Traveling into colors
Sam Francis : Abstract Impressionist
at the David Benrimon Fine Art LLC at 41 East 57th street-2nd floor
Vanessa Crespi
Published: March 2020
Sam Francis
This is a solo exhibition of Sam Francis, an American artist known for his exuberantly colorful and abstract painting.
The collection of pieces on display depict a colorful palette of paintings with great movement using different styles. The work showed a range of media such as ink wash on paper, acrylic on paper, gouache and oil on paper and canvas, water color on paper. The lithographs in colors on kochi rice paper and editions average 50 pieces for the price of $10,000 each. He created his work by adding pools, drips and splatters of color to wet bands of paint applied with a roller. This reasserted the artist’s interest in color. In the main room we can find a series of paintings that feature large areas of open canvas in the middle surrounded by vibrant drips of color. He used the white space to increase the dimensions of his paintings for greater emphasis, influenced by the Japanese culture while he lived in Tokyo
Samuel Lewis Francis ( June 1923- November 1994 ) was born in California and studied botany, medicine and psychology.
He was influenced by Jackson Pollock and Clifford Still and he incorporated elements from abstract expressionism and also color field impressions. He became associated with a second generation of abstract expressionist due to his increasing interested in the expressive use of color.
Once he reflected that “painting is about the beauty of space and the power of containment”
His paintings can be found in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and other famous museums in European and Asia.
Those pieces had a separate space in the exhibition and the price ranges start from $10,000 up. The two large rooms from the gallery displayed his work with a perfect light and in a balanced and cohesive way, the chronological life of the artist. The small room was selected to show the lithographs.
He also did printmaking and some of those pieces where exhibited. The most expensive artwork sold at action was Summer #1 from 1957 for the price of $11,842,000 USD.
By 1973-4 many of Francis’s paintings featured a formal grid or matrix made up of crossing tracks of color. Only few pieces at the exhibition had that aspect but they have a dense, symmetrical composition that suggests a newfound dynamism and vitality for the artist.
After 1980 the formal structure of the grids disappeared and he was active as a printmaker, creating numerous etchings, lithographs and monotypes many of which were executed in his own litho shop.
Francis once he said “there isn’t enough time to paint all the images in my head”. He passed away in 1994 at the age of seventy one.
This exhibition is well planned and organized. It makes the viewer change his state of mind by being contagious in all the colorful work .
The gallery David Benrimon specializes in post war and contemporary artists such as impressionists to modern artists such as Picasso, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Josef Albers, Basquiat, Yayoi Kusama among others. They exhibited in the most important art fair around the world and US. The lasted exhibition in that area was from six decades of printmaking, with Botero, and Warhol. The New Yorker dealer David Benrimon believes that the super-rich from Eastern Europe, including Russian oligarchs with bases in Monte Carlo, are now driving the market.
Sam Francis : Abstract Impressionist continues through April 3
David Benrimon Fine Art LLC at The Fuller Building
41 East 57th Street, 2nd Floor
New York, NY 10022
Phone: +1 212-628-1600
Email: info@benrimon.com
Hours
Monday-Thursday: 9am – 6pm
Friday: 9am – 4pm
