Whirlirama
Sam Gilliam, 1970
acrylic on canvas, 9′ 3.25″ x 9′ 7.5″
Sam Gilliam, along with artists like Morris Louis and Kenneth Noland, was part of the so-called Washington Color School, in the 1950s-60s. Inspired and influenced by Helen Frankenthaler’s method of soak-staining canvases, Gilliam and other likeminded artists experimented with texture and materiality and chance in a way that shifted beyond the emotionality of the early Abstract Expressionists. In the case of Whirlirama, Gilliam stains his canvas in greens, blues, and yellows, applies flashes of red and shiny silver, and then crumples the canvas, allowing the paint to mix and react unpredictably. The end result is an ethereal effect of swirling, intermingling color. Gilliam emphasizes the physicality of the painting not just in its size but also by integrating the support itself in his use of an edged stretcher, causing all but its slivered edges to jut out slightly into the space of the viewer.
AMartyrsSympathy says
Whirlirama
Sam Gilliam, 1970
acrylic on canvas, 9′ 3.25″ x 9′ 7.5″
Sam Gilliam, along with artists like Morris Louis and Kenneth Noland, was part of the so-called Washington Color School, in the 1950s-60s. Inspired and influenced by Helen Frankenthaler’s method of soak-staining canvases, Gilliam and other likeminded artists experimented with texture and materiality and chance in a way that shifted beyond the emotionality of the early Abstract Expressionists. In the case of Whirlirama, Gilliam stains his canvas in greens, blues, and yellows, applies flashes of red and shiny silver, and then crumples the canvas, allowing the paint to mix and react unpredictably. The end result is an ethereal effect of swirling, intermingling color. Gilliam emphasizes the physicality of the painting not just in its size but also by integrating the support itself in his use of an edged stretcher, causing all but its slivered edges to jut out slightly into the space of the viewer.
Itsmeagainmom says
Love it