Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, 1972, Acrylic on canvas, Tougaloo College Art Collections, Tougaloo, Mississippi, purchase with support from the National Endowment for the Arts

Audio Description

Painted in 1972, Swing Low, Sweet Chariot is acrylic on canvas. It is in part of the Tougaloo College Art Collections in Tougaloo, Mississippi. It was purchased with support from the National Endowment for the Arts.

This is a vertical acrylic painting on canvas called Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, which we will explore from top to bottom. At the top, two small, dark figures are silhouetted against a thin band of orange and yellow. They walk to the right across the surface of a dark block of paint. Within that block is a blurry, long oval shape made up of blue brushstrokes. Below that is a jagged mashup of lines, brushstrokes, and splatter in yellow, green, blue, and red superimposed on a white background. In the middle of the painting is a large, transparent red circle bisected by a red, nearly horizonal line that traverses the entire canvas. The top half of this circle overlaps with the splatter, and the bottom half is painted on top of a yellow backdrop that grades into white. Below that, at the very bottom of the canvas, is a thin band of blue paint. Extending from the bottom edge are two dark, silhouetted hands stretched upward toward the red circle. The right hand is larger, suggesting that the left hand is further away from the viewer.

Label Copy

Painted in 1972, Swing Low, Sweet Chariot is acrylic on canvas. It is in part of the Tougaloo College Art Collections in Tougaloo, Mississippi. It was purchased with support from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Driskell titled this painting after one of the best known and beloved American folksongs, a spiritual first recorded in 1909 by the Fisk University Jubilee Quartet. A hopeful hymn, the lyrics of “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” allude to freedom and deliverance in the company of angels. According to the artist, he used tracings of his hands for those shown in silhouette.

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