Sam Francis Firewood

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Sam Francis, Firewood, (Lembark SFS-219), 1973, Signed, Screenprint on paper, Edition AP IX, 31 3/4" x 39 3/4" Sheet Size

Sam Francis was born in 1923 in San Mateo, California. His interest in art began shortly after serving in the United States Air Force in World War II. By 1950 he had received BA and MA degrees from the University of California at Berkeley, and throughout the following decade worked as a painter in Berne, Mexico City, New York, Paris, and Tokyo. While Francis' work was clearly influenced by the abstract expressionists —namely Arshile Gorky, Helen Frankenthaler, and others— Francis was arguably the first postwar twentieth-century painter to achieve international acclaim, keeping studio spaces in France, Japan, and on both coasts of the United States. He died in 1994 in Santa Monica, California.