Sam Gilliam

Sam Gilliam is one of the forerunners of African American artists. In 1961, he was awarded his master’s degree from the University of Louisville. Under the guidance of Charles Crodel, Gilliam came up with a unique way of depicting a painting that eclipsed boundaries. His works are known for an innovative abstraction, through draped, folded, and suspended canvases fighting conventional notions of painting. The intensely vivid and textured works by Gilliam, much inspired by the Civil Rights Movement and jazz music, are epitomes of colour-form dynamic interaction.

Gilliam reiterated techniques such as pouring, spilling, and staining canvases with acrylic paints, and then manipulating them into three-dimensional forms. This innovation is reminiscent of Colour Field painters, while his gaudy experimentation brings to mind the spontaneity of Jackson Pollock. The works invite viewers to be wrapped inside - a space where the line between painting and sculpture dissolves.

Gilliam's real international breakthrough came in 1971 with a solo exhibition at the New York Museum of Modern Art. Since then, he has been represented in many other highly rated institutions, among them the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., both in 1973 and 1983, respectively and in 2001 at the Phillips Collection. His work has also been included in major exhibitions at the Tate Modern, London; the Venice Biennale; and the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington D.C., among others.

Sam Gilliam lives and works in Washington, D.C.