Sam Francis "1953-1959"

Mnuchin Gallery

poster for Sam Francis "1953-1959"

This event has ended.

Sam Francis "1953-1959" is an exhibition of major paintings and works on paper from the pinnacle of the artist's career.

In 1950, Sam Francis moved to Paris and produced a body of work remarkable for its vitality. He created works with bold colors that fit nicely into Post-World War II Abstract American Art. Had Francis been in the States at that time, he would have surely been considered an important part of the AbEx movement. Meanwhile, in Paris he learned from many of the paintings of master French artists, such as Claude Monet and Pierre Bonnard, whose works inspired his eye for color.

Sam Francis made his discoveries through creation, rather than observation, using color as a way to find form and explore space. His time as an Army pilot allowed him to experience a purity and expansiveness of space limited only by the horizon, and these experiences inform the space created on these canvases. His colors are remarkably and uniquely vibrant, and his use of black inverts the norm, in that it does not provide an armature for these colors but further heightens them. He famously said, "Color is the real substance for me, the real underlying thing which drawing and line are not."

We are privileged to feature several large-scale canvases, including Blue Out of White, 1958, on loan from the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C. In addition to the paintings, we are featuring several important watercolors, a medium perhaps most perfectly correlated to Francis' spontaneity and fluidity. These works on paper showcase the confidence and immediacy of his image-making.

Media

Schedule

from October 15, 2009 to December 12, 2009

Artist(s)

Sam Francis

  • Facebook

    Reviews

    All content on this site is © their respective owner(s).
    New York Art Beat (2008) - About - Contact - Privacy - Terms of Use