美国国家公共电台 NPR--A master of American abstract art has died: Sam Gilliam was 88（在线收听）

A master of American abstract art has died: Sam Gilliam was 88

Transcript

Gilliam, one of the most celebrated Black artists of his generation, was known for his Drape works. Vibrantly painted pieces of fabric were hung by clips and couldn't be presented the same way twice.

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

A master of American abstract expressionist art has died.

A MART?NEZ, HOST:

Sam Gilliam was one of the most celebrated black artists of his generation. Over a career of more than 60 years, he expanded the boundaries of painting on canvas. He died Saturday at the age of 88.

MARTIN: Evelyn Hankins is a curator at the Hirshhorn Museum here in Washington, D.C. She says Gilliam stunned the art world in the late 1960s when he threw away the frame that stretches a canvas flat. The artist let his vibrant paintings hang and billow like garments from a clothesline.

EVELYN HANKINS: He basically challenged the idea of what a painting could or should be.

MART?NEZ: Hankins says Gilliam borrowed from the free-form improvisation of jazz music.

HANKINS: For Sam, he was both deeply engaged and a student and a lover of jazz. And I think that you find parallels in his own practice with jazz. He would bring together very complex and competing elements.

MARTIN: Sam Gilliam's final solo exhibition is on view now at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)