About the Artist

(Born in Tupelo, Mississippi in 1933) A graduate of the University of Louisville, Sam Gilliam earned a B.A. (1955), an M.A. (1961) and an L.H.D. from Northwestern University as well as the University of Louisville.

This accomplished artist received awards from the National Endownment for the Arts (1967, 1973, 1974, 1989); the Washington Gallery of Modern Art Fellowship in 1968; the Norman B. Harris Prize from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1969; the Longview Foundation Award (1970); the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in 1971 and more. Gilliam has been awarded several honorary doctorates as well.

Collections proud to include his work are: Baltimore Museum of Art; Carnegie Institute, Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.; Howard University in Washington, D.C.; the Phillips Collection and the Museum of African Art both in Washington, D.D.; the Museum of Modern Art in New York; the Art Institute of Chicago; the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis; the Tate Gallery in London; the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Boymans van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam.