Untitled (SFP92-15, SFF.1671) 1992

Sam Francis made this untitled painting with ink and acrylic on paper. The white of the paper peeks through the pooling cobalt blue, which has the feeling of watercolor, even though there’s something about the texture that indicates a heavier, more substantial medium. Look at the way the blue paint has marbled in the centre. Do you see how there are thin, almost silver lines weaving through it? It’s like looking into a cosmic vortex, or a stormy sea, with these glints of light reflecting back at you. I love the way the paint drips and spatters outwards from this central form, as if the painting is an explosion frozen in time. It reminds me of Joan Mitchell’s wild, gestural abstraction, but with a more controlled, almost calligraphic line. But where Mitchell uses color to convey emotion, Francis seems more interested in the interplay between form and void, presence and absence. The painting becomes a space for contemplation, a reminder that art is always an ongoing experiment.