Sam Francis

SAM FRANCIS (San Mateo, California, 1923 - Santa Monica, California 1994).
"Doubled Cross," 1973.
Silkscreen on Arches paper, copy 27/30.
Hand signed and dated.
Measurements: 70 x 105 cm.

In the early seventies, the Californian painter Sam Francis devoted himself to the study of Jung's psychoanalysis, and transformed his own dreams into pictorial material. The work in question is situated in this line of creating unconscious images, with drips and splashes of fiery pigment. Some critics called them "images of fresh air", and they were formed by an underlying matrix that he tapestry of superimposed imprints and drippings. St. Francis was interested in leaving room for chance and the automatism of gesture to express the pulse of the soul.

San Francis studied botany, medicine and psychology at UC Berkeley in California from 1941 to 1943, and served in the United States 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 to paint, 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 exhibitions 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. It was during this period, between 1960 and 1963, that he created several series of works, including the "Blue Balls" series. Consisting of predominantly biomorphic blue shapes and drops, these works referenced the pain that resulted from the kidney tuberculosis he suffered in 1961. He continued to paint, primarily in Los Angeles, but also in Tokyo, where he lived primarily in 1973-4. In 1965 Francis began a series of paintings that featured large areas of open canvas, minimal color and strong lines. His work evolved further after he began an intense Jungian analysis with Dr. James Kirsch in 1971. After 1980, the formal grid structure gradually disappeared from Francis' work. He was extremely active as a printmaker, creating numerous etchings, lithographs and monotypes, many of which were executed in Santa Monica at Francis' own Litho Shop.In 1984 Francis founded The Lapis Press with the goal of producing unusual and timely texts in visually appealing formats.