of England Academy, Bristol 2016, pp. 15, 106.