Untitled (SF74-189) 1974

Sam Francis made this unnamed painting with watercolor sometime in the 70's. He’s using watercolor but the application is pure painting. There's something so joyful about the color and it makes me think of what it must have been like for him to make it, a real back and forth between chance and intention. You know, when I look at these loose, open forms, I'm reminded of tiles, or even the empty spaces in a Mondrian painting. The pigment isn't controlled. It bleeds and blossoms. This makes me think of Helen Frankenthaler, especially the way she stained the canvas. And the splatters! Well, those are pure Pollock. But it's like Francis took these ideas and ran with them, and in the center, there's something like an explosion. All those colors mixing together, makes it feel as though art is just one big, ongoing conversation. It's beautiful, isn't it?