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Sam Francis Art

American, 1923-1994

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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Period: 21st Century and Contemporary
Artist: Sam Francis
L’étoile (SF-364)
By Sam Francis
Located in Malmo, SE
The final print of Sam Francis. L’étoile (SF-364) 1995. Museum glass anti-reflective. Artwork size : 127 x 78,5 cm Frame size : 147x98x4 cm Edition 6/50 artist blindstamp signature. Stamped by the Publisher. Artist's Proofs: 8 ex. Sam Francis Archive Number: SF-364. Free shipment worldwide. Publisher: The Litho Shop, Santa Monica. Sam Francis’s paintings are a journey into a dream, a voyage into the landscapes of the soul where colours are lights on fire. Alongside names such as Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and Franz Kline, Sam Francis is an artist who has succeeded in demonstrating a total mastery of abstract expressionism’s impassioned and spontaneous genre. The explosions of colour – red, blue, green and yellow – the streaks, strokes and bold lines of his pictures are the physical synthesis of the deepest crevices of the soul. His colours create rhythmical motifs that, characteristically enough, can be called the “musicality” of his paintings. The work of Sam Francis provides a visible meeting place for the conscious and the unconscious. His pictures are the cross-fertilisation of what has already been experienced with what exists still only as desire, a struggle between melancholy and merrymaking. Influenced by C.G. Jung, the father of psychoanalysis, Sam Francis spent a large portion of his life exploring the premise that dreams, instincts and intuition provide, the keys which unlock the mysteries and meaning of our inner lives. He was also fascinated by the four ancient elements – earth, water, air and fire – which developed into a leitmotif in his work. Sam Francis was born in San Mateo in California, USA in 1923. After starting to paint at the age of around twenty, he soon found himself increasingly consumed by the power of art. He spent much of the 1950s in Paris, from where he not only made frequent excursions to a number of European cities, but also embarked on many journeys to South America and Asia. He continued to move from place to place, primarily in the USA and Japan, right up until his death in 1994. Sam Francis’s first...
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2010s Abstract Expressionist Sam Francis Art

Materials

Lithograph

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1982-84 Hunter College, New York (M.F.A.) 1978-80 School of Visual Arts, New York 1973-77 Bezalel Academy of Art, Jerusalem (B.F.A.) American, born in Romania Lives and works in New York City Solo Exhibitions 2008 Michael Steinberg Fine Art, New York 2006 Galeria Joan Prats, Barcelona 2005 Karpio + Facchini Gallery, Miami Jacob Karpio Galeria, San Jose (Costa Rica) 2004 Michael Steinberg Fine Art, New York 2001 Marella Arte Contemporanea, Milan 2000 Von Lintel & Nusser, New York Galerie Von Lintel & Nusser, Munich 1998 Galerie Thomas von Lintel, Munich 1997 Galerie des Archives, Paris 1995 Galerie Samuel Lallouz, Montreal L.A. Louver, Los Angeles 1994 Marc Jancou Gallery, London Galerie des Archives, Paris 1993 Galerie Barbara Farber, Amsterdam Real Art Ways, Hartford (Connecticut) 1992 Tom Cugliani Gallery, New York Galerie Marc Jancou, Zurich Galerie des Archives, Paris 1989 Tom Cugliani Gallery, New York Galerie Barbara Farber, Amsterdam Studied at bezalel from 1973 to 1977. And it was a very fascinating time because it was a highly conceptually based school. Very much influenced by Joseph Beuys, and European Conceptualism, I didn’t really like the atmosphere there that much, because it was dominated by male painters like Jörg Immendorf, Marcus Lupertz, and a few others. then came to New York to study at SVA for two years. New York in 1978 was exciting. I was very lucky to be in a class that was full of very bubbly and very energetic artists like Keith Haring, Kenny Scharf, Tim Rollins, Moira Dryer, Frank Holliday, and Tom Cugliani (who later became one of my dealers).The eighties were dominated largely by Neo-Expressionist paintings. There were Germans, such as Baselitz, Kiefer, Richter, Penck, and the Italians, Clemente, Chia, Cucchi, Palladino as well as Schnabel, Fischl, Basquiat, Salle, and many others, but all of their paintings were figuratively based. But below the popular consent, there was a group of painters who were working more in the vein of what Stephen Westfall referred to as “Neo-Surrealism,” including George Condo, Jeffrey Wasserman, Kenneth Scharf, David Humphrey. However, I felt that Carroll Dunham and you were the only two painters who seemed to be less interested in the kind of narrative, lyrical, or let’s say, stationary composition. He belongs to the generation of Terry Winters, Elizabeth Murray, David Reed and Jonathan Lasker but in some strange way, if we’re looking back to the mid-eighties, we have to include New Image painters like Susan Rothenberg, Neil Jenney, and Robert Moskowitz who were working in between the figure and abstraction with a kind of condensation and compression, in relationship, lets say, to cartoon imagery. There are artists like Jeff Koons, or even Damien Hirst who took the Duchampian aspect and brought it into the continuity of his readymade. But for me, I see no difference between the crack in “Large Glass” and the drips in Jackson Pollock’s paintings. There was something that I felt in my own equation of the continuity between Paul Klee, Duchamp, Picabia, and, oddly enough, Clyfford Still. What essentially is important is how different artists carry on a dialogue among themselves so that they can all keep their work vital. Whether from the abstract paintings of Richmond Burton, Fabian Marcaccio extending the borders of his paintings on to the wall, or Cady Noland’s early scattered installation, my own pre-occupation with machinery, urban environment, and the Duchampian models has always materialized in relationship to other forms of art making. Selected Group Exhibitions: 2014 Drawing on Difference: An Ambition by Saul Ostrow and Lidija Slavkovic, Studio Vendome Gallery, New York. 2013 Drawing on Habit: An Ambition by Saul Ostrow and Lidija Slavkovic, South Carlton Beach and The Betsy-South Beach Exhibition Programs, Art Basel, Miami Beach. 2013 Imprinted Pictures: Lydia Dona...
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Sam Francis art for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Sam Francis art available for sale on 1stDibs. If you’re browsing the collection of art to introduce a pop of color in a neutral corner of your living room or bedroom, you can find work that includes elements of blue, purple, orange and other colors. You can also browse by medium to find art by Sam Francis in lithograph, etching, aquatint and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 20th century and is mostly associated with the abstract style. Not every interior allows for large Sam Francis art, so small editions measuring 6 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Robert Motherwell, Paul Jenkins, and Theodoros Stamos. Sam Francis art prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $70 and tops out at $950,000, while the average work can sell for $8,000.

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