Sam Gilliam (1933–2022) is one of the great innovators in postwar American painting. He emerged from the Washington, D.C. scene in the mid-1960s with works that elaborated upon and disrupted the ethos of Color School painting. A series of formal breakthroughs would soon result in his canonical Drape paintings, which expanded upon the tenets of Abstract Expressionism in entirely new ways. Gilliam drapes these works across walls or hangs them from the ceiling in a manner that can suggest theater curtains, flags or hanging laundry. Throughout his canvases and works on paper, the artist has also employed various folding and staining techniques.
Gilliam has enjoyed exhibitions in New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Basel, Seoul, and Washington, D.C., among other cities. At auction, a number of his pieces have sold for seven figures.
His work is included in over 50 permanent collections, including the Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris (France), Tate Modern London (UK), Museum of Modern Art (New York, USA), Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, USA) and the Art Institute (Chicago, USA).