Nile

Sam Gilliam’s art often breaks boundaries. Like other Color Field painters, he eliminated the brush and poured dilute colors directly onto unprimed canvases. He famously went a step further and eliminated the stretchers to let his canvases drape like banners. Sometimes he balled up his canvases, folded them, or twisted them, causing colors to offset or blend in unpredictable ways. This spirt of freedom and willingness to let chance play its part is reflected in Nile in the irregular, layered, patchy, crumpled-looking application of semi-transparent colors onto handmade paper. This is one of Gilliam’s first engagements with printmaking, an activity that became a significant part of his artistic practice.