Untitled (Primary Title)
Sam Francis, American, 1923 - 1994 (Artist)
"Color is the real substance for me, the real underlying thing which drawing and line are not." —Sam Francis
In the late 1940s while studying painting at the University of California, Berkeley, Francis became acquainted with the recent work of Clyfford Still, Arshile Gorky, and Mark Rothko. Thus when he moved in 1950 to France, where he spent much of his career, he was already immersed in the abstract styles of the leading American artists. While Francis frequently worked on an immensescale, creating painting environments that enveloped the viewer, this relatively small work on paper conveys his interest in the power of both open white space and flowing primary colors around the edges.
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