Light on Fire: The Art and Life of Sam Francis (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780520310711)

The first in-depth biography of Sam Francis, the legendary American abstract painter who broke all the rules in his personal and artistic life.

Light on Fire is the first comprehensive biography of Sam Francis, one of the most important American abstract artists of the twentieth century. Based on Gabrielle Selz's unprecedented access to Francis's files, as well as private correspondence and hundreds of interviews, this book traces the extraordinary and ultimately tragic journey of a complex and charismatic artist who first learned to paint as a former air-corps pilot encased for three years in a full-body cast. While still a young man, Francis saw his color-saturated paintings fetch the highest prices of any living artist. His restless desire resulted in five marriages and homes on three continents; his entrepreneurial spirit led to founding a museum, a publishing company, a reforestation program and several nonprofits. Light on Fire captures the art, life, personality, and talent of a man whom the art historian and museum director William C. Agee described as a rare artist participating in the "visionary reconstruction of art history," defying creative boundaries among the likes of Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and Willem de Kooning. With settings from World War II San Francisco to postwar Paris, New York, Tokyo, and Los Angeles, Selz crafts an intimate portrait of a man who sought to resolve in art the contradictions he couldn't resolve in life.

Author: Gabrielle Selz
ISBN-10: 0520310713
ISBN-13: 9780520310711
Publisher: University of California Press
Language: English
Published: 10/19/2021
Pages: 392
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.55lbs
Size: 9.06h x 5.98w x 1.26d

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 10/01/2021 pg. 80
Choice 09/01/2022