Sam Doyle
{{short description|American artist}}
{{other people}}
{{Infobox artist
| bgcolour =
| name = Sam Doyle
| image = Thomas_Sam_Doyle.jpg
| imagesize =
| caption = Sam Doyle in St. Helena, South Carolina, surrounded by his paintings
| birth_name = Thomas Samuel Doyle
| birth_date = 1906
| birth_place = St. Helena Island, South Carolina
| death_date = {{death date and age|1985|1906|}}
| death_place = St. Helena Island, South Carolina
| nationality = American
| field = Painting, Out Door Art Gallery
| movement = Modern Art
| works =
| patrons =
| influenced by =
| influenced =
| awards =
}}
Thomas "Sam" Doyle (1906–1985) was an African-American artist from Saint Helena Island, South Carolina.{{cite web |url= https://www.lacma.org/art/exhibition/sam-doyle-minds-eye-works-gordon-w-bailey-collection |title=Sam Doyle: The Mind's Eye — Works from the Gordon W. Bailey Collection | LACMA |first= |last=|work=lacma.org |year=2016 |accessdate=18 March 2016}} His colorful paintings on sheet metal and wood recorded the history and people of St. Helena's Gullah community.
Early life
Sam Doyle was born in 1906 near Frogmore, on St. Helena Island. He attended elementary school at the Penn School, a school for freed African-Americans founded by Unitarians and Quakers from Pennsylvania.{{Cite journal|last1=Coker|first1=Gylbert Garvin|last2=Arnett|first2=William|date=2001|title=Souls Grown Deep: African American Vernacular Art of the South|journal=African American Review|volume=35|issue=4|pages=660|doi=10.2307/2903291|issn=1062-4783|jstor=2903291}} It was at the Penn School that Doyle's teachers first recognized his artistic talent and they encouraged him to pursue his practice.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0fxMzYkMwqoC&dq=thomas+sam+doyle&pg=PA165|title=Encyclopedia of American Folk Art|first=Gerard C.|last=Wertkin|date=2 August 2004|publisher=Routledge|via=Google Books|isbn=9781135956158}} Doyle dropped out of the Penn school in the ninth grade and found employment variously as a store clerk, porter, groundskeeper and finally as a laundry worker.{{cite web|url=https://www.islandpacket.com/entertainment/arts-culture/article33531765.html|title='Long overlooked' Lowcountry artist Sam Doyle to be celebrated at ARTworks, Penn Center|last=packet.com|website=islandpacket}}{{Cite web | url=https://yourislandnews.com/red-piano-too-art-gallery-penn-center-to-host-sam-doyle-art-exhibit-and-festival-march-11-12/ | title=Red Piano Too Art Gallery & Penn Center to host Sam Doyle Art Exhibit and Festival March 11 & 12 – Beaufort South Carolina the Island News}}
He married Maude Brown in 1931 or 1932; the two divorced in 1949.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MYUuFDEHmlsC&dq=porter+sam+doyle&pg=PA172|title=American Folk Art: A Regional Reference|first1=Kristin G.|last1=Congdon|first2=Kara Kelley|last2=Hallmark|date=24 June 2019|publisher=ABC-CLIO|via=Google Books|isbn=9780313349362}} Doyle died in 1985 in Beaufort, South Carolina.{{Cite web | url=https://www.nga.gov/features/exhibitions/outliers-and-american-vanguard-artist-biographies/sam-doyle.html | title=Sam Doyle}}
Art practice
Doyle continued his art practice in the 1940s, showing his paintings on sheet metal at first in his yard that he called his "Outdoor World-Wide-International Gallery".{{cite web|url=https://www.islandpacket.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/david-lauderdale/article33534201.html|title=Sam Doyle's funky artwork comes full circle on St. Helena Island|last=packet.com|website=islandpacket}}{{cite web|url=http://www.lacma.org/sites/default/files/Sam-Doyle-exhibition-advisory-FINAL-7.22.14%20final.pdf|title=Exhibition: Sam Doyle: The Mind's Eye - Works from the Gordon W. Bailey Collection |website=lacma.org|access-date=10 September 2023}}{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Eyy5F58fypMC&pg=PA265 |title = The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture: Volume 23: Folk Art|isbn = 9781469607993|last1 = Crown|first1 = Carol|last2 = Rivers|first2 = Cheryl|last3 = Wilson|first3 = Charles Reagan|date = 2013-06-03}} Doyle would use discarded materials such as metal roofing, plywood, and house paint for his art, exhibiting a rudimentary, but unique art style.{{Cite web|last=Gordon|first=Bailey|date=|title=Sam Doyle.|url=https://www.outsiderartfair.com/artists/sam-doyle|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=|website=Outside Art Fair}} After his retirement he took up his art practice more fully in 1968.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L3aL4OEUJQoC&dq=thomas+sam+doyle+born+Frogmore,+South+Carolina&pg=PA56|title=Pictured in My Mind: Contemporary American Self-taught Art from the Collection of Kurt Gitter and Alice Rae Yelen|first1=Roger|last1=Cardinal|first2=Birmingham Museum of Art (Birmingham|last2=Ala.)|first3=Lee|last3=Kogan|first4=Susan C.|last4=Larsen|first5=Tom|last5=Patterson|first6=Regenia|last6=Perry|date=24 June 1995|publisher=Univ. Press of Mississippi|via=Google Books|isbn=9780878058778}}{{cite web|url=http://collection.folkartmuseum.org/objects/details/3029|title=ABE. KANE|website=collection.folkartmuseum.org/}}
Doyle was heavily influenced by the Gullah culture of St. Helena Island, known for its high levels of African retention.{{Cite web|last=Bailey|first=Gordon|date=2014|title=Sam Doyle: Self-Taught Genius.|url=http://selftaughtgenius.org/reads/sam-doyle-a-biographical-essay|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=|website=American Folk Art Museum}} Doyle documented the strengths, weaknesses, trials, and blunders of his fellow St. Helena residents through painting their portraits. Doyle also documented popular figures of the African American community. Legends like Ray Charles, Martin Luther King Jr, and Jackie Robinson were portrayed in Doyle's collection.{{Cite web|url=http://www.soulsgrowndeep.org/artist/sam-doyle|title=Sam Doyle {{!}} Souls Grown Deep Foundation|website=www.soulsgrowndeep.org|access-date=2019-06-10}}
Doyle's work was included in the 1982 exhibition Black Folk Art in America at the Corcoran Gallery of Art.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lO1PAAAAMAAJ&q=black+folk+art+in+america+doyle|title=American self-taught: paintings and drawings by outsider artists|first1=Frank|last1=Maresca|first2=Roger|last2=Ricco|first3=Lyle|last3=Rexer|date=26 October 1993|publisher=Knopf|via=Google Books|isbn=9780394582122}}
Collections
Doyle's paintings and sculptures are held in the permanent collections of American Folk Art Museum,{{Cite web | url=http://collection.folkartmuseum.org/people/1040/sam-doyle;jsessionid=BF92ED5924CDFF14C1BF313CD3DEB4F7 |title = Sam Doyle – Artists – eMuseum}} the High Museum of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum,{{Cite web | url=https://americanart.si.edu/artist/sam-doyle-7400 | title=Sam Doyle}} the Pérez Art Museum Miami,{{Cite web |last=Armstrong |first=Annie |date=2019-08-05 |title=As U.S. Museums Work to Build Folk and Vernacular Art Collections, Pérez Art Museum Miami Scores a Trove |url=https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/perez-art-museum-southern-art-collection-13083/ |access-date=2023-08-22 |website=ARTnews.com |language=en-US}} the Gibbes Museum of Art{{cite web|url=http://www.gibbesmuseum.org/news/artist-spotlight-sam-doyle-american-1906-1985/1983-02-02_500/|title=Ike, ca. 1982, by Sam Doyle|publisher=}} and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.{{Cite web | url=https://collections.lacma.org/node/2110465 | title=Sam Doyle | LACMA Collections}}{{Cite web | url=http://artdaily.com/news/69916/Works-by-Sam-Doyle-from-the-Gordon-W--Bailey-Collection-on-view-at-LACMA |title = Works by Sam Doyle from the Gordon W. Bailey Collection on view at LACMA}} and Penn Center (Penn School on St. Helena Island).
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://northbysouth.kenyon.edu/1998/art/pages/galdoyle.htm Images of Doyle's art]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20071216013210/http://www.rawvision.com/articles/61/doyle/doyle.html Biography from Raw Vision]
{{Gullah topics|state=collapsed}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Doyle, Sam}}
Category:American folk artists