Chinese Planet 1963

Sam Francis made this gorgeous blue and red planetarium using lithography, so it's paint but not paint... more like printed paint. I love imagining Francis in the print shop, coaxing these cosmic forms out of the lithographic stone. The way the colors bloom and speckle, it's like he’s capturing a moment of creation—a mini big bang, with all these little worlds popping into existence. I imagine he mixed his inks freely, intuitively responding to the push and pull of the materials, letting the colors bleed and merge. There’s so much air and light! Francis’s work always makes me think of Joan Mitchell, or Helen Frankenthaler. They all have this way of opening up space, making paintings that feel boundless. It reminds us that artists are always in dialogue, riffing off each other, creating this amazing, ongoing conversation across time. Each artwork is just one little burst of color in that bigger conversation.