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Sam FrancisYea II1989
1989
$11,500
£8,831.51
€10,120.80
CA$16,189.16
A$18,135.44
CHF 9,450.22
MX$221,214.90
NOK 120,090.57
SEK 113,236.85
DKK 75,538.85
About the Item
Sam Francis (1923-1994) is one of the most distinctive and collected 20th century abstract artists.
After serving in the air force in WW II, Francis returned to his native California immersing himself in art making. By the end of the 1940's he was devoted to painting which led him to learn, exhibit and travel internationally.
In 1953 one of his canvases was included in the MoMA's seminal exhibition "Twelve Artists" which quickly led to his international reputation.
Francis is stylistically associated with the second generation of abstract expressionist painters. Although American, he was not tethered to New York City, instead spending the 1950's working/exhibiting in places including Paris, Mexico City, and Switzerland. As a result he is somewhat independent of the collectives and "isms" that are normally used to describe post-war abstraction.
The one consistent element in Francis' biography is his inimitable style; a combination of splatter and vaguely biomorphic forms executed in saturated primary colors where a pure white background is revealed or remains exposed.
In the 1980's, settled in Santa Monica (California). He would open a printmaking studio and also started a publishing wing.
"Yea" is a beautiful hybrid of Francis' interests. The text inside the book is written by acclaimed American poet Cid Corman (1924-2004). Francis hand-painted the front and back using his signature gestural arrangements of vibrant, saturated colors and open / untouched blank spaces. Francis created a limited-edition version of this book of poetry, hand-painting 25 unique examples.
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"Yea" (Text by the poet Cid Corman)
USA, 1989
Bound book, hand-painted exterior
Hand signed and numbered by the artist
From a series of 25
8.5”H 5.25"W
Printer: The Lapis Press, Emeryville, California
- Creator:Sam Francis (1923–1994, American)
- Creation Year:1989
- Dimensions:Height: 8.5 in (21.59 cm)Width: 5.25 in (13.34 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:Very good condition.
- Gallery Location:Toronto, CA
- Reference Number:Seller: 04-241stDibs: LU215214248882
Sam Francis
Sam Francis was an American artist known for his exuberantly colorful, large-scale abstract paintings. His practice incorporated elements from Abstract Expressionism, Color Field painting, Impressionism and Eastern philosophy to create a unique style of painterly abstraction.
Influenced by Jackson Pollock and Clyfford Still, Francis is more closely associated to the work of Helen Frankenthaler, as he was more interested in the formal arrangement of the picture plane than the expressivity of the individual artist. “Painting is about the beauty of space and the power of containment,” Francis once reflected.
Born on June 25, 1923 in San Mateo, California, Francis briefly served in the US Air Force during World War II but was injured during a test flight. Returning to California, he received his BA and MA from UC Berkeley in botany and psychology before beginning to pursue a career in art. The artist traveled widely during his career, and he was closely aligned with the Art Informel movement while living abroad in Paris during the 1950s.
Francis died on November 4, 1994 in Santa Monica, California, at the age of 71. He was a founding trustee of Los Angeles’s Museum of Contemporary Art, and his paintings can be found in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Kunstmuseum Basel, and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, among others.
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