SAM FRANCIS

Sam Francis is born in San Matteo, California, a city lying south of San Francisco, in 1923 and enters local University of Berkeley, choosing a major in botanic, then in psychology and medicine. Second World War causes the interruption of his studies, and in 1943 he enlists in Military Aeronautics as a pilot. Due to an accident Francis remains hospitalized for three years and dedicates himself to painting, considering such activity as a sort of therapy. After going back to Berkeley, he takes a degree in painting and history of art. In 1950 he moves to Paris, where his first personal exhibition is held two years later at Galerie du Dragon. In 1955, he displays his works for the first time in a museum, at Kunsthalle in Bern. In 1959 he goes to live in New York and in 1962 in Santa Monica, California. In spite of his continuous traveling, he has some studies in Europe and Japan.

In 1984 he founds Lapis Press which to this day can be classified among the most important publishers specialized in visual arts and philosophy, and creates a foundation dedicated to research and supportive of alternative medicine. Francis lives in California until his death in 1994. In 1993 the artist generously donates to MOCA ten paintings created between 1951 and 1992. He begins his relationship with the Museum as the founder of the Board of Governors and remains a member until 1989. Moreover, as a member of the committee for the construction of the new MOCA building, he focuses the general attention on works by Arata Isozaki. Sam Francis’s works are shattered in the collections of museums all over the world: The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, The National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., The Museum of Modern Art in Shiga, Japan, Tate Gallery in London. Several mural paintings of his are commissioned in Tokyo, Basilea, Berlin, New York and San Francisco.