Untitled (SF80-107), 1980

Name: Untitled (SF80-107), 1980
Brand: Sam Francis
Availability: InStock

Sam Francis

Medium: acrylic on paper

Signature: signed and dated 'Sam Francis 1980' on verso

Framed size: 20.75 x 26.75"

Price on Request

15513581

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"Untitled (SF80-107)" is an acrylic on paper painting created by Sam Francis in 1980. The artwork is signed and dated 'Sam Francis 1980' on verso. The artwork ships framed in a custom closed-corner gold leaf frame and has a framed size of 20.75 x 26.75".

In "Untitled (SF80-107)," Sam Francis propels his long-standing grid motif into a new chromatic frontier. Executed in 1980, this acrylic on paper bursts with layered fields of violet, green, red, and light washes of blue. Unlike his earlier, more rigid compositions of the 1970s — where black lattices dominated the visual architecture — this work dissolves those boundaries. The grid remains, but only as a ghost, veiled beneath the exuberant interplay of luminous, organic color.

By the 1970s, Francis was immersed in the formal potential of the grid. Early in the decade, these structures were sometimes dense and somber, with black underpinnings holding the composition like scaffolding. Vivid bursts of color appeared, but always in service to the geometry beneath. By 1980, however, "Untitled (SF80-107)" reveals that Francis had begun to liberate color from the framework altogether.

In this late “grid” painting, the once-dominant lattice has all but disappeared, consciously painted over. Francis lets the color take control. Pools of violet and teal hover beside streaks of red, blue, and even soft pink, creating a visual field that is rhythmically structured yet full of improvisational vitality. These forms don’t follow rigid paths; they interact freely, pulsing across the surface like cellular movement or musical notes in harmonic dissonance. There’s a palpable sense of transformation in this piece, not only in palette but in intent. "Untitled (SF80-107)" marks a turning point in Francis’s career, when the grid became less about containment and more about flow, transition, and emotional intensity. The fading grid, the swelling fields of radiant pigment, and the sense of structural release signal an artist moving confidently into a new visual language. For collectors seeking not only beauty but historical and conceptual significance, this is a compelling and essential acquisition.

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Details

Medium: acrylic on paper
Year: 1980

Image size: 12 x 17.75"
Framed size: 20.75 x 26.75"

Signature: signed and dated 'Sam Francis 1980' on verso

Reference:

SF80-107

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.

Untitled (SF80-107), 1980

$98,500.00

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