Sam Francis: Five Decades of Abstract Expressionism from California Collections

The exhibitions shows a collection of works that demonstrate Sam Francis's Abstract Expressionist style, and the progression of his paintings between the years of 1940 and 1990's. Sam Francis was a California artist whose art is colorful, gestural, and creative showing a range of shapes and lines. The show was featured at the Crocker Art Museum between January 26-April 20, exhibiting works of Francis from private and public collections. The Show displayed works from California like San Francisco, Point Reyes, and Santa Monica, but also featured works that were done in locations like Paris and Japan.

Sam Francis, Untitled 1979

This painting is an example of the work he did in California in the 1970's. Untitled 1979 was painted in his studio in San Monica on a large canvas that's 120" x 90". The painting is very big with large columns of splotched and splattered acrylic. The pattern of the painting appears erratic with color exploding all over the canvas. The color is however placed in a way that forms lattice work that is inspired by architectural elements. The pattern is made clear with splotches of Red, yellow, green, purple and multiple shades of blue. Even though the acrylic is applied in some areas with a more watery effect, the color is no less vivid. The color appears bright against the white background of the painting. When viewing it, I felt engulfed in the colorful experience. The canvas was so big that when I stood in front of it, the painting took up my field of vision. Sam Francis liked to paint on a large scale and often painted while lying on the floor because he wanted the painting to engulf him. The technique of painting from an aerial view came from his experience as a pilot during WWII.

Sam Francis, Untitled Self Portrait 1974

This painting was painting was done in Tokyo even though most of his painting in the 1970's were done in California. The painting is a self portrait of Sam Francis in acrylic on paper. The paint has a water color quality to it, making color value and the thick gestural strokes the stylistic focus. The vivid color gives the painting a dramatic and intense feeling. The expression on his face is emotional, almost pained. Sam Francis wanted to show his inner self in his self portrait. I could feel the emotion in the painting because of the intense color and his sad expression. The painting is a good example of his work later in his career and shows his interest in gestural strokes and vivid coloring.

Sam Francis, Mantis, 1960-61

This painting shows Francis's earlier work in his career. The painting is oil on canvas with a different painting style from his later work. I was immediately struck by this painting because it looked so different from his other work. Instead of splashes of different colosr that took up most of the space in the painting, this one showed solid shapes of color mostly in different shades of blue, with some green, yellow, purple, and red. The soft green shade references his interest in botany and medicine.The mantis at the bottom mimics the anatomical parts of a mantis holding on to its prey. The second difference I noticed in this painting is that it had a title unlike a lot of his later work. The title "Mantis" possibly comes from Greek origin meaning "mad" or "diviner".

Sam Francis, 3 Blue 1952

  This painting is oil on canvas and shows Sam Francis's earlier work where he expressed his experimentation with blue, the color he was known for favoring in his paintings. The painting appears monochromatic, made from a mixture of the colors white, grey black and blue. Some of the color is applied more solidly and some of the paint is applied in washes that allows the more saturated color to rise to the surface appearing suspended.

The Sam Francis Show at the Crocker Museum gave me an appreciation for Abstract expressionism that I would not have had if I hadn't looked at the actual paintings. Viewing the paintings in person allowed me to not only look at the shapes, color and application, but also be immersed in the experience because some of these paintings are painted in large scale with extremely vivid colors. It gave me a new appreciation for the style and is a show that I would recommend to others.