Sam Francis: Resurrection
THE FOLLOWING IS excerpted from Light on Fire: The Art and Life of Sam Francis, by Gabrielle Selz. Published this month by the University of California Press ($34.95), it is the first indepth biography of Francis, a key figure in postwar American abstract art. The book is based on the author’s unprecedented access to the artist’s files, as well as private correspondence and hundreds of interviews. Selz, whose father was the art historian and curator Peter Selz, is also the author of Unstill Life: A Daughter’s Memoir of Art and Love in the Age of Abstraction. As this excerpt begins, it is 1963, and Francis has recently recovered from a serious illness and moved back to the U.S. after having been based in Paris since 1950.
Sam was now forty years old. He’d lived and worked on three continents. His third marriage was over. Having been reborn twice, he didn’t want to waste time. He wanted to roar.
Sam’s arrival in Southern California placed him in a unique position. In Paris, he’d been an aspirant seeking to
