Sam Francis: A Dave Brubeck Album Cover

What do Sam Francis, Franz Kline and Joan Miró have in common?

The answer is that all three of them had their paintings feature on album covers for the Dave Brubeck Quartet. Here is Sam's cover for the 1963 album "Time Changes."

"Time Changes" Cover art by Sam Francis

"Time Further Out" Cover art by Joan Miró

"Countdown Time in Outer Space" Cover art by Franz Kline

Would you like to listen to samples of "Time Changes" or order a CD of the album? Click here to find it on Amazon.com.

Sam Francis and the Founding of MOCA Los Angeles

In recent article for Los Angeles, Magazine, "To Understand the Future of MoCA, Look at its Past," Thomas Lawson comments on aspect of the key role that Sam Francis played in the establishment of the museum:

"While MoCA was still more of an idea than a reality, Sam Francis and Robert Irwin, two of the artists on the board, scored a coup in persuading Pontus Hulten, the founding director of the Centre Pompidou, to leave Paris and become the first director of the new museum. Hulten was one of the most highly respected museum professionals in Europe, with a long career promoting American Pop art and related interdisciplinary forms with populist appeal."

Francis with Pontus Hultén in Francis' Venice studio, California. (Photo by Jerry Sohn.)

Sam Francis: California Zen, a film by Eric Minh Swenson

A beautiful short film by Eric Minh Swenson, documenting a Sam Francis exhibition at Leslie Sacks Fine Art

SAM FRANCIS : CALIFORNIA ZEN from ERIC MINH SWENSON on Vimeo.

Sam Francis Featured in "Local Color" at the San Jose Museum of Art

Sam Francis, "Untitled," 1978. Acrylic on paper; 12 ½ x 14 ¾ inches; Gift of David Devine. 

On view in "Local Color" through January 13, 2012 at the San Jose Museum of Art

Local Color, drawn from the San Jose Museum of Art's permanent collection, explores the primacy of color in a range of works, from Alexander Calder’s whimsical mobiles to Elmer Bischoff’s luscious, light-filled canvases to David Levinthal’s slick, color-saturated photographs of Barbie dolls.  Also featured are works by artists who consider the quiet, meditative nuances of black and white.  This exhibition encourages viewers to look at color as content.

This exhibition also includes work by Josef Albers, Fletcher Benton, Mary Corse, Tony DeLap, Sonia Gechtoff, James Hayward, Paul Jenkins, Amy Kaufman, Markus Linnenbrink, Nathan Oliveira, Fred Spratt, Raimonds Staprans, Amy Trachtenberg, and Patrick Wilson, among others.

"Color…is a receptacle for a feeling and a way for you to hold it until understanding arrives." --Sam Francis

The Legal Ramifications of Authenticating Artwork

At a recent seminar in Los Angeles, attorney Christine Steiner of Sheppard Mulllin and Debra Burchett-Lere, Director of the Sam Francis Foundation, reported on the evolving legal ramifications for authenticating artwork.

The Sam Francis Foundation, for example, offers the owners of Francis works the opportunity to register the work and to obtain a Documentation Data Sheet with information on the creation and history of the work. 

To learn more about this issue, and what Burchett-Lere had to say, click here.