Self-Portrait 1973

This is Sam Francis’ self-portrait, rendered in pencil on a large sheet of paper. Look how he coaxes a likeness from just a few lines. It’s not precise, but there’s a liveliness to it. It’s like he’s mapping his own face, finding a landscape in the familiar contours of his features. I can imagine him in the studio, maybe with music playing, glancing at a mirror and then back at the page, trying to capture something essential. Not just what he looks like, but how he feels, how he sees himself. See the weight of the line around the eyes, the slight smirk of the mouth? It’s a fleeting expression, caught in graphite. Francis was part of a whole gang of artists exploring abstraction, but here he’s doing something different, more intimate. Like he’s in conversation with artists across time, all those who’ve turned the gaze inward, trying to understand themselves through the act of drawing. It’s a reminder that making art is a way of thinking, a way of knowing.