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Sam FrancisUntitled, 19851985
1985
About the Item
This aquatint is hand-signed by Sam Francis (California, 1923- California, 1994) in pencil in the lower right and is a unique color trial proof aside from the edition of 30.
Francis was always experimenting with color, and in his prints he chose each color carefully, making this composition particularly rare in his oeuvre, as it is not done in his characteristic bright colors of red, blue, or yellow. Instead we find muted shades of black and brown taking the shape of a worm like creature. Seeming to move about the paper, the image is full of life and free from any constraints.
Catalogue Raisonné & COA:
This work is fully documented and referenced in the below catalogue raisonnés and texts (copies will be enclosed as added documentation with the invoice accompanying the final sale of the work).
1. Lembark, Connie. The Prints of Sam Francis Catalogue Raisonné 1960-1990. New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1992. Listed and illustrated as catalogue raisonné no. 59/ SFE-025.
About the Framing:
Framed to museum-grade, conservation standards, this work is presented in a complementary moulding and optical grade Plexiglas.
- Creator:Sam Francis (1923–1994, American)
- Creation Year:1985
- Dimensions:Height: 9.94 in (25.25 cm)Width: 6 in (15.24 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Palo Alto, CA
- Reference Number:Seller: 51801stDibs: LU156728562482
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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