Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., American, 1929 - 1968 Search this
Medium:
acrylic paint on canvas
Dimensions:
H x W (unframed): 72 1/2 × 48 in. (184.2 × 121.9 cm)
Type:
acrylic paintings
Place made:
Washington, District of Columbia, United States, North and Central America
Date:
1972
Caption:
Abstract artist Sam Gilliam began his professional career in 1962 when he moved to Washington, D.C. He soon joined a group of D.C.-based painters, the Washington Color School, who used various techniques to explore color and spatial relationships on large-format canvases. Although Gilliam has worked in a wide variety of artistic styles, he is best known for developing the groundbreaking technique of painting on large sheets of unstretched canvas draped from walls and ceilings.
Gilliam painted April 4 to commemorate the assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968. It reveals Gilliam’s deep social and political engagement achieved through abstraction.
Description:
This is an abstract painting from the Martin Luther King series. Done with a thick layer of color, the painting field is made up of splashes of color in a variety of shades of pinks, yellows, blues, greens, and reds. There is a larger, more continuous field of blue at the bottom left hand side of the painting. There is a thin stripe of the same splash pattern down the center running from top to bottom.
