Sam Gilliam

The definitive monograph of Sam Gilliam one of the great innovators in post-war American painting

An African American artist in the nation’s capital at the height of the Civil Rights movement, Sam Gilliam blazed a trail with his singular artistic vision. Gilliam emerged from the Washington, DC art scene in the mid 1960s with works that disrupted established artistic norms and styles. 

Relentlessly experimental and inspired by the improvisatory ethos of jazz, Gilliam’s lyrical abstractions took on an increasing variety of forms, moods, and materials.

This book, made in close collaboration with Gilliam’s estate, is the first to comprehensively survey the breadth of his extraordinary career, and features never-before-seen archival materials and insightful newly commissioned texts that shine light on the artist, his life, and his work, together with examples of Gilliam's work spanning five decades.

Ishmael Reed is an American poet, novelist, essayist, songwriter, playwright, editor, and publisher.

Mary Schmidt Campbell is a museum curator and former President of Spelman College in Atlanta.

Andria Hickey is a curator and writer in New York City.

Sam Gilliam (1933-2022) was one of the great innovators in postwar American painting. He emerged from the Washington DC scene in the mid 1960s with works that elaborated upon and disrupted the ethos of Color School painting.

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