Artwork Details
60 x 60 in.
Accession NumberEmma Harter Sweetser Fund
CopyrightGallery Labels
Gallery Labels
For Scatter Sam Gilliam employed a technique he first implemented in 1967. He poured thinned acrylic paint onto unstretched and unprimed canvas that he subsequently manipulated by folding and crumpling the saturated fabric. He then stretched the canvas over a frame to replicate the appearance of traditionally painted canvases. In 1968, Gilliam began to abandon the stretcher altogether, allowing his paintings to become immersive large swaths of canvas draped from gallery walls and ceilings.
In this painting by Sam Gilliam, a textured field of color shifts dramatically from areas of pale orange, yellow, and purple, to moments of intense blue, green, and red. Such varied paint application helps to convey the illusion of wrinkles and folds on the canvas. However, closer inspection reveals that the painting is in fact subtly three-dimensional: the canvas is stretched so that its edges are beveled.
To create this work, Gilliam employed a technique first implemented in the late 1960s. He would apply diluted acrylic paint to raw, unprimed canvas, then fold, twist, and crumple the saturated fabric. This innovative process—for which Gilliam is now well-known—resulted in abstract compositions whose color, materials, and forms draw attention to the three-dimensional qualities of painting.
Content Disclaimer and Usage Rights
Metadata about the Indianapolis Museum of Art’s collection comes from Newfields’ records and research. In some cases, information may be incomplete and research is ongoing. Newfields’ goal is to have as up-to-date metadata as possible, therefore, this information is subject to change. Newfields collections’ metadata is available under a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) waiver, which allows for re-use without legal restrictions.
Artworks that appear in the image file(s) above may be in copyright or have other legal and/or cultural restrictions to their use. For clarity, Newfields does not claim copyright to the image files created by Newfields of artworks in the Indianapolis Museum of Art’s collection. Newfields makes every effort to ascertain the copyright status of artworks in the Indianapolis Museum of Art’s collection. Please refer to the RightsStatements.org statement above for information about the current copyright status of the artwork. Additionally, some artworks may include Local Context’s Notices or Labels that attribute cultural authority of the artwork’s heritage and data.
Additional information about Newfields’ reproduction guidelines can be found in the Licensing Resources.