Born in San Mateo, California in 1923, Sam Francis was a true international artist. During his lifetime he had studios in Paris, Bern, New York, Tokyo and California, and has had numerous exhibitions in major museums around the world. His work holds references to abstract expressionism, Chinese, Japanese and Jungarian philosophy, French impressionism, and his own Bay Area roots.
Since his early years he had an interest in poetry and started making drawings of nudes while still in high school, but chose to study medicine when he attended the University of California in Berkeley. Two years later, he joined the U.S. Army Air Force and was severely injured during a test flight and confined to the hospital in a body cast. This event changed his life forever, not only because he developed spinal tuberculosis but also because as therapy, he started to paint. Unable to move, he spent hours examining light and its reflection on the ceiling and its changes during the different times of the day. This began his lifelong interest in the exploration of light and space.
In 1946, even before Francis left the hospital, one of his early watercolours was selected for the 66th Annual Exhibition of the San Francisco Art Association. After being released, Francis returned to Berkeley and switched to studying art. He received his BFA and MFA in 1949 and 1950 respectively.
Perhaps looking for new horizons or influenced by his maternal family’s French connection (Henri Toulouse-Lautrec was among his ancestors), Francis decided to move to Paris in 1950 soon after graduation. Upon his arrival in France, like other Americans, he went to study at Fernand Leger’s Academy and was able to establish relationships with important artists and art critiques. That same year, Francis’ work was also on display at the Salon de Mai.
By the mid 1950s Francis was well on the road to success. Mme Matisse and Alberto Giacometti each had acquired his paintings. In a review of his second solo show in France, Time magazine called him “the hottest American painter in Paris”.1 He also began showing his work in Bern, Rome and Stockholm. James John Sweeney, the then Director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum visited Francis in his studio in Paris in 1952. A few years later, in 1955, Alfred H. Barr Jr, of the Museum of Modern Art purchased one of Francis’ works which became the first one to enter a public collection. During the same year his paintings were included in the exhibition Art in the 20th Century at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Pittsburgh International at the Carnegie Institute. A year later, his large canvases were also included in the exhibition Twelve Americans at the Museum of Modern Art. Back in Europe, he was also commissioned to create a large mural for the Basel Kunsthalle.
In 1957, Francis decided to take his first trip around the world, stops included New York, Mexico, and Japan as well as Hong Kong, Thailand and India. His stopover in Asia familiarized him with non-Western philosophies such as Taoism and the Japanese concept of “ma,” the dynamic between form and non-form.
In the 1960s, blue increasingly became the dominant colour in Francis’s work. Of note is the series Blue Balls, consisting of varying sizes of organic shapes floating on the paper, perhaps referencing the development of space travel during that period. “They are like clouds against the sky, except that the blue-white relationship has been reversed”.2 During this time, he also began to develop a life-long interest in prints. He notes that his prints are not intended to be reproductions of his paintings and instead are works in their own right. He eventually opened his own print workshop in 1970 in Santa Monica. It was also this dedication to prints that led him to work together with Ting to produce 1¢ Life in 1964 (see John Seed article “DEAR Big SAM," Celebrating a Friendship: Walasse Ting & Sam Francis e-catalague, Alisan Fine Arts, 2021, p. 16).
Another shift in Francis’ work is seen again in 1963 when white becomes the focal point and dominates the work by taking over the center of the paper. The floating organic shapes are now pushed to the side as in Bright Ring Drawing . Two years later, the organic forms are now taken over by more geometric, angular shapes as in Blue Cut Sail. The negative space now looks like a mirror luring the viewer in while the colour in opposition frames the paintings. To Francis white was a colour just as important and full as any other primary colour.
In the 1970s, Francis' style evolved from the depiction of bright and emphatic Tibetan mandalas as in Untitled 3 to his late 1970s exploration of the more structured grids with colourful verticals and horizontals interwoven like a closely-knit fabric, as in Untitled 4 and 5.
1980 proved a particularly busy year for Francis; he had a one man show at the LA County Museum of Art; received a commission to paint a mural for the San Francisco International Airport as well as a large five panel painting for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and he was also elected to the Board of Trustees of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Several years later, in recognition for his contribution to the arts he is named Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1983 by the French Minister of Culture, Jack Lang.
Francis passed away in 1994 from cancer. In addition to the hundreds of exhibitions held around the world in important galleries, museums, and biennals, three major retrospectives were also held during his lifetime. The first one in 1967 organized by James Johnson Sweeney at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston which travelled to the University Art Museum, Berkley. Then in 1972, a major travelling retrospective opened at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo and then travelled to Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Dallas Museum of Fine Arts and the Oakland Museum, California. The last one was in 1993 at the Kunst und Ausstellungshalle in Bonn, Germany. Ting Travelled there to celebrate this momentus occasion with his life long friend. Sadly this would be the last time they see each other as Francis passed away the following year.
His works can be found in numerous important collections around the world including: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven; Art Institute of Chicago; Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham; Worcester Art Museum; Detroit Institute of Arts; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Dallas Museum of Art; Milwaukee Art Museum; Musée des Beaux-Arts de l’Ontario/Art Gallery of Ontario; Musée des beaux-Arts de Montréal/Montreal Museum of Fine Arts; Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec, Québec City; Albertina Kunst Museum Palais, Vienna; Le Monnaie/De Munt, Brussels; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Fonds National d’Art Contemporain, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes; Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; Neue Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin; Staatsgalerie Stuttgart; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Henie-Onstad Kunstsenter, Oslo; Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel; Kunstmuseum Basel; Tate, London; Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima; Idemitsu Museum of Arts; Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo; Sezon Museum of Modern Art, Karuizawa, Nagano; Son Eun Arts and Cultural Foundation, Seoul; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney.
1Peter Selz, Sam Francis (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Incorporated, 1982), 51.
2Peter Selz, Sam Francis, 80.
All images of works by Sam Francis© 2020 Sam Francis Foundation, California/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
BIOGRAPHY
1923 Born in San Mateo, California, USA
1944-45 Began painting whilst recovering in hospital from a spinal injury obtained in a plane crash while serving in the US Army Air Corp
1947 Studied privately with painter David Park
1949 BA, San Francisco Art Institute, University of California, Berkeley, USA
1950 MA, San Francisco Art Institute, University of California, Berkeley, USA
1950-58 Lived and worked in Paris, France with trips to Mexico, Japan, Europe and USA
1959 Moved to New York and began work on Chase Manhattan Bank Mural
1960-61 Lived in Paris, France, then in Bern, Germany
1961 Returned to California, USA, and resumed painting with combinations of bright colours
1968 Received Honorary PhD, University of California, Berkeley, USA
1970 Established “The Litho Shop” in Santa Monica to print and published his own limited edition prints
1973-74 Lived and painted in Tokyo, Japan
1975 Publication of monograph Sam Francis by Harry N Abrams, New York, USA
1980 Elected to the Board of Trustees, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, USA
1980s Fascination with snakelike forms and colourful drips
1981 Appointed Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture
1984 Formed the Lapis Pressto publish artists’ books
1987-89 Founded the Sam Francis Medical Research Center to support the research of infectious and environmental diseases
1990 Founded the Sam Francis Art Museum to perpetuate his artistic legacy and support charitable donations
1992 Publication of The Prints of Sam Francis: A Catalogue Raisonné by Hudson Hills Press, Manchester, USA
1994 Honoured with Distinguished Alumnus Award by the University Art Museum, University of California, Berkeley, which also then created the Sam Francis Scholarship, Berkeley, USA
Passed away in November in California, USA
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023
2016
2013-14
2011
2006
1999-2001
1997
1995
1993
1992
1991
1990
1989
1988
1985
1983
1981
1980
1977-79
1975-77
1973-74
1972
1969-72
1968
1967
1961-64
1959-61
1959
1958
1957
1956
1955
1952
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024
Asian-American Abstraction: Historic to Contemporary, Hollis Taggart, New York, USA
2021
Art Basel Hong Kong, Alisan Fine Arts, Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre, Hong Kong
2020
2019
2018
2016-17
2015
2013
2012
2009
2008-09
2008
2007
2006
2005
1995
1979
1975
1972
1964
1962
1961
1956
SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
USA
Alaska
General Services Administration, US Federal Building, Anchorage
California
Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento
Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena
San Francisco International Airport, Collection of the City and County of San Francisco
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
Connecticut
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven
Florida
Perez Art Museum, Miami
Illinois
Art Institute of Chicago
Iowa
Des Moines Art Center
Louisiana
New Orleans Museum of Art
Massachusetts
Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham
Worcester Art Museum
Michigan
Detroit Institute of Arts
Minnesota
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
Missouri
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St Louis
Saint Louis Art Museum
New York
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
North Carolina
Mint Museum Uptown, Charlotte
Pennsylvania
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Texas
Dallas Museum of Art
Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth
The Menil Collection, Houston
Wisconsin
Milwaukee Art Museum
Canada
Musée des Beaux-Arts de l’Ontario/Art Gallery of Ontario
Musée des beaux-Arts de Montréal/Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec, Québec City
Europe
Austria
Albertina Kunst Museum Palais, Vienna
Belgium
Le Monnaie/De Munt, Brussels
Denmark
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek
France
Centre Pompidou, Paris
Fonds National d’Art Contemporain, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes
Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
Musée de Grenoble
Germany
Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg
Museum Ludwig, Cologne
Neue Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Staatsgalerie Stuttgart
World Conference Center, Bonn
Netherlands
Museum Jan van der Togt, Amstelveen
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven
Norway
Henie-Onstad Kunstsenter, Oslo
Spain
Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona
Sweden
Moderna Museet, Stockholm
Switzerland
Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel
Kunstmuseum Basel
UK
Tate, London
Ulster Museum, Belfast
Asia
Japan
Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima
Idemitsu Museum of Arts
Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo
Museum of Modern Art, Toyama
National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo
Ohara Museum of Art, Kurashiki
Sezon Museum of Modern Art, Karuizawa, Nagano
South Korea
Son Eun Arts and Cultural Foundation, Seoul
Australia
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney