Biography

Born in 1933 in Tupelo, Mississippi, Gilliam served in the U.S. Army from 1956-58, after which he received his B.F.A. and M.F.A. from the University of Louisville.  After studying art at the University of Louisville and holding his first solo exhibition there, Gilliam moved to Washington, D.C. in 1962. Strongly dedicated to teaching, Gilliam spent ten years teaching in Washington, D.C. public schools, as well as the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, Maryland, the University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, and Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He currently lives and works in Washington, D.C. Gilliam’s work is represented in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Tate Gallery, London; and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

This would be the first work by Gilliam to enter SJMA’s collection. (SJMA Collections Committee, 2010)

Sam Gilliam is an African-American artist who was born in Tupelo, Mississippi. He received an MA in painting from the University of Louisville. His work is greatly influenced by the color field painting style and jazz music. [From ULAN, input by R. Faust, Collections Intern, 7/19/2010]

Born in 1933 in Tupelo, Mississippi, Gilliam began painting in elementary school and received a great deal of encouragement from his teachers. After serving in the army from 1956-58, Gilliam received his BFA and MFA from the University of Louisville. He then moved to Washington, D.C. in 1962 and became associated with the Washington Color School, drawing influence from German Expressionists, Nathan Oliveira, Frank Stella, Hans Hofmann, and Pablo Picasso. Gilliam’s early works were figural abstractions inspired by the African American experience in the 1960s. Inspired by laundry hanging outside his Washington studio, Gilliam pioneered the hanging of painted canvases without stretcher bars. He uses stretched, draped, and wrapped canvases, and adds sculptural elements such as metal, rocks, and wooden beams to represent a third dimension in his work. Recently he has created textured paintings that incorporate metal forms. Strongly dedicated to teaching art, Gilliam spent ten years teaching in Washington public schools, as well as the Maryland Institute, the University of Maryland, and Carnegie Mellon University. [Bio from Juicy Paint Exhibition, input by R. Faust, 8/11/2010]

Lives and works in Washington D.C.

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