Sam Francis, Basel Mural I, 1956-58
Oil on canvas, 151-3/4 x 237-3/8 in.
Norton Simon Museum, Gift of the Artist
© 2011 The Sam Francis Foundation/Artists Rights Society
Photo Credit: Kimberly Mackey
As Suzanne recently perused our library of Arts & Culture Newsletters, she was struck as she read about Clyfford Still (March/April 2015)….and couldn’t help but think of the moment that she encountered Sam Francis’s Basel Mural at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena.
“When Sam was good,” says one of his lifetime friends, art dealer Paula Kirkeby, “he was very, very good.” This piece is certainly that. The painter is portraying a full emotional range in this piece, with vivid blues, blazing oranges and golden yellows in a field of white light.
This piece was painted between 1956 and 1958, originally hung in a stairhall of the Kunsthalle Basel along with the two companion pieces, Basel Murals II and III. The group of paintings was broken up and disbursed in 1964. II in currently still intact in the Stedelijk Museum collection, while III exists only as fragments.
A detail of “Basel Mural I”
© 2011 The Sam Francis Foundation/Artists Rights Society
Photo Credit: Kimberly Mackey
Click here to view a great video about Sam Francis and the Basel Murals.
And, Clyfford Still….here, a visitor ponders two works by Still, at the Clyfford Still Museum in Denver.
Image courtesy: Travelscope
In compiling our newsletter, it was certainly a joy reliving the excitement around the opening of Still’s museum and the opening of the vault around his important lifetime of work.
We look forward to planning a trip to Denver to having an encounter with the monumental canvases by Clyfford Still!!!
