Sam Francis
Sam Francis
(B. 1923, San Mateo, CA.; D. 1994, Santa Monica, CA.)
Sam Francis’s paintings were fi rst known in Paris; an unusual introduction for a California artist which also distinguishes the work’s relationship to European traditions in painting. Francis is best known for abstract, mural-sized canvases on which thin washes, drips, and splatters of primary colors fl oat within vast areas of white space – a format emphasized in his series of “Edge Paintings.” The largeness of his paintings places them alongside the tradition of Abstract Expressionist pictures which fi ll the viewer’s fi eld of vision with a direct experience of color and movement which functions as the subject of the painting.
First solo show:
1952 Galerie du Dragon, Paris.
First group show:
1946 Museum of Fine Arts, San Francisco, CA.
Recent exhibitions:
1996 Gagosian Gallery, Beverly Hills, CA.; 2005 Ohara Museum of Art, Kurashiki, Japan; 2008 Galleri Proarta, Zürich.Sam Francis
