.jpg?w=1)
White, Green Earth
Details
SAM FRANCIS (1923-1994)
White, Green Earth
‘For two years I ... looked out over the Pacific at the sky. I saw the sunset and the horizon and I saw these fleecy clouds … It’s not impossible that may be what these abstract pictures of mine grew out of’
–Sam Francis
Originally acquired by the father of the Swiss art collector Franz Meyer Jr, who later became director of the Kunsthalle Bern and the Kunstmuseum Basel, Sam Francis’s beguiling White, Green Earth is among the most important works in his seminal series of predominantly white canvases painted in Paris in the early 1950s. Evoking ruffled clouds, Monet’s late waterlily paintings and Turner’s turbulent skies, the scale and drama of this lyrical brand of abstract expressionism secured Francis’s reputation as one of the most talented artists of his generation. Executed in 1951, shortly after the American painter’s arrival in Paris, its exquisitely subtle, nebulous surface displays the exceptional sensitivity to light, colour and space for which Francis became recognised. Indeed, this work, and the related series of white paintings created between 1950–52, are regarded as some of the most significant artworks of Francis’s fifty-year career. Robert T. Buck, Francis’s friend and the former director of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery and Brooklyn Museum, wrote that ‘This body of work alone, disregarding the succession of important works which follow, underscores [Francis’s] greatness as an artist. The glimpses of infinite space, vaporous translucence and the confident pleasure in the contemplative which the “white” paintings convey make them a unique group in Francis’s work and mark his coming of age’ (R. T. Buck, ‘The Paintings of Sam Francis’, in Sam Francis: Paintings 1947–1972, exh. cat., Albright-Knox Art Gallery Buffalo, 1972, p. 18). Many of these paintings now belong to prominent public institutions, including the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo; The Broad, Los Angeles; the Centre Pompidou Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris; the Moderna Museet, Stockholm; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; and the National Museum of Western art, Tokyo.
Francis’s debut drew the attention of Meyer, who recalled, ‘I remember my own stupefaction in front of the paintings of his first exhibit in Paris in 1952 with Nina Dausset . . . Obviously the young painter had something completely different in mind. For never did the square of the frame in his white or reddish tinted paintings block the constant movement of cloud packs and shreds; their fluctuation and swirls eluded the grip and the viewer looked in vain for a centre from which the universe of the painting could be ruled. All that seemed to me so strange and fascinating at the time that I made a note that the painting of Sam Francis had to be inspired by the Chinese view of the world’ (F. Meyer, ‘Sam Francis in Europe’, in Sam Francis: Paintings 1947–1972, exh. cat., Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, 1972, p. 8). Meyer encouraged his father, Dr. Franz Meyer Sr, a successful businessman and president of the Zurich Art Society, to visit Paris and acquire some of Francis’s works. White, Green Earth was among the paintings that became part of Meyer’s prestigious collection. The artist became close friends with both father and son, and Franz Meyer Jr was instrumental in mounting Francis’s major retrospectives at the Kunsthalle Bern in 1960 and the Kunsthalle Basel in 1968. White, Green Earth was a highlight in both of these shows, and a number of other important museum exhibitions during his lifetime. It also featured on the cover of the publication associated with Francis’s posthumous retrospective curated by William Agee for the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles in 1999, which later toured to the Menil Collection, Houston; the Malmö Konsthall, Malmö; the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; and the Galleria Comunale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome. Agee underlined the significance of Francis’s white-and-grey paintings in his essay, describing them as a singular body of work, and the ‘most ambitious and extensive of their kind in post-1945 art’. With its radiantly beautiful light and sensuous painterly depths, the present painting ranks among the finest works in this phenomenal series.
Measuring over eight feet high, White, Green Earth envelops the viewer in an expansive field of subtly modulated pigment and captivating visual incidents. Like the work of Mark Rothko and Clyfford Still, whom Francis came into contact with as a student in California, this simplified and enlarged painting creates a kind of environment that intensifies the observation of its nuanced veils of colour. It physically isolates the viewer from their usual surroundings and offers a sense of cosmic vastness that provokes an experience of the sublime. The tremulous swathe of green-tinted, mottled brushmarks have an extraordinary depth and luminosity, evoking the cast of weak sunlight behind a blanket of clouds. Indeed, Francis’s series of white paintings are linked to his close observation of atmospheric effects, from the foggy conditions of the San Francisco Bay area to the muted skies and soft light he encountered in Paris.
***
PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF FRANZ MEYER AND PIA MEYER FEDERSPIEL
Christie’s is delighted to present two works from the estate of Franz Meyer (1919-2007), a visionary curator, collector and art historian who was instrumental in postwar Switzerland’s embrace of both the American and European Avant-gardes.
Meyer grew up in an art-loving home. His father Dr. Franz Meyer Sr. was a lawyer, art collector and long-time president of the Zurich Art Society. The collection of his grandfather Fritz Meyer- Fierz included works by van Gogh, Cézanne, and Gauguin, as well as 19th century Dutch paintings. Meyer studied law in Zurich, receiving his doctorate in 1947. He then began studying art history under Hans Robert Hahnloser at the University of Bern, writing a thesis on the glass windows of the Cathedral of Chartres at the University of Zurich; he completed his studies with stays in Rome and, in 1951, in Paris. It was here that he met Ida Chagall, the daughter of the painter Marc Chagall, whom he married in 1952.
During his time in Paris, Meyer also encountered the work of Sam Francis. Astounded by the paintings’ quality, he encouraged his father to visit Paris and acquire some of Francis’s works. White, Green Earth (1951) – from a series regarded as one of the most important in Francis’s career – was among the paintings that became part of Meyer Sr’s prestigious collection. Sam Francis became a friend to both father and son, and the younger Franz was instrumental in mounting Francis’s major retrospectives at Kunsthalle Bern in 1960 and Kunsthalle Basel in 1968.
In 1955, Meyer became the successor to Arnold Rüdlinger as director of Kunsthalle Bern (1955-61). He made his mark the following year, curating the first ever major retrospective of Alberto Giacometti; he would later become a board member of the Giacometti Foundation in Zurich. Meyer’s longstanding interest in figurative work would also lead him to the paintings and sculptures of Georg Baselitz, himself an admirer of Giacometti. As is witnessed by the totemic sculpture Locke (1990), dedicated to Meyer and his second wife, Pia, in 1990, Baselitz too became a close personal friend.
Meyer is perhaps best remembered for his tenure as director of Kunstmuseum Basel (1962-80). Here, he was a pioneering tastemaker, acquiring not only seminal works by Malevich, Degas and Picasso, but also masterpieces of American Abstract Expressionism at a time when many European museums were ignoring developments across the Atlantic. The magnificent holdings of artists including Francis, Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, Clyfford Still, Franz Kline and Mark Tobey purchased by Meyer remain the backbone of the Kunstmuseum’s collection today.
Meyer was a perceptive and innovative curator. When he opened the legendary Giacometti Room at the Kunstmuseum in 1968, he placed the Swiss artist’s sculptures in thoughtful dialogue with the neighbouring American Room, cleverly illuminating the correspondences between Newman’s sculpture Here II (1966) and Giacometti’s attenuated Grande Figure (1947) – a much-admired arrangement that remained in place for almost three decades. This dialogue could be seen as emblematic for Meyer’s own transatlantic outlook, which was sensitive, radical and well ahead of its time.
oil on canvas
97 7/8 x 68 ½in. (248.5 x 174cm.)
Painted in 1951
White, Green Earth
‘For two years I ... looked out over the Pacific at the sky. I saw the sunset and the horizon and I saw these fleecy clouds … It’s not impossible that may be what these abstract pictures of mine grew out of’
–Sam Francis
Originally acquired by the father of the Swiss art collector Franz Meyer Jr, who later became director of the Kunsthalle Bern and the Kunstmuseum Basel, Sam Francis’s beguiling White, Green Earth is among the most important works in his seminal series of predominantly white canvases painted in Paris in the early 1950s. Evoking ruffled clouds, Monet’s late waterlily paintings and Turner’s turbulent skies, the scale and drama of this lyrical brand of abstract expressionism secured Francis’s reputation as one of the most talented artists of his generation. Executed in 1951, shortly after the American painter’s arrival in Paris, its exquisitely subtle, nebulous surface displays the exceptional sensitivity to light, colour and space for which Francis became recognised. Indeed, this work, and the related series of white paintings created between 1950–52, are regarded as some of the most significant artworks of Francis’s fifty-year career. Robert T. Buck, Francis’s friend and the former director of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery and Brooklyn Museum, wrote that ‘This body of work alone, disregarding the succession of important works which follow, underscores [Francis’s] greatness as an artist. The glimpses of infinite space, vaporous translucence and the confident pleasure in the contemplative which the “white” paintings convey make them a unique group in Francis’s work and mark his coming of age’ (R. T. Buck, ‘The Paintings of Sam Francis’, in Sam Francis: Paintings 1947–1972, exh. cat., Albright-Knox Art Gallery Buffalo, 1972, p. 18). Many of these paintings now belong to prominent public institutions, including the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo; The Broad, Los Angeles; the Centre Pompidou Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris; the Moderna Museet, Stockholm; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; and the National Museum of Western art, Tokyo.
Francis’s debut drew the attention of Meyer, who recalled, ‘I remember my own stupefaction in front of the paintings of his first exhibit in Paris in 1952 with Nina Dausset . . . Obviously the young painter had something completely different in mind. For never did the square of the frame in his white or reddish tinted paintings block the constant movement of cloud packs and shreds; their fluctuation and swirls eluded the grip and the viewer looked in vain for a centre from which the universe of the painting could be ruled. All that seemed to me so strange and fascinating at the time that I made a note that the painting of Sam Francis had to be inspired by the Chinese view of the world’ (F. Meyer, ‘Sam Francis in Europe’, in Sam Francis: Paintings 1947–1972, exh. cat., Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, 1972, p. 8). Meyer encouraged his father, Dr. Franz Meyer Sr, a successful businessman and president of the Zurich Art Society, to visit Paris and acquire some of Francis’s works. White, Green Earth was among the paintings that became part of Meyer’s prestigious collection. The artist became close friends with both father and son, and Franz Meyer Jr was instrumental in mounting Francis’s major retrospectives at the Kunsthalle Bern in 1960 and the Kunsthalle Basel in 1968. White, Green Earth was a highlight in both of these shows, and a number of other important museum exhibitions during his lifetime. It also featured on the cover of the publication associated with Francis’s posthumous retrospective curated by William Agee for the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles in 1999, which later toured to the Menil Collection, Houston; the Malmö Konsthall, Malmö; the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; and the Galleria Comunale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome. Agee underlined the significance of Francis’s white-and-grey paintings in his essay, describing them as a singular body of work, and the ‘most ambitious and extensive of their kind in post-1945 art’. With its radiantly beautiful light and sensuous painterly depths, the present painting ranks among the finest works in this phenomenal series.
Measuring over eight feet high, White, Green Earth envelops the viewer in an expansive field of subtly modulated pigment and captivating visual incidents. Like the work of Mark Rothko and Clyfford Still, whom Francis came into contact with as a student in California, this simplified and enlarged painting creates a kind of environment that intensifies the observation of its nuanced veils of colour. It physically isolates the viewer from their usual surroundings and offers a sense of cosmic vastness that provokes an experience of the sublime. The tremulous swathe of green-tinted, mottled brushmarks have an extraordinary depth and luminosity, evoking the cast of weak sunlight behind a blanket of clouds. Indeed, Francis’s series of white paintings are linked to his close observation of atmospheric effects, from the foggy conditions of the San Francisco Bay area to the muted skies and soft light he encountered in Paris.
***
PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF FRANZ MEYER AND PIA MEYER FEDERSPIEL
Christie’s is delighted to present two works from the estate of Franz Meyer (1919-2007), a visionary curator, collector and art historian who was instrumental in postwar Switzerland’s embrace of both the American and European Avant-gardes.
Meyer grew up in an art-loving home. His father Dr. Franz Meyer Sr. was a lawyer, art collector and long-time president of the Zurich Art Society. The collection of his grandfather Fritz Meyer- Fierz included works by van Gogh, Cézanne, and Gauguin, as well as 19th century Dutch paintings. Meyer studied law in Zurich, receiving his doctorate in 1947. He then began studying art history under Hans Robert Hahnloser at the University of Bern, writing a thesis on the glass windows of the Cathedral of Chartres at the University of Zurich; he completed his studies with stays in Rome and, in 1951, in Paris. It was here that he met Ida Chagall, the daughter of the painter Marc Chagall, whom he married in 1952.
During his time in Paris, Meyer also encountered the work of Sam Francis. Astounded by the paintings’ quality, he encouraged his father to visit Paris and acquire some of Francis’s works. White, Green Earth (1951) – from a series regarded as one of the most important in Francis’s career – was among the paintings that became part of Meyer Sr’s prestigious collection. Sam Francis became a friend to both father and son, and the younger Franz was instrumental in mounting Francis’s major retrospectives at Kunsthalle Bern in 1960 and Kunsthalle Basel in 1968.
In 1955, Meyer became the successor to Arnold Rüdlinger as director of Kunsthalle Bern (1955-61). He made his mark the following year, curating the first ever major retrospective of Alberto Giacometti; he would later become a board member of the Giacometti Foundation in Zurich. Meyer’s longstanding interest in figurative work would also lead him to the paintings and sculptures of Georg Baselitz, himself an admirer of Giacometti. As is witnessed by the totemic sculpture Locke (1990), dedicated to Meyer and his second wife, Pia, in 1990, Baselitz too became a close personal friend.
Meyer is perhaps best remembered for his tenure as director of Kunstmuseum Basel (1962-80). Here, he was a pioneering tastemaker, acquiring not only seminal works by Malevich, Degas and Picasso, but also masterpieces of American Abstract Expressionism at a time when many European museums were ignoring developments across the Atlantic. The magnificent holdings of artists including Francis, Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, Clyfford Still, Franz Kline and Mark Tobey purchased by Meyer remain the backbone of the Kunstmuseum’s collection today.
Meyer was a perceptive and innovative curator. When he opened the legendary Giacometti Room at the Kunstmuseum in 1968, he placed the Swiss artist’s sculptures in thoughtful dialogue with the neighbouring American Room, cleverly illuminating the correspondences between Newman’s sculpture Here II (1966) and Giacometti’s attenuated Grande Figure (1947) – a much-admired arrangement that remained in place for almost three decades. This dialogue could be seen as emblematic for Meyer’s own transatlantic outlook, which was sensitive, radical and well ahead of its time.
oil on canvas
97 7/8 x 68 ½in. (248.5 x 174cm.)
Painted in 1951
Provenance
Dr. Franz Meyer Sr., Zurich.
Mrs. Marguerite Meyer-Mahler, Zurich.
Collection of Franz and Pia Meyer Federspiel, Zurich.
Thence by descent to the present owner.
Mrs. Marguerite Meyer-Mahler, Zurich.
Collection of Franz and Pia Meyer Federspiel, Zurich.
Thence by descent to the present owner.
Literature
Y. Tono, Sam Francis: The Flesh of Mist, Tokyo 1964 (illustrated, pp. 16-17).
P. Plagens, 'A Sam Francis Retrospective: He has been, all along, five years ahead of his times' in Artforum, v. 6, no. 5, 1968 (illustrated, p. 39).
P. Selz, Sam Francis, New York 1975, p. 6, no. 67 (illustrated in colour, p. 139).
P. Selz, Sam Francis, New York 1982, pl. 73 (illustrated in colour, p. 151).
M. Waldberg, Sam Francis: Metaphysic of the Void, Toronto 1987, p. 201 (illustrated, p. 37).
P. Schneider, Petite Histoire de l'infini de peinture, Paris 2001, p. 328, no. 186 (illustrated in colour, p. 329).
D. Burchett-Lere, Sam Francis: Catalogue Raisonné of Canvas and Panel Paintings, 1946-1994, Berkeley 2011, fig. 21, pp. 19, 41, 42, 284 (illustrated, p. 21).
P. Plagens, 'A Sam Francis Retrospective: He has been, all along, five years ahead of his times' in Artforum, v. 6, no. 5, 1968 (illustrated, p. 39).
P. Selz, Sam Francis, New York 1975, p. 6, no. 67 (illustrated in colour, p. 139).
P. Selz, Sam Francis, New York 1982, pl. 73 (illustrated in colour, p. 151).
M. Waldberg, Sam Francis: Metaphysic of the Void, Toronto 1987, p. 201 (illustrated, p. 37).
P. Schneider, Petite Histoire de l'infini de peinture, Paris 2001, p. 328, no. 186 (illustrated in colour, p. 329).
D. Burchett-Lere, Sam Francis: Catalogue Raisonné of Canvas and Panel Paintings, 1946-1994, Berkeley 2011, fig. 21, pp. 19, 41, 42, 284 (illustrated, p. 21).
Exhibited
Paris, Galerie Nina Dausset, Sam Francis: Peintures, 1952.
Tokyo, Tokyo Department Store Gallery, The Adventure of Today's Painting: The Art of Sam Francis and Toshimitsu Imai, 1957. This exhibition later travelled to Osaka, Kintetsu Department Store Gallery.
Bern, Kunsthalle Bern, Sam Francis, 1960, no. 4. This exhibition later travelled to Stockholm, Moderna Museet.
Hannover, Kestner-Gesellschaft, Sam Francis, 1963, no. 4.
Houston, Museum of Fine Arts, Sam Francis: A Retrospective Exhibition, 1967, no. 33 (illustrated, p. 33).
Basel, Kunsthalle Basel, Sam Francis, 1968, no. 7. This exhibition later travelled to Karlsruhe, Badischer Kunstverein and Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum.
Bonn, Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Sam Francis, 1993, p. 81 (illustrated in colour, p. 80).
Paris, Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume, Sam Francis: Les années parisiennes 1950-1961, 1995-1996, p. 80 (illustrated in colour, p. 81; Moderna Museet installation view illustrated, p. 197).
Mendrisio, Museo d'Arte, Sam Francis, 1997, p. 95 (illustrated in colour, p. 65).
Los Angeles, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sam Francis: Paintings 1947-1990, 1999-2001, p. 57, pl. 5 (illustrated in colour and illustrated on the front cover). This exhibition later travelled to Houston, Menil Collection; Malmö, Malmö Konsthall and Madrid, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia.
Tokyo, Tokyo Department Store Gallery, The Adventure of Today's Painting: The Art of Sam Francis and Toshimitsu Imai, 1957. This exhibition later travelled to Osaka, Kintetsu Department Store Gallery.
Bern, Kunsthalle Bern, Sam Francis, 1960, no. 4. This exhibition later travelled to Stockholm, Moderna Museet.
Hannover, Kestner-Gesellschaft, Sam Francis, 1963, no. 4.
Houston, Museum of Fine Arts, Sam Francis: A Retrospective Exhibition, 1967, no. 33 (illustrated, p. 33).
Basel, Kunsthalle Basel, Sam Francis, 1968, no. 7. This exhibition later travelled to Karlsruhe, Badischer Kunstverein and Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum.
Bonn, Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Sam Francis, 1993, p. 81 (illustrated in colour, p. 80).
Paris, Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume, Sam Francis: Les années parisiennes 1950-1961, 1995-1996, p. 80 (illustrated in colour, p. 81; Moderna Museet installation view illustrated, p. 197).
Mendrisio, Museo d'Arte, Sam Francis, 1997, p. 95 (illustrated in colour, p. 65).
Los Angeles, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sam Francis: Paintings 1947-1990, 1999-2001, p. 57, pl. 5 (illustrated in colour and illustrated on the front cover). This exhibition later travelled to Houston, Menil Collection; Malmö, Malmö Konsthall and Madrid, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia.
Special Notice
These lots have been imported from outside the EU for sale using a Temporary Import regime. Import VAT is payable (at 5%) on the Hammer price. VAT is also payable (at 20%) on the buyer’s Premium on a VAT inclusive basis. When a buyer of such a lot has registered an EU address but wishes to export the lot or complete the import into another EU country, he must advise Christie's immediately after the auction.
Further Details
This work is identified with the archival identification number of SFF.95 in consideration for the forthcoming addendum to the Sam Francis: Catalogue Raisonné of Canvas and Panel Paintings, to be published by the Sam Francis Foundation. This information is subject to change as scholarship continues by the Sam Francis Foundation.
Brought to you by
Katharine Arnold