Sam Gilliam's Legacy
When I hear Sam Gilliam's name, I think of Tupelo, Mississippi (Sam’s Birthplace). I spent my formative years in Greenwood, Mississippi. This was 2 hours from Sam's Birthplace, and 15 minutes from where they lynched Emmett Till. When I see Sam’s work, I see the beauty in the work. But my interpretation of the work is deeper.
Sam's working life was spent in Washington. However, Mississippi was the site of his birth, making Sam a Mississippian. Born in 1933, Sam was 2 generations removed from enslavement.
Thus when I see the large tapestries, I see a declaration of triumph, and victory against the odds. A black contemporary artist, collected by the most prestigious art museums. The Sam Gilliam Story, is MUCH bigger than artistic success for one man.
When we view the large works, we may interpret them as a flag, or a declaration. The theme being courage, optimism, and tenacity in the face of overwhelming odds. I see the works as a flag of progress. A flag we can stand under, and admire the work we have done. While also honoring the work that needs to happen in the future. I see Sam's success as a victory for all Mississippians. And not just for black Mississippians, but for all African Americans.
I hope that you are able to visit a museum and Sam Gilliam's work one day.
Sam Gilliam Videos
Meet Sam Gilliam Abstact painter African american artist
An interview with the artist Sam GilliamSam Gilliam grew up in Tupelo, Mississippi, and studied art in Louisville, Kentucky. In 1962 he moved to Washington, ...
Thinking about Sam Gilliam
Transcript: It is June the sadly, yesterday Sam Gilliam died. He's an artist who I feel a special connection to because viewing his works, to me were a sign ofencouragement, a sign of joy, and a symbol of perseverance.And he just went back.I hope you enjoy watching this video andhearing a couple of his quotes and thoughts.I got to leave something here that was a lotbetter than I found, that you leave something of value.You have to create some hope.I'm good at that.It's very important to me always to start something.I don't fight. I can.But it's nice to start something where I don't have toget myself in trouble and just comes from an idea.It was good to have a complete education in order to have an index and actually to fill that home.Wherever you were, if you finished your lessons, you can always draw.Andrew.It's taken a chance, and that's art.I mean, art is contained in the various ways that things call attention.It gets you standing still, get you puzzled, get you thinking about it.Even if you read something about it and get you coming back, that's all you got to do.Like baseball.The father of mom and I be my dad said, you think about all right, you ought to go and watch Mr.Clay do these search murals.And he did grass, and he copied from the calendar.But there was one painting made called Dee Holy Land.And he just went I say, well, that's my job.Okay, that's right.I'll be glad to.It messes with you.It convinces you that what you think isn't all.It challenges you to understand something that is different.Think about art is that sometimes you're broke, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.If you have a problem, the important thing is to learn how to solve it. Then you solve it by listening, practice choosing different ways.Went through that.And I was always painting a large canvases, and you give me a pair of scissors, and he said, now, this part is good to cut it out.I'm not that kind of person.It's going to be the whole thing and nothing at all.You teach yourself to really make a certain yellow and to have that symbol bounce against it so that it's kind of an activity like riding a bicycle, like practicing tennis by hitting a wall and catching the various reflex.It's participation.I like this experience of coming up with something different.That's what I'm here for.And all the great ones, that's what ours is supposed to do.I mean, it's supposed to change the greatness of the unfinished, the sense that something can exist and then it cannot exist.And I think you'll come to understand more that artists work for specifics.They shoot at a target, and it's not the work necessarily.It's that kind of meaning one of us to say when you finish the show just another combine if you do agood show sometimes you cry and it's fun to fail you learn something how not to fail how does it feel to get this recognition at this time in your life?It's the beginning.My dad said if I get you on anything like me at all and I wonder what do you mean?He said, put you like a song.Someone for my mother that has talent and that will keep me with paper.
