Sam Francis’s colorful serigraphs show how the artist explored light and gesture through bold chromatic relationships and luminous hues. His use of layered transparencies and atmospheric compositions where inks bloom and interact across paper like watercolor. These polychromatic works seem to create radiant forms that hover between liquid and vapor. Francis’s engagement with Japanese calligraphy and the concept of ma—or “meaningful emptiness”—allow for vast areas of untouched paper to function as active elements rather than passive backgrounds, with brilliant blues, yellows, reds, and greens defining edges of blank areas. Francis once observed, the picture “should be an envelope for light,” and these works demonstrate how negative space can be luminous. Notice how each splash, drip, and soft-edged pool of color creates rhythm across the surface, and how chromatic intensities are distributed.

1972
7-Color serigraph
30" h x 22.5" w

Artwork donated by Mr. Sidney Felsen, Gemini G.E.L.