Sculpture Drawing, SF64-571 1964

Sam Francis made this ‘Sculpture Drawing’ sometime in the mid-sixties, probably with acrylic or gouache on paper. Right away, I notice the bold, intuitive gestures that feel really immediate. It’s like watching him think through color. Francis is slinging color, and letting it drip and bleed. Look at how the yellow, green, and that shadowy brown kind of melt into each other. The surface has this beautiful texture, right? You can almost feel the push and pull of the brush or whatever tool he was using. I love how the bottom edge of the yellow sort of feathers into streaks of green, almost like a waterfall effect, and how the paint has pooled at the base. It reminds me that artmaking is as much about accidents and chance as it is about control. Francis's paintings are like open-ended questions, always inviting us to look closer and to feel more. Think about Joan Mitchell, another painter who wasn’t afraid of a mess. Their paintings feel like they’re always in the process of becoming.