Sam Francis
SAM FRANCIS "UNTITLED (LOS ANGELES)", 1965
Sam Francis (1923-1994) is one of the most distinctive and collected 20th-century abstract artists.
After serving in the Air Force in WWII, Francis returned to his native California and immersed himself in art making. By the end of the 1940s he was devoted to painting, leading him to learn, exhibit, and travel internationally. His formative years were spent in Paris after moving there in 1950. In 1953 one of his canvases was included in the MoMA's seminal exhibition "Twelve Artists" which quickly led to his international reputation.
Stylistically, Francis is associated with the second-generation abstract expressionist artists. Although American, he was not tethered to New York City, instead spending the 1950s working/exhibiting globally including Paris, Mexico City, Japan, and Switzerland. As a result, he is somewhat independent of the collectives and "isms" normally used to describe post-war abstraction.
For Francis, colour application was a direct expression of dialogue and emotion. The interplay between vibrant palettes and white/blank areas allowed him to emphasize the dynamics of space, colour, and light to convey feelings influenced by his life and travels.
This work exemplifies Francis' vibrant aesthetic with colour creating a ring around the edge of the heavy-stock paper. The vaguely biomorphic forms are executed in saturated primary colours, with the central section of the page left almost entirely exposed. His experimentation with the empty-center method was consistent until around 1970, when he opted for less prominent blank spaces peeking through his colourful tangles.
In this work, Francis has allowed fragments of color to drip and drop into the central plane. This mingling offers a lyrical dimensionality to the piece, emphasizing Francis' innovative approach to abstraction, negative space and brilliant coloration.
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"Untitled" (Los Angeles) (SF65-077)
USA, 1965
Signed and dated by artist on verso in pencil
Notation "Los Angeles" by artist in pencil on verso to indicate where the artwork was created
Acrylic on Arches paper
30.25"H 22.5"W (sheet)
34.75"H 27.75"W (framed)
Very good condition
This piece is documented in the online catalogue raisonée project from the Sam Francis Foundation. It's archival number is SF65-077 / SF65-129.
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