Francis, Sam

Description:

San Mateo/Kalifornien, 1923 - Santa Monica, 1994
41 x 33 cm, R.
Untitled, 1970. Acrylic on heavy wove paper. Signed, dated and inscribed "Bern" in ballpoint pen on the reverse; additionally inscribed in pencil by another hand "K K" and "Liste 1970 Nr. II".
The work is registered in the Sam Francis Archive under number SF70-815.
Galerie Pudelko, Bonn.
Private collection, Germany.
Kunsthandel Brigitte Büdenhölzer, Emmendingen.
Collection Monika and Horst Bülow, Leonberg, acquired there in 2000.
Sam Francis counts among the most influential painters of the postwar period and is regarded as a key figure of the international avant-garde. His work unites the energy of American Abstract Expressionism with the sensibility of European and East Asian artistic traditions. For Francis, colour becomes an autonomous actor - it splashes, flows, condenses, and unfolds its effect in a tense dialogue with unpainted space.
The present work was created in 1970 in Bern, where Francis lived and worked for a time. In this phase, he balanced the spontaneous gestures of Action Painting with controlled emptiness. On heavy wove paper, radiant tones of red, blue, yellow, and green unfold in drops, splashes, and overlays that evoke cosmic explosions. The center remains left open, creating a void that directs the gaze toward the dynamic interplay of colours. This balance of movement and stillness, density and openness, is characteristic of his painting of the 1970s.
Works on paper always held a special place in Francis’s oeuvre. They allowed the artist an immediate, spontaneous mode of expression that conveyed both intimacy and great chromatic intensity.
Works on paper by Sam Francis have been in high demand on the international art market for years. Comparable pieces from the late 1960s and early 1970s have recently achieved six-figure results at auction, depending on size, palette, and provenance. The Bern period is regarded by collectors as especially significant, marking a phase of intense productivity and valued for the brilliance and balance of its colours.
Sheets of this quality are held today in numerous major museum collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Centre Pompidou, Paris, and the Kunstmuseum Basel. Registered with the Sam Francis Archive, the present work unites all the artist’s characteristic elements and stands as an excellent example of his production in the 1970s - of the highest relevance for both private collectors and museum contexts.