The Mint Museum has pieces of its collection spread across two buildings; Mint Museum Uptown and Mint Museum Randolph. These collections can be seen on view alongside our special exhibitions.
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assemblage mixed media
Not currently on view
Gift of Charles Gorsey in memory of Edith Gorsey
Sam Gilliam rose to prominence in the 1960s for his innovative use of stained canvases, which were displayed not mounted on stretchers and framed but rather hung loosely upon the wall, occupying a territory somewhere between painting and sculpture. In works from the 1980s, including Composition Around Violet, Gilliam returned to stretched canvases but departed from traditional rectangular forms, as seen in this work, with its notched corners and rounded profile. Here, he layered a wide range of different colored canvas fragments, each with its own unique palette, texture, and shape, to create a dynamic, colorful composition. Gilliam added the small panel in the lower right-hand corner when he was visiting Charlotte to work on his installation at Mint Museum Randolph in 2004.
Accession Number: 2002.38
Measurements:
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NEPL Mint has signed non-exclusive form 2003
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