Lot Essay
Painted just after the completion of Francis' celebrated series of paintings entitled Blue Balls, the present work is one of great organic sensuality. Employing great expanses of white as a means of defining space and creating dynamic tension, Francis would continue to explore this theme in later works. In discussing the present painting, Peter Selz has written:
Color, raw and bright, appears in When White. Translucency is replaced by intense, definite primary color and clear light. The biomorphic forms have been moved toward the perimeter, and by far the largest area of the painting is left white but not empty: it is full of expectation and tension. The viewer's attention is divided between the large red triangle on the upper left and the sexually aggressive snakelike blue curve on the right . . . 'Sam is always water and sky' (P. Selz, op. cit., pp. 91-92).
This painting has been requested for the Sam Francis: Paintings, 1947-1990 to be held at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; The Menil Collection, Houston; Malm Konsthalle, Sweden; Museo Nacional Centro d'Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; and Gallerie Communale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome from March 1999-January 2001.
Color, raw and bright, appears in When White. Translucency is replaced by intense, definite primary color and clear light. The biomorphic forms have been moved toward the perimeter, and by far the largest area of the painting is left white but not empty: it is full of expectation and tension. The viewer's attention is divided between the large red triangle on the upper left and the sexually aggressive snakelike blue curve on the right . . . 'Sam is always water and sky' (P. Selz, op. cit., pp. 91-92).
This painting has been requested for the Sam Francis: Paintings, 1947-1990 to be held at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; The Menil Collection, Houston; Malm Konsthalle, Sweden; Museo Nacional Centro d'Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; and Gallerie Communale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome from March 1999-January 2001.