Composition for I-75, Sam Gilliam

Exhibition Label:
"Rockne Krebs: Drawings for Sculpture You Can Walk Through," Aug-2013, Steve Goddard
The talented painter Sam Gilliam was a close friend of Rockne Krebs, with whom he shared a studio building in Washington, D.C. Since the 1960s Gilliam has investigated alternatives to the concept of rectangular straight-sided canvas. For a while in the 1970s he hung unstretched canvases from the wall or ceiling, but by the 1980s in works such as Composition for I-75, he had returned to stretched canvas, but with bits cut away from the corners and edges and other pieces of painted canvas attached to the surface. This painting was given to the Spencer Museum of Art by Rockne Krebs in 1985.

Archive Label 2003:
In Composition for I-75 Sam Gilliam questions the traditional notion that a painting is a rectangular, straight-sided canvas. He has cut away geometric shapes from the corners and rounded the edges, a process that he says serves to enliven the wall around the painting as if it were a frame. He then attaches to the surface other pieces of thickly painted canvas that have been raked for textural variations, creating a quilt-like grid and collage.

The title of this work suggests imagery inspired by a highway or the land around it. Gilliam says that “All my paintings are about open expanses. Landscape makes abstract paintings work.”

Exhibition Label:
"Dreams and Portals," Jun-2008, Kris Ercums and Susan Earle
Intro Label:
This summer display features selections from the Spencer’s permanent collection, including works that may evoke dreams and ideas of place, near and far.
The works range in media from painting and watercolor to collage, textile, and video. Some may transport you to other places, such as the lyrical "Blue Door (La Porte Bleue)" by French artist Pierre Lesieur. Reflecting the artist’s travels to North Africa, this painting evokes the sea or an open door in a way that suggests a dream, or a portal.
Many works feature abstract imagery, at times suggestive of dreams, or passages to other landscapes, be they of the mind or actual places. Others combine abstraction and figuration, like the William T. Wiley drawing
"Feeding Time." Others teeter between realism and abstraction, such as "Foam Chrome II" by Gary Pruner.
A portal can be defined as a door or gate or entrance, especially a grand or imposing one. Paintings themselves are like portals. They allow us to enter worlds and spaces like nothing else can.
Let your mind wander and see what dreams you might recall, or what new perspectives you might gain.
Label:
Widely recognized as a foremost and influential Color Field painter, Sam Gilliam pioneered the use of unsupported or draped canvases in 1965. He is a key figure in the cultural life of Washington, D.C., and is African American.
Dispensing with traditional notions about a painting’s shape, Gilliam has cut away the corners and rounded the edges of this canvas, a process that he says enlivens the wall around the painting as if it were a frame. He attaches to the surface other pieces of thickly painted canvas that have been raked for textural variations, creating a quilt-like grid and collage. The title of this work suggests imagery inspired by a highway or the land around it. Gilliam says that “All my paintings are about open expanses. Landscape makes abstract paintings work.”

Exhibition Label:
"Big Stuff: Contemporary Art from the Collection," Jun-1998
Sam Gilliam lives and works in Washington, D.C. Since the 1960s he has been one of those abstract artists whose work investigated alternatives to the concept of rectangular straight-sided canvas. For a while in the 1970s he hung unstretched canvases from the wall or ceiling, but by the 1980s in works like Composition for I-75, he had returned to stretched canvas, but with bits cut away from the corners and edges and other pieces of painted canvas attached to the surface.