Sam Francis

Painted in Santa Monica in 1987.

Private Collection, France
Knoedler Gallery, London
Christie's, Paris, May 31, 2010, lot 102
Private Collection, Europe

London, Knoedler Gallery, Sam Francis: New Works, May 13 – June 1987

Debra Burchett-Lere and William C. Agee, Sam Francis, Catalogue Raisonné of Canvas and Panel Paintings, 1946-1994, University of California Press, Berkeley, 2011, cat. no. SFF.1411, illustrated in colour on DVD I

This work is in very good condition overall. There is evidence of handling and wear along the edges of the canvas, noticeably along the bottom edge where an area of soiling is visible 17 cm from the left edge. The colors are fresh and the impasto is thick and nicely preserved. There are signs of bubble remnants in areas where the impasto is thickest, which is inherent to the artist's working method. There are 2 dashes of fine craquelure 12 cm from the right edge and 10 cm from the bottom edge and a small area of accretion in the upper right quadrant 4 cm from the right edge and 4.5 cm from the top edge. Under UV light there is no evidence of restoration. Framed.
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 "I am an emotional and intuitive painter."
Sam Francis

Sam Francis is perhaps the most prominent figure in the second generation of abstract expressionist artists whose careers and artistic influence are enjoying renewed appreciation and importance in recent years. Inspired by predecessors including Mark Rothko and Clyfford Still, Francis and his contemporaries bring the expressive use of colour to a new level on their canvases. Completed in 1987, the present work, Faller, is a quintessential example of the artist’s seminal application of paint. Without abandon, Francis covers his canvas in thick layers of canary yellow, blood red, navy blue and completes the composition with a playful splash of pink and aquamarine. Such forceful energy of the colours and their drips are highly reminiscent of Jackson Pollock’s drip paintings. By the 1980’s, Sam Francis had forgone his matrix arrangements of the 1970’s, returning instead to his multi-coloured palette of the 1950’s and leaving areas of the canvas unpainted.