Details

Title

Ascension

Artist/Maker

Sam Doyle (American, 1906–1985)

Date

ca. 1982–1985

Medium

House paint on tin

Dimensions

45 1/2 x 26 inches

Credit

Purchase with funds from Alfred Austell Thornton in memory of Leila Austell Thornton and Albert Edward Thornton, Sr., and Sarah Miller Venable and William Hoyt Venable, and through the generosity of Gordon W. Bailey

Accession #

2010.176

On View

Currently not on view

Near the road outside his house, Sam Doyle created the St. Helena Out Door Art Gallery, which he filled with paintings honoring the achievements of both local and nationally prominent African Americans, local characters, and the creatures that populated local legends. Simple and powerful, Doyle’s untitled depiction of the Ascension of Christ is one of his most convincing paintings of religious subjects. Doyle shows the scene from a high vantage point, conveying scale through size and simultaneously showing Christ both nearer to the viewer and more important than his distant followers on the ground. The painting’s fresh colors communicate its subject clearly and immediately.

Browse Related Artwork

Dockworker

Joseph Stella

Another Country

Christian Walker

Mantis Praise, 3

Garth Erasmus

Tutelary Figure

Lobi Artist, Burkina Faso

Syracuse, NY

Dawoud Bey

Happy Days

Nellie Mae Rowe

Harvest

Albert Barker

Will on Chevy

John Simmons

Fanner Basket

Unidentified African American Maker

Mortar

Luba Artist, Democratic Republic of the Congo