Light on Fire, Gallery
Light on Fire includes 11 color plates of Sam Francis works of art and 22 black and white photographs. Below are a few samples. All Sam Francis artworks and archival photographs of the artist are © 2021 Sam Francis Foundation, California/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, unless otherwise noted.
Sam Francis painting Berlin Red in Ashland Avenue studio, Santa Monica, California, 1970. Film still from Jeffrey Perkins, The Painter Sam Francis (Body and Soul Productions, 2008). [Film] music by Charles Curtis; edited by Marc Vives. 85 minutes
Sam Francis holding self-portrait in Tokyo studio, 1974. Photographer unknown.
Sam Francis, Mako Idemitsu, and their two sons, Osamu (standing) and Shingo Francis, Tokyo studio, ca. 1970. Photographer unknown
Sam Francis with Judy Chicago at Easter happening, Brookside Park, Pasadena, California, 1969. Photographer unknown
Sam Francis working on the Tokyo Mural in temporary Tokyo studio, 1957. Photo by François René-Roland, Paris
Sam Francis and Muriel Goodwin in rue Tiphaine studio, Paris, 1955. Photo by Dean Spille.
Sam first learned to paint after suffering from Spinal Tuberculosis. Encased in a full-body plaster corset he was suspended over a cot where he positioned small canvases below him. Sam Francis in the Bradford frame hoisted above his bed at Fort Miley Veterans Hospital, San Francisco, April 16, 1946. The San Francisco News-Call Bulletin newspaper photograph archive, BANC PIC 1959.010-NEG Pt. 2, Box 0082:66725, 4:1. © The Regents of the University of California, the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
Sam Francis painting the Basel Mural in Arcueil studio, Paris, 1958. Photo by Georges Boisgontier.