Sam Gilliam, groundbreaking abstract artist, dies at 88
編輯翻譯 Editor&Translation｜Joanne Hsieh
原文出處 Source｜The Art Newspaper & CBS News
「吉利安將暈染的畫布從天花板和牆壁垂墜，繪畫與空間及建築之間，以及其被觀賞的關係從此產生巨大轉變。」
山姆．吉利安 (Sam Gilliam），以色彩豐富、垂掛式畫布建構立體空間抽象作品的超前抽象派大師，於高齡八十八歲辭世。
代表他的紐約佩斯畫廊(Pace Gallery)以及洛杉磯大衛．柯登斯基畫廊（David Kordansky）共同發表聲明。其中一畫廊代表吉利安的負責人雅內．格林志（Arne Glimcher）道：「吉利安是當代藝術的巨擎之一。他是一位摯友以及藝術家，運用我們共通的抽象語言傳達生命中的折磨與勝利。」
吉利安在1933年出生於密西西比的土佩羅（Tupelo, Mississippi)。他首次在藝術界出名，是以華盛頓彩色畫派（Washington Color School 註）領袖之一的身分展露頭角。1960年代開始，他開始進行製作最為出名的創作風格：經過暈染、從天花板和牆壁垂降的大幅畫布。
在這十年內吉利安製作了他最廣聞人知的兩個系列：斜坡邊（Beveled-edge）以及垂吊式（Drape）畫作。1972年，吉利安成為首位代表美國參加威尼斯雙年展的黑人藝術家。
山姆．吉利安：圓滿落幕（Sam Gilliam: Full Circle），一場大型回顧展目前在史密斯索尼亞-赫爾雄及雕塑花園美術館 Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden 展出，位於華盛頓 D.C.，吉利安居住工作了四十載的城市。
杜克大學藝術史學家以及赫爾雄美術館董事會成員之一李察．J．包威爾寫道：「從美好絕倫的垂墜式畫面至堆疊出令人激動的顏料和色彩，他重新詮釋了繪畫的定義。山姆．吉利安在現代藝術史上留下無法抹滅的印記。」
Sam Gilliam, Groundbreaking Abstract Artist, Dies at 88
Source｜The Art Newspaper & CBS News
"By suspending his stained canvases from ceilings and walls, Gilliam transformed the medium of painting and its relationship to the spatial and architectural context in which it is viewed," the statement said, saying his work "changed the history of art."
Sam Gilliam, a painter revered for draped canvases rich in colour, has died, aged 88.
"Sam Gilliam was one of the giants of Modernism. He was a great friend and great artist who was able to convey the shared torments and triumphs of life through the universal language of abstraction," Arne Glimcher, the owner of one of the galleries that represented Gilliam, said in the statement.
Gilliam was born in 1933, in Tupelo, Mississippi, the statement said. He made his debut in the art world in Washington, D.C., as a leader in the Washington Color School. In the 1960s, he began creating his signature work: stained, draped canvases that were suspended from ceilings and walls.
It was in this era that Gilliam began the two bodies of work for which he is most well known: his Beveled-edge and Drape paintings. In 1972, he became the first Black artist to represent the US in the Venice Biennale.
A major exhibition of his work, Sam Gilliam: Full Circle, is on view now at The Smithsonian’s Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC — the city Gilliam lived and worked in for four decades.
In a statement, the Duke University art historian and Hirschhorn board member Richard J. Powell said, “From his pictorial interpretations of draped splendid to his evocative accumulations of pigments and colours, he single-handedly reinvented painting. Sam Gilliam has made an indelible mark on modernism.”
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