The Sacramento Bee Reviews "Sam Francis: Five Decades"

Read what Victoria Dalkey has to say about "Sam Francis: Five Decades of Abstract Expressionism  from California Collections" -- now at the Crocker Museum --  in the Sacramento Bee…

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2014/01/30/6112628/unexpected-beauty.html#storylink=cpy

Unexpected beauty: Splashes of vibrant colors, images that delight

By Victoria Dalkey
Bee Art Correspondent

Published: Thursday, Jan. 30, 2014 - 5:14 pm

Beauty, when talking about contemporary art, is sometimes considered a dirty word. But no other term will suffice for Sam Francis’ paintings now on view at the Crocker Art Museum. When you walk into the show, the breathtaking canvases make you feel like you are floating somewhere in the sky, looking up at clouds, looking down on tree tops and fields. An intense blue – radiant, saturated – and bright whites run through the exhibit, taking you into realms of pure delight.

Read the complete review here...

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2014/01/30/6112628/unexpected-beauty.html#storylink=cpy

Sam Francis "Five Decades" to open at the Crocker Museum

Sam Francis: Five Decades of Abstract Expressionism from California Collections

On view at the Crocker Museum

JANUARY 26 – APRIL 20, 2014

This exhibition celebrates the work of internationally acclaimed California native Sam Francis (1923–94), one of Abstract Expressionism's top practitioners and California's most accomplished artists. Featuring a colorful range of the artist's paintings and unique works on paper, this survey highlights different periods of the artist's work as represented in extraordinary public and private California collections. 

The exhibition includes early paintings the artist made during his time in the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1940s, but is primarily dedicated to the influential and expansive body of work that the artist created between the 1950s and the 1990s. Represented are works made in the artist's California studios in Palo Alto, Point Reyes, Santa Monica, and Venice, as well as those made when Francis was living in New York, Bern, Paris, and Tokyo. The exhibition is organized by the Sam Francis Foundation in collaboration with the Crocker Art Museum and the Pasadena Museum of California Art.

Image credit: Sam Francis, Untitled, 1980. Acrylic on canvas, 54 x 142 in. The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection. Artwork © Sam Francis Foundation, California/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Exhibition-related programs:

• Sam Francis Member Preview Day

  (Sat, Jan 25, 2014 10:00 am)

• American Abstraction and Sam Francis

  (Sun, Jan 26, 2014 1:00 pm)

  
  

  For more programs and information visit the Crocker Museum Website.