Untitled (SFP94-65, SFF.1739) 1994

Curator: We are now viewing Sam Francis’s Untitled (SFP94-65, SFF.1739) executed in 1994, showcasing a compelling mixed-media application. What strikes you initially? Editor: There's a vibrant energy to the application, the sense of immediate and intuitive handling of material, almost like an accidental act of pure gesture. The color appears unrestrained, bold even. Curator: Indeed, Francis is often celebrated for his unrestrained approach to color, aligned with the tenets of Color Field painting, while here his Fauvist undertones enhance our view to the painting. Notice how the blank canvas is integrated not as absence but as a compositional element. It influences the interaction of lines. Editor: Exactly, it’s as much about what isn't there as what is. Thinking of its construction, I see an emphasis on process, how the layers are built. Each splash, drip and the type of paint reveal deliberate gestures involved. It would be valuable to investigate any prior studies. Curator: Interesting observation. This open space within abstraction brings form. There’s a dynamic interplay between intention and chance. The dripped medium activates our understanding, in many cases challenging formalistic ideas about gestural abstraction and pushing to an edge with the use of colour theory. Editor: Agreed, but I'd argue the real essence lies not just in that structured analysis of form but in the directness. He almost revels in the fluidity and sheer presence of the paint. It reminds me that creating artwork is just moving materials through the means of our hands. The way it has been manufactured, packaged and delivered from raw resource to become an expressive painting in the viewer's mind. Curator: So, we begin with deconstruction but we remain at its expression? Ultimately this approach permits open discourse to emerge in any formal or conceptual direction in his vast canon. Editor: Leaving the audience here surely leaves an impact concerning what can occur through labour intensive mark making of materials on any given medium.