Francis’ paintings during the 1960’s began to emphasize the edges of his canvas exposing vast white spaces in the center which chart his response to and participation in the Minimalist aesthetic of the 1960's. During this time he also worked in watercolor and was largely responsible for the revival of color lithography. Below are some great examples of what were to be named Edge Paintings by Sam Francis.
Sam Francis Untitled (SFP66-12)
Sam Francis' move to this extreme, open format dominated by white space did not happen overnight and was not the result of a sudden conversion. Rather, it can be traced far back in his career, to the works done in 1952 known as the White Paintings. The inclination to the edge as a defining structured had appeared as early as 1949 in rectangular mandala shapes which appeared in his dark works on paper.
Sam Francis Untitled (SFP69-17) 1969
Acrylic on canvas 96" x 156"
Sam Francis Untitled (SFP66-15) 1966
Acrylic on canvas 76" x 54"
Color has its own scale and weight, which Francis always varied to great effect. By leaving the bottom edge open {or sides}, Francis created a setting of drapery pulled back from a window, a curtain from a stage, or from the niche of a baroque church to reveal a saint in a religious scene. These "Drapery Paintings", another subdivision within the "Edge" series, form what might then be called a kind of baroque minimalism. We now peer into the large white space which has been given a new and more dominating presence.
Sam Francis Untitled (SFP65-6) 1965
Acrylic on canvas 89 1/2" x 71-1/2"
Sam Francis Untitled (SFP68-14) 1968
Acrylic on canvas 96" x 156-1/4"
We now understand that in these large open fields we are not in the presence of empty spaces, but of white spaces, as Gail Scott noted in 1970. They may not be complicated, but they are complex. For example, they are painted (as opposed to most color field paintings of the 1960's which used bare canvas) but they are never painted exactly the same white, but rather are tinted to some off-white, barely perceptible, but there nevertheless. These white areas are not voids. They are volumes, with a material and palpable presence that exerts full pressure against the coloration of the edges, shaping and reshaping them as our eye moves over the surface. They are also mirrors, reflecting back at us in ways that recall a parallel structuring in certain paintings of Matisse and Bonnard.
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Sam Francis Untitled (SFP68-3) 1968
Acrylic on canvas 60" x 29"
Sam Francis Untitled (SFP68-29) 1968
Acrylic on canvas 102-3/4" x 86-3/4"
One marvels at Fracis's nerve as he pushed the format of the Edge paintings into ever larger formats and ever thinner bands of color in the late 1960's. Indeed he had pushed the format's capability to make and to carry a convincing and viable painting to its very limits. By 1968, in certain paintings, he had probaby reached and passed those limits, for at points the painting became too silent, even virtually inactive. It was as if he had almost painted himself out of the picture.
Sam Francis Untitled (SFP66-37) 1966
Oil on gessoed linen 36" x 30"
Sam Francis Untitled (SFP69-3) 1969
Oil on canvas 40" x 60"
The Edge paintings include some of Francis' most radical and difficult work and have elicited a wide spectrum of opinion, not always favorable. They chart an important step in his long and constant search for ever new means of employing color, strong and intense color, his true gift, in all its myriad possibilities.
Some text taken from the book Sam Francis - The Edge * 2000
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