Red Again 1972

Sam Francis made this untitled painting, "Red Again," most likely with acrylic on paper. It’s full of splatters and puddles, like a party happened on the page. I am really drawn to the way Francis lets the paint drip and run. You can almost feel him tilting the paper, guiding the colors across the surface, like a dance. The red really pops, but it’s the way it mixes with the blues and yellows that gives the piece its energy. Look at the lower left corner, where the colors overlap. It’s like a little universe of its own. The transparency of the colours show the layering, and for me this gets at the heart of what painting is all about: a record of time, process, and the sheer joy of making. There are connections here with Kandinsky, another abstract painter interested in colour, space, and music. Ultimately painting is an ongoing conversation, an open invitation to see and feel in new ways.