I really love this painting! I’ve never seen it before, and figured it was
by Helen Frankenthaler. The wash that
was under the opaque brushwork looked like stains seeping out from the heavier
paint. I only associate that effect with
Frankenthaler, but all that open space…the brushwork relative to the size of
the painting was underscaled, but the composition—its critical
groupings of shapes, brushwork, and spatters was so unusual!
What does it
take for a painting to strike you as weird? “Towards Disappearing” by Sam
Francis is very pleasing in its sparseness, but perhaps the placement of its
parts is not entirely precise—everything is roughed in by the transparent blue
wash, then brushed over with heavier paint; but the unusual balance, particularly
from top to bottom wins.
The blobs on either edge of the canvas are perhaps too obvious in stretching the image to its full margin, but I refuse to belabor this point because of the sweetness of the main body.
The blobs on either edge of the canvas are perhaps too obvious in stretching the image to its full margin, but I refuse to belabor this point because of the sweetness of the main body.
I
find it easy to simply report the basics:
to look at the technique and process, believing that this tells about
the painting. "Towards Disappearing" illustrates the concept
of a work being greater than the sum of its parts.
This painting is more than the brushstrokes and qualities of the material. It is more than Francis’ colors--they seem to be swallowed up by white canvas and then appear upon closer inspection; it is more than the many fine spatters of thrown liquid paint. Technique doesn’t define this curious imagery.
This painting is more than the brushstrokes and qualities of the material. It is more than Francis’ colors--they seem to be swallowed up by white canvas and then appear upon closer inspection; it is more than the many fine spatters of thrown liquid paint. Technique doesn’t define this curious imagery.
The
museum notes mention the artist’s travels to Paris and his encounter with
Japanese art, and point out the simplicity of expression, the asymmetrical
division of the space, the calligraphic quality of the brushwork and identity
of the image. This begins to open a door
onto the work, but it is a genuinely weird painting.
In Francis' painting the asymmetry, paint handling, the liquidity of the paint are its subject. Its wash, drips/runs and fine splatters speak so to liquid characteristics—no impasto or thick film, no structure.
And it doesn’t look like water lilies, birds, or anything--It's just a painting, not a painting of something. Success!
For more on Sam Francis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Francis
