Untitled (SF89-262) 1989

Sam Francis 1923–1994
Untitled (SF89-262)
1989
acrylic on paper
14⅛ h × 11¾ w inches
Framed: 26 X 22 3/8 inches
Signed and dated on verso 'Sam Francis 1989'.

This work is identified with the identification number of SF89-262 in the Sam Francis: Online Catalogue Raisonné Project. 

Provenance: 
Acquired directly from the artist by the original owner
Smith Andersen North, San Rafael, CA

Exhibited: 
Sam Francis: The Spirit of the Shadow: Paintings and Etchings, 25 June - 29 July 2009, Smith Andersen North, San Rafael, CA 

Literature: 
Sam Francis: Online Catalogue Raisonné Project, Burchett-Lere, no. SF89-262 

Sam Francis (1923-1994)
Considered one of the premier colorists of the twentieth century, Sam Francis is best known for dramatic, lushly painted works comprised of vivid pools of color.  Drips, gestures, and splatters of paint in his work have led many critics to identify him as a second-generation Abstract Expressionist, but Francis has also been compared to Color Field artists on the basis of large, fluid sections of paint that seem to extend beyond the confines of the pictorial surface. In 1964, the influential art critic Clement Greenberg included Francis in his celebrated exhibition Post-Painterly Abstraction at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. In the catalogue, Greenberg described Post-Painterly Abstraction as both being related to and distinct from Abstract Expressionism. Greenberg wrote, “By contrast with the interweaving of light and dark gradations in the typical Abstract Expressionist picture, all the artists in this show move towards a physical openness of design, or towards linear clarity, or towards both.”