Untitled (SFP94-55, SFF.1729) 1994

Sam Francis made this untitled painting with acrylic on paper some time before he died in ‘94. Look at those dominant gestural marks and the electric colour palette. It looks like the painting came into being through trial, error, and intuition. I sympathize with Sam, imagining what it might have been like to create this piece. What was he thinking when he made it? The paint is applied both thinly and thickly. It looks like he poured it, but also used a brush for some of those more directional marks. Check out that yellow swathe—it’s like a neon lightning bolt. Francis’s work reminds me of other painters like Joan Mitchell, another abstract colourist. Artists are in an ongoing conversation, exchanging ideas across time, and inspiring one another’s creativity. Painting is a form of embodied expression which embraces ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations and meaning over fixed or definitive readings. What do you think?