Untitled 1979

Sam Francis made this untitled painting with watercolor, and you can really see the flow of the medium, its inherent, fluid nature. He’s kind of wrestling with it, letting it drip but also guiding it into this almost architectural structure. The big, bold border is where the action’s at for me. It's a frame, literally and figuratively, but it's also breaking down, dissolving back into pure color. Look at how that intense purple bleeds and drips, like the painting is sweating. Then inside, these open white shapes float in a sea of blue, like islands in a hazy dream. Francis is a master of letting go, letting the paint do its thing, but he’s also totally in control. It reminds me of Helen Frankenthaler, her soak-stain technique, but with a more assertive, almost masculine energy. It’s a reminder that art is always a dance between intention and accident.