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I'll Go Down
Sam Doyle 
Photo by Gavin Ashworth
I'll Go Down
I'll Go Down
Sam Doyle 
Photo by Gavin Ashworth
I'll Go Down Sam Doyle Photo by Gavin Ashworth
Record Details

I'll Go Down

Artist ((1906–1985))
Datec. 1970
Place/RegionFrogmore, St. Helena Island, South Carolina, United States
MediumOil on wood, fabric, and metal
Dimensions41 1/2 × 29 3/4 × 6"
Credit LineGift of Leo and Dorothea Rabkin
Accession number2005.2.1
Description

The refrain “I’ll go down” is a familiar one in gospel music and sermons. In this unusual work, Sam Doyle has repurposed a louvered window that creates knife-like vertical incisions through the image of Christ crucified. Because the louvers are also angled, they add depth and dynamism to the figure as the viewer’s eye moves across the surface, as though seen through a lenticular lens.

Stacy C. Hollander, "I'll Go Down," exhibition label for Jubilation|Rumination: Life, Real and Imagined. Stacy C. Hollander, curator. New York: American Folk Art Museum, 2012.

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