Squares in Red (SF72-82), 1972

Name: Squares in Red (SF72-82), 1972
Brand: Sam Francis
Availability: InStock

Sam Francis

Medium: acrylic on solid vellum

Signature: signed, dated and inscribed 'Sam Francis 1972 LA' verso

Framed size: 39 x 31.25"

Price on Request

15513581

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0.7375

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"Squares in Red (SF72-82)" is an acrylic on solid vellum painting created by Sam Francis in 1972. The artwork is signed, dated and inscribed 'Sam Francis 1972 LA' verso. The artwork is framed in a contemporary closed-corner gold leaf frame and has a framed size of 39 x 31.25".

By 1972, Sam Francis had entered a period of renewed structural clarity. After exploring the expansive openness of his “Sail” paintings, he began introducing geometry as a means of sustaining space rather than limiting it. “Squares in Red (SF72-82)” reflects this pivotal evolution, where gesture and architecture achieve a poised equilibrium.

This shift emerged in works associated with the “Fresh Air” period of 1972 to 1973, when Francis experimented with structural beams created through tinted gesso, water, brushes, and rollers. Pigment was often applied wet on wet and later reactivated, allowing control and improvisation to coexist. Gradually, these linear elements straightened and intersected, forming the gridded armatures that would define his Matrix paintings. In “Squares in Red,” that development is fully realized.

A measured lattice organizes the composition. The perpendicular lines establish rhythm without rigidity, creating intervals that steady rather than confine the picture plane. Within these squared passages, red dominates. It ranges from saturated crimson to luminous translucent washes that appear to glow from within. Subtle flickers of complementary tones animate the surface, adding depth and movement.

White remains central to Francis’s vision. Here it is no longer an expansive void but articulated into quiet intervals of pause and breath. These passages of white provide clarity and balance, guiding the eye gently across the grid. Structure and openness engage in calm dialogue.

The early 1970s marked a profound creative renewal for Francis, a time often linked to his engagement with Jungian analysis and heightened introspection. The works from this period reconcile seeming opposites: discipline and spontaneity, geometry and gesture, energy and restraint.

In “Squares in Red,” that reconciliation feels complete. The painting unfolds with quiet assurance. Geometry becomes expressive, color architectural, and space a field of measured harmony. The result is not tension but resolution, a work in which vitality and order coexist in luminous balance.

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Details

Medium: acrylic on solid vellum
Year: 1972

Image size: 30 x 22.25"
Framed size: 39 x 31.25"

Signature: signed, dated and inscribed 'Sam Francis 1972 LA' verso

Reference:

SF72-82

Exhibited:

Bern 1989, Kunstmuseum, From Goya to Tinguely, cat. no. 247, reproduced in colors
Bern 1991, Galerie Kornfeld, Sam Francis, 40 Years of Friendship, cat. no. 44, full-page reproduction in colors

About the Work

About the Artist

Sam Francis (1923 – 1994), internationally celebrated for his radiant use of color and light, stands as one of the great figures of postwar abstraction. His bold canvases, rooted in Abstract Expressionism yet enriched by global influences from Paris to Tokyo, speak directly to today’s collectors seeking works that transcend boundaries of place and time. Francis’s paintings and works on paper are represented in the world’s leading museums, including MoMA (New York), Tate (London), Centre Pompidou (Paris), LACMA (Los Angeles), and SFMOMA. His market remains exceptionally strong, underscored by recent record-breaking sales and renewed curatorial attention, such as LACMA’s 2023 exhibition Sam Francis and Japan: Emptiness Overflowing. With their luminous expanses of white and bursts of vivid blues, reds, and golds, Francis’s works feel startlingly contemporary, anchoring him as a cornerstone of 20th-century art whose vision remains vital in the 21st-century market.

Squares in Red (SF72-82), 1972

$225,000.00

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