Sam Gilliam: Abstract painter whose art went beyond the frame
The IndependentSam Gilliam, a Washington DC artist who helped redefine abstract painting by liberating canvas from its traditional framework and shaking it loose in lavish, paint-spattered folds cascading from ceilings, stairwells and other architectural elements, has died aged 88. Virginia Mecklenburg, senior curator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum who organised the 2012 exhibition “African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era and Beyond”, said Gilliam’s claim to fame was the result of a strategic move. Alex Mayer, a sculptor who worked for many years as Gilliam’s studio assistant, said: “Sam loved turning things upside down.” The one constant, Binstock wrote, was the “intimate experience of paint’s physical character”. Gilliam accepted a position as an art instructor at Washington DC’s McKinley Technical High School, where he would continue to work for five years, in the first of several teaching positions. “He could be a diva,” Sondra Arkin, a friend and fellow painter, said, “but he was our diva.” Sam Gilliam, abstract artist, born 30 November 1933, died 25 June 2022 © The Washington Post
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