Skip Ribbon Commands
Skip to main content
Seattle Art Museum (SAM)
menu

Untitled #6

Photo Credit: Susan Cole

Untitled #6

ca. 1953

Sam Francis

American, 1923-1994

Confined to a California army hospital bed with a serious back injury in 1943, Francis was given a box of watercolors as a therapeutic activity. He became fascinated by changing effects of daylight on the ceiling: ". . . not just the play of light, but the substance of which light is made." After the war he abandoned his medical training and became an abstract painter.

This subtle, mysterious watercolor dates from his early years in Paris. Patches of unpainted white paper and dramatic dark brown forms hover in a plae mist of thinly washed color.
Ink and watercolor on paper
17 1/2 x 13 1/2 in. (44.5 x 34.3 cm), image and sheet size
Gift in honor of Millard B. Rogers
93.50
Photo Credit: Susan Cole
location
Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Collection Highlights: 1945 To The Present, Sept. 12, 1996 - June 1, 1997

Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.

Learn more about Equity at SAM