Dick1982–198425 x 48 x 4 " (63.5 x 121.9 x 10.2 cm)House paint, Bondo putty, oyster shells on woodGift of Gordon W. Bailey in honor of Jean-Michel Basquiat2025.15.10medium should likely be updated to: Paint, tar, putty, oyster shells, and sand on plywood1671169336Sam DoylePaintingsCopyright for this work is under review.upper left: 'DICK'
center left: 'A.I.S.C.'http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster27226http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster12320http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster12428http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster12818http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster10993Frogmore, St. Helena IslandFrogmore, St. Helena IslandUnited StatesSouth CarolinaPaintingsRecent AcquisitionsAdam ReichChanging Tides: Gifts from Gordon W. Bailey, Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art, Bilioxi, Mississippi, July 12, 2021–February 2022.
Fill My Heart With Hope: Works From The Gordon W. Bailey Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art in Jacksonville, Florida, July 25, 2024–March 23, 2025.Frogmore, St. Helena IslandAs painter and couturier Hylan Booker wrote, “Doyle painted our presence, our enslaved history, our American history. His Gullah lore, with its African shadow, guides us outward, giving lines of reference, making a world visible, tangible, naming the dreams, tagging the darkness. Doyle is our witness, our voice, our griot. He created art that does more than arouse—it reveals. Its very essence lives nature deep within our culture in those blank spaces where time has separated us from our dreams, our nightmares, from our dark history.” (LACMA, 2014)
A particularly dynamic and powerful work, typical of Doyle’s aesthetic with its bold textual pronouncements, DICK / AISC is one of a few extant examples created on wood. The artist depicts “Dick” in a bright yellow costume rowing a boat and harvesting oysters. The heavy concoction, loaded on the back, is created from a mix of thick Bondo putty and shells. Doyle said: “I paint from, I would say, the mind’s eye. … I know what it’s all about you see.” (NPR, 1983)Object information is a work in progress and may be updated
with new research. Records are reviewed and revised, and the American Folk Art
Museum welcomes additional information.
To help improve this record, please email photoservices@folkartmuseum.orgreviewed by Art Bridges Fellow Austin Losada for the IMLS Neurodiversity Project 2026Valerie Rousseau changed multiple entries to conform to wishes of donor http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster27226http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster12320http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster12428http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster12818http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster10993http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster27226http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster12320http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster12428http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster12818http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster10993http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster27226http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster12320http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster12428http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster12818http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster1099319821984 2025 15 1 As painter and couturier Hylan Booker wrote, “Doyle painted our presence, our enslaved history, our American history. His Gullah lore, with its African shadow, guides us outward, giving lines of reference, making a world visible, tangible, naming the dreams, tagging the darkness. Doyle is our witness, our voice, our griot. He created art that does more than arouse—it reveals. Its very essence lives nature deep within our culture in those blank spaces where time has separated us from our dreams, our nightmares, from our dark history.” (LACMA, 2014)
A particularly dynamic and powerful work, typical of Doyle’s aesthetic with its bold textual pronouncements, DICK / AISC is one of a few extant examples created on wood. The artist depicts “Dick” in a bright yellow costume rowing a boat and harvesting oysters. The heavy concoction, loaded on the back, is created from a mix of thick Bondo putty and shells. Doyle said: “I paint from, I would say, the mind’s eye. … I know what it’s all about you see.” (NPR, 1983)Object information is a work in progress and may be updated
with new research. Records are reviewed and revised, and the American Folk Art
Museum welcomes additional information.
To help improve this record, please email photoservices@folkartmuseum.orgreviewed by Art Bridges Fellow Austin Losada for the IMLS Neurodiversity Project 2026Valerie Rousseau changed multiple entries to conform to wishes of donor