Sam Francis (1915–1994) developed his distinctive approach to color and form during years of physical confinement following a spinal injury, when painting from his bed led him to explore how pigment behaves when allowed to pool, drip, and find its own boundaries on horizontal surfaces. Working with highly diluted acrylics and employing gravity as a collaborator, Francis built up his compositions through successive applications of transparent washes, letting each layer dry before introducing the next so that colors would glow through one another rather than mix into muddiness. In his triangle lithographs, this fluid sensibility translates into geometric structures that retain an organic quality—edges blur slightly, forms seem to breathe and expand, and the white space functions not as empty background but as an active element with its own weight and presence. Francis treated printmaking with the same experimental openness as his paintings, often working directly on the lithographic stones and embracing accidents and unexpected chemical reactions as integral to the final image, allowing the medium’s technical demands to suggest new compositional possibilities rather than merely reproducing painted effects.

1977
2-Panel, 6-color lithograph, 6 A.P.
44" h x 36" w

Artwork donated by David Gensburg