Sam Francis

SAM FRANCIS (San Mateo, California, 1923 - Santa Monica, California 1994).
Untitled. 1976.
Acrylic on paper.
Signed, dedicated and dated on verso, inscribed "Sam Francis / for Ebi / Feb 29 (leap year) / 1976, Berne."
Work registered at Sam Francis Foundation, Glendale, number SF76-1150 and listed in the Catalogue Raisonné of works on paper.
Provenance: The Eberhard W. Kornfeld Collection, Bern, with the collector's stamp on the reverse, Lugt 913b
sheet with studio traces and slightly wavy. In very good condition.
In very good condition.
The sheet, slightly wavy, has slight studio traces on the reverse.
Measurements: 42 x 59,5 cm.

This work is a vibrant and energetic piece that encapsulates the artistic maturity of Sam Francis in the 1970s. After his pictorial series known as "edges" (where the center was empty) in the late 1960s, in the 1970s Francis returned to occupying the center of the composition with powerful and dynamic structures.

The work is dominated by a large dark rhomboidal shape that floats in space. But far from seeking geometric rigidity, this form is organic and fluid. The center of the black blob presents an irregular opening or window that reveals the white paper. This is characteristic of Francis: the search for light through darkness.

The influence of Abstract Expressionism is evident. The paint is not carefully applied, but thrown, dripped and manipulated quickly. Splatters and drippings radiating from the central form to the edges create a sense of centrifugal force, as if the form is spinning or exploding.

The use of black is clearly intentional here. In the tradition of oriental calligraphy, black ink contains all the colors. The density of the acrylic varies, creating areas of deep black and others that are more watery and transparent.

This 1976 work is at an interesting point in his career, connecting two of his major influences: the Eastern influence (Zen and Ma) and the concept of Ma (negative space). Sam Francis lived and worked extensively in Japan. This work breathes the philosophy of Sumi-e (ink painting) and the concept of Ma. The white paper is an "active void", as important as the black stain. as important as the black stain. The interplay between the dense stain and the pure white creates a very oriental tension/silence balance.

Francis was very influenced by Carl Jung. Shapes containing a center or core (like this one) are often interpreted in his work as references to the "Self" or deconstructed mandalas. It is a return to structure after his years of total emptiness.

Sam Francis studied botany, medicine and psychology at UC Berkeley in California between 1941 and 1943, and served in the U.S. Air Force during World War II from 1943 to 1945 before being injured in a plane crash. He spent several years in the hospital, and it was during this time that he began painting, at the urging of his friend David Parks, a professor at the San Francisco School of Fine Arts. Once out of the hospital he returned to Berkeley, this time to study art. His studies in painting and art history took him from 1948 to 1950. Francis' early work is directly influenced by the Abstract Expressionists such as Rothko, Gorky and Still. During the 1950s he resided in Paris, where he held his first solo exhibition in 1952 at the Nida Dausset Gallery. During the fifties and sixties he made important personal exhibitions and participated in group shows at the Ribe Droite Gallery (Paris, 1955), Martha Jackson (New York, 1956), Gimpel Fils (London, 1957), the exhibition "New American Painting", which toured eight European cities (1958), the Documenta in Kassel (1959 and 1964) and the Kunsthalle in Bern and Dusseldorf. In 1963 he settled in Santa Monica, California, and six years later he was named Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of Berkeley. He made another visit to Japan in 1973, returning to California the following year. He is currently represented at MoMA and the Guggenheim in New York, the Tate Gallery in London, the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Kunsthaus in Zurich, among other prominent public and private collections around the world.