Coral Trails 1986

Sam Francis made this painting using fluid acrylics to explore chance and spontaneity. What strikes me is how the pools of colour seem to hover, suspended in this white space. It's like looking into some sort of strange petri dish, where the paint is both controlled and completely wild. The physicality of the paint is key here. You can almost feel the wetness of the pigment, the way it spreads and bleeds into the canvas. Take, for instance, that cluster of black drips near the bottom. It's so visceral, like the painting is alive and still in process, capturing a moment of pure creation. There is such an immediacy of gesture. Francis reminds me a little of Joan Mitchell, in the sense that he uses colour to create movement and space, but he also shares something with the slightly earlier work of Helen Frankenthaler. He is using the material properties of paint to shape our emotional response, embracing ambiguity and celebrating the endless possibilities of art making.