Sam Gilliam: IMMA exhibition underlines impact of Irish visits on output of US artist 

Sam Gilliam represented the US at the Venice Biennale in 1972, and also spent time at an artist's retreat in Co Mayo 

Sam Gilliam, pictured here in his studio in 1973, is currently the subject of an exhibition at IMMA in Dublin. 

Sam Gilliam was an American abstract artist who revolutionised the display of work in gallery spaces. Draping unstretched canvases from the ceilings, and arranging industrial fabric on the floor, he blurred the line between painting and sculpture, and helped shape the development of installation art in the 1960s and ’70s.

Gilliam broke ground also by becoming the first African American artist to represent the United States at the Venice Biennale in 1972. By the time of his passing, aged 88, in June 2022, he had enjoyed any number of public commissions and major museum shows across the US.