ST-G70-033 1970

Sam Francis made ST-G70-033 with paint, probably in the seventies, and it’s wild! Just look at the edges of the canvas; they’re exploding with colour – reds, blues, greens, purples, like a watercolour rainbow gone rogue. I can imagine Sam, in his studio, letting the paint drip and pool, coaxing these intense hues into existence. It’s thin paint, flowing and staining the canvas. I see all these translucent blobs congregating around this huge void of white. The white becomes a kind of charged atmosphere, alive with possibility. That drippy, dark blue streak on the right reminds me of Helen Frankenthaler, who was doing similar things around the same time, staining the canvas with these watery, ethereal colours. It’s like Sam and Helen, and a bunch of other painters, were all having this big, juicy conversation about colour, form, and freedom.