Pentecostal Charts by the Rev. Samuel David Phillips

2012-01-30T13:40:00.001-08:00

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

2012-01-02T07:16:00.000-08:00

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

2011-12-24T06:16:00.000-08:00

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

2011-12-19T05:14:00.000-08:00

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.

2011-08-05T04:59:00.000-07:00

It is of special note to know that the LUMA: Loyola University Museum of Art in Chicago will be showing a framed chart by Rev. Phillips in an exhibition featuring images dealing with the path to Heaven.

Through special and highly appreciated arrangement by the Lindsay Gallery.

Loyola University Museum of Art · 820 North Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL 60611

312.915.7600 ·

"Heaven+ Hell" exhibition February 10 – June 30, 2012

The themes of heaven, hell, and purgatory are frequently addressed in folk, outsider, and self-taught art in all media. The perspectives that these artists have taken range from illustrative, word-laden drawings to stylized, sculptural versions of figurative images that populate their conceptions of heaven and hell. Unlike academically trained artists, self-taught artists use the themes of heaven and hell not as concepts, but as visualizations that may be invented, drawn from popular media, or influenced by religious upbringing. The content may be benign or horrific, delusional or commentative on contemporary life, obsessive or minimal in design, but usually, on the face of the work, highly interpretative. The exhibition is co-organized with Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art.

2011-04-18T07:13:00.000-07:00

This chart is now in the permanent collection of the Intuit Center for Intuitive Art in Chicago thanks to it being donated by a concerned collector who recently bought it.

2010-05-29T04:41:00.000-07:00

"Wading Da Waters": ( acrylics on 24"X36" museum profile canvas). "This is a take from stories I heard as a child in the Phillips' household about baptisms being done in natural settings like rivers, ponds, or streams in the Georgia of Rev. Phillips' youth. Being raised in the home of a Biblical visionary artist resulted in a variety of sensibilities being passed on to me. I spent twelve years practicing Art Therapy. Some of those years were in the same community that was the home of the Progressive Pentecostal Mission Church in Bronzeville."

2009-06-05T04:53:00.000-07:00

The dinner at Emaus is a story that many artists have visited through the evolution of art in the Western world. In consideration of his grandfather's groundbreaking Biblical visionary charts Onli felt compelled to interpret a few Biblical themes from a nontraditional perspective in his own artistic practice."BREAKING BREAD" by Turtel Onli presents Jesus being discovered by his hosts. Contact for interest: onli@sbcglobal.net

The following samples are presented for educational purposes to show how this scene was depicted over the years.

Click on each image to enlarge.

2008-05-12T12:41:00.000-07:00

Exhibition photos by Aki Antonia:

Pentecostal visions and the Bible were sources for Rev. Phillips. Demons, the Beast of the Sea, and the use of numerology where utilized by Rev. Phillips to explain the nexus by which souls could be saved.

It is about six feet by five feet on oil cloth.

2007-11-06T05:06:00.000-08:00

The Lindsay Gallery of Columbus Ohio will be featuring a few of the Rev. Phillips' Pentecostal Charts at the Artropolis event in Chicago April 25th to 28th, 2008 at the Merchandise Mart of Chicago IL. Look for the Intuit Show of Folks & Outsider Art. www.lindsaygallery.com

Rev. Samuel David Phillips was an ordained Pentecostal Pastor who was born in Georgia and settled in Chicago during the early part of the 20th century. He is a pioneer of creating images to express the Bible from a Pentecostal perspective. This point of view was fundamental, fresh, and insightful, yet new in the Christian world at that time. He used an visionary interdisciplinary approach by combining spoken word, the Bible, hand written words, and drawn images to reach people. These details show how Rev. Phillips would write Biblical references directly on the charts to link the image to passages in the Bible for purposes of study or meditation. In the photo above Rev. Phillips is leading a study session with a few Elders from the old Progressive Pentecostal Mission explaining an unfinished chart along with a few completed ones. The Mission was located in the traditional Bronzeveille area of Chicago during the 1940s until the mid 1960s.

Interested collectors, researchers, clergy, or students can contact Onli at onli@sbcglobal.net

You may click directly on the images to enlarge them.

Selected charts are available for study, meditation, or collecting via onli@sbcglobal.net

2007-11-06T04:50:00.000-08:00

This display shows a photo of the Rev. Phillips and the actual Bibles he used in study and sermons. It was presented at a museum quality exhibition of his charts.

"The Root of Evil" circa 1950s was the featured chart of a powerful series of sermons dealing with money as the root of all evils among men.

2007-11-06T04:34:00.000-08:00

The Museum of Biblical Art (MOBIA), which opens on Thursday, describes itself as the nation's first scholarly museum devoted to art and the Bible.

This slide show includes work by Rev. Phillips. The Museum of Biblical Art is in New York and can be reached at 212-408-1500

"Jonah and the Great Fish", circa 1950s, drawing materials on oil cloth.

The Biblical charts of Rev. Phillips were displayed at the Intuit Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art of Chicago in 1998. This introduced his important works to people outside of his family and the church community were he served.

Ms Jan Petry, a Board Member of the Intuit Center, was so impressed with Rev. Phillips' charts that she endorsed bringing the show to the Center. She later connected well enough to make the ultimate statement of appreciation. She bought the work shown below from Turtel Onli.

It was used on the cover of Intuit's program catalog celebrating its tenth year of promoting the genre of visual expression.

"Beast of Seven Heads", circa 1950s drawing materials on oil cloth.

"Double Crucifix" Circa 1950s: This a chart that presents the passage brought about by the Crucifixion. It also deals with the fate of the two men who were taken with Jesus in this act of terror and deliverance. It is still a chart with immense study potential.

" ROME" circa 1970 pencils, crayons on oil cloth canvas approximately 46" X 60": With this chart Rev. Phillips would deliver a sermons dealing with how the Romans tried to crush the Christian movement in its empire using a variety of torturous methods. Each method is shown in the chart with the Christian victims all smiling in happiness for the honor to die for their faith. This is one of Rev. Phillips final charts.

This is one of Rev. Phillips' later works. It depicts the cruelty that Christian martyrs suffered at the hands of Roman repression. Torture, murder, stoning, boiling in oil, being buried alive, and even being dismembered are shown in this chart. However on closer examination one sees that the Christian victims appear to be smiling. Happy in the face of such suffering because they are full of their faith in God and all things Christian as they were already Born Again.