Lot 225
Jerry Coker Metal Masks - Mr. Itoldi & Mr. Thretmann
Jerry Coker Metal Masks - Mr. Itoldi & Mr. Thretmann
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Jerry W. Coker (American, b. 1938). "Mr. Thretmann" and "Mr. Itoldi - the Man from Allroads Square" mixed media: roofing tin and wood masks, n.d. Both signed and titled on verso. A pair of rusted tin and wood masks by Jerry W. Coker, each alive with narrative, personality, and the faint trace of memory etched in graphite across the back. Drawn from the artist's ongoing "Identity Masks" series, these sculptural portraits evoke the forgotten characters and rural rhythms of Coker's Arkansas childhood, reanimated through scrap metal and stylized expression. The taller of the two is titled "Mr. Itoldi - the Man from Allroads Square," and it carries a mystique as layered as its surfaces. On the verso, pencil drawings depict floral ornamentation, looping embellishments, and a curious creature part dog, part spirit-animal, as if sketched from an old dream. Size of larger ("Mr. Itoldi"): 10.5" W x 20" H (26.7 cm x 50.8 cm)
The mask's elongated form and vertical ridge suggest both dignity and eccentricity - a man whose path crossed many, and who, in some way, embodied them all.
Beside him, "Mr. Thretmann" cuts a bolder figure. Deeply rusted and sharply folded at the nose, this mask conjures tension and melody in equal parts. The verso composition includes a flowering tangle of stems and musical notes rising above the name - a whisper of a man who might have sung in the fields or played tunes to keep time with work. The looping pencil lines lend both masks a lyrical quality, blending memory, folklore, and form into portraiture rooted in folk art tradition. Together, the masks function not only as visual artifacts but as character studies, half-remembered and half-imagined, preserved in metal and wood by an artist who saw masks not as disguises, but as windows into soul and story.
Provenance: private Rochester, Minnesota, USA collection, acquired from 1990 -1998
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#193007
- Condition: Both signed and titled on verso. Masks are in excellent overall condition with patina and age wear consistent with the artist's process. Each has a suspension wire on verso for display.
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