- This event has passed.
Lecture: Valerie Cassel Oliver on Sam Gilliam
June 6, 6:15 pm–7:15 pm
Join distinguished curator and scholar Valerie Cassel Oliver, Sydney and Frances Lewis Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, for a presentation on the revolutionary work of Sam Gilliam (1933–2022).
This presentation highlights Gilliam’s Carousel Merge 2, currently on view in the Museum’s gallery K119. Explore Gilliam’s legacy, his influence on Abstract Expressionism, and why his drape paintings dramatically altered the medium.
Presented as part of the Free Day + Celebration: Freedom! event, this lecture is free to attend.
About Valerie Cassel Oliver
Valerie Cassel Oliver is the Sydney and Frances Lewis Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Prior to her position at the VMFA, she was Senior Curator at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston. Over the last two decades, Cassel Oliver has organized numerous exhibitions including the acclaimed Double Consciousness: Black Conceptual Art Since 1970 (2005); Radical Presence: Black Performance in Contemporary Art (2012), and major survey exhibitions for Trenton Doyle Hancock, Jennie C. Jones, Donald Moffett, Angel Otero, Benjamin Patterson, and Annabeth Rosen.
Sponsored by
Milwaukee Art Museum’s African American Art Alliance
Milwaukee Art Museum’s Contemporary Art Society
Image: Sam Gilliam (American, 1933–2022), Carousel Merge 2, 1971. Acrylic on canvas. 186 × 102 in. (472.44 × 259.08 cm). Gift of Friends of Art, M1976.36. Photo credit: © Sam Gilliam / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
