🔥 RARE Vintage Modern Venice Art Walk Signed Exhibition Poster, SAM FRANCIS '82

Description: This is a significant and RARE Vintage Modern Venice Art Walk Signed Exhibition Poster, displaying an Abstract painting by Sam Francis (1923 - 1994,) and hand signed by the artist in ink at the middle-left edge (please see photos.) This poster reads: "Venice Art Walk" in the center. In the lower left corner, it is dated "1982," and in the lower right edge, it reads: "Participating Artists and Galleries: Lita Albuquerque. Charles Arnoldi. Annette Bird. Sharon Carol. Stephanie DeLange. Guy Dill. Laddie John Dill. Jean Edelstein. Frederick Eversley. Claire Falkenstein. Frank Gehry. D.J. Hall. Lloyd Hamrol. Victor Henderson. Charles Christopher Hill. Diana Hobson. Charles Kessler. Margit Omar. Eric Orr. Ann Pixley. Elsa Radey. Roland Reiss. George Rodart. Sandra Mendelsohn-Rubin. Sherie Scheer. Reesy Shaw. Eugene Sturman. Ann Thornycroft. DeWain Valentine. John White. Pamela Weir-Quiton. Ruth Weisberg. Ace Gallery. Tony Bill Gallery. L.A. Louver Gallery. Lonny Gans and Associates. Peace & Plenty Gallery. Malinda Wyatt Gallery...Poster Design: COY, Los Angeles. Color Separations and Printing: Ultra Color." At the bottom lower edge, it reads: "All proceeds go to the Venice Family Clinic, 1982. Venice Family Clinic 322 S. Lincoln Blvd., Venice, CA 90291." Approximately 20 5/8 x 30 1/4 inches (including frame.) Very good condition for age, with some light waviness to the edges of the paper from decades of being framed, and light scuffing and edge wear to the original period vintage aluminum frame (please see photos.) Priced to Sell. This poster is very rare, and from a small edition of unknown size. This is the only signed version of this exhibition poster to ever be offered for sale since the invention of the Internet. Acquired in Los Angeles, California. If you like what you see, I encourage you to make an Offer. Please check out my other listings for more wonderful and unique artworks! About the Artist: Sam Lewis Francis Born: 1923 - San Mateo, CaliforniaDied: 1994 - Santa Monica, CaliforniaKnown for: Splatter-stain imagery painting, graphicsName variants: Samuel Lewis Francis Sam Lewis Francis (1923 - 1994) was active/lived in California / Japan, France. Sam Francis is known for Splatter-stain imagery painting, graphics. An Abstract Expressionist painter known for his brilliant coloration and splotch-like shapes, Sam Francis became one of the big-name modernist artists of the second half of the 20th century. He was much influenced by Clyfford Styll and Mark Rothko. Unlike the creations of many of the Abstract Expressionists and the Bay Area Figurative* painters, his work was light and airy and increasingly decorative. Seeking his own approach to abstraction*, he spent much of his career out of the United States, especially in France.Of his painting, Sam Francis said that he wanted to make "something that fills utterly the sight and can't be used to make life only bearable". (Herskovic 130)Sam Francis was born in San Mateo, California, and attended the University of California at Berkeley from 1941 to 1943. He studied psychology and pre-med and then went into the Army Air Corps where he was in an air crash that led to spinal tuberculosis. Recovering from this injury, he turned to abstract painting and then sought formal art education. In 1949 and 1950, he earned his B.A. and M.A. Degrees from the University of California. Also as a patient at Letterman Hospital, he studied privately with abstract figurative painter David Park. Evident at this time were signature aspects of his mature style--- "the irregular-cell or blotlike color-shape and a preference for thinned oil and acrylic pigments." (Baigell 127)For a period of time Sam Francis was part of the Bay Area Abstract group that included Styll, Park, and Richard Diebenkorn. However in 1950, when his work was gaining national attention, Sam Francis left San Francisco to live in the Orient and Paris, where he was much influenced by the French Impressionists* and Post-Impressionist's* use of color. In France, he began to do monochromatic* paintings that suggested fog and mist, often with paint trickling down from the shapes.In 1962, he settled in Santa Monica and worked extensively for the next thirty years with the medium of printmaking, as well as with his oil painting. He was one of the pioneering artists to experiment with "empty-center" paintings and created works that had pigment stains on the periphery and much open space where traditionally canvases were filled with paint. However, in the 1970, he abandoned the "empty-center" method.Sources include:Marika Herskovic, American Abstract Expressionism of the 1950s, An Illustrated SurveyPeter Hastings Falk (Editor), Who Was Who in American ArtMatthew Baigell, Dictionary of American Art The following was compiled and written by Jean Ershler Schatz, artist and researcher from Laguna Woods, California:Sam Francis was born in San Mateo, California in 1923, the son of a mathematics professor. In 1941 he began a premedical course at the University of California at Berkeley, but he dropped out in 1943 to join the United States Army Air Corps. He landed in a United States Army hospital following a spinal injury during flight training. Flat on his back in the hospital, he took up drawing and painting; the play of light on the ceiling became one of his favorite themes. In 1948 he returned to Berkeley as an experienced painter, earning his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1949 and his Masters in 1950. He gravitated into the orbit of San Francisco's Abstract-Impressionist movement.His exuberant atmospheric color paintings of the 1950s bespeak a hedonistic approach that distinguishes his work from the usually harsh, anxiety-ridden canvases of the first generation Abstract Expressionists. Francis's embrace of one of the strongest traditions in French art - a joyous and unrestrained love of color and light was demonstrated by Francis at the outset of his career. In 1950, having obtained a master's degree, Francis by-passed New York and moved to Paris where he lived for almost seven years. He visited Japan in 1957 and the influences of both art worlds have been evident.In 1947 Francis, while recovering from his spinal injury, he married Vera Miller, the first of his five wives. His fifth wife was an English painter Margaret Smith with whom he had one son, Augustus. Another wife was Mako Kawase; she was the mother of Shingo, another son. He died on November 4, 1995 at the age of seventy-one. He was forced to scale down his activities in his final year. But nothing short of death could extinguish his need to paint. Although his right hand was crippled, and and he was in brutal agony (he even painted with an IV in his arm for a few days) he painted one hundred and fifty small pictures, working until he had no more energy and they had to put him back to bed.Sources include:Master Paintings from the Phillips Collection Time Magazine, January 16, 1956 and November 13, 1972 It's Never Too Much, article by Suzanne Muchnik in LA Times Sunday, April 21, 1991The Lion's Last Roar article by Kristine McKenna in LA Times Sunday, May 28, 1995Biography from Auctionata, Inc.Sam (Samuel) Lewis Francis was born in 1923, in San Mateo, California. As an Abstract Expressionist painter, Sam Francis is regarded as one of the 20th century's leading interpreters of color and light. His first works were influenced by the Abstract Expressionism of Mark Rothko, Arshile Gorky, and Clyfford Still. However, he quickly developed his own colorful abstract style after moving to Paris in 1950. In addition to New York Abstract Expressionism, Sam's work also holds references to Color Field painting, Chinese and Japanese art, French Impressionism, and his own California roots. Throughout a long and prolific career, Sam Francis created thousands of paintings, works on paper, prints, and monotypes. Sam Francis died in 1994, in Santa Monica, California.Biography from AuctionataSam Lewis Francis (1923 San Mateo-1994 Santa Monica) At the end of World War II, Francis suffered from severe injuries at the backbone. During the medical treatment he got in touch with paintings. From 1948 to 1950 he studied history of arts and visual arts at the University of California in Berkeley. At that time he was influenced by abstract expressionists like Mark Rothko, Arshile Gorky and Clyfford Still. In the next years he kept studios in Paris, Bern, Tokio and New York, before he settled down in Santa Monica, California in 1962. In 1964, Sam Francis exhibited at the Venice Biennial 32 and the Documenta III in Kassel. Since the 1970s his oeuvre focuses on action painting as well as various printing techniques such as lithograph, monotype and etching.Biography from Modern Art DealersSam Francis (1923 – 1994)In the summer of 1923, one of the twentieth century’s most profound Abstract Expressionists artists, Sam Lewis Francis, was born in San Mateo, California. Sam Francis enrolled in the University Of California at Berkeley in 1941. There he studied psychology and a pre-medical course before dropping out to join the United States Army Air Corps. This is where he was to develop his artistic genius through a twist of medical fate. A spinal injury prompted him to take up painting and the rest they say is history, as artist Sam Francis is today one of America’s most renowned Abstract Expressionist artists.Sam Francis was influenced by artists Clyfford Styll and Mark Rothko. During his lifetime he created thousands of paintings, artwork on paper, prints and monotypes. These various mediums of Sam Francis artwork have been showcased in major museum collections and institutions around the world. Sam Francis art was highly influenced by New York abstract expressionism, color field painting, Chinese and Japanese art (where he visited in 1957), French impressionism and Bay Area roots.He applied a robust style of atmospheric color to his paintings of the 1950s that make his works unique from the normal harsh, anxiety-ridden canvases of the first generation Abstract expressionists. Sam Francis art is not only revered for its historical relevance to aesthetic vision but also for his in-depth mind and soul he puts into his artwork. This is why artist Sam Francis is regarded as a contemporary renaissance man.Through the transformative phase of his career, Sam Francis familiarized himself with the study of Monet’s Water Lilies and was greatly influenced by his close relationship with the Matisse family and artists Al Held, Joan Mitchell, and Jean-Paul Riopelle. After earning an art degree at Cal Berkeley in 1950, artist Sam Francis would go on to be named “the hottest American painter in Paris these days” by Time Magazine. Sam Francis’ interest in creative arts was expansive and he was able to delve into technology, psychology, science, medicine, and he also became an advocate for environmental protection.Sam Francis married his first wife, Vera Miller, in 1947 while he was recovering from the spinal cord injury he sustained while in the army. However the marriage didn’t last long and he also didn’t have much luck with other women as he ultimately married 4 other woman. His fifth was the English painter Margaret Smith who gave him a son named, Augustus. He also had another son, Shingo from his ex wife Mako Kawase.Artist Sam Francis had an adventurous spirit and this led him to travel the world extensively to study. He also maintained art studios in different parts of the world in places like Berlin, Paris, Tokyo, Mexico City, New York and Northern and Southern California. His travels gave him a different perspective on art and painting styles techniques and cultural influences, which helped to shape his growth of his own dialogue and style of painting. Sam 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.Sam Francis paintings embody his love of literature, music and science, while reflecting his deep range of emotions and personal turmoil. His art is shaped by many visual indicators reminiscent of the “action painting” or art informel schools of Abstract Expressionism. The thing that stood Sam Francis out as a unique painter was his technique of tachisme, in which heavy blotches of free-flowing oil paints were allowed to drip down and, in the process, create an accidental design. In the Sam Francis artwork In Blue Balls VII, which was part of the 1964 Post-Painterly Abstraction exhibit, Francis used far less paint than he was accustomed to. The finished product showcases razor thin lines of blue paint that cascade down from the more noticeable blotches applied throughout the canvas.In 1962, the artist settled in Santa Monica and worked extensively for the next thirty years with the medium of printmaking as well as with his oil painting. He was one of the first artists to try out “empty-center” paintings and created paintings that had pigment stains on the periphery and much open space where other normal canvases were filled with paint. But in the year 1970, the viewer will find that his art abandoned the “empty-center” method.In the later years of his life, Sam Francis invested heavily in research to find creative solutions to non-renewable energy sources and cures for AIDs. In all these aspects of life, the artist explored the nature of creativity, what drives it, the relevance of testing new ideas through experimentation as well as the roles of imagination, intuition and knowledge. The Sam Francis Foundation which was created in his honor is dedicated to expanding his sense of wonder, his desire to explore and his life force to be creative.The artist had such a love for creating art that he would physically exhaust himself artistically even though he was incapacitated in his final years. While in poor health, and with a crippled right hand (he even painted with an IV in his arm for a few days) he still painted one hundred and fifty small pictures, working until he had no more energy and they had to put him back to bed.Sam Francis passed away on November 4, 1995 at the age of seventy-one.Modern Art Dealers, Carmel CA Biography from Hollis Taggart Galleries Considered one of the premier colorists of the twentieth century, Sam Francis is best known for dramatic, lushly painted works comprised of vivid pools of color, thinly applied. Drips, gestures, and splatters of paint in his work have led many critics to identify him as a second-generation Abstract Expressionist, but Francis has also been compared to Color Field artists on the basis of large, fluid sections of paint that seem to extend beyond the confines of the pictorial surface. In 1964, the influential art critic Clement Greenberg included Francis in his celebrated exhibition "Post-Painterly Abstraction" at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. In the catalogue, Greenberg described Post-Painterly Abstraction as both being related to and distinct from Abstract Expressionism. Greenberg wrote: "By contrast with the interweaving of light and dark gradations in the typical Abstract Expressionist picture, all the artists in this show move towards a physical openness of design, or towards linear clarity, or towards both."Francis was born in San Mateo, California, in 1923. He originally studied medicine and psychology at the University of California at Berkeley, before serving in the U.S. Air Force. During a lengthy hospital confinement as a result of spinal tuberculosis, Francis began painting. After his release, he continued to study painting, first with David Park at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco and then at U.C. Berkeley, where he majored in art and eventually earned both a B.A. and an M.A. During the late 1940s, he began producing and exhibiting his earliest abstract paintings. Francis was initially influenced by the work of the Abstract Expressionists, and he incorporated many of their techniques and ideas in his work. Despite this influence, Francis's art was also in close dialogue with modern and contemporary French art. His references ranged from the Water Lilies of Claude Monet, which inspired many of Francis's idea about atmosphere and space, to Pierre Bonnard and Henri Matisse, whose conceptions of pure color were particularly resonant.Launching what would turn out to be a decade of travel abroad, Francis left California for Paris in 1950, and studied briefly at the Académie Fernand Léger. While there, he became friendly with the Canadian artist Jean-Paul Riopelle and several American artists, including Joan Mitchell, as well as more established European artists including Alberto Giacometti. Francis quickly began exhibiting his work—he participated in the 1950 Salon de Mai in Paris as well as several group shows, including the critic Michel Tapié's celebrated 1951 exhibition, "Un Art Autre", which was shown in both Paris and London. By 1952, Francis was showing his work in several solo exhibitions and high-profile group exhibitions, such as "12 Americans" at the Museum of Modern Art (1956) and "New American Painting" (1958), both of which were curated by Dorothy Miller, and 1959 exhibitions Documenta II and the Bienal de São Paulo.While in Paris, Francis became associated with the tâchistes (from the French word, tâche, meaning a splash or stain). Artists in this group developed a style of gestural action painting that reflected an expressive, painterly aesthetic and the artists' desire to highlight the beauty of their materials, as opposed to portraying psychological or philosophical concerns.In works made after the mid-1950s, Francis investigated perceptions of light and color by contrasting glowing jewel tones with large areas of white. Francis described his career-long interest in light as being "not just the play of light, but the substance of which light is made." Francis's depiction of the shifting effects of light and large patches of pure, glowing color recall both the effects of stained-glass windows in Gothic cathedrals and Paul Cézanne's watercolors, in which he attempted to "draw with color." Francis's frequent visits to Aix-en-Provence, the town in southern France where Cézanne, mesmerized by the local light, created most of his mature works, reinforced a connection between the projects of the two artists. In Francis's later works, he incorporated the light and colors of Southern California, where he lived almost exclusively after 1961.During the 1950s, Francis made many extended visits to Japan, where he owned a home and a studio. Japanese calligraphy and art, particularly the Japanese use of negative space, had a profound influence on his art. White in Francis's work does not function simply as a ground against which he applies color. Rather, the white areas are engaged in active dialogue with the colors. White visually structures the work, directing colors into patterns, while simultaneously amplifying and diminishing the intensity of the tones. Francis also incorporated the spirit and aesthetic of haboku, a Japanese style of drips and flung ink, in his paintings and prints. He employs a variety of marks, ranging from small drips dispersed across the surface, to broad horizontal and diagonal lines that appear to reference calligraphic forms.Sam Francis died in Santa Monica on November 4, 1994. Biography from Denis Bloch Fine ArtSam Francis was late to start his successful and brilliant career as an artist. He initially attended the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied botany, medicine and psychology. Shortly thereafter, Francis served in the United States Air Force during WWII where he suffered injury in a plane crash. His artistic career began soon after being released from the hospital when he returned to Berkeley to study art.Initially, Francis was influenced and inspired by the works of Abstract Expressionists Mark Rothko and Arshile Gorky. He lived in Paris during the 1950s where he became associated with Taschisme (the European equivalent of the Abstract Expressionist movement). This is where Francis's spontaneous and impromptu brush work, drips and scribbles of paint from the brush or directly from the tube heavily characterized his work. In 1952 he had his first one-man-show in Paris and became an accepted as a member of the young European avant-garde, he showed his work at exhibitions in Paris, London and Bern.After Paris, he spent some time in India, Thailand and Japan, which led to the influences of Zen Buddhism in his work. Participation in 'Twelve Americans', an exhibition mounted in New York by the Museum of Modern Art in 1956, made Francis well-known in America. During this period his style changed from compositions with the picture surface covered in monochrome values to brightly colored 'islands of color' on white canvases. His calligraphic handling of brushwork and the lyrical character of his fluid color now linked Francis with Far Eastern art, which he studied intensively.Francis returned to California in 1962, settling at first in Santa Barbara and then establishing a studio in Venice, Santa Monica in 1963. During the 1960s, Francis developed his own distinctive style of Spontaneous and Gestural Dripping. He guided oils, acrylic and watercolors across his canvases with circling and spraying movements.Sam Francis was not only a distinguished exponent of Action Painting. He also explored graphic media such as lithography, etching and monotype. His preoccupation with printmaking led to the production of striking experimental work in the early 1980s. Forcefully expressive compositions in several parts, some of them with running paint, are the hallmark of these years. In his final phase, Francis executed commissions for large-scale murals.Sam Francis died in Santa Monica, CA on November 4, 1994.Quote:"What we want is to make something that fills utterly the sight and can't be used to make life only bearable."Select Museum Collections:Museum of Modern Art, NYNational Museum of Modern Art, TokyoArt Institute of Chicago, ILSmithsonian Institution, Washington, DCNorton Simon Museum, CATate Gallery, London Biography from Leslie Sacks Fine ArtAmerican painter and printmaker, Sam Francis, born in 1923 in San Mateo, CA, is renowned for his California Abstract Expressionist work. His career as an artist started following an accident leading to spinal tuberculosis while serving in the US Army Air Corps. Sam Francis started to paint for distraction in 1944, studying privately under David Park in 1947. Sam Francis subsequently relinquished his earlier medical and psychology studies in favor of painting, completing his BA (1949) and MA (1950) at the University of California at Berkeley. During this period Sam Francis experimented with different styles of painting, notably Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism.In particular, Sam Francis was Influenced by the Abstract Expressionist works of Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, and Clyfford Still. Sam Francis soon emerged with his own unique styles of painting in the late 1940s. During the late 1950s, Sam Francis travelled to Japan and his later works seem to be influenced by Oriental art with thin paint texture and large void spaces. The saturated fields of color reveal the influence of the contemplative quality of Japanese art. The increasing simplicity of his latter works resembled Minimal Art.Primarily interested in transforming different sensations of light onto canvas, Sam Francis was drawn by the light of California, where he lived and worked, as well as Monet's Waterlilies series. Dripping, corpuscular shapes painted in fluid are typical elements, which circulate freely around his canvas, indicating what was to become a perennial concern with 'ceaseless instability.' With his sensitivity to sensuous color and light, Sam Francis showed very different concerns from the expressive iconography and energy of many of the Abstract Expressionists.Despite the apparent spontaneity of his compositions, Sam Francis was highly methodical and rigorous. In his later work he pushed out the abstract forms to the edges of the composition, leaving large empty spaces, again in accordance with the Oriental notion of negative space.Although, Sam Francis is more renowned for his paintings, he was also an accomplished printmaker and sculptor. The work of Sam Francis is held in the permanent collection of every encyclopedic modern art museum in the world. Sam Francis's works have been exhibited internationally for over fifty years. He is represented in numerous public and private collections throughout the United States, Europe, and Japan.On November 4, 1994 Sam Francis passed away in Santa Monica, California. Biography from RoGallery Sam Francis, noted for his lyrical, colorful abstract works, was one of the first American artists to experiment with "empty-center" painting.Born in 1923 in San Mateo, California, Francis attended the University of California in Berkeley from 1941 to 1943, when he joined the Air Force.In 1945, hospitalized in San Francisco after an injury, he began painting under the influence of David Park. He had already developed an abstract style before returning to Berkeley for formal art studies in 1949 and 1950. In school, Francis developed the propensity for vivid blots of color and thinned pigments that is reflected in his mature work.In the 1950s, Francis traveled extensively, with Paris as his base. He has lived abroad so much that he is considered as much an international painter as an American one.In France, Francis produced some pale monochromatic works. His characteristic brilliant colors soon returned in overlapping and dripping profusion in the dense, unified style typical of his work up to the mid-1950s. His paintings in the 1956 "Twelve Americans" exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City gained him a worldwide reputation.Japanese influence is seen in Francis's unique early 1960s experimentation with empty-center painting. Vast canvases with unpainted central areas are defined, accented, or dominated by strokes and drips in bold colors around the extremities of the canvas.From the 1970s on, Francis returned to centered painting, in which color puddles out in a galaxy effect on monumental canvases. During the final three decades of his career his style of large scale bright Abstract expressionism was also closely associated with Color field painting. During the last year of his life, suffering from prostate cancer and unable to paint with his right hand after a fall, in a final burst of energy he used his left hand to complete a dazzling series of about 150 small paintings before he died. He was buried in Olema, in Marin County, California.As of 2008, the Foundation is working to create a Catalogue Raisonné of Francis's work. In addition to collecting information on known Francis works, they also have a page dedicated to "missing works" for which they are seeking any information interested parties may have. Biography from GallArt Sam Francis, American (1923 - 1994)Sam Francis, noted for his lyrical, colorful abstract works, was one of the first American artists to experiment with "empty-center" painting.Born in 1923 in San Mateo, California, Francis attended the University of California in Berkeley from 1941 to 1943, when he joined the Air Force.In 1945, hospitalized in San Francisco after an injury, he began painting under the influence of David Park. He had already developed an abstract style before returning to Berkeley for formal art studies in 1949 and 1950. In school, Francis developed the propensity for vivid blots of color and thinned pigments that is reflected in his mature work.In the 1950s, Francis traveled extensively, with Paris as his base. He has lived abroad so much that he is considered as much an international painter as an American one.In France, Francis produced some pale monochromatic works. His characteristic brilliant colors soon returned in overlapping and dripping profusion in the dense, unified style typical of his work up to the mid-1950s. His paintings in the 1956 "Twelve Americans" exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City gained him a worldwide reputation.Japanese influence is seen in Francis's unique early 1960s experimentation with empty-center painting. Vast canvases with unpainted central areas are defined, accented, or dominated by strokes and drips in bold colors around the extremities of the canvas.From the 1970s on, Francis returned to centered painting, in which color puddles out in a galaxy effect on monumental canvases. During the final three decades of his career his style of large scale bright Abstract expressionism was also closely associated with Color field painting. During the last year of his life, suffering from prostate cancer and unable to paint with his right hand after a fall, in a final burst of energy he used his left hand to complete a dazzling series of about 150 small paintings before he died. He was buried in Olema, in Marin County, California.As of 2008, the Foundation is working to create a Catalogue Raisonné of Francis's work. In addition to collecting information on known Francis works, they also have a page dedicated to "missing works" for which they are seeking any information interested parties may have.

Price: 2750 USD

Location: Orange, California

End Time: 2025-02-06T01:24:05.000Z

Shipping Cost: 45 USD