Shoot Six 1965

Sam Gilliam made this painting, Shoot Six, with some kind of paint on canvas, and what strikes me is its bold simplicity. I mean, it's just stripes radiating from a point, right? But look at how Gilliam handles the paint. It's smooth, almost like it’s been sprayed on, and the colors are so clean and bright. It’s like he’s not trying to hide the process at all, but laying it bare for us to see. Take that bright blue stripe – it's so flat and unapologetic, but the edges are so sharp, it really pushes against the orange one next to it. You get a sense of energy, like these colors are vibrating against each other. And that thin white line separating each block of colour? Genius! It's like a pause, or a breath, allowing each color to sing its own tune. Gilliam’s work reminds me a little of Kenneth Noland’s, but with a kind of off-kilter rhythm all its own. It's this push and pull between control and chaos that makes it so engaging. It doesn't try to tell you what to think, but invites you to feel something, and I think that is the job of art.