Half Circle Red

Sam Gilliam soaked and poured paint onto this canvas, which he crumpled and tied up until it dried, creating a bold and vibrant surface. Later he unfurled the canvas and cut it into shapes that he combined to hang directly on the wall without a frame or support structure. Consequently, this painting drapes, gaps, bulges, and doubles over, emphasizing the intrinsic properties of his materials—how acrylic pools and canvas sags, for example.