Pure Painting – 100-word Review of Sam Gilliam: Late Paintings

Abstract painting typifies what it means to work with form and colour; no serious criticism, or credible evaluation, results from an opposition between the abstract and the figurative. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the work of Sam Gilliam, whose late works are vast, thick swaths of pulsating colour. The depth of paint, the mottled surfaces, the dappled galaxies of colour convene into a riot, a clash of indelible visions. What’s it all about? It doesn’t matter. Gilliam understood, better than most, that painting is foremost a visual medium where shape, texture and hue triumph over content and context. 

Sam Gilliam: Late Paintings is at Pace, Hanover Square, until 12 November 2022.

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