Sam Francis, Untitled, 1973.
Acrylic and oil on canvas, 42 x 30 inches.
Collection: Sam Francis Foundation, California.
Artwork © Sam Francis Foundation, California /
Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Sam Francis: Five Decades of Abstract Expressionism The Pasadena Museum of California Art (PMCA), presents ‘Sam Francis: Five Decades of AbstractExpressionism from California Collections’, the first major museum exhibition of Francis’s work in over a decade.
August 11, 2013 – January 5, 2014
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Source: The Pasadena Museum of California Art (PMCA)
Known as one of the twentieth century’s most influential painters of light and color, Francis maintained studios in New York, France,Switzerland, and Japan but continually returned to his native California, finishing his last series of paintings in Santa Monicajust before his death in November 1994. The exhibition brings together Francis’s paintings and unique works on paper fromextraordinary public and private California collections, including many paintings on view to the public for the first time.
Spanning fifty years, the works included in the exhibition explore Francis’s use of saturated tones (blues, reds, or yellows) andpigments ranging in hue from light to dark representing a kind of duality in the universe both understood and imagined. Theexhibition includes some of his smallest works, which measure three by two inches, as well as monumental murals that are over ten feet long, each with a distinctive power and presence regardless of size or material. This exhibition includes some of the artist’s loosely defined series including the “Cellular” paintings from the 1950s, the “Blue Balls” and “Edge” paintings of the 1960s, and the “Fresh Air” and “Grids” from the 1970s. Other works include mandalas, late self-portraits, and Francis’s alchemically inspired works of the 1980s and early 1990s.
Born in June 1923 in San Mateo, near San Francisco, Francis started his career in California. He moved to France in 1950, andby 1956 he was described by Time magazine as “the hottest American painter in Paris these days,” signaling his arrival as oneof the first post-World War II American painters to develop a truly international reputation. Having stated, “Painting is aboutthe beauty of space and the power of containment,” Francis spent his career investigating that belief through his use of color,understanding of light, and lyrical rhythmic compositions.
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