Sam Jr Gilliam (1933)

Aliases: Sam Gilliam

Professions: Painter

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  Sam Gilliam (b. 1933)

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  SAM GILLIAM (NE EN 1933)

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  SAM GILLIAM (1933 - ) April 4.

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  SAM GILLIAM

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Sam Jr Gilliam Biography

(b tupelo, ms, 1933). american painter. he studied at the university of louisville, ky (1952–6; 1958–61). gilliam’s first works showed the influence of emil nolde and paul klee and of the abstract expressionist nathan oliveira. after marrying dorothy butler in 1962, he settled in washington, dc. there he established contact with gene davis (b 1920), tom downing (b 1928) and howard mehring (b 1931), who represented a second wave of artists associated with colour-field painting. gilliam became well known for his colour-field paintings and became the most prominent african american abstract painter, with seven one-man exhibitions at the jefferson place gallery, washington, dc, between 1965 and 1973 (see also african american art, §3 and fig. 4). characteristic works of the 1960s include petals (1967; washington, dc, phillips col.), in which loose canvas is stained with patterns of colour achieved by pigments poured over before it is folded and restretched to give a symphonic resonance. later works, such as dark as i am (1971–2) and the series jail jungle (1968–74) created sculptural assemblages from vigorously textured, mixed-media compositions. the scale of his works increased to vast size: autumn surf (1973; san francisco, ca, moma) was executed on 100 m of polypropylene to give a connected environmental experience. in his densely layered paintings of the late 1970s, such as coffee thyme and black-blues-muse (both new york, carl solway gal.), gilliam attempted to achieve an expressive intensity of colour, while paying homage to jackson pollock and to jasper johns, claiming a place in the epic tradition of american painting.

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