Sam Francis – Retrospective in Blue
Danubiana Meulensteen Museum
June 19, 2010 –August 29, 2010
The first Slovak retrospective of internationally renowned abstract artist Sam Francis (1923-1994)
will be on display at Bratislava’s unique Danubiana Gallery on the River Danube.
This is the largest European exhibition of Sam Francis’s works since 1995, with 100 works being exhibited.
The project sprung from the collaboration of collector and founder of the museum Gerard Meulensteen with Gallery Delaive.
Over the years both Meulensteen and Delaive established a large collection of works by Sam Francis and in this exhibition,
they provide a retrospective overview of the career of the world-renowned Abstract-Expressionist.
The exhibition showcases works from all periods of Francis’ career. It includes early experiments in painting from the 1946 before he developed his own signature style and his highly sought-after works from the 1950s with increasingly more open canvases that he made in his time in Paris and Japan. There are also some top-level pieces from the 1960s on display, including some of his famous Blue Ball pieces and some Edge Paintings in which he would leave the center of the Canvas largely colorless. From the 70s and 80s there are some extra-ordinary, more filled paintings, sometimes gridded, equally bursting in color. Additionally, the exhibition shows works from the last stages of Francis’s life and career, with entirely covered surfaces, many of which he made in San Francisco. Lastly there are several prototypes and monotypes which were the result of his one-time, non-repeatable printing technique he started to develop in the 1970s and called ‘instant paintings’.
The large amount of some of the best pieces from throughout the entirety of his artistic career included in this retrospective give the audiences a strong insight in the dedication and minute and meticulous process and gradual developments of the modern master of color. It forms a testimony to Francis’ incredible achievement in the field of painting and helps establish him firmly as one of the greatest abstract painters of his generation.
The exhibition will be on view from 19 June 2010 – 29 August 2010
