Light in Itself 1979

Sam Francis made 'Light in Itself' with paint, and what a blast of color and energy! The painting's got this big yellow rectangle, like a sun, with a stripe of blue cutting through it. And around that, it's like a party of splatters and drips—red, blue, yellow, a real kaleidoscope. I can almost see Francis in his studio, maybe listening to some wild jazz, just letting the paint fly. It's not neat or tidy, but there's something so alive about it. I wonder if he was thinking about light itself, how it bursts and scatters. You know, painting is such a physical thing. You can see how the paint landed, thick in some spots, thin in others. That blue stripe is almost like a gash, but it also holds the whole thing together. Francis reminds me of Pollock, or maybe even Joan Mitchell—all these painters who weren't afraid to get messy and let the painting be a record of their own movement and feeling. It's like they're all talking to each other across time, inspiring each other to find new ways of seeing.