Untitled (SFP94-75, SFF.1749) 1994

Sam Francis made this untitled painting with paint on canvas. You know, looking at this painting I think about accidents, and how we deal with them. How you can build something beautiful with the unexpected. It's all about the gesture here, right? That big splat of purply-blue in the center, it's like a contained explosion. The paint is thin, watery almost, and you can see how it pooled and dripped. I can almost feel the quick flicks of the wrist that made those trails of burgundy. The white space around it isn't just empty, it's part of the action. It makes me think of Helen Frankenthaler and her soak-stain technique, or maybe even a bit of Pollock's drip paintings, but Francis has his own thing going on. It's like he's letting the paint do its thing, guiding it maybe, but not controlling it too much. He's having a conversation with the paint, and we get to eavesdrop.