September 6 , 2016– February 18, 2017

To celebrate the opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture in September 2016, The Kreeger Museum presents selected works from the permanent collection by Sam Gilliam and Simmie Knox. The Museum's relationship with both artists dates back to the early 1970s when David and Carmen Kreeger purchased their works.

Sam Gilliam: The Kreeger Museum opened in 1994; the first exhibition at the Museum was Sam Gilliam 3-D (1998). John Beardsley, guest curator of that exhibition, wrote of Gilliam: "He is among the nation’s most accomplished abstract painters. Over the decades, he has not wavered in his commitment to a rigorous but exuberant modernist style..."

Simmie Knox: In 1971 David and Carmen Kreeger purchased a work by Simmie Knox which had been shown in the Thirty- Second Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting at Corcoran Gallery of Art. This early abstract diptych by Knox illustrates his love of color and the movement of color.

Sam Gilliam, Graining, 1998, acrylic on birch plywood



Simmie Knox, A Place: Suspended, 1970, acrylic on canvas