{"id":12768,"date":"2022-07-01T09:46:04","date_gmt":"2022-07-01T09:46:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/media-archive.blackartinamerica.com\/?p=12768"},"modified":"2022-06-30T11:48:14","modified_gmt":"2022-06-30T11:48:14","slug":"tales-from-the-b-a-sket-black-art-sketches-for-the-contemporary-art-lover-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/earthexhibitions.org\/media-archive\/?p=12768","title":{"rendered":"Tales from The b.a.SKET: Black Art Sketches for the Contemporary Art Lover"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

Tales from The b.a.SKET: Black Art Sketches for the Contemporary Art Lover<\/h2>\r\n
By D. Amari Jackson<\/pre>\r\n
This week, we reach into the b.a.SKET and pull out the piece, Wind, by the late, great<\/em><\/strong> Sam Gilliam\u2026 <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\r\n
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\u201cLook for me in a whirlwind or a storm! Look for me all around you! For with God’s grace, I shall come back with countless millions of Black men and women who have died in America, those who have died in the West Indies, and those who have died in Africa, to aid you in the fight for liberty, freedom and life!\u201d<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\r\n
\u2014Marcus Garvey<\/strong>, Freedom speech, 1924<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n
It seemed the wind was ever at his back. Renowned artist, Sam Gilliam, who joined the ancestors on June 25, moved through life with purpose, making artistic statements, inspiring other artists, and forging an unprecedented legacy in paint. A student of the Washington, D.C. Color School of the mid-20th<\/sup> century, Gilliam was primarily known as an abstract expressionist who incorporated such noted improvisational techniques as his pouring of vivid pigment on to an unstretched, draped canvas to produce abstraction in three dimensions.<\/p>\r\n
Though much of his work was abstract\u2014bearing subliminal messages, like the whisper of the wind\u2014Gilliam\u2019s artistic legacy is tangible. He inspired, mentored, and trained countless young and emerging artists as an art teacher with the Washington public school system, the Corcoran School of Art, the Maryland Art Institute in Baltimore, the University of Maryland, and Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh. The recipient of numerous awards, Gilliam won four National Endowment for the Arts Activities Grants between 1967 and 1989 along with a Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in 1971 that enabled him to paint full-time. As an abstract painter, he made his mark on a field dominated by white men and, consistently, in 1972, Gilliam made international news by becoming the first Black artist to show at the U.S. Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.<\/p>\r\n
While Gilliam was known to downplay issues of race and their perceived relevance to his art, his art and actions sometimes told a different story. In 1968, upon the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., Gilliam produced a series of abstract works named after, though not directly referencing, the late civil rights icon. In 1971, he boycotted an event at the Whitney Museum in New York in solidarity with the Black Emergency Cultural Coalition to protest the museum\u2019s failure to consult Black art experts in producing the show. Additional works by Gilliam reference race or other prominent Black figures in their titles including his 1975 Three Panels for Mr. Robeson<\/em>, an apparent tribute to the brilliant Black performer-activist persecuted by the American government for his political beliefs; and his 1968-1974 project originally titled Dark as I Am<\/em>, an assumed reference to his own race and some of the painting\u2019s contents.<\/p>\r\n
\u201cBeing black is a very important point of tension and self-discovery,\u201d Gilliam told ARTnews<\/em>, in 1973. \u201cTo have a sense of self-acceptance we blacks have to throw off this dichotomy that has been forced on us by the white experience. For some there is a need to do this frontally and objectively. There are some who believe there is no threat. I think there is a need to live universally.\u201d<\/p>\r\n
With the presentation of his 2005 painting, Wind<\/em>, Black Art In America proudly celebrates the lifework of the universal and incomparable Sam Gilliam. We will continue to look for Gilliam in the whirlwind while keeping his legacy close and honoring his important role in our collective fight for liberty, freedom and life.<\/p>\r\n
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“Wind” by Sam Gilliam
15 1\/8 \u00d7 21 7\/8 inches color screen print with collage on Rives BFK paper, limited edition #38\/150, (2005) — unframed<\/p><\/div>\r\n
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\"\"Amari Jackson<\/b> is a creator, author, TV\/web\/film producer, and award-winning journalist. He is author of the 2011 novel, The Savion Sequence; creator\/writer\/coproducer of the 2012-2014 web series The Book Look; writer\/coproducer of the 2016 film Edge of the Pier; and current writer\/coproducer of Listen Up! on HBCU GO\/Roku TV. He is a former Chief of Staff for a NJ State Senator; a former VP of Communications & Development for the Jamestown Project at Harvard University; and a recipient of several writing fellowships including the George Washington Williams Fellowship from the Independent Press Association. An active ghost writer, song writer, martial artist, and journalist, his writings have appeared in a wide variety of national and regional publications.<\/p>\r\n
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