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Lot Essay
This work is included in the Sam Francis: Catalogue Raisonné of Canvas and Panel Paintings, 1946-1994, with number SFF.388, edited by Debra Burchett-Lere and published by the University of California Press, 2011.
Adorned with whimsical and bold flashes of brightly coloured oil paints, On Return is an important precursor to Sam Francis's 'edge' series. Coming at a seminal point in his career just after he moved into a new studio at Santa Monica, California, On Return shows Francis beginning the process by which he opens up the middle of the canvas to explore the expressive qualities of space. Proliferating with splatters and brilliant, circular shapes gathered into large and small fields of colour, the apparently randomly applied paint joins to form a harmonious and visually animated composition of blues, yellows, reds and greens. Contrasting shapes daubed in thin and thick paint in a whole spectrum of colours adorn the canvas, which is broken up by pulsating lines of splattered paint, and through Francis's use of exceptionally thin oil paint he attains a refined transparency, achieving a delicacy and radiance that is characteristic of his instantly recognisable style.
The powerfully expressive brushstrokes, which apply numerous splashes and drips are reminiscent of Jackson Pollock, whose work Francis was shown with, along with other groundbreaking artists such as Mark Rothko and Clyfford Still at the infamous group exhibition in 1956 at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Twelve Americans. However, in contrast to the almost violent approach of Pollock, the great 'action painter,' Francis's treatment seems to be calmer and gentler, inviting a meditative response. This reflects the fact that whilst he is an archetypal colourist whose roots are deep in the Fauvist tradition, his use of colour is imbued with meaning and power, as opposed for being used purely for its own sake. Indeed, with the large areas of white canvas which are just as important as the painterly marks, he offers to viewers a sense of the infinite, as he explained 'I paint time, time which is instantaneous and simultaneous, time which has no dimension, time which is always spreading. I can't define itthere are enough metaphors to last forever. Time has an infinite number of faces.' (S. Francis quoted in Sam Francis, exh. cat., Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles 1980, p. 7).
Adorned with whimsical and bold flashes of brightly coloured oil paints, On Return is an important precursor to Sam Francis's 'edge' series. Coming at a seminal point in his career just after he moved into a new studio at Santa Monica, California, On Return shows Francis beginning the process by which he opens up the middle of the canvas to explore the expressive qualities of space. Proliferating with splatters and brilliant, circular shapes gathered into large and small fields of colour, the apparently randomly applied paint joins to form a harmonious and visually animated composition of blues, yellows, reds and greens. Contrasting shapes daubed in thin and thick paint in a whole spectrum of colours adorn the canvas, which is broken up by pulsating lines of splattered paint, and through Francis's use of exceptionally thin oil paint he attains a refined transparency, achieving a delicacy and radiance that is characteristic of his instantly recognisable style.
The powerfully expressive brushstrokes, which apply numerous splashes and drips are reminiscent of Jackson Pollock, whose work Francis was shown with, along with other groundbreaking artists such as Mark Rothko and Clyfford Still at the infamous group exhibition in 1956 at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Twelve Americans. However, in contrast to the almost violent approach of Pollock, the great 'action painter,' Francis's treatment seems to be calmer and gentler, inviting a meditative response. This reflects the fact that whilst he is an archetypal colourist whose roots are deep in the Fauvist tradition, his use of colour is imbued with meaning and power, as opposed for being used purely for its own sake. Indeed, with the large areas of white canvas which are just as important as the painterly marks, he offers to viewers a sense of the infinite, as he explained 'I paint time, time which is instantaneous and simultaneous, time which has no dimension, time which is always spreading. I can't define itthere are enough metaphors to last forever. Time has an infinite number of faces.' (S. Francis quoted in Sam Francis, exh. cat., Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles 1980, p. 7).