Self-Portrait 1973

Curator: Here we have Sam Francis’ “Self-Portrait,” created in 1973, rendered in acrylic paint. What are your initial thoughts on this work? Editor: Whoa, intense. It feels… unfinished, almost frantic, but I like that. Like looking at a raw nerve. Curator: Absolutely. Francis, while known for color, often played with monochrome. Look at how the acrylic, likely a print, is laid down. We see the gesture, the artist’s hand so clearly, a kind of physical record. I’m curious, how does this portrayal of the self in seemingly chaotic material, mirror society, production, consumption, perhaps the turbulent period of the 70s? Editor: Oh, definitely a sense of unease lurking there. It’s interesting to see what the artist chooses to omit and add; for me, the stark black and white forces an emotional engagement without distraction. Curator: And the method, of printmaking, allows the self to be multiplied, considered and replicated—Francis grappling with identity? I suppose it challenges conventional notions of the portrait by making the means visible. You are reminded of its manufactured state. Editor: Possibly. I’m just struck by the immediacy of it all, almost visceral, it pulls me in with a disquieting familiarity. The splatter, for me, also suggests how the work has evolved, its layers in history almost fossilized for our viewing. It feels like this “raw nerve,” as I previously put, invites self-examination, to confront those shadowed places. Curator: Exactly. And what are we to do with this introspection? The commercial and labor intensive print process meets the inner self—Francis offers us his own. Editor: It almost urges you to be ok with that feeling of chaos—a way to make our pain visible. Thanks for pointing that out, this changes the work completely! Curator: Indeed, an emotional, thought-provoking work, both intimately tied to the hand, labor and history, and open to so much more. Editor: Francis created something powerful here, something really quite enduring. I keep coming back to it!