Tillim 's first solo show in New York took place in 1960 ( geometric abstractions and representational art ) . It was n't until the mid-sixties that he began large narrative paintings of personal , historical , and current events , among them '' The Death of Malcolm X '' , 1965 ( unfinished ) ; '' Champion '' , 1966 ( " It ’s me , " Tillim said of the knuckles-down marble shooter , " conceiving we are the heroes of our own existence . " ) ; '' A Dream of Being '' , 1969 ( " A kind of history painting ... of the psychological reality of our time .... It is about the secular experience and the ' hero ' of that experience — secular man . " ) ; '' Lamentation ( for Kate Houskeeper ) '' , 1970 ( a breakthrough for him , Tillim would say later , in producing a narrative with conviction ) ; '' Count Zinzendorf Spared by the Indians '' , 1972 ( " I am using an earlier ' race ' conflict to comment on the present one . " ) ; '' John Adams Accepts the Retainer to Defend the British Soldiers Accused in the Boston Massacre '' , 1974 ( inspired by campus uprisings following the Kent State shootings ) ; and '' The Capture of Patty Hearst '' , 1978
Boston Massacre
Boston Massacre
Sidney Tillim