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See also: other Sam Francis (uation)|Sam Francises

Samuel Lewis Francis (1923 - November 4, 1994) was
an United States|American painter and printmaker.

Francis was born in San Mateo, California, and
studied botany, medicine and psychology at the
University of California, Berkeley. He served in
the United States Air Force during World War II
before suffering a plane crash. He was in hospital
for several years, and it was while there that he
began to paint. Once out of hospital he returned
to Berkley, this time to study art.

Francis was initially influenced by the work of
abstract expressionists such as Mark Rothko,
Arshile Gorky and Clyfford Still. He spent the
1950s in Paris, having his first exhibition there
in 1952. While there he became associated with
Tachisme. He later spent time in Japan, and some
have seen an influence from Zen Buddhism in his
work.

Francis spent some time in Paris executing
entirely monochromatic works, but his mature
pieces are generally large oil paintings with
splashed or splattered areas of bright contrasting
colour. Areas of white canvas are often left to
show through, and in later works, paint is
sometimes confined to the edges of the canvas.

==External link==
*http://www.samfrancisestate.com/ The Sam Francis
Estate
*http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ArtistWorks?cgroup
id=999999961&artistid=1113&page=1 Francis' page at
the Tate Gallery (includes a brief biography and
images of his work)