Sam Gilliam, the prolific painter known for his massive draped paintings, passed away at the age of 88. Pace Gallery and David Kordansky Gallery, who previously represented the artist, announced the news today. The cause of death was determined to be kidney failure.
Gilliam, who was born in Tupelo, Mississippi in 1933, went on to earn both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in fine art from the University of Louisville. Soon after, the artist relocated to Washington, D.C., where he became a key member of the burgeoning Washington Color School — an innovative 1950s movement that built on the foundation of Abstract Expressionism with deceptively simple artworks imbued with a sense of motion and tension.
Gilliam created his famous drape paintings during the 1960s, a symbolic period in American history that coincided with the Civil Rights Movement, which was also taking place in the nation’s capital.
The artist wanted to free his paintings from the confines of the canvas and began hanging each artwork from the ceiling, inspired by the structure of jazz music. “I never hang my ‘Drape’ paintings in the same way twice.” The composition is always present, but one must let things go and be open to improvisation, spontaneity, and what is going on in a space while working,” Gilliam said in a past interview.
The artist went on to become the first African American artist to represent the United States at the Venice Biennale in 1972. His work is now housed in some of the world’s most prestigious museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate Modern in London, and the Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris, to name a few.
