Untitled 

Sam Francis made this untitled work with ink on paper. Francis, who lived from 1923 to 1994, was a white American artist, and a World War II veteran. His experience as a pilot may have influenced his feeling of being caught between the earth and sky. The dark ink forms a stark frame, a boundary around a pale, indeterminate space. Is it a window, a doorway, or perhaps a mirror reflecting back at us? The void within the frame invites introspection, beckoning us to confront our own identities and histories. Francis once said, "The painting is not on the canvas, but in the space between." Francis pushes the viewer to consider what we bring to the space, and how our understanding of what seems empty is always filled with personal and collective histories. How does the idea of emptiness, or nothingness, allow us to engage with identity?