Installation view of “Sam Gilliam: The Last Five Years” at David Kordansky Gallery in Los Angeles. The exhibition features a symphony of drape paintings made by the artist in 2018. | Courtesy David Kordansky Gallery
IN LOS ANGELES, a symphony of color-soaked canvases are suspended from the ceiling of the South Gallery at David Kordansky Gallery, creating an immersive and visually moving experience. The bright and brilliant works are “drape” paintings made in 2018 by Sam Gilliam (1933-2022).
In 1962, Gilliam moved to Washington, D.C., where he was in conversation with Washington Color School artists and befriended Alma Thomas, a fellow African American artist (four decades his senior) working in abstraction. By the late-1960s, he was experimenting with the format of his work, pushing beyond two dimensions to present his abstract paintings in innovative new ways.
Removing his canvases from the stretcher and leaving them loose, free, and ripe for performative display is considered the artist’s most profound creative gesture. Gilliam presented the paintings as sculptural forms, dramatically draping them suspended from ceilings, installed along walls, and placed over sawhorses. Over the decades, throughout his career, Gilliam revisited the format.
At David Kordansky, the installation of nearly 20 drape paintings anchors “Sam Gilliam: The Last Five Years,” a survey of new works showcasing the artist’s output from 2018 to 2022, the final years of his life.
“He was talking about freedom and he was talking about expression and he was talking about a commitment to abstract art, experimentation.”
– Jenn De Palma, Sam Gilliam Studio
An introduction to Sam Gilliam’s “The Last Five Years” exhibition at David Kordansky Gallery in Los Angeles, with commentary from Jenn De Palma of the artist’s studio; Naima J. Keith of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and Teresa Eggers of David Kordanzky Gallery. | Video by David Kordansky Gallery
David Kordansky Gallery and Pace Gallery conceived “The Last Five Years” as a two-part exhibition. Pace presented a show last fall in New York. On view through today in Los Angeles, David Kordansky’s edition featured three-dozen works from three bodies of work: drape paintings (2018), tondo (round) paintings (2022), and watercolors on paper (2022, including a few from 2014).
“It’s a total celebration of Sam in all three galleries,” said Jenn De Palma in a new video produced by David Kordansky Gallery.
The video introduces the exhibition and features insights from De Palma, who worked with Gilliam in his studio; Naima J. Keith, vice president of education and public programs at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and Teresa Eggers, director of institutional relations at David Kordansky.
“He had lived this life where he was born in Tupelo, Mississippi in 1933. He had a lot more to say with his paintings than just like this is a beautiful object, because he was talking about freedom and he was talking about expression and he was talking about a commitment to abstract art, experimentation,” De Palma said.
“There was this thing that he said to me once, that it’s not about making something new, it’s about making something your own. Even though he was this like relentless innovator, he was trying to make things his own. You know? He was finding his own way in the studio and in the world and this was the way that he did it. This was the form and we’re we are privileged and lucky enough to be able to experience that. Not everyone is as generous with their experiences as Sam was.” CT
“Sam Gilliam: The Last Five Years” was on view at David Kordansky Gallery in Los Angeles, Calif., from Jan. 13-March 3, 2024
March 2, 2024: The exhibition “Sam Gilliam: The Last Five Years” concluded with a conversation about the artist and his work with Studio Museum in Harlem Director and Chief Curator Thelma Golden and Naima J. Keith, vice president of education and public programs at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Teresa Eggers moderated the discussion. | Video by David Kordansky Gallery
BOOKSHELF
The two-part exhibition “Sam Gilliam: The Last Five Years” is accompanied by a catalog, jointly published by Pace and David Kordansky galleries. Published in 2021, “Sam Gilliam” features an interview with the artist by Hans Ulrich Obri and new scholarship from Courtney J. Martin and Fred Moten. Also consider “Sam Gilliam: The Music of Color: 1967–1973” (2018) and “Sam Gilliam: A Retrospective” (2005), among other volumes that explore the artist’s work.
