Untitled 044 1987

Sam Francis made this untitled print with a scattering of joyful colours. The way he lets the colours drip and pool reminds me that artmaking is a process, an experiment, with unpredictable results. There's a real sense of the material here: the watery viscosity of the ink, the way it bleeds into the paper. See how the pools of colour create depth, and the splatters add a sense of energy and movement? My eye keeps getting drawn to the dark blue blotch in the lower right. It seems to anchor the composition, but it's also dissolving, bleeding into the white space around it. Francis reminds me of Joan Miró who also made work that feels playful and spontaneous. Like Miró, he shows that sometimes the most interesting art comes from letting go of control and embracing accident. Isn’t it great when a piece embraces ambiguity?