Sam Gilliam (1933–2022) was an innovative American painter whose radical experiments with draped, unstretched canvases and dyed surfaces fundamentally expanded the boundaries of Color-Field Abstraction. Gilliam’s signature “Drape” paintings freed the canvas from stretcher bars, creating sculptural, improvisational works that blurred the line between painting and installation. He was a key figure in Washington’s Color School and notably represented the U.S. at the Venice Biennale (1972).