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Colored chalk on paper, 1935
32 x 25
inches
Signed in pencil
$12,000
In 1935, Cook traveled through the South on a Guggenheim Fellowship. He concentrated on portraying the simple, rural people the region. He viewed a baptism, near Moundville, Alabama, one Sunday morning. "The scene was set, whereupon two deacons...gently led in the first victim who received a benediction from the minister. Then the two strong-armed deacons took the communicant around the shoulders and waist, thrusting her with a great splash completely out of sight. She came up quickly on the rebound, blowing spray and waiving her arms wildly, thrusting about like a large fish caught in too shallow water. As soon as the choking was over, the energy created by the shock was unloosed, causing a hoarse screaming and sobbing. She was thouroughly baptised so, somewhat embarrassed by the way the soaking thin robe clung to her body, she was led by the deacons up to dry land again. Disappearance into a clump of bushes produced a dry change of clothes."
Reference: The Graphic Work of Howard Cook, A Catalog Raisonne' by Betty and Douglas Duffy
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