Sam Francis (1923–1994)
Sam Francis was an American painter whose radiant abstractions helped define a global vision of postwar modernism. Moving fluidly between the artistic centers of California, Paris, Tokyo, Bern, and New York, Francis forged a language of color and gesture that transcended national boundaries. Deeply influenced by Japanese aesthetics, Zen philosophy, and Jungian psychology, his paintings evoke a sense of interior and cosmic space where emotion, color, and consciousness converge.
During the 1950s and 1960s, his life and work intersected meaningfully with that of the Japanese-Swiss artist Teruko Yokoi, whose parallel exploration of light, color, and form reflected a shared pursuit of synthesis between East and West. Their dialogue represents a key moment in the postwar exchange between American and Japanese abstraction.
Francis’s work is held in major museum collections worldwide including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Centre Pompidou, Paris; the Tate, London; and the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo. His practice continues to influence artists seeking to bridge cultural experience through abstraction.
Representation
EMERALD ROOM | EMERALD EDITIONS is not affiliated with the Sam Francis Foundation but works in direct collaboration with members of the artist’s family and heirs, facilitating the placement and acquisition of significant works from private collections.
The gallery acts as a resource for collectors, curators, and institutions seeking to engage with Francis’s cross-cultural practice and his dialogue with contemporaries such as Teruko Yokoi.
All works offered through EMERALD ROOM | EMERALD EDITIONS are presented with documented provenance and family authorization.