Object Annotation #2

Sam Gilliam's 10/27/69 (1969)

Gilliam cites John Coltrane's jazz music as his personal muse. He calls elements of Coltrane's music "sheets of sound" and in response he made pieces of art from sheets of fabric. The parallels he draws subversively between sheets of sound and literal sheets of painted fabric emphasizes a point made by Judith Zilczer in "Color Music: Synaesthesia and 19th Century Courses for Abstract Art." She makes the point that "the most ambitious artists have attempted to emulate methods of musical composition in the visual arts." (102) 10/27/69 emulates the actual properties of a sound wave with a crest, trough, amplitude, wavelengths and rest position in a repeated cycle.

Overview

Sam Gilliam, a Washington DC native passed around 2 years ago. His artistry was particularly inspired by what he called the musical genre of jazz's elements of improvisation. Other artists and creators have noted the paradigm shift he specifically contributed to in regards to color school. This piece entitled 10/27/69, highlights a day in history in which American society was deeply divided by the Vietnam War and racial tensions. The piece itself was made by draping fabric and letting paint drip onto it. Suggesting the ways in which creating has a spirtual transcendence beyond the creator's control at times.

In Gilliam's commentary on his drape pieces he notes that "something was in the air, and it was in that spirit that I did the Drape paintings.” which alludes to socio-cultural formations of his creative eye. The uncertainties of where paint would land, how it would land and how it would be perceived in a draped position supports arguments Catherine Puglisi makes in "Talking Pictures: Sound in Caravaggio’s Art" of that abstract artistry does the work of "accentuating the transitory nature" (116) of an action. This reflect's Gilliam's desire to incorporate elements of improvisation drawn from jazz into his pieces of art.