The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 23, 2025

Black Heads

2010

Dexter Davis

(American, b. 1965)
America, Ohio, Cleveland
collage of prints (woodcut, etching and aquatint, stencil, and Xerox), charcoal, marker, crayon, pastel, gesso, paint, and found objects
Sheet: 126.5 x 96.6 cm (49 13/16 x 38 1/16 in.)
Dudley P. Allen Fund 2011.38
© Dexter Davis
Location: Not on view

Description

Black Heads depicts a monster whose one eye is a target. Embryos float above a row of sharp teeth, their innate innocence corrupted by the gun inside of each. Incorporated into the top of the collage is a portion of Icarus, a print by H. Carroll Cassill, Davis’s printmaking instructor at the Cleveland Institute of Art. It was salvaged from a fire that destroyed almost all of Davis’s work and possessions. In Greek mythology Daedalus fashioned wings from feathers and wax for his son, Icarus, warning him not to fly too close to the sun. Icarus ignored his father’s advice and fell to his death as the wax melted. "The symbolism of the story and its parallel with my own life was scary," Davis said. "But I am still trying to reach the heavens."
  • 2010
    Dexter Davis (the artist) [1965–], Cleveland, OH
    2010–11
    (William Busta Gallery, Cleveland, OH), sold to The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
    June 6, 2011–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Benay, Erin. "Peripheral Prints: Karamu House and the Rise of African American Art in the Midwest." Panorama: Journal of the Association of Historians of American Art 10, no. 1 (Spring 2024). Mentioned and reproduced: fig. 20 journalpanorama.org
    Benay, Erin. "From Prints to Power: Karamu House and the Black Art Market in Cleveland, 1960-1980." In Karamu Artists Inc.: Printmaking, Race, and Community, Britany Salsbury and Erin Benay, 102-117. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2025. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 114, fig. 42
  • Our Stories: African American Prints and Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (January 26–May 18, 2014).
    Main Gallery Rotation (Gallery 228): July 11, 2012- February 25, 2013.
    Main Gallery Rotation (Gallery 229): October 2011 - February 3, 2012.
  • {{cite web|title=Black Heads|url=false|author=Dexter Davis|year=2010|access-date=23 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2011.38