2005
Postwar American artist Sam Gilliam was an innovative Color Field painter and lyrical abstractionist perhaps best known for working directly on draped, unprimed canvases freed from their stretcher bars in as early as the mid-1960s.
Born in Tupelo, Mississippi, and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, Gilliam studied art at the University of Louisville, earning both undergraduate and graduate degrees in fine art. He moved to Washington, D.C., in 1962, where he became associated with the Washington Color School. Inspired by the vibrant hues of German Expressionism, Gilliam pushed the limits of his medium by eliminating the use of easels and stretchers. Instead, he painted on draped canvases suspended from the walls and the ceiling of his studio.
Overlooked at first, the resulting works, radiant and rippling with energy, would become universally recognized as a hallmark of Gilliam’s oeuvre. Later in his career, he would draw inspiration from jazz and textile artistry, creating improvisational collage-style “quilted” paintings on nylon or canvas that recall quilt patterns.
In 1972, Gilliam became the first Black artist to represent the United States at the Venice Biennale; he also exhibited at the 2017 Venice Biennale. His works can be found in more than 50 public collections around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Corcoran Gallery of Art (now the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design) in Washington, D.C., the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Paris Museum of Modern Art, among many others. Gilliam’s awards include the United States State Department Medal of Arts, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship and more.
Find original Sam Gilliam prints and other art on 1stDibs.
Confetti Hex
By Sam Gilliam
Located in Toronto, Ontario
Sam Gilliam (1933–2022) is beloved as one of the 20th century's most important abstract artists. He was a true innovator in the evolution of American abstraction. Several groundbreak...
Textile, Acrylic Polymer, Mixed Media
Untitled
By Jules Olitski
Located in Toronto, Ontario
Jules Olitski (1922-1977) is one of the most collected and accomplished artists associated with the color-field movement, if not 20th-century American abstraction. Possibly one of ...
Canvas, Paper, Acrylic
Tortuga
By Jules Olitski
Located in Toronto, Ontario
Jules Olitski (1922-2007) is one of Caviar20's favorite abstract artists of the 20th century. Over the course of his career, his aesthetic evolved in startling and fascinating ways....
Linen, Acrylic
Mozart Night
By Jules Olitski
Located in Toronto, Ontario
Jules Olitski (1922-2007) is one of Caviar20's favorite abstract artists of the 20th century. Over the course of his career his aesthetic evolved in startling and fascinating ways. ...
Screen
Untitled (Islands)
By Friedel Dzubas
Located in Toronto, Ontario
Friedel Dzubas (1915-1994) was a Berlin-born American abstract painter. He was associated with both the New York School and the Color Field movement. Dzubas studied art in Germany ...
Handmade Paper, Monoprint, Monotype
Untitled
By Stanley Whitney
Located in Toronto, Ontario
Stanley Whitney (b.1946) is a contemporary African-American abstract painter known for his signature composition of loose grids of saturated color. Whitney holds an MFA from Yale Uni...
Etching
Sam Gilliam - Monoprint with collage acrylic stitching & embossing Signed Framed
By Sam Gilliam
Located in New York, NY
Monoprint with screenprint, collage, acrylic, stitching and embossing in colors on handmade paper, 1994, signed, dated, titled, and numbered 10/40 (each unique) in black and silver i...
Thread, Mixed Media, Acrylic, Rag Paper, Screen
Dance '72
By Sam Gilliam
Located in New York, NY
Color screenprint, 1972. Signed by the artist and dated in pencil, lower right margin. Numbered 24/60 in pencil lower left,. Printed and published by Workshop, Inc., Washington, DC...
Screen
Sam Gilliam 1998 Signed Mixed Media Lithograph Edition of 60
By Sam Gilliam
Located in Minneapolis, MN
Artist: Sam Gilliam Title: Untitled (1998) Year: 1998 Medium: Mixed Media Lithograph Size: 21.5" x 22" Frame: 28" x 29" x 3" Edition: 29/60 Inscription: Signed, dated, and numbered o...
Paper, Lithograph
Dance '72
By Sam Gilliam
Located in New York, NY
Color screenprint, 1972. Signed by the artist and dated in pencil, lower right margin. Numbered 24/60 in pencil lower left,. Printed and published by Workshop, Inc., Washington, D...
Screen
Sam Gilliam - Cuatro, Monoprint and collage acrylic stitching & embossing Signed
By Sam Gilliam
Located in New York, NY
Sam Gilliam Cuatro, 1994 Monoprint with screenprint, collage, acrylic, stitching and embossing in colors on handmade paper Hand signed, dated, titled and annotated P/P by Sam Gilliam...
Mixed Media, Acrylic, Monoprint, Screen
Sam Gilliam -Buoy Landscape IV Mixed media signed/n Abstract Expressionist print
By Sam Gilliam
Located in New York, NY
Sam Gilliam Buoy Landscape IV, 1982 Color relief print, etching, screenprint, drypoint, aquatint and roulette all from deeply etched copper plates, on handmade wove paper 31 1/2 × 24...
Mixed Media, Drypoint, Etching, Aquatint, Screen
