Sam Gilliam saw his fame apex in the late 60’s when he rushed the art world with his groundbreaking Draped paintings and began paying the mortgage on the title of the world’s “most prominent African American painter.” Now firmly planted in his 5th decade of creating artwork and the subject of a full-bodied retrospective, Gilliam is being forced to do something that may seem foreign to him- look back.

It seems that Gilliam has never looked back. Its true that he was featured in a 1983 Corcoran retrospective entitled Modern Painter at the Corcoran: Sam Gilliam, but that was over twenty years ago. A lifetime for a man who has undoubtedly conceived of countless ideas in the decades that have passed. And this 40+ piece collection is testament to how elegantly the man has grown in the 40+ years since he established his name.

It has the spontaneity, the improvisation, the creative use of the natural shape of materials, the incorporation of metals, the sculptural approach to painting, the sculpture, the hot colors, the cool manipulation of hot colors, and the ability to tire you out with the sheer magnitude of some 50 years of always looking to do more.

It is also a love song to DC, of sorts, a duet between a benevolent king and the city that chose him. Born in Tupelo, Mississippi and schooled in Louisville, Kentucky, Gilliam has nonetheless become the definitive artist of the nation’s capitol. Few artists have become as synonymous with, as entrenched within, the cultural expression of his or her hometown as Gilliam. He moved beyond the Washington Color School box and the Abstract Expressionist container, to become a composite of a city’s artistic aspirations. He just moved beyond them and never looked back. DC stand up.

Phillip Harvey is the editor of http://www.natcreole.com/, an online global urban culture magazine. Visit the site weekly for updated news, reviews, profiles, playlists, essays, travel journals, and upcoming events.

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