The master of brush-less painting

Sam Gilliam has appeared on galleryIntell before and we were thrilled to see an entire booth at Frieze Art Fair dedicated to his art. Gilliam’s paintings are colorful, grandiose and each is a statement. They are easily recognized by the ever-present deep bevelled edge stretcher that brings a certain sculptural quality to his paintings. In this video interview with Stuart Krimko, Director of David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles, we learn about Gilliam’s unique brush-less technique, his innovations in treating the canvas as the principal material and his influence on a young generation of artists (abstract and not).

Sam Gilliam, Ray II, 1970 Image courtesy David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles. Frieze New York

Interview transcript:

Sam Gilliam, Stephen Frietch. Image courtesy of David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles

Stuart Krimko, Director David Kordansky Gallery: These are works by Sam Gilliam from the late 60’s – early 70’s. Gilliam is an African-American, Washington D.C.-based artist who was really a pioneer of abstraction at the time and while he received a lot of institutional support throughout his career, for many people, I”d say the work has been overlooked or hasn’t been granted the importance it should have, in terms of the development of American Post War painting.

So these are major examples of a key period for Gilliam. These are works that are being shown for the first time here. Because of their scale, at the time he didn’t have the opportunity to show them, so we are very honored to be able to show them here at Frieze New York art fair for the first time.

His works have this characteristic bevelled edge, which speaks to his interest in pushing painting out into an expanded field, so really, literalizing the expansive nature of Abstract Expressionism. These came later that the key AbEx works of the 40’s and 50’s, but he was taking these ideas and trying to innovate and experiment with them. He was very concerned with how the painting functions in space, and that has to do with how it’s viewed and how its felt but also with the way they are made. He wasn’t working with brushes, he was making these paintings with the canvas off the stretchers, really dealing with it as a physical object, pouring acrylic paint on, folding the canvases, rubbing it together to get the folds, to get the paints to run together in different areas.

Sam Gilliam, Whirlirama, 1970. Image courtesy David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles. Frieze New York

This particular painting, called Whirlirama, from 1970 has some interesting, more impasto moments on the surface as well as silver reflective paint. It bears witness to its own making. These are some of the largest paintings he made and of course, they are enveloping for that reason – you can kind of fall into them, but it’s also really amazing to think about them in terms of how they are made, in terms of him dealing with these huge lengths of material and canvas and the way the paint would play across it. The relationship between his body, as a single person, moving in space and also moving these paintings around…

Sam Gilliam, Installation view of David Kordansky Gallery’s booth at Frieze New York. Image © galleryIntell

And besides the historical importance of his works we thought it it is crucial to show them in response to a lot of what’s going on amongst younger artists and abstract painting. We’ve had a lot of younger artists through and people do know him, they have been students of Gilliam, but it’s also important for the younger generations to see these works especially as abstract painting has entered the center of the conversation again. To see an artist who is dealing with such an ambitious experimental way, quite a while ago.

Images featured in this interview