Sam Francis

American printmaker and painter Sam Francis (1923 - ) is known for his works which could be categorized under post-painterly abstraction. His works encourage contemplation through his loose brush strokes and drips, like that of his contemporaries Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock. Yet his colour palette radiates an affinity with Japanese abstract art through his saturated colour fields. Born and raised in California, light was always of interest to Francis, and thus his work shows this fascination through painting different ways in which various ambiances of light hit the canvas. While some may look at his works and consider them to be highly spontaneous, in actuality his work is rather systematic and laborious. While his early works cover the majority of the canvas, his later works explore the Oriental ideas of negative space. Yet what is most intriguing is that while a vast number of his works overall are untitled, his works that are titled often make references to situations involving some form of light, such as Stone Cloud and The Star.