Sam Gilliam, Abstract Artist of Drape Paintings, Dies at 88

Sam Gilliam, Abstract Artist of Drape Paintings, Dies at 88

A brilliant colorist, he hung his canvases from ceilings in great curves and loops

or pinned them, gathered, to walls, taking his medium into three dimensions

Sam Gilliam, a pioneering abstract painter best known for his lusciously stained Drape paintings

which took his medium more fully into three-dimensions than any other artist of his generation

died on Saturday at his home in Washington. He was 88

His death was announced by the David Kordansky Gallery in Los Angeles

and the Pace Gallery, New York. The cause was renal failure.

Mr. Gilliam was twice an anomaly. As a Black artist he was largely ignored by the upper levels of the art world

until late in his career (although in 1972 he became the first Black artist to represent the United States at the Venice Biennale)

And as a Black artist committed to abstraction

he devoted his life to paintings that refrained from the recognizable images

and overt political messages favored by many of his Black colleagues

Yet his art was in many ways opposed to both painting and political art as usual

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