{"secondaryobjectnumber":null,"periodterms":[],"creditline":"Gift of the artist in memory of William C. Seitz, Graduate School Class of 1955","caption":"Sam Gilliam (1933–2022; born Tupelo, MS; died Washington, D.C.; active Washington D.C. and New York, NY), Elephanta, 1970. Acrylic on canvas; 138 × 287 × 4.7 cm. Gift of the artist in memory of William C. Seitz, Graduate School Class of 1955 (y1976-29)","cultureterms":[{"id":2038492,"culture":"American"}],"type":"artobject","dimensionsproposed":"","terms":[{"id":2056370,"term":"red","aatid":300126225,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2057221,"term":"brown","aatid":300127490,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2057735,"term":"yellow","aatid":300127794,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2058601,"term":"green (color)","aatid":300128438,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2120580,"term":"forests","aatid":300008863,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2052977,"term":"paintings","aatid":300033618,"termtype":"Classification"},{"id":2095701,"term":"abstraction","aatid":300056508,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2103928,"term":"trees","aatid":null,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2038492,"term":"American","aatid":300107956,"termtype":"Culture"},{"id":2185092,"term":"Artists of Africa's Diasporas","aatid":null,"termtype":"Collection Theme"},{"id":2158055,"term":"elephants","aatid":null,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2167800,"term":"acrylic paint","aatid":300015058,"termtype":"Materials"},{"id":2044653,"term":"canvas","aatid":300014078,"termtype":"Materials"}],"geography":[],"dimensionelements":[{"element":"Overall","type":"Height","units":"centimeters","dimension":"138.00"},{"element":"Overall","type":"Width","units":"centimeters","dimension":"287.00"},{"element":"Overall","type":"Depth","units":"centimeters","dimension":"4.70"}],"markings":null,"accessionyear":"1976-01-01","newaccession":0,"makers":[{"id":6133,"displayname":"Sam Gilliam","displaydate":"1933–2022; born Tupelo, MS; died Washington, D.C.; active Washington D.C. and New York, NY","datebegin":1933,"dateend":2022,"prefix":null,"suffix":null,"role":"Artist","displaymaker":"Sam Gilliam, 1933–2022; born Tupelo, MS; died Washington, D.C.; active Washington D.C. and New York, NY","displayorder":1}],"datecomputed":1970,"signed":"Titled, dated, and signed upper left, verso: Elephanta 1970 / Sam Gilliam","restrictions":"Restricted","classification":"Paintings","packages":[{"packageid":143052,"name":"web_MM_2018-08"},{"packageid":278831,"name":"10282025-DAY1-ONVIEW"},{"packageid":211430,"name":"PUAM_Materials and Techniques"},{"packageid":219380,"name":"Gallery_10-12(Pavilion3)-ModernContemporary"},{"packageid":196697,"name":"MoCo-Color-field"}],"catalograisonne":null,"classifications":[{"id":2052977,"classification":"paintings"}],"exhibitions":[],"cultures":[],"primaryimage":["https://media.artmuseum.princeton.edu/iiif/3/collection/PUAMOSE_00015"],"displaytitle":"Elephanta","displayculture":null,"displaymaker":"Sam Gilliam, 1933–2022; born Tupelo, MS; died Washington, D.C.; active Washington D.C. and New York, NY","captionhtml":"Sam Gilliam (1933–2022; born Tupelo, MS; died Washington, D.C.; active Washington D.C. and New York, NY), <i>Elephanta</i>, 1970. Acrylic on canvas; 138 × 287 × 4.7 cm. Gift of the artist in memory of William C. Seitz, Graduate School Class of 1955 (y1976-29)","displaydate":"1970","medium":"Acrylic on canvas","media":[{"id":215774,"uri":"https://media.artmuseum.princeton.edu/iiif/3/collection/PUAMOSE_00015","isprimary":1,"rank":1,"mediatypeid":1,"mediaviewtype":"(not assigned)","restrictions":"Restricted","caption":"PUAM Photo"}],"displayperiod":null,"extended_content":false,"campuscollections":"false","bibliography":[{"boilertext":"\"Acquisitions of the Art Museum 1976,\" <em>Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University </em>36, no. 1 (1977): p. 28-40.","citation":"\"Acquisitions of the Art Museum 1976,\" <em>Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University </em>36, no. 1 (1977): p. 28-40., p. 29","date":1977,"id":3365,"uri":"https://www.jstor.org/stable/3774447"}],"nowebuse":"False","periods":[],"department":"Modern and Contemporary Art","attribute_groups":[{"id":2199324,"term":"Art Since 1945","termtype":"Collecting Area"},{"id":2199325,"term":"North American Art","termtype":"Collecting Area"}],"daterange":"A.D. 1945-present","dateend":1970,"depicted":[],"titles":[{"title":"Elephanta","titletype":"Primary Title","displayorder":1}],"hasimage":"true","creditlinerepro":"© Sam Gilliam / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / The Design and Artists Copyright Society (DACS), London","objectnumber":"y1976-29","inscribed":"Lower right, verso [upside down and cancelled]: Elephant Walk / Sam Gilliam 1970","texts":[{"texttype":"Online","textpurpose":"Gallery Label","textentryhtml":"Gilliam emerged as an innovative figure of the Washington Color School, a group that developed in the 1950s in Washington, DC, known for their technique of pouring thinned paint directly onto unprimed canvas to emphasize abstraction, flatness, and the expressive power of color. With Elephanta, Gilliam—an important Black artist at a time when artists of color were less represented in galleries and museums than today—took this method a step further by folding and manipulating the canvas to create a complex composition involving layers of wet paint. He often dispensed with the stretcher, the traditional support for canvases, electing instead to drape and loosely hang his canvases. For Elephanta, however, he treated the stretcher as a sculptural relief complete with beveled edges. The canvas envelops the stretcher, exposing its shifting planes and forming a cinematic screen onto which carefully choreographed layers and patterns of color and shimmering luminosity are projected.","remarks":"MOD_09-12_WLA – Day 1 Cataloguing"},{"texttype":"Online","textpurpose":"Provenance","textentryhtml":"Sam Gilliam, Washington, District of Columbia, gift; to Princeton University Art Museum, 1976.","remarks":null}],"datebegin":1970,"sortnumber":"1976   29y","published_date":"2026-03-31 02:23:35.372445","objectid":31363,"dimensions":"138 × 287 × 4.7 cm (54 5/16 × 113 × 1 7/8 in.)","on_view":true}