Blue Balls VIII 1962

Here at the MOCA, Los Angeles is Sam Francis's "Blue Balls VIII," and it's pure painting, pure sensation. I can imagine Sam in his studio, pushing these juicy blue blobs around on the canvas, letting the paint drip and pool, trusting his instincts. There's a playfulness here, right? Like he's saying, "What if painting could just be about shapes and colors floating in space?" The paint is thin, washy, almost like watercolor, which is what gives it this airy feeling. That big blue orb on the left? It's so simple, but the way it sits on the canvas, with that halo of white around it, is so striking. There’s a relationship to Miro here, in the biomorphic shapes, and even to Kandinsky, in the quest to find the spiritual in abstract art. Painting is such a physical thing, you know? It's about making marks, pushing paint around, and seeing what happens. It's a conversation between the artist and the canvas, and we, the viewers, get to eavesdrop. Sam Francis reminds us that painting can be a joyful, messy, and totally absorbing process.