Rev. Phillips was one of the first Pentecostal pastors who felt called upon by The Lord to visualize the emerging Pentecostal mission and message in the form of charts.  These were drawn by him to visualize his sermons in his effort to deliver "The Word" to the members of his church.  Many of these charts are in the collections of passionate collectors along with museums as The Tubman Museum, of his home town of Macon Georgia.  Now the goal is to retire the remainder of the collection and to find a patron to underwrite this process to donate them to a major institution that will use the remaining lot for appreciation and the study of Pentecostal influenced art in the early to mid 20th Century in the United States of America.

This collection includes hRev. Phillips' actual written sermons, photos of Rev. Phillips leading a chart based Bible study and the typewriter his wife, Naomi, used to type many of his sermons.  An additional treat is a crocheted version of the last summer she created.

The picture below depicts Rev. Phillips in a Bible study in his office/home in 1963. Rev. Phillips is wearing the white shirt.

Interested patrons should contact his grandson, Prof. Turtel Onli at onli@sbcglobal.net.

VideoLink:

From the 2005 exhibition called "Artistic and Spiritual Legacy": This is an exhibition of Biblical Charts by the late Rev. Phillips and the spiritual art of his grandson, Prof. Turtel Onli. The exhibition took place in Munster Indiana's Center for Visual and Performing Art.

Dr. Kym Pinder, Art Hisortrian and Professor, is editing a book that will feature charts by Rev. Phillips along with other reachers or pastors who created visual art as a part of their worship practices. The book will be out in 2014.  Its title and other details are still  in development.

From the New York Times:

"At Lindsay Gallery, charts drawn on rolls of oilcloth by a Pentecostal minister, the Rev. Samuel David Phillips (1890-1973), illustrate sermons in a naïve hand but with plenty of preacherly imperative. You imagine the members of his flock sitting bolt upright in their pews after gazing at “Rome,” which depicts a bloody crucifixion, the flaying of St. Bartholomew and a pack of lions feasting on martyrs in the Colosseum."

This chart is show in older posts on this blog. Click this link for the full article. Outsider Art

These four charts handled at some point by the Lindsay Gallery.

All photographs & illustrated charts are copyright 2011 Turtel Onli and are presented in this blog for educational purposes. Professional or collector concerns should be directed to the Lindsay Gallery or to Turtel Onli. Contact info for both are listed in other posts on this blog.

This is a detail from "Rome". This chart shows the suffering experienced

by early Christians under the oppression of the Roman Empire.

REV. SAMUEL DAVID PHILLIPS

"One of the most important things to know about the teaching charts of Rev. Samuel David Phillips is that they were not created to be viewed as art. Rev. Phillips was operating in a long Evangelical tradition of chart making that dates back into the mid 1800s. Evangelical Christian groups such as the Adventists and Millerites originally created charts to predict what they believed to be the imminent return of Christ to the earth.

For Rev. Phillips the charts had a more earthly function, to illustrate his sermons to his flock at the Progressive Pentecostal Mission of Chicago. His intent was to help his congregation better understand the bible and how it impacted many things that were happening in the world. But it’s how he depicted those messages that make the charts rise to the level of great folk art, rather than simple biblical illustration.

These charts crackle with an over-the-top energy fueled by aggressive pattering and bursts of motion. Angels share the sky with bombs, Jonah’s whale swims next to modern ships, demons share the roadway with automobiles … creating a visionary explosion meant to inspire parishioners.

That inspiration still works today, no matter the viewers beliefs. This is pure folk art, the “real thing”, made from the materials at hand and meant to be used. While pictorially simple, these charts have an impact that is much greater than the sum of their parts… foreshadowing the work of religious visionaries such as Sister Gertrude Morgan and Rev. Howard Finster. "

By Duff Lindsay

The Lindsay Gallery will be showcasing a selection of important

charts by the late Rev. Samuel David Phillips at the Outsider Art Fair 2012 in NY.