ΒΟΟΚ: Sam Gilliam-The Last Five Years, Pace Gallery & David Kordansky Gallery

Sam Gilliam is one of the key figures in postwar and contemporary American art. Emerging from the Washington, D.C. scene in the mid-1960s, he has subsequently pursued a wide-ranging, pioneering course in which innovation has been the only constant. Accordingly, the paintings in “Moving West Again: are among the most ambitious examples of their type that he has produced to date. They find him pushing the envelope in terms of materiality and scale: among them are immersive, twenty-foot-long, mural-sized paintings, as well as pictures that feature the use of materials like aluminum granules which appear in his work for the first time. “Sam Gilliam: The Last Five Years”, published David Kordansky Gallery and Pace Gallery, is a new publication that features iconic tondos, Drapes, and beveled-edge paintings created by Gilliam in the final years of the artist’s life. This catalogue celebrates a two-part exhibition of these works by Pace Gallery in New York and David Kordansky Gallery in Los Angeles. With extensive photography and an essay by art historian Lowery Stokes Sims that traces the development of the artist’s practice, this volume offers an in-depth look at these dynamic, vibrant compositions and the singular man behind them.-Dimitris Lempesis