Sam Francis papers 1916-2010, (bulk 1950-1994)

ArchivalResource

Sam Francis papers 1916-2010, (bulk 1950-1994)

The Sam Francis papers span the artist's entire life and include family and personal material as well as correspondence with friends and art institutions around the world. Francis' art-related businesses, the Litho Shop and Lapis Press, are well documented. There are also numerous prints, products, and art making tools. Series I includes correspondence with artists, curators and dealers, including Joan Mitchell, Bruce Conner, Pontus Hulten, and Martha Jackson. There are also letters between Francis and his parents and between Francis and his wives. Series II. Personal includes family photographs of his parents and stepmother, as well as documents and manuscripts belonging to them. There are photographs of Francis at every stage of his life, as well as numerous photographs of his five wives and four children. There is also some audio visual documentation of Francis' family, including a video tape by fourth wife Mako Idemitsu, now an important video artist, of the two sons she had with Francis. Series III. Lapis Press documents the projects, both realized and unrealized, that engaged the press, including manuscripts for books of poetry, philosphy, biography and fiction. Awards and reviews, business files, and a selection of unique proofs and paste-ups are included in this series. Series IV. Business files include a range of projects Francis worked on that are not included in Lapis Press files, such as printing projects for the Litho Shop, the performance piece Single Wing Turquoise Bird, Francis' design for Swatch watches, and the Jeffrey Perkins documentary, The Painter Sam Francis. There are financial papers and ledgers from intermittent years. Series VI. Printed matter comprises a very comprehensive collection of announcements, brochures, and posters from Sam Francis exhibitions, while Series VIII. Artwork includes transparencies of etchings, paintings and lithographs, numerous exhibition installation shots, products Francis designed, and tools he employed in his artmaking.

ca. 238.73 linear ft. (298 boxes; 58 flatfile folders; 2 rolls)

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 8243477

Getty Research Institute

Related Entities

There are 7 Entities related to this resource.

Lapis Press

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6p61315 (corporateBody)

Mitchell, Joan, 1925-1992

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w63n26k5 (person)

Oct. 30, 1992. From the description of Artist file : miscellaneous uncataloged material. (Museum of Modern Art (MOMA)). WorldCat record id: 83529128 Joan Mitchell, b. 1925 Feb. 21, Chicago, Ill.; d. 1992 Oct. 30, Paris, France, Painter. Birth date also cited, incorrectly, as 1926. From the description of Oral history interview with Joan Mitchell, 1986 Apr. 16 [sound recording]. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 80375972 ...

Conner, Bruce.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6n9577r (person)

Idemitsu, Mako, 1940-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6g74pt4 (person)

Martha Jackson Gallery

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6mp9wh6 (corporateBody)

Martha Jackson opened her Gallery in New York City at 22 E. 66th St., moving three years later to 32 E. 69th St. The gallery specialized in modern American and European painting and sculpture, particularly Abstract Expressionists. Her son, David Anderson, worked with Jackson and took over the gallery after her death in 1969. He now operates the David Anderson Gallery, 521 W. 57th St. From the description of Martha Jackson Gallery records, 1954-1964. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 830...

Francis, Sam, 1923-1994

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6wq0v5q (person)

California born artist Sam Francis was a second generation Abstract Expressionist painter who incorporated influences of Jungian psychology, Buddhism, and Japanese watercolor into the urban and angst-ridden painting style of the New York School. After living abroad in Paris and Japan, he settled in Los Angeles, where he founded a print press, the Litho Shop, a book publishing enterprise, Lapis Press, and painted prolifically until his death in 1994. From the description of Sam Franci...

Hultén, Pontus, 1924-2006

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w65728hk (person)