Sam Gilliam, master of color

Sam Gilliam was one of the boldest innovators in postwar American painting. Emerging from the Washington D.C. art scene in the 1960s, he revolutionized the Color School with an approach that blurred the boundaries between painting and sculpture, anticipating the idea of ​​installation. Inspired by the use of color and movement in Renaissance painting and modernist formalism, he experimented tirelessly with technique, gesture, materiality, and space. His innovations led to the creation of his celebrated Drape paintings, which featured painted canvases suspended without stretchers, transforming the medium and its exhibition context. His work is now in the collections of the world's leading museums, including MoMA and the Met in New York, the Tate in London, and the National Gallery in Washington.