DOCSLIB.ORG

A Finding Aid to the Sam Gilliam Papers, 1957-1989, in the Archives of American Art

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
A Finding Aid to the Sam Gilliam Papers, 1957-1989, in the Archives of American Art A Finding Aid to the Sam Gilliam Papers, 1957-1989, in the Archives of American Art Ashley Boykins Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Henry Luce Foundation. 2018/06/29 Archives of American Art 750 9th Street, NW Victor Building, Suite 2200 Washington, D.C. 20001 https://www.aaa.si.edu/services/questions https://www.aaa.si.edu/ Table of Contents Collection Overview ........................................................................................................ 1 Administrative Information .............................................................................................. 1 Arrangement..................................................................................................................... 3 Biographical / Historical.................................................................................................... 2 Scope and Contents........................................................................................................ 2 Names and Subjects ...................................................................................................... 3 Container Listing ............................................................................................................. 5 Series 1: Biographical Material, 1958-1988............................................................. 5 Series 2: Correspondence, 1965-1989.................................................................... 7 Series 3: Writings, 1962-1988................................................................................ 10 Series 4: Business Records, 1957-1986................................................................ 12 Series 5: Printed Material, 1962-1987................................................................... 15 Series 6: Subject Files, 1963-1988........................................................................ 18 Series 7: Scrapbook, 1958-1968............................................................................ 25 Series 8: Artwork, 1970-1980................................................................................. 26 Series 9: Photographic Material, 1960-1985.......................................................... 27 Sam Gilliam papers AAA.gillsam Collection Overview Repository: Archives of American Art Title: Sam Gilliam papers Identifier: AAA.gillsam Date: 1957-1989 Extent: 7.9 Linear feet Creator: Gilliam, Sam, 1933- Language: English . Summary: The papers of contemporary Color Field painter and educator Sam Gilliam measure 7.9 linear feet and date from 1957 to 1989. The papers include biographical material, correspondence, writings, business records, printed material, subject files, a scrapbook, artwork, and photographic material that document Gilliam's life from his time as a student through his teaching, professorial, and artistic career. The collection highlights Gilliam's close involvement with the art institutions, racial politics, and artistic innovation taking place in 1960s through 1980s America, specifically in Washington D.C. Administrative Information Acquisition Information The Sam Gilliam papers were donated to the Archives of American Art by Sam Gilliam in 1989. Processing Information The collection received a preliminary level of processing and was catalogued by O. Evans in 1991. The collection was minimally reprocessed and a finding aid prepared by Ashley Boykins, supervised by Rayna Andrews with funding from The Henry Luce Foundation, in 2018. Preferred Citation Sam Gilliam papers, 1957-1989. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Restrictions Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information. Conditions Governing Use Authorization to publish, quote, or reproduce requires written permission from Sam Gilliam. Contact Reference Services for more information. Page 1 of 27 Sam Gilliam papers AAA.gillsam Terms of Use The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information. Biographical / Historical Sam Gilliam (1933- ) is an African-American artist based in Washington, D.C. He was born in Tupelo, Mississippi and raised in Louisville, Kentucky where he began painting as a child, eventually attending the University of Louisville where he received his B.A. in Fine Art and M.A. in Painting. He went on to teach art to high school students in the Washington D.C. public school system, and university-level students at the Corcoran School of Art, the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), the University of Maryland, and Carnegie Mellon University. His numerous grants and awards include the 1971 Solomon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship and multiple Honorary Doctoral degrees. As an artist, Gilliam is best known for his three-dimensional draped and suspended paintings, covered with large fields of poured paint, pigment, and colorful staining influenced by the movement and colors of Abstract Expressionist painters. Gilliam went on to become a part of the Washington Color School of painters, where his creation of free-form works flourished. He created many public works that incorporated new materials such as custom designed metal forms, quilted canvas, and textiles; his works often included subtle social commentaries through their titling. His suspended paintings cemented Gilliam as an innovative and influential presence in 20th century American art. Scope and Contents The papers of contemporary Color Field painter and educator Sam Gilliam measure 7.9 linear feet and date from 1957 to 1989. The papers include biographical material, correspondence, writings, business records, printed material, subject files, a scrapbook, artwork, and photographic material that document Gilliam's life beginning as a student, through to his teaching, professorial, and artistic career based in Washington D.C. The collection highlights Gilliam's close involvement with the art institutions, racial politics, and artistic innovation taking place in 1960s through 1980s America, specifically in Washington D.C., and showcases the planning and creation of the large scale three-dimensional paintings Gilliam is best known for as a member of the Washington Color School of painting. Biographical material includes resumes, passports, exhibition lists, artists' statements and essays, interview transcripts and recordings. Also included are audio recordings of conversations between Sam Gilliam and artist Benny Andrews, between Gilliam and artist Rockne Krebs, as well as recordings of a 1968 interview conducted by Dorothy Gilliam. Correspondence spans over 20 years and includes letters to and from museums and galleries such as the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Studio Museum in Harlem, Carl Solway Gallery, collectors, artists including David Driskell, friends, family, students, and fans. Writings include notes, statements, and essays by and about Gilliam, writings by university students of Gilliam, and writings related to Gilliam's artwork and public commissions including measurements Page 2 of 27 Sam Gilliam papers AAA.gillsam for artworks, material research, and information regarding prints created for the private home of Walter Mondale. Business records primarily include the daily records of activities kept by Sam and Dorothy Gilliam's secretary, Debby, from 1973 to 1978. Also present are resumes for a studio assistant for Gilliam, certificates of originality, legal documents, receipts and invoices, a record of donated paintings, financial records, ledgers, contracts, records and paperwork for the Gilliam's company Enterprise 101, and miscellany. Printed materials include photocopies, exhibition announcements, magazines, and clippings regarding exhibitions, specific artworks, and commissions, and Gilliam and/or his then-wife, Dorothy Gilliam. The subject file series contains letters, photographic material, business records, sketches, and printed materials concerning specific galleries, public art commissions, arts organizations, workshops, teaching positions, Gilliam's studio, art suppliers, and other topics. A disbound scrapbook contains photographs, notes, and printed material related to Gilliam and his studio practice. The artwork series includes sketches, personal notes, and small preparatory drawings by Gilliam. Photographic material includes negatives, slides, and transparencies of artworks, Gilliam in his studio, and Gilliam and staff preparing museum and gallery exhibition spaces. Also included are records of student artwork, and photos and slides of artwork sent to Gilliam by students and aspiring artists. Arrangement This collection is arranged as 9 series. • Series 1: Biographical Material, 1958-1988, (Box 1; 0.8 linear feet) • Series 2: Correspondence, 1965-1989, (Boxes 1-2; 0.6 linear feet) • Series 3: Writings, 1962-1988, (Box 2; 0.4 linear feet) • Series 4: Business Records, 1957-1986, (Boxes 2-3; 1.0 linear foot) • Series 5: Printed Material, 1962-1987, (Boxes 3-4; 1.0 linear foot) • Series 6: Subject Files, 1963-1988,
Load more

Recommended publications
  • D. Wigmore Fine Art, Inc
    OUR POSTWAR FOCUS: THE 1960 s-1970 s Richard Anuszkiewicz Frederick Hammersley Sam Gilliam The 22 works in this exhibition reflect the gallery’s focus on the artists of the 1960s-1970s who participated in the inter - national debate on the course of abstract painting after Abstract Expressionism. This debate was framed by two major exhibitions: Clement Greenberg’s 1964 exhibition Post-Painterly Abstraction at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and William Seitz’s 1965 exhibition The Responsive Eye at the Museum of Modern Art. Post-Painterly Abstraction took from Abstract Expressionism its large format and added open compositions with expan - sive, flattened planes of color, or “color fields.” Clement Greenberg championed this style, favoring “staining” where artists use as little pigment as possible and let the unprepared canvas absorb the paint. Other artists within the Color Field style refused to sacrifice the even, smooth, and controlled surfaces achieved with prepared canvases. By preparing the ground of their paintings, these artists went against Greenberg’s theories. The two opposing approaches to Color Field painting are shown in our exhibition. Greenberg’s “staining” is represented by Sam Gilliam’s (b. 1933) Red Linger , 1972 and Paul Reed’s (b. 1919) 16I , 1963, while Paul Jenkins’ (1923-2012) Phenomena Maimonides Mantle , 1979 and Phenomena Sufi Procession , 1974 are examples of the free-flowing color achieved with primed canvases. In addition to Color Field painting, the 1960s saw groups of artists return to geometric compositions. In California one of these geometric groups was called the Abstract Classicists. They reacted against the emphasis Abstract Expressionism had placed on personal emotions.
    [Show full text]
  • Modernism 1 Modernism
    Modernism 1 Modernism Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Modernism was a revolt against the conservative values of realism.[2] [3] [4] Arguably the most paradigmatic motive of modernism is the rejection of tradition and its reprise, incorporation, rewriting, recapitulation, revision and parody in new forms.[5] [6] [7] Modernism rejected the lingering certainty of Enlightenment thinking and also rejected the existence of a compassionate, all-powerful Creator God.[8] [9] In general, the term modernism encompasses the activities and output of those who felt the "traditional" forms of art, architecture, literature, religious faith, social organization and daily life were becoming outdated in the new economic, social, and political conditions of an Hans Hofmann, "The Gate", 1959–1960, emerging fully industrialized world. The poet Ezra Pound's 1934 collection: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. injunction to "Make it new!" was paradigmatic of the movement's Hofmann was renowned not only as an artist but approach towards the obsolete. Another paradigmatic exhortation was also as a teacher of art, and a modernist theorist articulated by philosopher and composer Theodor Adorno, who, in the both in his native Germany and later in the U.S. During the 1930s in New York and California he 1940s, challenged conventional surface coherence and appearance of introduced modernism and modernist theories to [10] harmony typical of the rationality of Enlightenment thinking.
    [Show full text]
  • The Kreeger Museum 20Th Anniversary Exhibition
    K@20 THE KREEGER MUSEUM 20TH ANNIVERSARY EXHIBITION KENDALL BUSTER WILLIAM CHRISTENBERRY GENE DAVIS SAM GILLIAM TOM GREEN LEDELLE MOE MICHAEL B. PLATT JANN ROSEN-QUERALT JOHN RUPPERT JIM SANBORN JEFF SPAULDING DAN STEINHILBER RENÉE STOUT YURIKO YAMAGUCHI FEBRUARY 20 – JULY 31, 2014 THE KREEGER MUSEUM 2401 FOXHALL ROAD, NW WASHINGTON, DC 20007 www.kreegermuseum.org K@20 THE KREEGER MUSEUM 20TH ANNIVERSARY EXHIBITION FOREWORD From the inception of The Kreeger Museum exhibition program in 1998, it has been my philosophy to present exhibitions that relate to the Museum. Past exhibitions ranged from one-man shows that included Philip Johnson, Tom Wesselmann, William Kentridge, Oleg Kudryashov and Washington artists Sam Gilliam, William Christenberry, Kendall Buster, Dan Steinhilber, and Gene Davis, to group shows with selections from the di Rosa Preserve collection of California Bay Area artists and the New York artist collective, Tim Rollins + K.O.S. Each of these exhibitions focused on a particular aspect of the Museum’s permanent collection, architecture or mission. Over the last twenty years, Washington artists have played a prominent role in the Museum’s histor y— in exhibitions, public programs, educational initiatives and outreach activities. In honor of The Kreeger Museum 20th Anniversary and to acknowledge my respect for the DC art community, I asked Sarah Tanguy to curate an exhibition of Washington area artists, each of whom has exhibited at the Museum, either in a group or one-person show. These fourteen artists represent the outstanding talent and commitment prevalent in the nation’s capital. This exhibition was made possible by the generosity of the following sponsors: Aon Huntington Block Insurance; Giselle and Ben Huberman; Frederick P.
    [Show full text]
  • A Revolutionary Figure in Postwar American Art, Sam Gilliam Helped Define the Washington Color School in the Mid-1960S and Pushed Color Field Painting to Its Extremes
    A revolutionary figure in postwar American art, Sam Gilliam helped define the Washington Color School in the mid-1960s and pushed Color Field painting to its extremes. Gilliam utilized the tenets of hard-edge geometric painting as starting points for a series of formal experiments that would soon lead to subsequent breakthroughs in contemporary painting, including the installation-based drape paintings for which he is best known. Exhibition curator Rashid Johnson has focused on this lesser-known period as a way of shedding light on the full scope of Gilliam's achievement. The exhibition is therefore an opportunity to see the early paintings of a major figure through the eyes of a young artist who himself has recently emerged as a leading voice of his generation. The earliest paintings on view feature wash-like monochromatic fields inscribed with diagonal stripes. While executed using the same Magna acrylic resin paints preferred by many of his Washington-based peers during this period, these works display a subtle sense of color and texture, and show Gilliam beginning to gradually diverge from the strict parameters of what was understood as Color Field painting. In other works, hard edges start to give way to a more organic interaction of pigments––diagonal stripes and triangular forms divide areas of raw canvas but also blend into one another. No longer wholly reliant on what Kenneth Noland described as a "one-shot" process of pre- conceived design, these paintings show Gilliam developing a freer method of composition. This transition was enacted by a young artist responding to an increasingly unpredictable world by adapting a structured methodology for greater experimentation.
    [Show full text]
  • O-Riginal Art Activity Sam Gilliam.Docx
    Supplies: Acrylic paint, White pillowcase or cloth, and Water gun. Instructions O- riginal Art Activity: Step 1: Gather your supplies. Find some clothes to wear that you won’t mind getting dirty or wet. Super Soaker Painting Inspired by Step 2: Find an area in your backyard where you Sam Gilliam can freely paint with the water gun and it’s okay to get messy. Ask your parent or guardian. Hang the pillowcase up, this will be your canvas. Step 3: Take a good look at Sam Gilliam’s Drape Work. You can see a variety of colors as well as the depth created by the draped canvas. If you look at the overall shape of the draped canvas, it creates an abstract form. How will you use color to create an abstract painting? Step 4: Use a few containers to mix different color paints with water. Have your parent or guardian fill up the super soaker with your first color. Sam Gilliam, Drape Work (detail), 1970, Acrylic and dry Step 5: Now it’s time to get creative! Where on the pigment on canvas. pillowcase will you start to spray the water gun? Sam Gilliam is an African American artist that Remember Sam Gilliam focused on how he applied works in color field painting and lyrical abstraction. the paint to his canvas. How will you use the water gun to paint the pillowcase? Use the water gun to Gilliam lives and works in Washington D.C. He was apply your first color. a pioneer of Black Abstraction during the 1960s, a time when Abstraction was considered “irrelevant to Step 6: Remember to wash out your water gun Black African Life.” Around 1965, he joined the when changing colors by taking clean water to fill it Washington Color School movement which focused up and pushing the water back out.
    [Show full text]
  • Magical Visions
    Adkins ClArk EdwArds GilliAm HEndriCks Magical linzy Visions OditA 10 Contemporary afriCan ameriCan OliviEr artists rinGGOld williAms 2 Magical Visions 10 Contemporary afriCan ameriCan artists University Museums Oldl COl EGE GAllEry Mechanical hall Gallery minErAlOGiCAl musEum This catalogue is published in conjunction with the exhibition, Magical Visions: Ten Contemporary African American Artists, Mechanical Hall Gallery, University of Delaware, February 1 – June 29, 2012 All images are copyright of the artist, and cannot be reproduced without the permission of the artist or the artist’s designated representative. ISBN 978-0-615-55232-3 Ct On Ents f dOrEwOr 1 mAGiCAl visiOns 2 k eith morrison Terry Adkins 4 Sonya Clark 6 Melvin Edwards 8 Sam Gilliam 10 Barkley L. Hendricks 12 Kalup Linzy 14 Odili Odita 16 Karyn Olivier 18 Faith Ringgold 20 William T. Williams 22 Artists’ BiOGrApHiEs 24 ABOut tHE CurAtOr 29 CHECklist 30 6 Fod rEwOr Bringing together artists whose work spans the decades from the 1960s to the present, Magical Visions: Ten Contemporary African American Artists reveals the rich complexity of African American art today. Shown together here for the first time, works by these artists provide an unparalleled opportunity to consider how creativity commemorates, transforms, engages, and questions. Sam Gilliam found a point of departure in the Washington Color School but soon challenged any conventional concept of “painting on canvas” with works that float free of conventional boundaries of the support. Faith Ringold invokes traditions of women’s work, quilt making, and storytelling to articulate narratives through paint and fabric. Abstraction gains new meaning in William T.
    [Show full text]
  • Tracing Origins Exhibition Guide
    Rowan University Art Gallery Exhibition Guide | Spring 2020 TRACING ORIGINS Colette Fu | Claes Gabriel | Hiro Sakaguchi This group exhibition brings together three Philadelphia-based artists who create work inspired by their ancestral homelands and native cultures. Pulling from personal memories, experiences, and familial influences, their stories are expressed through photography, paper engineering, painting, and sculpture. Colette Fu creates one-of-a-kind collapsible artist’s books that combine photography with pop-up paper engineering. The work in this show incorporates Fu’s photographic exploration of minority populations in Yunnan Province, the region of her mother's birthplace, as well as peripheral areas of China including Xinjiang Province and the autonomous regions of Inner Mongolia and Guangxi. Literally translating as “South of the Clouds,” Yunnan is China’s most southwestern Province, sharing borders with Tibet, Burma, Laos, and Vietnam. With snow-capped mountains to the Northwest and tropical rainforests to the South, Yunnan is rich in natural resources and has the largest diversity of plant life in China. While in Yunnan, Colette discovered that her great-grandfather helped establish the university where she was teaching, was a member of the powerful black Yi tribe, and was the governor and general of Yunnan during the transitional years of WWII. There are twenty-five ethnic minority groups that reside in Yunnan, which comprise less than 9% of the nation’s population. Many people inside China, and most people outside of the country, are unaware of this cultural richness. Originally from Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Claes Gabriel’s work combines the cultural richness of Haiti with contemporary practice and use of materials that mimic tribal masks and totems.
    [Show full text]
  • Oral History Interview with Sam Gilliam, 1989 Nov. 4-11
    Oral history interview with Sam Gilliam, 1989 Nov. 4-11 Funding for the digital preservation of this interview was provided by a grant from the Save America's Treasures Program of the National Park Service. Contact Information Reference Department Archives of American Art Smithsonian Institution Washington. D.C. 20560 www.aaa.si.edu/askus Transcript Preface The following oral history transcript is the result of a tape-recorded interview with Sam Gilliam on November 4- 11, 1989. The interview took place in Washington, DC, and was conducted by Benjamin Forgey for the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Sam Gilliam and Benjamin Forgey have reviewed the transcript and have made corrections and emendations. The reader should bear in mind that he or she is reading a transcript of spoken, rather than written, prose. Interview BENJAMIN FORGEY: I feel like a good place to start - I mean, this is as you know, SG, is about Washington. But I thought we could back up a little bit. I'd be interested to know when you were in Louisville getting your graduate degree, how you decided to come to Washington, why you decided Washington, why you moved. SAM GILLIAM: I went to graduate school from 1958 til "61 because I taught during the daytime and went to school part-time. I came to Washington because Dorothy and I had decided to get married. All the time that - if I was in the Army here, she was in school some place else. And finally when I was in school in Louisville she was in school in Columbia, in New York City.
    [Show full text]
  • Biographical Description for the Historymakers® Video Oral History with Sam Gilliam
    Biographical Description for The HistoryMakers® Video Oral History with Sam Gilliam PERSON Gilliam, Sam Alternative Names: Sam Gilliam; Life Dates: November 30, 1933- Place of Birth: Tupelo, Mississippi, USA Residence: Washington, D.C. Work: Washington, D.C. Occupations: Painter Biographical Note The career of painter Sam Gilliam has spanned decades and mediums, using paint, draped canvas and plastics to help influence numerous schools of art. Sam Gilliam, Jr., was born on November 30, 1933, in Tupelo, Mississippi, to Sam, a railroad worker and Estery, a maternal engineer. The seventh of eight children, Gilliam and his family moved to Louisville, Kentucky, shortly after he was born. As a child, Gilliam always enjoyed painting and was actively Gilliam always enjoyed painting and was actively encouraged by his teachers. In 1951, Gilliam graduated from Central High School and attended the University of Louisville. In 1955, he received his B.A. degree in fine art, and also held his first solo art exhibition. Gilliam entered the U.S. Army in 1956 and served for two years. Following his discharge, he returned to the University of Louisville. After three years of graduate school, Gilliam received his M.A. degree in painting in 1961. On September 1, 1962, Gilliam married Washington Post reporter Dorothy Butler in Louisville, and shortly thereafter moved to Washington, D.C. In 1963, artist Thomas Downing introduced Gilliam to the Washington Color School, which was defined by bold colors. Two years later, Gilliam contributed his own innovation to the school by displaying unframed painted canvases, which allowed the work to flow naturally with the architecture of the display space.
    [Show full text]
  • CREATING COMMUNITY. CINQUE GALLERY ARTISTS MAY 3 – JULY 4, 2021 1 Charles Alston
    CREATING COMMUNITY. CINQUE GALLERY ARTISTS MAY 3 – JULY 4, 2021 1 Charles Alston. Emma Amos. Benny Andrews. Romare Bearden. Dawoud Bey. Camille Billops. Robert Blackburn. Betty Blayton-Taylor. Frank Bowling. Vivian Browne. Nanette Carter. Elizabeth Catlett-Mora. Edward Clark. Ernest Crichlow. Melvin Edwards. Tom Feelings. Sam Gilliam. Ray Grist. Cynthia Hawkins. Robin Holder. Bill Hutson. Mohammad Omar Khalil. Hughie Lee-Smith. Norman Lewis. Whitfield Lovell. Alvin D. Loving. Richard Mayhew. Howard McCalebb. Norma Morgan. Otto Neals. Ademola Olugebefola. Debra Priestly. Mavis Pusey. Ann Tanksley. Mildred Thompson. Charles White. Ben Wigfall. Frank Wimberley. Hale Woodruff ESSAY BY GUEST EXHIBITION CURATOR, SUSAN STEDMAN RECOLLECTION BY GUEST PROGRAMS CURATOR, NANETTE CARTER 2 CREATING COMMUNITY. CINQUE GALLERY ARTISTS CREATING COMMUNITY. CINQUE GALLERY ARTISTS Charles Alston. Emma Amos. Benny Andrews. Romare Bearden. Dawoud Bey. Camille Billops. Robert Blackburn. Betty Blayton-Taylor. Frank Bowling. Vivian Browne. Nanette Carter. Elizabeth Catlett-Mora. Edward Clark. Ernest Crichlow. Melvin Edwards. Tom Feelings. Sam Gilliam. Ray Grist. Cynthia Hawkins. Robin Holder. Bill Hutson. Mohammad Omar Khalil. Hughie Lee-Smith. Norman Lewis. Whitfield Lovell. Alvin D. Loving. Richard Mayhew. Howard McCalebb. Norma Morgan. Otto Neals. Ademola Olugebefola. Debra Priestly. Mavis Pusey. Ann Tanksley. Mildred Thompson. Charles White. Ben Wigfall. Frank Wimberley. Hale Woodruff ESSAY BY GUEST EXHIBITION CURATOR, SUSAN STEDMAN RECOLLECTION BY GUEST PROGRAMS CURATOR, NANETTE CARTER MAY 3 — JULY 4, 2021 THE PHYLLIS HARRIMAN MASON GALLERY THE ART STUDENTS LEAGUE OF NEW YORK Cinque Gallery Announcement. Artwork by Malcolm Bailey (1947—2011). Cinque Gallery Inaugural, Solo Exhibition, 1969—70. 3 CREATING COMMUNITY. CINQUE GALLERY ARTISTS A CHRONICLE IN PROGRESS Former “306” colleagues.
    [Show full text]
  • Binstock Sam Gilliam.Ps
    TWO DISCARDING THE FRAME illiam’s single most significant and celebrated invention, the draped or suspended painting, was a major development of the post-1960 era, and one that has earned him an enduring place in the history of formalist art.1 But Gilliam’s accomplishment is much greater than that. For the sheer force of their originality, their extraordinary, shocking, and unforgettable beauty, the suspended paintings were also a sign that abstract painting and robust, hot-blooded ex- Gpression were alive and well, thriving in at least one corner of the art world despite the reigning vogue for cooler styles and forms such as pop, minimalism, and conceptual art. Moreover, the Drapes were a sign that the tradition of deeply personal, idiosyncratic, colorful aesthetic drama still mattered, even when many young artists were dismissing such work as self-indulgent in a world where radicalism and anti-institutional statements seemed to offer the only possible solutions for the oppressive ills that were being revealed in virtually all corners of American society. Any attempt to assess the value of Gilliam’s contributions to contemporary art must at some point confront the challenge of understanding what it meant for an African American to make some of the most important abstract art of the day in the midst of widespread grass-roots social and political activism—that is, at the height of the Black Power era. Gilliam’s art was drawn regularly into the fray of politically motivated discourse that seemed to divert attention from the unique qualities of his art. Most art world professionals either embraced the lack of overt political subject matter in his imagery or lambasted him for making paintings that seemed to ignore the plight of African Americans.
    [Show full text]
  • SLT Artist Bios
    Second Look, Twice Curated by Essence Harden, Emily Kuhlmann and Soleil Summer September 19th- December 16th, 2019 Louisiana Bendolph Louisiana Bendolph is among the younger generation of quilt makers whose work was included in the national touring exhibition Gee’s Bend: The Architecture of the Quilt. She starts her process with a sketch and then moves into improvisation and innovation using bright, new fabrics. The resulting quilts are stunning abstractions. She has exhibited at the Addison Ripley Gallery in Washington D.C. and Greg Kucera Gallery in Seattle, Washington. Her work is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the U.S. Department of State, and the Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies. The artist is represented by the Elizabeth Leach Gallery in Portland, Oregon. https://www.thebottcollection.com/gees-bend-quilter-louisiana-bendolph/ Loretta Bennett “I came to realize that my mother, her mother, my aunts, and all the others from Gee’s Bend had sewn the foundation, and all I had to do now was thread my own needle and piece a quilt together. ”—Loretta P. Bennett Loretta P. Bennett is the great-great-granddaughter of Dinah Miller, a woman who was brought to Alabama from Africa as a slave in 1859. As a child, Bennett picked cotton and other crops. She attended school in Gee’s Bend until seventh grade, when she was bussed to high schools that were a two-hour drive away. Bennett was introduced to sewing around age five by her mother, Qunnie, who worked at the Freedom Quilting Bee, a sewing cooperative established in 1966 in the nearby neighborhood of Rehoboth.
    [Show full text]