SAM GILLIAM (1933 - 2022)
Untitled.

Acrylic, dye pigments, and bronze and aluminum powder on cotton canvas, 1967. 1054x921 mm; 41½x36¼ inches, bevel-edged.

Provenance: acquired directly from the artist, Thomas R. Harney (1967); thence by descent, private collection, Virginia.

Tom Harney was a prominent art critic in the late 1960s Washington art scene; he wrote art reviews and articles for the Washington Daily News from 1966-68. Harney wrote "When He Paints, He Pours", a profile of Sam Gilliam for its October 13, 1967 issue. He described the artist's preparations for his solo exhibition at the Phillips Collection, Gilliam's first at a museum. Harney was one of the first writers to describe the artist's studio practice in detail. He later joined the staff of the Smithsonian Institution in 1969, as Science Information Officer to the News Bureau of the Office of Public Affairs, and wrote for The Smithsonian Torch. In 1976 Harney became Writer-Editor at the National Museum of Natural History, and in 1990 he became NMNH's Public Information Officer.

This canvas is a striking example of Sam Gilliam's innovative "slice" paintings from 1967. This deeply striated and saturated canvas is stretched on beveled-edge stretcher bars which Gilliam designed to make them appear to the float on the wall. Gilliam included seven of these "slice" canvases in the Phillips Collection exhibition Paintings by Sam Gilliam. The critical praise for the exhibition earned him a career breakthrough at the relatively young age of 33. Binstock p. 34; Binstock/Helfenstein p. 33.