Artist 101

1.

On the Rise

Born in 1923, Sam Francis took up painting in 1944 as a result of a spinal injury incurred during the Second World War. The Californian artist decided to discontinue his studies in Botany, Medicine and Psychology and instead went on to study Art at the University of California, Berkley where he received his BA and MA. Francis then travelled to Paris, where he spent most of the 1950s, attending the Atelier Fernand Léger and becoming familiar with the works of Pierre Bonnard and Henri Matisse.

His unique large scale movement-driven paintings have become internationally recognised for their singular aesthetic vision. His style of Abstract Expressionism embraced an openness concerned with relationships of space, color and light, in comparison to the psychological tendencies of his contemporaries.

Experimenting with dominant styles of the 1940s, which included Surrealism, Francis developed a style involving multifaceted brush paintwork, with his canvases and prints often dominated by cell-like dripping forms.

2.

Style and Influences

Francis’ early influences include notable abstract expressionists such as Mark Rothko, Clyfford Still and Jackson Pollock. Between 1950 and 1958, the artist spent time in Paris, Tokyo, Mexico City and New York, and it's during this period that he was exposed to the French style of abstract painting Tachisme and Jungian psychology. He also explored a number of non-western philosophies and artistic styles, such as Chinese calligraphy and the opposing forces found in zen Buddhism.

The development of Francis’ style evolved from monochromatic abstractions to open paintings largely dominated by large areas of white space. The inclusion of his work Big Red in the 1956 exhibition Twelve Artists at the Museum of Modern Art signified his prominence as an internationally recognised artist.

Coming back to the USA in the 1960s, Francis continued to develop his unique visual language, which was famously characterised by his spontaneous and gestural drippings. The 1970s signified a transition in the artist's style as he began to focus on his dreams and the unconscious images they conjured. Using improvisation as a main artistic tool, he observed the effects of gravity and drips, celebrating the chance encounters of these outcomes.

Writing poetry throughout his life, Francis acted as editor of the ambitious publication 1¢ Life. Arguably the most ambitious work created by the Chinese-American artist and poet Walasse Ting, 1¢ Life was published in 1964 by Francis’ Swiss art dealer Ebhard Kornfeld. The loving anthology attracted a community of European and American artists working in different styles during the 1960s. The book includes 170 lithograph pages with contributions from artists including Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Joan Mitchell. Francis’ brightly colored lithograph, Pink Venus Kiki, unfolds across the two pages, its energetic splats accompanied by Ting’s text.

3.

Print Making

Francis’ creative capabilities extended far beyond painting. From the 1960s, he became increasingly active as a printmaker. In 1972, Francis established his own printmaking workshop in Santa Monica, the Litho Shop. An extremely prolific artist up until his death in 1994, Francis created over 300 lithographs, 200 screenprints and 125 etchings during his lifetime.

Sam Francis' painterly approach to printmaking relied heavily on experimentation and shared strong similarities with his canvas pieces, and using lithographic stones Francis championed the medium for its varied capabilities. Embracing re-orientation as part of his printmaking practice, many of his works culminated in shapes that loosely referenced his fascination with non-western symbolism and Jungian psychology. Take Blue-Green, for example, featuring round circles and flowing lines representative of the Jungian mandala.

In the 1980s, Francis partnered with the Italian couple Valter and Eleonora Rossi, owners of the Roman 2RC print workshop. Together they created experimental large-scale intaglio prints that include the 1988 Pioggia d'Oro, from: Le Cinque Stagioni (Golden Rain, from: The Five Seasons) and the Trietto series from 1991.

4.

On the Market

The works of Sam Francis have been exhibited internationally and can be found in museum collections across the globe: from New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art to the Idemitsu Museum of Arts in Tokyo and Centre Pompidou in Paris. In 2023, LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) will be presenting Sam Francis and Japan: Emptiness Overflowing, the first exploration into the artist's relationship with the Japanese concept of ‘Ma’.

Works by Francis range in price depending on medium and scale. Our Sam Francis: California Cool auction on 18 November in Los Angeles offers 50 phenomenal graphic works by the artist, ranging from $1,500 - $20,000. This fantastic selection represents four decades of his creations across lithographs, etchings, screenprints and aquatints.