Through July 29, 2023    

SAM FRANCIS – DISTILLED   

Exhibition Opens at Jack Rutberg Fine Arts  

600 South Lake Avenue, #102  Pasadena, CA 91106 Tel. 323-938-5222 [email protected]            For more information contact Jack Rutberg 

Video link:https://www.jackrutbergfinearts.com/videos.html#francis

Pasadena, California - An exhibition of works by Sam Francis (1923 - 1994) celebrating the artist’s centennial year, is presented by Jack Rutberg Fine Arts in an exhibition entitled, Sam Francis – Distilled. The exhibition extends through Saturday, July 29, at the Rutberg Gallery, located at 600 S. Lake Avenue , #102, in Pasadena.   

The exhibition exclusively focuses upon a hugely important aspect of Francis’ rarely seen monochromatic graphic works. It compliments the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s present Sam Francis exhibition which runs through July 16, keying upon Francis’ profound intercultural dialogue between Western and Eastern aesthetics.    

While best known for his brightly colored works, the exhibition investigates what might be regarded as the purest aspect of Francis’ vision, through his exploration of the energy created by the tension of opposites; the yin and yang of black ink spattered and painted across the negative, open spaces and fields of white paper.    

Often employing varied shades of black and nearly imperceptible gradations of color, these rare original graphic works, through contrast and transparency, have an extraordinary effect suggestive of celestial realms.    

Even as Francis created color prints, he proofed those works in black and white, allowing him to distill his compositions in a manner whereby he could easily judge their visual impact. On some occasions, those plates were also used to create a very limited black and white edition. However, in this exhibition, the majority of works were exclusively conceived and executed ostensibly in black and white but actually with touches of color, offering a rare view of one of America’s major post war artists.   

Born on June 25, 1923, in San Mateo, California, Sam Francis moved to Paris in 1950, and attended the Atelier Fernand Léger. His first solo exhibition was presented in 1952 in Paris at Galerie Nina Dausset. He moved back to California in 1962, ultimately settling in Santa Monica. His extensive international exhibitions underscore the frequent citation that Sam Francis was the first post-war American painter to achieve international stature.    

Important early museum exhibitions include:  Pasadena Art Museum (1959); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (1967); Centre National d'art Contemporain, Fondation Rothschild, Paris (1968); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (1972); Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (1979); and Museum of Modern Art, Toyama, Japan (1988). He was included in 12 Americans at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (1956), and in Documenta, Kassel, West Germany (1964).   

Referencing Francis’ major museum exhibition at the then-important Pasadena Museum of Art (now Norton Simon Museum) in 1959, Sam Francis – Distilled is presented 63 years later at the Jack Rutberg Fine Arts gallery, revealing what gallery owner, Jack Rutberg regards as Sam Francis’ most intimate and unique works, fueled by the artist’s study of Jung’s theories on dreams and memory, a love of literature and poetry, his fascination with Eastern religion and philosophy, and the surrealist and Dada-ist experiments with controlled accidents.    

Sam Francis’ commitment to printmaking, with its distinctive properties, became part of his overall visual thinking and was paramount to his body of work. In 1970 he founded his own print studio, the Litho Shop, and later in 1984, Lapis Press, producing texts on and by a wide range of contemporary artists from Richard Long to Ed Ruscha.   

Sam Francis – Distilled is open at Jack Rutberg Fine Arts, now located at 600 South Lake Avenue, #102, Pasadena, CA 91106 through July 29. Free parking entrance is on Lake Avenue.  Gallery entry through the lobby.  Gallery hours - Tuesday through Friday 10:00 AM. to 6:00 PM, Saturdays 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM.  For more information, phone (1) 323 938-5222; [email protected]   

                         ### Images Available Upon Request