Sam Francis
(1923-1994)
The painter of shattered light
“Color is like music. It creates invisible harmonies.”
Why is it fascinating?
Huge, fluid, stained canvases, splashed with intense colors where the paint seems to breathe.
Sam Francis is the ultimate colorist who explores light, color, and emptiness. He leaves vast white spaces that become silences, intervals, and breathing spaces. Emptiness is as active as color.
His painting is ethereal, intuitive, and soaring. The colored spots float, explode, and vibrate in space.
A very contemporary work
Sam Francis is the artist of visual well-being. His works soothe, energize, and uplift.
An ultra-contemporary meditative art. A Zen master of gesture.
A cosmic, luminous work, ever-expanding like a painting of the inner sky. A colorful breath.
Why is it presented here?
Because Sam Francis is a reference in gestural and colorist painting.
Because his work is a synthesis between the gestures of American abstract expressionism — Pollock, Rothko… —, southern light and Zen emptiness.
Because he is a major figure in American abstraction, and his work is exhibited all over the world.
Where to see it?
- MoMA (Museum of Modern Art), New York
- Guggenheim Museum, New York
- Tate Modern, London
- Pompidou Center, Paris
- LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art), Los Angeles
- Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Tokyo
- Kunstmuseum Basel, Switzerland