| The extraordinarily large Light Depth hangs from rawhide thongs that allow it to billow and swing through space. It occupies a realm somewhere between painting, sculpture, and architecture, in many ways making academic the distinctions between the different categories. Its rush of colors and cascading folds evidence the improvisational approach that underlies Gilliam’s manner of working, but its overall effect, a theater of aesthetic experience, results from the deliberateness and rigor of his conceptualization. Other artists from the period also discarded stretchers from their paintings or made shaped canvas works, but only Gilliam used the conventional cotton support to create an environment. . . .
:: Jonathan P. Binstock, Curator of Contemporary Art
Corcoran Gallery of Art |
Text excerpted from A Capital Collection: Masterworks from
the Corcoran Gallery of Art.
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