Sam Gilliam

Sam Gilliam ('gIli@m ; November 30, 1933 – June 25, 2022) was an American color field painter and lyrical abstractionist artist. Gilliam was associated with the Washington Color School, a group of Washington, D.C.-area artists that developed a form of abstract art from color field painting in the 1950s and 1960s. His works have also been described as belonging to abstract expressionism and lyrical abstraction. He worked on stretched, draped and wrapped canvas, and added sculptural 3D elements. He was recognized as the first artist to introduce the idea of a draped, painted canvas hanging without stretcher bars around 1965. This was a major contribution to the Color Field School and has had a lasting impact on the contemporary art canon. Arne Glimcher, Gilliam's art dealer at Pace Gallery, wrote following his death that "His experiments with color and surface are right up there with the achievements of Rothko and Pollock." In his later work, Gilliam worked with polypropylene, computer-generated imaging, metallic, and iridescent acrylics, handmade paper, aluminum, steel, plywood, and plastic. Sam Gilliam was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, on November 30, 1933, the seventh of eight children born to Sam and Estery Gilliam. The Gilliams moved to Louisville, Kentucky, shortly after he was born. His father worked on the railroad; his mother cared for the large family. At a young age, Gilliam wanted to be a cartoonist and spent most of his time drawing. He attended Central High School in Louisville and graduated in 1951. After high school, Gilliam attended the University of Louisville and received his B.A. degree in fine arts in 1955 as a member of the second admitted class of black undergraduate students. In the same year he held his first solo art exhibition at the University. From 1956 to 1958 Gilliam served in the United States Army. He returned to the University of Louisville in 1961 and, as a student of Charles Crodel, received his M.A. degree in painting. While attending college he befriended painter Kenneth Victor Young.