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Sam Francis

Sam Francis

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  • Biography
    View works. Sam Francis, Untitled (SFP83-108), 1983
    Untitled (SFP83-108), 1983
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    For Sam Francis, exploring the creative process was his driving force. It impacted not only his art, but his view of human progress.
     
    One of the twentieth century’s most profound Abstract Expressionists, American artist Sam Francis (1923-1994) is noted as one of the first post-World War II painters to develop an international reputation. Francis created thousands of paintings as well as works on paper, prints and monotypes, housed in major museum collections and institutions around the world. Regarded as one of the leading interpreters of color and light, his work holds references to New York abstract expressionism, color field painting, Chinese and Japanese art, French impressionism and his own Bay Area roots.
     
    After graduating from Cal Berkeley in 1950 with a degree in art, Francis moved to Paris, where he would go on to be named by Time Magazine as, “the hottest American painter in Paris these days.” A transformative period of his career, Francis immersed himself in a study of Monet’s Water Lilies and was influenced by his close friendships with the Matisse family and artists Al Held, Joan Mitchell, and Jean-Paul Riopelle.
     
    For the next four decades he traveled and studied extensively, maintaining studios in Bern, Paris, Tokyo, Mexico City, New York and Northern and Southern California. Through his travels he was exposed to many styles, techniques and cultural influences, which informed the development of his own dialogue and style of painting. Francis possessed a lyrical and gestural hand, enabling him to capture and record the brilliance, energy and intensity of color at different moments of time and periods of his life. His paintings embody his love of literature, music and science, while reflecting his deep range of emotions and personal turmoil.
     
    Not only are Francis’s paintings valued historically for their aesthetic vision, but his inquisitive mind and spirit have solidified Francis’s legacy as a contemporary renaissance man. His interest in the creative process was expansive and synergistic – art, technology, psychology, science, medicine, and protecting the environment (before it became a movement). He was an early investor in research to find creative solutions to our dependence on non-renewable energy sources and cures for AIDs. In each of these realms, he explored the nature of creativity – what stimulates it, the importance of testing new ideas through experimentation as well as the roles of imagination, intuition and knowledge.
     
    This biography is sourced from samfrancisfoundation.org
  • Works
    • Lyrical abstract work on canvas
      Untitled (SFP83-108), 1983
    • Lyrical abstract work on paper
      Blue Balls Untitled (SF62-128), 1962
    • Lyrical abstract work on paper
      Untitled (SF62-102), 1962
    • Lyrical abstract work on paper
      Untitled (SF58-139 aka SF57-075), 1958
    • Lyrical abstract work on paper
      Middle Blue (SF57-249), 1957
  • Exhibitions
    • installation view

      Small is Beautiful

      2nd Floor Gallery February 6 - April 4, 2025
      Van Doren Waxter is pleased to present Small is Beautiful, an exhibition of small-scale works by 22 artists, both familiar and new faces to the gallery’s program. The exhibition features...
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    • Chamberlain | Francis

      Chamberlain | Francis

      July 11 - September 27, 2013
      Van Doren Waxter is pleased to present Chamberlain/Francis , a two-person exhibition featuring sculpture by John Chamberlain and works on paper by Sam Francis. The exhibition will be on view...
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    • Highlights from the Ernestine and Bradley Wayne Collection

      Highlights from the Ernestine and Bradley Wayne Collection

      November 3 - December 23, 2011
      Sam Francis Helen Frankenthaler David Hockney Hans Hofmann Paul Jenkins Louise Nevelson Kenneth Noland Pablo Picasso Frank Stella Tom Wesselmann Fully-illustrated catalogue available Greenberg Van Doren Gallery is pleased to...
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    • Sam Francis

      Sam Francis

      Works on Paper from the 1950s April 3 - May 17, 2003
      Solo exhibition Artemis · Greenberg Van Doren · Gallery is pleased to present a survey of important works on paper by Sam Francis. The exhibition Sam Francis: Works on Paper...
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    • All American

      All American

      November 14 - December 28, 2001
      Group exhibition Willem de Kooning • Richard Diebenkorn • Sam Francis • Hans Hofmann Franz Kline • Roy Lichtenstein • Robert Motherwell • Jackson Pollock Robert Rauschenberg • Frank Stella...
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    • Sam Francis

      Sam Francis

      Paintings & Works on Paper from the Early 60s October 4 - November 4, 2000
      Lawrence Rubin • Greenberg Van Doren • Fine Art is pleased to present an exhibition of paintings and works on paper from the early 60s by Sam Francis. This is...
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    • Paintings & Works on Paper

      Paintings & Works on Paper

      July 25 - August 18, 2000
      Group exhibition Max Ernst Sam Francis Arshile Gorky Adolf Gottlieb Al Held Hans Hofmann Roy Lichtenstein Morris Louis Robert Motherwell Ad Reinhardt Lawrence Rubin • Greenberg Van Doren • Fine...
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    • Sam Francis

      Sam Francis

      Paintings & Works on Paper from the 50s November 11 - December 30, 1999
      Lawrence Rubin Greenberg Van Doren Fine Art is pleased to present an exhibition of paintings and works on paper from the 50s by Sam Francis (1923 - 1994), on view...
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    • Primed & Un-Primed

      Primed & Un-Primed

      Paintings from 60s and 70s September 9 - October 2, 1999
      Group exhibition Josef Albers Sam Francis Helen Frankenthaler Philip Guston Al Held Hans Hofmann Ellsworth Kelly Morris Louis Joan Mitchell Mark Rothko Cy Twombly Lawrence Rubin Greenberg Van Doren Fine...
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  • Publications
    • cover of a book

      Highlights from the Ernestine and Bradley Wayne Collection

      2011
      Book, Softcover, 31 pages
      ISBN: 0-9717484-8-9
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    • Sam Francis

      Sam Francis

      Works from the Early 1960s October 2000
      Book, Softcover, 30 pages
      ISBN: 0-9677573-6-3
      Read more
    • Sam Francis

      Sam Francis

      Paintings & Works on Paper from the 1950s November 1999
      Book, Softcover, 40 pages
      Read more
  • Art fairs
  • Press
    • Artist Dossier: Sam Francis

      Art + Auction, October 31, 2010

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