At the start of his career in the mid-1960s, Gilliam was associated with Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland, and other members of the Washington Color School in Washington, D.C. He created this work the same year he began making his well-known Drape paintings--unstretched color-stained canvases hanging freely from the wall or ceiling. Combining his love of experimentation with a spirit of improvisation indebted to jazz music, Gilliam applied paint to the paper, then folded and crumpled the sheet while it was wet. Once unfolded, the color-saturated sheet revealed unexpected patterns. Although the method involves a degree of chance, the artist controlled the manipulation of the sheet, allowing the paint to run or pool to achieve various effects. The lines left by the folds and creases also lend structure to the composition.
Signed at lower right, Sam Gilliam.