Light and dark, as much as color and pigment, play a vital role in the printmaking of Sam Francis. This is partly due to his attraction to the transformative process embodied in the idea of alchemy, where alchemists worked in the dark and were constantly experimenting. (“I am working in the dark, too, you know.”- Sam Francis) An important component was also Sam’s practice as a print-maker: applying washes on the surface of the plate, building his images in layers, piling these transparent gestures on top of one another they become too dense to see through and the composition emerges.
“Sam Francis demands a lot from his viewer…[he] enjoys the puzzle-like challenge of making lithographs; to gain access to his work we must play a corresponding mental game with it.”
The Lapis Press is pleased to present this selection of six rarely seen lithographs (1975-76) from our private archives.