FRANCIS, Sam
Biography
| 6/25/1923 | born in San Mateo, California (USA) |
| 1941-1943 | studied medicine at The University of California at Berkeley |
| 1947 | studied art at the San Francisco Art Institute, first abstract pictures, influenced by the works of Mark Rothko, Clyfford Still and Jackson Pollock |
| 1948-1950 | University of California at Berkeley |
| 1950-1958 | lived and worked in Paris, with travels to Mexico, Japan and Europe |
| 1957 | Stay in Japan, his works seem to be influenced by Oriental art |
| from 1961 | settled in Santa Monica California, Francis traveled widely exhibiting frequently in Europe and particularly in Japan where he achieved immense celebrity |
| 1968 | Receives an Honorary Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley |
| 1970 | Established The Litho Shop to print his own lithographs |
| 1973-1974 | Lived and painted primarily in Tokyo |
| 1984 | Established Lapis Press to publish artists’ books |
| 1986 | Received commission to paint mural for ceiling of the Opera National, Theatre Royal de la Monnaie, Brussels. |
| 1991 | Commission for new German Parliament Building, Bonn |
| 11/4/1994 | died Santa Barbara, California< br />He was noted for his lyrical, colorful abstract works, was one of the first American artists to experiment with "empty-center" painting. |
| Solo exhibitions (selection) | |
| 1952 | Galerie Nina Dausset, Paris Galerie du Dragon, Paris |
| 1955 | Galerie Rive Droite, Paris |
| 1956 | Galerie Rive Droite, Paris, France Martha Jackson Gallery, New York |
| 1957 | Gimpel Fils, Ltd, London, England |
| 1959 | Pasadena Art Museum, California, the exhibition travelled to San Francisco Museum of Art, California and Seattle Art Museum, Washington |
| 1962 | Esther Bear Gallery, Santa Barbara, California |
| 1966 | Sky painting performance in Japan over Tokyo Bay |
| 1967 | Ski painting performance in Naibara, Japan Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York Retrospective at Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas which later traveled to University Art Museum, Berkeley, California and San Francisco Museum of Art |
| 1968 | Centre National d'Art Contemporain, Paris Kunsthalle, Basel Minami Gallery, Tokyo |
| 1970 | Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California Martha Jackson Gallery, New York Felix Landau Gallery, Los Angeles |
| 1972 | Retrospective at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, which traveled to Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C., Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Texas, and Oakland Museum of Art, California Stanford University Museum of Art, California |
| 1974 | Idemitsu Art Museum, Tokyo Minami Gallery, Tokyo |
| 1978 | Nicholas Wilder Gallery, Los Angeles Otis Art Institute, Los Angeles |
| 1979 | Retrospective exhibition of works on paper at Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Massachusetts, which travels to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Manila, Korea, and Japan under the U.S. International Communication Agency Israel Museum, Jerusalem, "Art in Progress" |
| 1984 | André Emmerich Gallery; Pamela Auchincloss Gallery, Santa Barbara Brooke Alexander, Inc., New York Cantor/Lemberg Gallery, Michigan and Robert Elkon Gallery, New York Thomas Babeor Gallery La Jolla, California Knoedler Gallery, London Gemini G.E.L., Los Angeles Steven Wirtz Gallery, San Francisco |
| 1988 | André Emmerich Gallery, New York Galerie Jean Fournier, Paris Nantenshi Gallery, Tokyo Smith-Andersen Gallery, Palo Alto Greenberg Gallery, St. Louis, Missouri and Galerie de Seoul, Korea, the Exhibition travelled throughout Japan |
| 1991 | Galerie Kornfeld, Bern, "Forty year retrospective” Retrospective museum exhibition at the Kunst-und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn, Germany, curated by Pontus Hulten |
| 1995 | The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, "The Last Paintings of Sam Francis"(a group of 152 small paintings, made June through August, 1994, at the Santa Monica house studio) |
| 1996 | Smith Andersen Gallery, Palo Alto, "Remembering Sam" Sogetsu Art Museum, Tokyo Gallery Delaive, Amsterdam Gagosian Gallery, Beverly Hills, California |
| 1998 | Gallery Delaive, Amsterdam, ”paintings and works on paper 1949-1994” Dorothy Blau Gallery, Bay Harbor Island, "Monotypes" Thomas Segal Gallery, Baltimore, Maryland, "Monotypes" ACA Gallery, Munich, Germany Gallery Guy Pieters, Knokke, Belgium Bobbie Greenfield Gallery, Santa Monica, "Sam Francis: The Edge and Fresh Air Pieces” Gallery Delaive, Amsterdam, "Sam Francis: 1923-1994 Memorial Exhibition” |
| 1999 | galerie pro arte, Freiburg, "Mit unseren Künstlern in das nächste Jahrtausend" American Contemporary Art Gallery, Munich, "Color & Field” Galerie Gabriele von Loeper, Hamburg, "Sam Francis - Letzte Werke - Letzte Bilder und Papierarbeiten" American Contemporary Art Gallery, Munich, "Sam Francis” galerie pro arte, Freiburg, "Sam Francis - Lithographien und Unikate" Baukunst - Galerie, Cologne, "The Spirit of Blue” |
| 2000 | American Contemporary Art Gallery, Munich, "American Abstract Expressionism” Galerie Döbele GmbH - Dresden, Dresden, "Sam Francis - Lithographien / Mark Tobey - Originalwerke und Radierungen" Galerie & Edition Bode GmbH, Nuremberg, "Made in USA - Originalgraphik" Galerie Pascal Polar, Brussells, Accrochage Galerie Stühler, Berlin, "Malerei - Arbeiten auf Papier – Skulptur" Malmö Konsthall, Malmö, "Sam Francis" |
| 2001 | Galerie Pudelko, Bonn, "Sam Francis - Works on paper - 1955-1990” American Contemporary Art Gallery, Munich, "Sam Francis - A new Selection from the 1950s and 1960s” Galerie Burkhard Eikelmenn Essen, Essen, "Pop Art & Co - Uniques, Graphics and Multiples” Galerie Stühler, Berlin, "Malerei - Arbeiten auf Papier - Skulptur" American Contemporary Art Gallery, Munich, "Geometric Forms in Abstraction" Baukunst - Galerie, Cologne, "Sam Francis - Bilder der 60er Jahre" |
| 2002 | Galerie Boisserée, Cologne, "SAM FRANCIS in Köln” Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, "Meisterwerke der Graphischen Sammlung" Alan Cristea Gallery, London, "American Abstraction” Galerie Meißner, Hamburg, "AMERICAN SCENE" Galerie Thomas, Munich, "Sam Francis” Scolar Fine Art, London, "The Print Collection - Modern and Contemporary Prints” Galerie Thomas, Munich, "Nur Farbe" |
| 2003 | UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, "The Eunice and Hal David Collection of 19th and 20th Century Works on Paper” Galerie Pudelko, Bonn, "Künstlerphotographien - Berühmte Photographen portraitieren berühmte Künstler" Galerie Art 204, Duesseldorf, "Ausgewählte Originale und Original-Grafik" Galerie Boisserée, Cologne "Accrochage" Fischerplatz-Galerie, Ulm "Leckerbissen" |
| 2004 | Gallery Delaive, Amsterdam, "Sam Francis – Prototypes” American Contemporary Art Gallery, Munich, "Sam Francis” Galerie Thomas, Munich, "Material Collagen - Sam Francis” |
| Group exhibitions (selection) | |
| 1956 | Museum of Modern Art, New York, "12 Americans" |
| 1964 | Documenta III, Kassel, Germany |
| 1977 | Louisiana Museum of Art at Humlebaek, Denmark, the exhibition later travelled to Centre Pompidou, Paris and Liljevalchs Konsthall, Stockholm, "Art in Progress" |
| 1997 | Associated American Artists, New York, "Francis,Jenkins,Mathieu" |
| 1998 | Galerie Iris Wazzau, Davos "Drei Amerikaner" |
Collections (selection)
| Galerie Weihergut, Salzburg |
| Galerie Weihergut Altstadtgalerie, Salzburg |
| Galerie Jean Fournier, Paris |
| Galerie Georg Nothelfer, Berlin |
| Galerie Pudelko, Bonn |
| Baukunst - Galerie, Cologne |
| Galerie Boisserée, Cologne |
| Galerie Döbele GmbH - Dresden, Dresden |
| Galerie Art 204, Duesseldorf |
| Galerie Ludorff, Duesseldorf |
| Galerie Wild, Frankfurt/Main |
| Galerie Gabriele von Loeper, Hamburg |
| American Contemporary Art Gallery, Munich |
| Galerie Terminus, Munich |
| Galerie Thomas, Munich |
| Kunstkabinett, Regensburg |
| Fischerplatz-Galerie, Ulm |
| Galleria Blu, Milano |
| Kukje Gallery, Seoul, Korea |
| Gallery Delaive, Amsterdam |
| Wetterling Gallery, Stockholm |
| Galerie Beyeler, Basel |
| Galerie Iris Wazzau, Davos |
| Art Forum Ute Barth, Zurich |
| Galerie Renée Ziegler, Zurich |
| Berkeley Square Gallery, London |
| Alan Cristea Gallery, London |
| Helly Nahmad Gallery, London |
| Waddington Galleries, London |
| Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago |
| Jonathan Novak Contemporay Art, Los Angeles |
| Acquavella Galleries, Inc., New York |
| Artemis Greenberg Van Doren Gallery, New York |
| Maxwell Davidson Gallery, New York |
| Gemini G.E.L. at Joni Moisant Weyl, New York |
| Jim Kempner Fine Art, New York |
| Sammlung Essl, Klosterneuburg |
| Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, Paris |
| Museum Folkwang Essen, Essen |
| Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach |
| Fundación Joan Miró, Barcelona |
| Foundation Beyeler, Basel |
| Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Basel |
| Whitney Museum of American Art, New York |
Publications (selection)
| Publications about the artist and his work | |
| Herskovic, Marika: American Abstract Expressionism of the 1950s: An Illustrated Survey 2003 | |
| Dunbier, Lonnie Pierson (Ed) :The Artists Bluebook: (AskART) 32,000 North American Artists 2003 | |
| Sherman, Charlotte (Essay): With an Eye and a Passion: Selections from The Marion Collection 2002 | |
| McClelland, Gordon; Jay Last: California Watercolors 1850-1970, An Illustrated History & Biographical Dictionary 2002 | |
| Shea, Patricia: Picasso to Pop: The Richard Wesiman Collection 2001 | |
| Davenport, Ray: Davenport's Art Reference 2000 | |
| Skold, Stacey (compiler): Art Enterprises: Selections from the Collection 1999 | |
| Passantino, Erika D: The Eye of Duncan Phillips, A Collection in the Making | |