A Celebration of Great African-American Artists of the 20th Century
Sam Gilliam
Born in Tupelo, Mississippi, Sam Gilliam is a graduate of the University of Louisville. A painter, sculptor, and printmaker, with works in major collections, he lives and works in Washington, D.C. He has been awarded a National Endowment for the Arts' grant, a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship, and honorary doctorates from the University of Louisville and Memphis College of Art. His teaching includes positions at the Maryland Institute, University of Maryland, and Carnegie Mellon University.
Affiliation: Maryland Institute, University of Maryland, Carnegie Mellon University
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Golden Neck, 1993 Multimedia artist Sam Gilliam emphasizes the palpable presence of his colors by pumping them up with Rolplex, a clear, viscous resin. Employing a comb-like tool, he deftly defines regular grids and dynamic free-form areas. These spontaneous gestures are akin to jazz improvisations and derive from the Abstract Expressionists of the 1950s. Gilliam embraces abstraction's breadth and ability, in his own words, "to convey the moods, ideas, and strategies of all artists, but especially black painters." He united multiple sections of rainbow colors into a collaged whole. Piecing them together with machine stitching, he constructs his print asymmetrically and artfully flaunts printmaking's traditional rectangular boundaries. |
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