It is constructed painting in that it crosses the void between object and viewer to be part of the space in front of the picture plane. It represents an act of pure passage. The surface is no longer the final plane of the work. It is instead the beginning of an advance into the theater of life.
P rismatic shades of cobalt, ochre, and alabaster unfurl into diluted washes of chartreuse and dandelion pigments in Sam Gilliam’s Topper Carew of 1972, a sublime example of his renowned series of beveled-edge works on canvas which propel resplendent colors into the third dimension. Among his foremost contributions to contemporary art was Gilliam’s daring venture into space, in which painting broke free from the confines of the wall and projected into a more liminal realm, one that oscillates between object and image, optics and abstraction. Gilliam remained at the helm of the Washington School of Color alongside peers Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland, and Alma Thomas, and Topper Carew singularly captures the musicality, improvisational methods, and liberation of pigment for which Gilliam is so celebrated. Testament to the present work’s central importance to the artist’s oeuvre, the present work was executed the year of his participation as the United States’ representative in the Venice Bienniale and comes from the distinguished collection of visionary Washington D.C. gallerists Barbara and Daniel Fendrick.
In this celestial theater, Gilliam has bent the aether into sublime sculptural form. The beveled-edge canvases result from an idiosyncratic, reversed process Gilliam developed in the early 1970s of layering wet pigment on unprimed canvas, twisting, folding, and wringing it out to stretch the newly formed impressions across the bars. By thrusting the canvas into physical space with a beveled edge, Gilliam subverts the traditional role of the canvas as passive backdrop, transforming it into an active, functional device. “It is constructed painting,” says Gilliam, “in that it crosses the void between object and viewer to be part of the space in front of the picture plane. It represents an act of pure passage. The surface is no longer the final plane of the work. It is instead the beginning of an advance into the theater of life.” (Sam Gilliam quoted in: Annie Gawlak, “Solids and Veils,” Art Journal, no. 50, vol. 1, 1991, p. 10). While vestiges of Frankenthaler's soak-stain technique can be traced in Gilliam’s beveled-edge abstractions such as Topper Carew, his technique hinges on thoughtful canvas manipulation and the force of gravity, striking a splendid balance of premeditation and improvisation.
Gilliam’s distinctive style of abstraction challenged the conventional expectations imposed on African American artists to create figurative works representing the Black experience. Pernilla Holmes and Amele von Wedel write, “The pure aesthetic power of Gilliam’s work perhaps belies the nerve it must have taken him to pursue abstraction” (Exh. Cat., London, Pace Gallery, Impulse: Frank Bowling, Ed Clark, Sam Gilliam, Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland, 2017, pp. 7-8). Spending most of his life in Washington D.C., Sam Gilliam became a stalwart of the city’s art community, redefining the role of the black artist during the cultural shift of the Civil Rights Movement. Gilliam was one of very few African American artists associated with the budding Washington Color School in the 1970s, alongside Alma Thomas. While evoking the same lyricism and immediacy of fellow Washington Color School peers such as Morris Louis and Kenneth Noland, Gilliam nonetheless created abstract works that defied the group’s preference for flat planes of color. In Gilliam’s hands, the picture plane rose out of two dimensions to become a compositional element in and of itself, a conceptual breakthrough that influenced a new generation of abstract painters for decades to come.
Titled after the acclaimed film director and community activist Topper Carew, the present work testifies to Sam Gilliam’s profound connection to the political and cultural currents of his time, a communion between artist and zeitgeist. Topper Carew founded the New Thing Art and Architecture Center in D.C., an organization that aimed to improve the well-being of underprivileged people in the city and provide young people with a place to learn and collaborate on creative projects. As an activist himself for a point in time, Gilliam was at the crux of an ongoing debate about the necessity for black artists to create work that directly responded to the injustices that the larger community faced. As he believed art held inherent, non-political value in its own right, Gilliam continued on in producing works whose sumptuous colors and inimitable compositions transcended any personal identifiers. Evoking an emotional poignancy that rivals the iconic abstractions of Gilliam’s Abstract Expressionist forebears, Topper Carew solidifies Carew and Gilliam alike as pillars of the D.C. art community.
An ode to color and form itself, Topper Carew is a triumphant materialization of Gilliam’s singular style and visual vocabulary. With works residing in such distinguished permanent collections as the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Centre Georges Pompidou, Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris; Tate Modern, London; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; and the Art Institute of Chicago, Gilliam is unequivocally one of the most influential artists of the Post-War period. A resplendent paragon of the artist’s oeuvre, Topper Carew revels in tensions between improvisation and calculation, light and darkness, weightlessness and the full force of gravity.
