Sam Francis & Art of the Post-War Era

Page 1


SAM

FRANCIS

& ART OF THE POST-WAR ERA CONTENTS SAM FRANCIS

4

FRANK STELLA

50

ROBERT MOTHERWELL

56

ALEXANDER CALDER

64

ROY LICHTENSTEIN

68

TOM WESSELMANN

74

ANDY WARHOL

76

JIM DINE

84

HELEN FRANKENTHALER

92


Sam Francis & Art of the Post-War Era Following the tribulations of World War II, a great surge of creativity was unleashed in America. There was a profound optimism and bravado that infused the realm of art, leading to such bold movements as Abstract-Expressionism, Minimalism and Pop Art. Not only were there tremendous innovations in painting and sculpture in the Post-War era, but also in realm of printmaking. Artists including Sam Francis, Robert Motherwell, Frank Stella, Alexander Calder, Helen Frankenthaler and Roy Lichtenstein created stunning graphics by pushing the boundaries of established techniques. Their ingenuity resulted in a much wider audience for their work and an effective vehicle for conveying their philosophies and ideas. Sam Francis, with his roots in California, was certainly one of the most inventive artists of the period. It’s interesting to note that his journey toward international recognition began during a long period of convalescence following a serious injury and illness in the war. As a response to that confinement, he developed a passion for travel that infused his art with influences from France, Japan, Mexico and Switzerland. Though he experimented with different styles through the years, he is perhaps best known for his compositions featuring a great freedom of movement with drips and splashes of color, as well as shapes that appear to be endlessly transforming. Our exhibition includes unique works and original prints by Francis, in addition to graphic works by several of the most influential artists of the era. We hope you will enjoy this visual journey into the art of the Post-War era. Mark Miles Director October 2016


SAM FRANCIS (American, 1923 – 1994) Francis, one of the most inventive of 20th century painters and printmakers, was born in San Mateo, CA. As a child he showed a great affinity for music, which was very much encouraged by his mother Katherine. Her early death when the artist was only 12 affected him deeply and changed the trajectory of his life. During World War II, Francis served with the United States Air Force, but was badly injured in an accident that left him hospitalized for a number years. He was visited regularly by David Park, the influential California artist, who inspired Francis to begin painting. After his release, the artist returned to Berkeley to study art and found inspiration in the Abstract Expressionists including Mark Rothko and Clyfford Still. He became one of the second generations of artists to explore that style, along with Helen Frankenthaler and Joan Mitchell. Francis moved to Paris in the 1950’s, but divided his time between France, Japan, Mexico, Switzerland and the U.S. He was influenced by many cultures, but had a particular affinity for Zen Buddhism. The desire to see beyond the material world led to a style of abstraction that was both fluid and richly colored. In 1958, he was included in a major exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, which elevated his status dramatically and placed him in the upper echelon of noted artists. Known not only known for his paintings, but for his innovation in printmaking, Francis explored techniques including aquatint, etching and lithography. His graphic works are highly regarded and are prized for their lyrical quality. His works are found today in major private and public collections worldwide, including the Metropolitan Museum, the Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim, New York; the Art Institute of Chicago; the National Gallery of Art and the Hirshhorn Museum, Washington; the Tate, London; the Kunstmuseum, Basel; the Albertina, Vienna and the Musee National d’Art Moderene, Paris


Sam Francis

UNTITLED

Acrylic on paper

32 1/8 x 22 7/8 inches

1990


Sam Francis

UNTITLED

Acrylic on paper collage on backing board

20 ¼ x 36 inches

1989



Sam Francis

UNTITLED (SF79-700)

Acrylic on paper

9 x 6 7/8 inches

1979


Sam Francis

UNTITLED (SF79-1043)

Acrylic on paper

19 ½ x 14 inches

1979-80


Sam Francis

UNTITLED (SF90-198)

Acrylic on paper

18 1/8 x 13 ¾ inches

1990


Sam Francis

UNTITLED

Acrylic on wove paper

19 3/8 x 13 7/8 inches

1978


Sam Francis

UNTITLED (SF79-1059)

Acrylic on paper

11 7/8 x 9 inches

1979-80


Sam Francis

UNTITLED (SF87-145J)

Acrylic on paper

13 x 9 ½ inches

1987


Sam Francis

UNTITLED (SF80-1147)

Acrylic on paper

18 ¼ x 4 inches

1980


Sam Francis

UNTITLED (SF80-1166)

Acrylic on paper

11 3/4 x 5 ¾ inches

1980


Sam Francis

UNTITLED (SF87-104)

Acrylic on paper

15 ½ x 12 inches

1987


Sam Francis

UNTITLED (SF82-737)

Acrylic on paper

19 x 15 ½ inches

c. 1982


Sam Francis

UNTITLED (SF-83sB)

Unique multimedia screenprint

30 x 22 ½ inches

1973-75


Sam Francis

UNTITLED (SF-108s)

Unique multimedia screenprint

30 x 22 ½ inches

1973-75


Sam Francis

UNTITLED (SF-56s)

Unique multimedia screenprint

31 1/8 x 25 1/8 inches

1973-75


Sam Francis

UNTITLED (SF-58s)

Unique multimedia screenprint 25 x 31 inches

1973-75


Sam Francis UNTITLED (SFM66-001) Unique multimedia screenprint 33 ½ x 22 ¼ inches

1966


Sam Francis

UNTITLED (SF-340)

Original lithograph

45 ¼ x 29 1/8 inches

1989


Sam Francis

UNTITLED (SF-297)

Original lithograph

37 x 28 ½ inches

1987


Sam Francis

Sam Francis

VARIANT OF FIFTY

UNTITLED SFE-112

Original lithograph

Original etching

17 ¾ x 24 inches

12 x 16 ¾ inches

1965

1994


Sam Francis

UNTITLED SF-358

Original lithograph

46 ¾ x 30 inches

1993


Sam Francis

UNTITLED (SFE-085)

Original etching

24 x 14 ¼ inches

1992


Sam Francis

UNTITLED (SFE-014)

Original aquatint

25 7/8 x 10 7/8 inches

1984


Sam Francis

UNTITLED (SFE-079)

Original etching 36 x 18 inches

1991


Sam Francis

UNTITLED SFE-094

Original etching

7 ½ x 7 ¼ inches

1993


Sam Francis

Untitled SFE-056

Original aquatint

8 7/8 x 5 7/8 inches

1989


Sam Francis

RED CORAL

Original etching and aquatint

17 5/8 x 19 ¾ inches

1973


Sam Francis

GREEN CORAL

Original etching and aquatint

17 ½ x 19 ¾ inches

1973


Sam Francis

Sam Francis

PIOGGIA D’ORO

LA PRIMAVERA

Original etching and aquatint

Original etching and aquatint

38 ¼ x 78 ½ inches

38 ¼ x 78 ½ inches

1988

1988


Sam Francis LA PRIMAVERA FREDDA Original etching and aquatint 38 ¾ x 78 ½ inches

Sam Francis

UNTITLED

Original lithograph

1988

29 ½ x 41 ¾ inches

1979


Sam Francis

TRIETTO I

Original aquatint

38 ¼ x 47 ¼ inches

1991


Sam Francis

TRIETTO IV

Original aquatint

39 x 47 ¼ inches

1991


Sam Francis

UNTITLED

Original lithograph

27 5/8 x 39 ¾ inches

1980


Sam Francis

CONCERT HALL SET III

Original lithograph

26 x 35 inches

1977


Sam Francis

Sam Francis

AN OTHER SET - Y

UNTITLED (SF-61)

Original lithograph

Original lithograph

15 x 22 ¼ inches

17 x 22 inches

1965

1967


Sam Francis

SULFUR SAILS

Original lithograph

36 x 25 inches

1969


Sam Francis

UNTITLED (SF-316)

Original lithograph

30 x 22 ½ inches

1986


Sam Francis

Sam Francis

EAST MOTHER

Original lithograph

25 x 35 inches

ANOTHER SPECK

Original lithograph

20 x 29 ½ inches

1971

1972


Sam Francis

AN 8 SET –4

Original lithograph

15 x 11 ¼ inches

1964


Sam Francis

AN OTHER SET - Y

Original lithograph

15 x 22 ¼ inches

1965


Sam Francis

Sam Francis

UNTITLED (SFE-080RC)

UNTITLED SF-356

Original etching

Original lithograph

19 ½ x 28 ½ inches

29 7/8 x 46 ¾ inches

1991

1992


Sam Francis

L’ETOILE

Original lithograph

49 ¾ x 31 inches

1995


Sam Francis

UNTITLED (SF-256)

Original lithograph

18 ½ x 22 5/8 inches

1979


Sam Francis

METAL LINE

Original lithograph

35 x 25 inches

1971


FRANK STELLA (American 1936) Frank Stella, the renowned Minimalist painter and printmaker, was born in Massachusetts in 1936. One of the great innovators in world of art, he has suggested that his painting was significantly shaped by being among the first generation of artists for whom the rightful existence of abstraction was assumed. He has steadfastly maintained that it was the only post-war idiom capable of sustaining the highest ambitions for painting. After graduating from Princeton, Stella went to New York and took up painting seriously. The creation of two essentially accidental, transitional paintings guided the way for a 6 month journey in which he penciled lines on raw canvases, partially filling in the open spaces with black house-paint. The process left stripes that appeared to have uncertain parameters between the penciled lines. They became known as The Black Paintings, and four were first shown in 16 Americans (1959–60) at the Museum of Modern Art, the exhibition from which the museum purchased The Marriage of Reason and Squalor (1959; New York, MOMA). Since that time, Stella has not only focused on painting, but printmaking as well. Since he explored both areas simultaneously, his print series were often named after paintings in which he explored similar themes. From 1967 on, he has used lithography, screen printing, intaglio and relief printing, often combining them in complex mixed medium prints. The Circuits series from 1982, created simultaneously with the paintings of the same titles, extended the iconography of the racing theme first referred to in the Aluminum Paintings series. In these he employed etching, wood blocks and engraved elements to create an unusual mixture of intaglio and relief. In 1975 he made 183 hand-painted and collaged reliefs of cottonpulp paper in small editions. Today, Stella’s work is included in most major museum collections and important exhibitions of his work have been presented worldwide.


Frank Stella

THE CANDLES

Original lithograph, screenprint and collage

57 ½ x 38 ½ inches

1992


Frank Stella

FANATTIA

Original etching, engraving, relief, lithograph, stamping,

woodcut and mezzotint

54 ž x 41 inchesÂ

1995



Frank Stella

HARK!

Screenprint with lithograph and linocut

73 ½ x 52 ¾ inches

1988


Frank Stella BENE COME IL SALE Original etching, aquatint and relief print 77 1/2 x 58 3/4 inchesÂ

1989


ROBERT MOTHERWELL (American 1915 – 1991) Though Robert Motherwell was born in Aberdeen, Washington, he spent his early years in California. He attended the California School of Fine Arts, studied philosophy at Stanford and Harvard, and later focused on art history under the tutelage of Meyer Schapiro at Columbia University. It was in fact through Schapiro that Motherwell met Roberto Matta, the Surrealist artist, who inspired him to create art – not just study it. He began to explore the unconscious in his paintings and produced art that relied on instinct rather than intellect. Those experiments laid the foundation for his abstract works, which had a tremendous impact on the birth of Abstract Expressionism in the early 1940’s. He was among the founding artists of the New York School, and though he was the youngest member, he coined the term that has been used to describe them ever since. Being a part of the group afforded him the opportunity to work with artists such as Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning. He began exhibiting his work in New York in the mid 1940’s and soon became a spokesman for avant-garde art. He was one of the few artists in the school that worked with printmaking as well as painting, which led to his highly important achievements in the graphic arts. Through the years, Motherwell has been featured in numerous exhibitions, from solo shows at the Royal Academy, London and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, to a retrospective of his works organized by the Albright-Knox Art Gallery that traveled in the United States from 1983 to 1985. His work is included in the permanent collections of many major museums worldwide, as well as prestigious private an corporate collections.


Robert Motherwell YELLOW CHORD Original lift-ground etching and aquatint 27 5/8 x 10 5/8 inches

1981


Robert Motherwell DANCE III (RED) Original lift-ground etching and aquatint 19 5/8 x 23 ½ inches

1978


Robert Motherwell RED SEA I Original lift-ground etching and aquatint 23 ½ x 19 ¾ inches

1976


Robert Motherwell RED SEA II Original lift-ground etching and aquatint 23 ¾ x 19 ¾ inches

1979


Robert Motherwell BLACK SEA Original lift-ground etching and aquatint 23 x 18 1/8 inches

1979


Robert Motherwell ELEGY FRAGMENT II Original aquatint & lift-ground etching 23 ½ x 14 ½ inches

1985


Robert Motherwell THROUGH BLACK EMERGE PURIFIED Original lithograph 15 x 37 3/4 inches 1983

Robert Motherwell

POOR SPAIN

Original lithograph

15 x 37 3/4 inches

1983


ALEXANDER CALDER (American, 1898-1976) Alexander Calder, whose illustrious career spanned much of the 20th century, ranks as one of the most influential artists of the last 100 years. Born in 1898 to a family of celebrated and classically trained artists, Calder utilized his innovative genius to profoundly change the course of modern art. He began by developing a new method of sculpting by bending and twisting wire - essentially ‘’drawing’’ threedimensional figures in space. He is renowned for the invention of the mobile, whose suspended, abstract elements move and balance in changing harmony. Calder worked in a time of artistic upheaval, yet chose to embrace a more lighthearted approach to his art. His impressive output of paintings, lithographs, and sculpture brought with it a humor and sense of play that ignored the formal structure of what art could be. His first New York exhibition was in 1928 and was followed by major shows in Paris and Berlin. Calder quickly gained international recognition for his work in abstraction, and in 1932 exhibited his first moving sculpture in an exhibition organized by Marcel Duchamp (who coined the word ‘’mobile”). From the 40’s on, Calder focused not only on large-scale sculptures, but on an impressive oeuvre of paintings and prints that exhibit the same sense of buoyancy and wit. His shapes and colors, along with bold, unbroken lines, were instantly recognizable for their dynamic sense of movement. The artist enjoyed great success during his long and prolific career and passed away just a few weeks after the opening of a retrospective at the Whitney Museum. His work is now featured in prominent museum and private collections worldwide.


Alexander Calder

LE GRANDE SPIRALE

Original lithograph

33 x 22 ¼ inches

c. 1972


Alexander Calder

CIRCLE WITH EYES

Original lithographÂ

22 x 30 inches

1975-76


Alexander Calder

Alexander Calder

FRIENDSHIP

CONVECTION

Original lithograph

Original lithograph

20 x 26 inches

20 x 26 inches

1974

1974


ROY LICHTENSTEIN (American, 1923-1997) Roy Lichtenstein was born October 27, 1923, in New York City. In 1939-40 he studied under Reginald Marsh at the Art Students’ League, New York, and 1940-43 and 1946-49 at Ohio State University, Columbus, where he completed his studies with an M.A. In between these two periods he served in the army from 1943 to 1946, and obtained an M.F.A. in 1949. From 1957 to 1960, Lichtenstein obtained a teaching position at the State University of New York, Oswego. By then, he had begun to include loosely drawn cartoon characters in his increasingly abstract canvases. From 1960 to 1963, he lived in New Jersey while teaching at Douglass College, a division of Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He met artists such as Jim Dine, Allan Kaprow, Claes Oldenburg, Lucas Samaras, George Segal, and Robert Whitman, who were all experimenting with different kinds of art based on everyday life. In 1961, he began to use typical elements of commercial art, comics and advertisements in his drawings and painting and introduced his Benday-dot grounds, lettering, and balloons. From 1964 and into the next decade, Lichtenstein sought an anonymous style, removing all personal reference from his work to convey the appearance of mass production. Borrowed imagery from the pages of magazine advertisements and newspaper comic strips became the focus of his compositions. He successively depicted stylized landscapes, consumer-product packaging, adaptations of paintings by famous artists, geometric elements from Art Deco design (in the Modern series), parodies of the Abstract Expressionists’ style (in the Brushstrokes series), and explosions. They all underlined the contradictions of representing three dimensions on a flat surface. Roy Lichtenstein did cartoon inspired paintings that helped launch the Pop Art movement. Lichtenstein continued to question the role of style in consumer culture through the 70’s, 80’s and the early 1990’s. In his attempt to fully clutch and expose how the forms, materials, and methods of production have shaped the images of Western society, the artist has also worked with other mediums, ceramics and enamelled steel. Lichtenstein participated in the Venice Biennale in 1966, and was honored with solo exhibitions in 1967 and 1968 at the Pasadena Art Museum and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, respectively. The artist was the subject of a major retrospective at the Guggenheim in 1994, and his works today are featured in most major museum collections worldwide.


Roy Lichtenstein

NUDE READING

Original relief printÂ

23 15/16 x 30 3/8 inches

1994


Roy Lichtenstein

SALUTE TO AVIATION

Original screenprintÂ

42 7/8 x 21 9/16 inches

1968


Roy Lichtenstein THE SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM POSTER Original screenprint 23 1/8 inches (diameter) 1969


Roy Lichtenstein

Roy Lichtenstein

FOOT AND HAND

Haystack

Offset lithograph

Original screenprint

16 ¾ x 21 inches

14 3/8 x 17 3/16 inches

1964

1969


Roy Lichtenstein

COMPOSITION IV

Original screenprintÂ

13 1/8 x 19 5/16 inches

1995


TOM WESSELMANN (American, 1931-2004) Best known as one of the leading artists of the Pop movement, Wesselmann incorporated influences ranging from Matisse to Motherwell in a way that was uniquely his own. He was initially interested in cartooning, which helped to finance his arts education, first at the Art Academy of Cincinnati and later at Cooper Union School for Arts and Architecture in New York. Wesselmann’s first exhibition was the Tanager Gallery in New York in 1961 in which he showed a series of small collages that were to serve as a foundation for two later series that brought the artist much acclaim: “Still Life” and “Great American Nudes.” In 1962 he was included in an important group exhibition at the Sidney Janis Gallery that included Jim Dine, Robert Indiana, Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol, leading to the rise of what became known as Pop Art. The popularity of that movement quickly spread, as did the fame of the artists involved. In the 1980s and 90s, Wesselmann began devoting much of his energy to the creation of three-dimensional works. Using cut metal to form abstract compositions, the artist also pioneered the use of laser-cut metal as a medium for fine art. During the last decade of his life, the artist continued to return to favorite themes – particularly the nude – and his output remained consistent in spite of continuing health issues. His last major works, which included an homage to Matisse, were part of the a series titled “Sunset Nudes.” Wesselmann died from complications following heart surgery in 2004, following which a number of major exhibitions were held worldwide. His work is included today in such museums as the Art Institute of Chicago, the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, the Hirshhorn and Smithsonian Museums in Washington, and the Tate in London.


Tom Wesselmann Still Life with Red Blowing Curtain Original screenprint 18 7/16 x 23 11/16 inches 1999

Tom Wesselmann

Lulu

Original lithograph

16 5/8 x 24 7/8 inches

1982


ANDY WARHOL (American, 1928-1987) As one of the most influential artists to emerge from the Post-War era, Warhol’s iconic imagery epitomized the brash energy and bold creativity of the Pop Art movement. Born in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania in 1928, Warhol had an affinity for art from an early age. He graduated with a Fine Arts degree from the Carnegie Institute of Technology, after which he pursued a career as a commercial artist in New York. His innovative work in illustration won a number of awards during the 1950s, but as time passed, he became much more interested in painting. In the early 60s he began experimenting with subject matter drawn from comics and ads, as well as portraits of movie stars. He also became fascinated with sculptural forms, which led to his recreation of supermarket boxes. At the same time he opened “The Factory,” a studio and social environment that became a media sensation. The next two decades were filled with expanding interests ranging from the founding of Interview magazine to collaborations with artists including Keith Haring and JeanMichel Basquiat. His artistic output was impressive and the demand for his paintings, screenprints, photographs and drawings expanded rapidly. Exhibitions in prestigious galleries and museums also grew, as Warhol’s “celebrity” became equal to that of the stars he immortalized. Warhol’s impact on 20th century art is inestimable and his work today is more collectible than ever. He is featured in most major museum collections worldwide and his importance in the history of art is unquestionable.


Andy Warhol

SATYRIC FESTIVAL SONG

Original screenprintÂ

36 x 36 inches

1986


Andy Warhol

JOHN WAYNE

Original screenprint

36 x 36 inches

1986


Andy Warhol

ANNIE OAKLEY

Original screenprintÂ

36 x 36 inches

1986


Andy Warhol

SARAH BERNHARDT

Original screenprintÂ

40 x 32 inches

1980


Andy Warhol

MICK JAGGER

Original screenprint

43 ½ x 29 inches

1975


Andy Warhol

$ (4)

Original screenprint

40 x 32 inches

1982


Andy Warhol

VESUVIUS

Original screenprint

31 ½ x 39 3/8 inches

1985


JIM DINE (American b.1935) Jim Dine, one of the masters of Pop art & NeoExpressionism was born in Cincinnati Ohio in 1935. After graduating from Ohio University, he moved to New York and quickly gained notoriety for his “Happenings” - a chaotic form of performance art. In 1962, he was featured with artists including Lichtenstein, Warhol, and Thiebaud, in “New Paintings of Common Objects,” the first museum survey of American pop art, which was presented at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena. Even with the commercial success Dine enjoyed in the 60’s, he was still not satisfied. He pushed the boundaries with a body of work considered so risqué that the police raided an exhibition at the Robert Fraiser gallery in London. In 1970’s and 1980’s, Dine was viewed as a forerunner of the Neo-Expressionists. His work became more sensual and romantic, with a greater emphasis on the grand gesture. He began using everyday objects from his environment, such as tools, shoes and other articles of clothing, and elevating their importance by featuring them in his work. The very personal iconography soon extended to series based on artists’ palettes, hearts and bathrobes, as well as recurring motifs such as gates, trees, and appropriations of the Venus de Milo. Jim Dine’s work is featured in numerous public collections, including the British Museum and the Tale Gallery, London, the Hirshorn Museum, Washigton, D.C., the Metropolitan Museum, the Guggenheim and the Museum of Modern Art, New York.


Jim Dine BALL-GRAINED HEART Original lithograph with digital print and hand-coloring 49 ¾ x 37 ½ inches

2010


Jim Dine

CHARTRES

Original etching with hand-coloring added

26 ¾ x 29 5/8 inches

2014


Jim Dine

THE BLUE HEART

Original lithographÂ

26 3/8 x 20 3/8 inches

2005


Jim Dine TWO RED HEARTS Original woodcut and photoengraving 22 1/8 x 35 5/8 inches

1993


Jim Dine OCTOPUS Original etching with hand-coloring 23 3/8 x 39 inches

2015


Jim Dine ROBE WITH WASP NEST Original lithograph with photogravure and hand-coloring 35 x 27 inchesÂ

2013


Jim Dine BLUE VIENNA Original woodcut and collograph with hand-coloring 54 x 36 ¾ inches

2013


HELEN FRANKENTHALER (American, 1928 - 2011) Frankenthaler was a highly influential Abstract Expressionist whose work was featured in important exhibitions from the early 1950s until her passing in 2011. Born in Manhattan, she was influenced by a number of luminaries including Hans Hoffman and Jackson Pollack. Though aligned with several generations of abstract painters, she continued to explore new avenues of self-expression, including a major foray into printmaking. She created her first graphic in 1961 and quickly became an important figure in the renaissance of American printmaking, producing some 235 works by the early 1990’s. Her graphic oeuvre was of consistently high quality and works are featured in many major museum collections. Frankenthaler has been the subject of several retrospective exhibitions, including a 1989 exhibition in New York as the Museum of Modern Art. She was presented with numerous awards during her lifetime, including the National Medal of Arts in 2001.


Helen Frankenthaler

SOLAR IMP

Original Screenprint

39 ¼ x 29 ¾ inches

2001


CHRISTOPHER–CLARK FINE ART 377 Gea r y St reet , Sa n Fra ncisco 41 5. 39 7.7781 cla rk f i nea r t.com


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