Fire

Sam Gilliam’s Fire is among the artist’s first engagements with printmaking, which became an ongoing part of his artistic practice. The work, a color lithograph, departed from the majority of contemporary printmaking, which primarily focused on political commentary. Here, instead, Gilliam created a visually lush, abstract image printed in thin areas of color layered over one another. The title offers one interpretation of the work: a vertical red ember of a flame whose heat lessens as it moves out toward the edges of the sheet to become a cool blue. Gilliam produced Fire in collaboration with the printer at Impressions Workshop in Boston.