#8, To Repin, To Repin
Date1980
Mediumacrylic on canvas
Dimensions79 × 90 7/8 × 3 1/2 inches (200.7 × 230.8 × 8.9 cm)
Portfolio/Series"Chasers" series
Credit LineGift of Alfred and Lillian Hertel.
Object number2000.9.1
Copyright© Sam Gilliam.
The images and text contained on this page are owned by Telfair Museums or used by the Museum with permission from the owners. Unauthorized reproduction, transmission or display of these materials is prohibited with the exception of items deemed “fair use” as defined by U.S. and international copyright laws.Label TextBorn in Tupelo, Mississippi, Sam Gilliam is internationally recognized as one of America’s foremost African American artists. Carrying the legacy of Abstract Expressionism, and associated with the Washington Color School, his work became known in the 1960s when, inspired by the sight of women hanging laundry on clotheslines, Gilliam began exploring the capacities of the canvas outside of its traditional form, developing a spontaneous technique of saturating canvases with paint and then suspending them from ceilings and walls without traditional stretcher supports, a process he described as “renewal without repetition.”
This painting-sculpture hybrid work offers new ways of understanding color, form, and structure. #8 To Repin, To Repin is part of his 17-canvas series called Chasers. Each “Chaser” has an element at the upper right that is balanced by the rest of the composition, and each one has been stretched on a nine-sided, beveled-edge support. This work pays homage to Ilya Repin (1844–1930), one of Russia’s foremost national artists.
During the 1980s, Gilliam’s work was characterized by multiple layers of acrylic paint on the canvas, creating dramatic textural effects. This work gets its “quilted” appearance from the rearranged, cut geometric shapes in the canvas.
