IN RECOGNITION OF SLOW ART DAY, APRIL 15, 2023
EL NIDO BY VC PROJECTS LOS ANGELES
HOMAGE TO SAM FRANCIS
A Century of Sam
2023 marks the centennial of Sam Francis (June 25, 1923 - November 4, 1994). We celebrate the 100th anniversary of Francis’s birthday and his continued creative legacy through exhibitions, educations events, special projects, articles, and archival explorations. We invite scholars, colleagues, artists, institutions, and historians to explore their relationship with Francis, his art, his creative legacy and his inspiration.
©Sam Francis
Sam Francis Foundation https://samfrancisfoundation.org
POETRY BY SAM FRANCIS - IN OBSERVANCE OF SLOW ART DAY, APRIL 15, 2023
In recognition of the artist and writer, Sam Francis, and Sam Francis Foundation,
El NIDO by VC Projects would like to acknowledge Sam Francis for ‘slow reading’
on SLOW ART DAY, April 15, 2023
GUIDELINES FOR READING AND MORE
1. Read the text slowly out load
2. After reading, go outside or look through a window to see the sky (either day or night.)
3. Contemplate in silence
4. Create a work in any medium in reflection of this text
POETRY
Death mediates the high and the low
waterfall mediates the above and below the above and below can fully cohere
cohesion
death has only depth
the deep inclines
deepening inclining the incline deepens
there are as many deaths as possible
death coheres
our soul mediates
you and me
armed in gold
his heart across the heavens rolled claimed me his own
Death spreads out letting enter
I paint time
I am ruin rolled I am rolled
Time is the swiftest of all things
darkness covers light light fills darkness
interpenetration of time and space an increase in light gives an increase in
darkness
light and dark are constellations of each other
cutting away to a new image is
new image
the motion towards death
light is the evidence 4 if the movement 3
of eternity 2
compensating is
the shadow adding to the light what
it must know at this time
We are always at the center of space
we are always at the center of time
we are always far
as possible from both
east and west
we are always as far as possible from earlier and later
He is named space He is named time He is named light He is named
He has the mercy of eternity He is spreading (moving in space spreading) moving is possible because of easing because of loosing
there are as many images as eyes to see
these paintings approach you where
you
are
Red contains every color even red
all colors in this painting consist of
all other colors
my starting point has no dimension
neither in time neither in color
space or death
but is a unified even wave with intensity
Color is born
of the interpretation of light and dark
the space at the center
of these paintings is reserved for you
can you unify?
can you unite?
can you bear?
can you bare?
the weight
at the center?
can you last?
forever? having never
begun?
as you know energy can have never begun and yet is taken up again and again an lasts forever until it is taken up again
Color is a
firing of the
eye
one flash only fills the universe
one miracle only endures forever (eternity)
Color is a pattern that plays across the membrane of the mind
Color is a series of harmonies everywhere in the universe being divine whole numbers lasting forever adrift in time
I am your change-bearer I am your instrument of expansion
are you the white from eternity?
Death has no
surface only depth
Depth is all
Sam Francis
Sam Francis painting
ABOUT SAM FRANCIS
For Sam Francis, exploring the creative process was his driving force. It impacted not only his art, but his view of human progress.
One of the twentieth century’s most profound Abstract Expressionists, American artist Sam Francis (1923-1994) is noted as one of the first post-World War II painters to develop an international reputation. Francis created thousands of paintings as well as works on paper, prints and monotypes, housed in major museum collections and institutions around the world. Regarded as one of the leading interpreters of color and light, his work holds references to New York abstract expressionism, color field painting, Chinese and Japanese art, French impressionism and his own Bay Area roots.
After graduating from Cal Berkeley in 1950 with a degree in art, Francis moved to Paris, where he would go on to be named by Time Magazine as, “the hottest American painter in Paris these days.” A transformative period of his career, Francis immersed himself in a study of Monet’s Water Lilies and was influenced by his close friendships with the Matisse family and artists Al Held, Joan Mitchell, and Jean-Paul Riopelle.
For the next four decades he traveled and studied extensively, maintaining studios in Bern, Paris, Tokyo, Mexico City, New York and Northern and Southern California. Through his travels he was exposed to many styles, techniques and cultural influences, which informed the development of his own dialogue and style of painting. Francis possessed a lyrical and gestural
hand, enabling him to capture and record the brilliance, energy and intensity of color at different moments of time and periods of his life. His paintings embody his love of literature, music and science, while reflecting his deep range of emotions and personal turmoil.
Not only are Francis’s paintings valued historically for their aesthetic vision, but his inquisitive mind and spirit have solidified Francis’s legacy as a contemporary renaissance man. His interest in the creative process was expansive and synergistic – art, technology, psychology, science, medicine, and protecting the environment (before it became a movement). He was an early investor in research to find creative solutions to our dependence on non-renewable energy sources and cures for AIDs. In each of these realms, he explored the nature of creativity – what stimulates it, the importance of testing new ideas through experimentation as well as the roles of imagination, intuition and knowledge.
Much like Francis believed his life was a series of ongoing challenges, the Sam Francis Foundation is dedicated to expanding his sense of wonder – his freedom to explore – his mantra to dream – his life force to be creative..
https://samfrancisfoundation.org
