Painting Collection Sam Gilliam Cape (1933-2022) Sam Gilliam created Cape in 1969 as part of his Slice painting series, comprised of large-scale, stained canvases mounted on beveled stretchers. Gilliam has lived and worked in Washington since 1962, when he arrived fresh from his MFA at the University of Louisville. He was initially affiliated with the Washington Color School, and early on painted hard edge abstractions in the style of the group. In 1967, Gilliam started moving in a new direction with the Slice paintings, marking the beginning of great innovation for the artist. Measuring more than nine feet square, Cape is an abstract field of bright and florescent colors staining the canvas in layered, nebulous shapes. Gilliam created Cape by lying the unprimed canvas on the floor, pouring and applying paint onto the surface, folding the wet canvas back and forth, and then leaving it to dry. Once unfurled, the canvas showed the pillars of color made from the creases and a painted surface with the look and spontaneity of watercolor. Gilliam then mounted the finished canvas to a beveled stretcher, allowing the work to float away from the wall. In 1969, he also started to work on his important Drape paintings, where he suspended the stained canvases on their own, removing the stretcher all together. |
  
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