Lot Essay
Painted in Paris in 1954, this canvas is one of a rare number of "black" pictures that Francis created as part of his continuing exploration of the properties of colour and the substance of light.
Francis began to paint in 1943 when he was confined to a long, bed-ridden recovery after an airplane crash. He became intrigued by the patterns of light that shifted across the hospital ceiling. As a result of his confinement, he gained a particular insight into the quality of light that was to inform much of his work ever since.
Though profoundly influenced and inspired by such great colourists as Monet and Bonnard, in 1953 Francis introduced black into his canvases in a deliberate and saturated way that conversely brought out the vibrancy of his colours underneath. For him, black was "the Satanic colour from which light emerges, often unexpectedly." (As quoted in: Peter Selz, Sam Francis, New York 1975, p. 46). His understanding of black therefore mirrored its early use by artists such as Willem de Kooning, Franz Klein and Jackson Pollock.
In a rare description of his working method, Francis described how he set about making his black paintings: "I start by painting the entire canvas white. As other colours are added, it becomes less intense. I add black to bring back the intensity."
Black is a colour, which Francis has described as one that "burns with the possibility of all colours". It is employed in the present work as an all-encompassing, cell-like structure in order to create an inward tension. The brilliant vibrant colours underneath the black are held down by these cells in such a way that the surface shimmers like a coal fire or a larva flow. This has the effect of projecting the black forms out from the picture surface in a unique and wholly absorbing manner - one which proclaims Francis' assertion that "colour is the real substance for me, the real underlying thing which drawing and line are not."
Francis began to paint in 1943 when he was confined to a long, bed-ridden recovery after an airplane crash. He became intrigued by the patterns of light that shifted across the hospital ceiling. As a result of his confinement, he gained a particular insight into the quality of light that was to inform much of his work ever since.
Though profoundly influenced and inspired by such great colourists as Monet and Bonnard, in 1953 Francis introduced black into his canvases in a deliberate and saturated way that conversely brought out the vibrancy of his colours underneath. For him, black was "the Satanic colour from which light emerges, often unexpectedly." (As quoted in: Peter Selz, Sam Francis, New York 1975, p. 46). His understanding of black therefore mirrored its early use by artists such as Willem de Kooning, Franz Klein and Jackson Pollock.
In a rare description of his working method, Francis described how he set about making his black paintings: "I start by painting the entire canvas white. As other colours are added, it becomes less intense. I add black to bring back the intensity."
Black is a colour, which Francis has described as one that "burns with the possibility of all colours". It is employed in the present work as an all-encompassing, cell-like structure in order to create an inward tension. The brilliant vibrant colours underneath the black are held down by these cells in such a way that the surface shimmers like a coal fire or a larva flow. This has the effect of projecting the black forms out from the picture surface in a unique and wholly absorbing manner - one which proclaims Francis' assertion that "colour is the real substance for me, the real underlying thing which drawing and line are not."