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Lot Essay
This work is registered with the Sam Francis Foundation as archive number SFP54-9 and will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné, Sam Francis: Canvas Paintings 1945-1994, edited by Debra Burchett-Lere.
"I cannot imagine starting a painting with an idea. I have to start with a thing, a thing to touch -- the canvas, the paint. Years ago I would start a painting with a shadow. The sun would shine on it and I would start with the accident of the shadow."
A luminous painting from the early classic period of Francis' oeuvre, Broken Black was painted in Paris. The artist moved there to live and work in 1950, leaving the California Bay Area. In spite of being recognized by Clement Greenberg and associated critically with the New York Abstract Expressionist painters, Francis left America for Europe to develop his unique vision at that pivotal time.
Francis' painting is always informed by attention to balances of color, and intermingling of lights and darks. In Broken Black he achieved qualities of illumination through his signature layered washes of transparent color and use of scale. From this same period in the mid to late fifties Francis composed paintings that were almost white on white. He commented on the way that the practice of Tai Chi refers to centeredness. Francis' natural identification with Eastern aesthetics and philosophy would later come to full fruition when he went to Tokyo in 1957 to execute a commission from Sofu Teshigahara for a mural at the Sogetsu School of ikebana (flower arranging). After that, his involvement with Japan lasted throughout his life.
Francis returned to California in the early sixties remarking that, "Los Angeles is the best for me for light in my work. New York light is hard. Paris light is a beautiful cerulean gray. But Los Angeles light is clear and bright even in haze" (S. Francis, quoted in W. C. Agee, Sam Francis: Paintings 1947-1990, exh. cat., The Geffen Contemporary at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, 1999, p. 147). Francis was absorbed in the way light's qualities are transmitted. This, and his layering of washes of color and his distinctive marking are all masterfully demonstrated in this work.
"I cannot imagine starting a painting with an idea. I have to start with a thing, a thing to touch -- the canvas, the paint. Years ago I would start a painting with a shadow. The sun would shine on it and I would start with the accident of the shadow."
A luminous painting from the early classic period of Francis' oeuvre, Broken Black was painted in Paris. The artist moved there to live and work in 1950, leaving the California Bay Area. In spite of being recognized by Clement Greenberg and associated critically with the New York Abstract Expressionist painters, Francis left America for Europe to develop his unique vision at that pivotal time.
Francis' painting is always informed by attention to balances of color, and intermingling of lights and darks. In Broken Black he achieved qualities of illumination through his signature layered washes of transparent color and use of scale. From this same period in the mid to late fifties Francis composed paintings that were almost white on white. He commented on the way that the practice of Tai Chi refers to centeredness. Francis' natural identification with Eastern aesthetics and philosophy would later come to full fruition when he went to Tokyo in 1957 to execute a commission from Sofu Teshigahara for a mural at the Sogetsu School of ikebana (flower arranging). After that, his involvement with Japan lasted throughout his life.
Francis returned to California in the early sixties remarking that, "Los Angeles is the best for me for light in my work. New York light is hard. Paris light is a beautiful cerulean gray. But Los Angeles light is clear and bright even in haze" (S. Francis, quoted in W. C. Agee, Sam Francis: Paintings 1947-1990, exh. cat., The Geffen Contemporary at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, 1999, p. 147). Francis was absorbed in the way light's qualities are transmitted. This, and his layering of washes of color and his distinctive marking are all masterfully demonstrated in this work.