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Sam FrancisBright Jade Ghost1963
1963
$8,750
£6,508.52
€7,620.19
CA$12,209.22
A$13,662.46
CHF 7,133.90
MX$167,965.74
NOK 90,002.32
SEK 84,691.73
DKK 56,852.47
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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 California immersing himself in art making. By the end of the 1940s, he was devoted to painting which led him to learn, exhibit, and travel internationally. His formative years were spent in Paris having moved there at the end of 1950.
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 1950s working/exhibiting globally including Paris, Mexico City, and Switzerland. As a result, he is somewhat independent of the collectives and "isms" normally used to describe post-war abstraction.
His inimitable style is consistently present throughout his body of work; a combination of splatter and vaguely biomorphic forms executed in saturated primary colors where a pure white background is revealed or remains exposed.
The 1960s marked an incredibly prolific period for the artist who immersed himself in printmaking, specifically lithography. "Bright Jade Ghost" is an exemplary work from this important era of production, demonstrating Francis' mastery of color, form, and technical prowess.
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"Bright Jade Ghost"
USA, 1963
Lithograph on BFK Rives wove paper
Hand signed and numbered by the artist
From an edition of 125
22"H 35.5"W (sheet)
34.75”H 45"W (framed)
Very good condition
- Creator:Sam Francis (1923–1994, American)
- Creation Year:1963
- Dimensions:Height: 22 in (55.88 cm)Width: 35.5 in (90.17 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:Very good condition.
- Gallery Location:Toronto, CA
- Reference Number:Seller: 05-241stDibs: LU215214537352
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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