Sam Gilliam

Horses Upside Down

Horses Upside Down https://www.wikiart.org/en/sam-gilliam/horses-upside-down-1998

In the early 1960s Sam Gilliam began to experiment with brushless painting—staining or dying his canvases rather than applying paint more traditionally, a technique associated at the time with Color Field painting. By the end of the decade he broke with tradition in another way, abandoning the taut, stretched canvas of typical easel painting to treat his canvases sculpturally—bunching, folding, or draping them in space. The fluidity of the cloth seems to echo the fluidity of the paint, and vice versa. A quintessential work like “A” and the Carpenter I is a painting on a grand scale and yet, like a stained drop cloth slung across two sawhorses, it summons the residues of an artist’s studio, or even the remainders of another kind of work site. Twentieth-Century Purchase Fund

"A" and the Carpenter I https://www.artic.edu/artworks/45860/

Color run for published print

Coffee Thyme I https://collections.artsmia.org/art/58658/

Bluest

Bluest https://www.wikiart.org/en/sam-gilliam/bluest-1998

Lot and Square

Lot and Square https://www.wikiart.org/en/sam-gilliam/lot-and-square-2007

Purchase

Fire http://www.moma.org/collection/works/66787

Blue Line

Blue Line https://www.wikiart.org/en/sam-gilliam/blue-line-2004

Abstraction featuring a small rectangle and overlapping triangle in the lower half of the page; the surrounding space is a blend of colors--light purple, red, yellow and blue

Coffee Thyme I https://collections.artsmia.org/art/58748/

Lady Day II

Lady Day II https://www.wikiart.org/en/sam-gilliam/lady-day-ii-1971

Red April

Red April https://www.wikiart.org/en/sam-gilliam/red-april-1970

Ibis

Ibis https://www.wikiart.org/en/sam-gilliam/ibis-1987

[Untitled]

[Untitled] https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/219353

Sac 2

Sac 2 https://www.wikiart.org/en/sam-gilliam/sac-2-2012

Fog Light

Fog Light https://www.wikiart.org/en/sam-gilliam/fog-light-2011

abstract image; vertical band of dappled orange and red color in center, flanked by vertical bands of cooler layered tones of green, blue and pink pigments on right and left sides Sam Gilliam’s art often breaks boundaries. Like other Color Field painters, he eliminated the brush and poured dilute colors directly onto unprimed canvases. He famously went a step further and eliminated the stretchers to let his canvases drape like banners. Sometimes he balled up his canvases, folded them, or twisted them, causing colors to offset or blend in unpredictable ways. This spirt of freedom and willingness to let chance play its part is reflected in Fire in the irregular, layered, patchy, roughly-mirrored application of semi-transparent colors. This is one of Gilliam’s first engagements with printmaking, an activity that became a significant part of his artistic practice.

Fire https://collections.artsmia.org/art/131226/

This Time

This Time https://www.wikiart.org/en/sam-gilliam/this-time-2008

Coffee Thyme II

Coffee Thyme II https://collections.artsmia.org/art/58753/

Lot and Square

Lot and Square https://www.wikiart.org/en/sam-gilliam/lot-and-square-2007

Manet III

Manet III https://www.wikiart.org/en/sam-gilliam/manet-iii-1999

Restore

Restore https://www.wikiart.org/en/sam-gilliam/restore-1968

A Spring Thaw

A Spring Thaw https://www.wikiart.org/en/sam-gilliam/a-spring-thaw

From a suite of five prints.

Buoy Landscape III https://collections.artsmia.org/art/43173/

Abstraction featuring a small rectangle and overlapping triangle in the lower half of the page; the surrounding space is a blend of colors--light purple, red, yellow, blue and light brown

Coffee Thyme I https://collections.artsmia.org/art/58749/

Icon

Icon https://www.wikiart.org/en/sam-gilliam/icon-1

Lattice

Lattice https://collections.artsmia.org/art/43144/

Tapestry

Tapestry https://www.wikiart.org/en/sam-gilliam/tapestry-2000

Abstract expressionist composition; predominantly red with areas of blue

Last Coffee Thyme https://collections.artsmia.org/art/43108/

Horses Upside Down

Horses Upside Down https://www.wikiart.org/en/sam-gilliam/horses-upside-down-1998

Red April

Red April https://www.wikiart.org/en/sam-gilliam/red-april-1970

Buoy Landscape II

Buoy Landscape II https://www.wikiart.org/en/sam-gilliam/buoy-landscape-ii-1982