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Sherman Beck USA, b. 1942
Immersed, 2022Acrylic on canvas32 x 42 in
81.3 x 106.7 cm8510Further images
This painting of a single face afloat in a field of geometric forms belongs to Sherman Beck's Mask, or Ancestor, series. These works examine the correlations between traditional African masks...This painting of a single face afloat in a field of geometric forms belongs to Sherman Beck's Mask, or Ancestor, series. These works examine the correlations between traditional African masks that might be used in a ceremony to hide the wearer's true personality, and the masks we wear on our own faces with our expressions, or lack thereof. Beck is inspired by the poem “We Wear the Mask” by Paul Laurence Dunbar, which begins, “We wear the mask that grins and lies.” These paintings range from highly figurative to highly abstract. This painting places a figurative image of an actual human face in context with a highly abstracted background.
