Sam Francis: Poèmes in the Sky
17/01/22 – 21/02/22

This winter we are excited to exhibit Sam Francis: Poèmes dans le Ciel (Poems in the Sky) a portfolio of six prints from 1986.

Sam Francis (1923 – 1994) was an American painter and printmaker whose interest in the work of abstract expressionists such as Mark Rothko, Arshile Gorky and Clyfford Still fuelled his artistic vision. His loose style however, was most influenced by the work of Jackson Pollock and he later became loosely associated with the second generation of abstract expressionists, including Joan Mitchell and Helen Frankenthaler, who were increasingly interested in the expressive use of colour. Francis never fit neatly into any school of art and instead charted his own trajectory as one of the first global artists working around the world.

Sam Francis took up lithography in 1960 and it became an important aspect of his artistic practice. In 1970 he established a workshop called the Litho Shop to print and publish his own lithographs. This portfolio of six prints were produced by Francis to accompany a text by the French art critic Michel Waldberg. He drew directly onto six plates and printed them in yellow, red, green, purple, ultramarine, dark blue and black.

The works are currently displayed in the gallery and there is an online viewing room to accompany the exhibition.