Untitled

Francis' paintings of the early 1950s are concerned with the representation of the power and luminosity of light. "I start by painting the entire canvas white", he said at this time, "as other colours are added it becomes less intense. I add black to bring back the intensity" (S. Francis quoted in R. Buck, Sam Francis Paintings 1947-72, Buffalo 1972, p. 19.). This watercolour of 1955 relates closely to Francis' celebrated canvases of the same period. Here he does not need to paint a white ground, but rather uses the transparent nature of the medium itself to convey a similar sense of radiant light shimmering through a structure that suggests its own inner geometry.