Sam Francis Biography
Sam Francis was born in San Mateo in 1923, where he spent his childhood. After studying medicine and psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, he enlisted as a pilot in the Air Force in 1943. However, due to a plane crash, he was forced to spend a long period in hospital, where he began to paint, considering this activity a form of therapy. In 1945-46 he studied painting at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco and in 1947 he made his first abstract painting. Over the next two years he studied art history at the University of California, Berkeley, earning a master's degree in literature.
In 1950 he moved to Paris, where two years later he held his first solo show at the Galerie du Dragon. In this period, Sam Francis' style was greatly influenced by informal art and Abstract Expressionism, especially by Jackson Pollock. In 1955, he exhibited for the first time in a museum, participating with seven paintings in the exhibition “Tendances Actuelles” at the Kunsthalle in Bern; the following year, he participated in the “12 Americans” exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 1957, he took a trip that led him to stay for long periods in New York, Mexico and Japan. His time in Japan had a notable influence on his artistic development, as is evident from the incorporation of oriental artistic practices into his paintings: the use of thin layers of color and large empty spaces.
In 1961 a serious illness forced him to spend a long period of time in hospital in Bern. However, in the same year, he participated in the exhibitions “Arte e Contemplazione” at Palazzo Grassi, Venice, and “Abstract Expressionists and Imaginists” at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. In 1963 he created a new series of color lithographs. Sam Francis, best known for his paintings, has also worked in sculpture and printmaking. In 1984 he founded Lapis Press, a major publishing house specializing in visual arts and philosophy. His works are present in many public and private collections, including those of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Musée National d'Art Moderne, Center Pompidou in Paris and the Idemitsu Museum of Art in Tokyo. Sam Francis died on November 4, 1994 in Santa Monica, California.
