Untitled 1964

Sam Francis made this untitled painting with loose washes of paint and bright colors. It's like he's mapping out a feeling more than a place, you know? He's got these primary colors—red, blue, and yellow—dancing around each other, never quite mixing, always keeping their own space, but also relying on the others to create something bigger. Look at how the paint drips and splatters. It’s so physical, so immediate. Like he's not trying to control it, just letting it happen. There's this one red drip, right in the middle, that seems to anchor everything. It's not perfect, it’s a little messy, but it’s so full of life. It makes me think of Joan Mitchell, another painter who wasn’t afraid to let the paint do its thing, to let the messiness be part of the beauty. And it reminds me that art is just an ongoing conversation, each artist riffing off the ones before, adding their own voice to the mix. It’s never really finished, is it?