Untitled (SFP94-55, SFF.1729) 1994

Sam Francis made this untitled painting, SFP94-55, with who knows what, sometime before 1994, and it's like looking into a world being born, right? The colors explode, but there's also this sense of control, like he's not just throwing paint around. Look at how the yellow streaks dance over the deeper blues and greens, creating this wild, energetic surface. There is a red splodge, almost like a full stop, hovering near the middle of the canvas. Up close, you can see how the paint pools and drips, how each mark is a record of his movement. It’s all about the physicality of painting, the sheer joy of pushing pigment around. Francis reminds me a bit of Joan Mitchell, another painter who wasn’t afraid to let loose with color, but where she felt grounded in landscape, Francis seems to touch on something much wider, a conversation with abstraction that's been going on for decades, where the possibilities are endless, and nothing is ever truly finished.