Sam Gilliam

February 2, 2008

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Profile America for the second day of Black History Month. Sam Gilliam is recognized internationally as the foremost contemporary African-American artist, whose paintings reflect the school of art known as color field painting. Inspired by laundry hanging outside his Washington, D.C., studio, he was the first artist to champion displaying paintings as draped objects, rather than attached to a frame. His recent works are textured paintings that incorporate objects for a three-dimensional effect. One of Gilliam’s works hangs in the Census Bureau building in Suitland, Maryland, one of the most dramatic new federal office buildings in the country. There are 223,000 artists in the U.S., just over 5 percent of them African-American. This special edition of Profile America for Black History Month is a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau.