Sam Francis Monotype Untitled, 1986 is an energetic and expressive explosion of color and movement from the abstract expressionist artist. Contained within the margins of a rectangular composition, this wildly vivid monotype is impressed upon a thick handmade paper. Utilizing a palette of green, yellow, lapis blue, red, pink, and turquoise, Francis applies these brilliant hues through a variety of techniques: erratic splatters, solid shapes, and swirling painterly brushstrokes. These disparate elements are fully integrated, overlapping, and melding to form a wholly balanced composition infused with kinetic energy, while juxtaposing the organic nature of his images with moments of geometric stability. Unlike many of Sam Francis’s other monotypes, this one is not a “bleed” image, in that the impression does not come to the edge, so there is a white border of the plain, unprinted handmade paper. Border of white provides a relief from the prismatic image, while showcasing the rich embossment around the edge of the image.

Sam Francis monotypes are celebrated for their experimentation and innovation. Francis incorporated a mix of different mediums in these works, allowing paints that typically do not interact to exist together with interesting outcomes. All of these various materials, weather they were acrylic, oil, dry pigments, or ink, would be printed at once to create the overall image, rather than printing in layers. This is astonishing when looking at Sam Francis monotype Untitled, 1986, due to its wonderfully complex and richly textured appearance. The process left much to chance, which is part of the excitement of each impression.

Created in 1986, this monotype with oil paint, powdered pigment and ink in colors on handmade paper is hand signed Sam Francis (San Mateo, 1923- Santa Monica, 1994) in pencil in the lower right. A unique and original work.

Catalogue Raisonné & COA:
1. A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany this Sam Francis Monotype Untitled, 1986.

About the Framing:
Framed to museum-grade, conservation standards, Sam Francis monotype Untitled, 1986 presented in a complementary moulding and finished with silk-wrapped mats and optical grade Plexiglas.