April 4, 1969

In memoriam . . .

The assassination of civil rights leader Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 resulted in destructive riots across America. Artist Sam Gilliam, a witness to the devastation in the neighborhood where his studio is located in Washington, D.C., decided to honor the memory of the murdered leader by painting April 4 in 1969, the anniversary of Rev. King's death. Gilliam dripped and splattered paint across the canvas coated with water. He then folded the canvas, like an accordion, and left it in the studio to dry overnight. The next day, when the canvas was unwrapped, the effect was extraordinary—the wet colors had blended to create the appearance of shed tears, blood, and anguish.

Sam Gilliam has figured prominently among African American artists committed to abstract art since the early 1960s. Exploring color as the basis of painting, he has also been closely identified with Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland, and other Color Field painters in Washington, D.C., where he has lived since 1962.

Source: Gwen Everett and Lynda Hartigan. African-American Art (gallery guide, Smithsonian American Art Museum, n.d.).

Pictured: Sam Gilliam, born 1933, April 4,1969, acrylic, 110 x 179 3/4 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase.