When Sam Francis arrived in Paris in 1950, he brought with himÌýthreeÌýyearsÌýof artistic trainingÌýat the University of California, Berkeley.ÌýThe ensuingÌýhalf-decadeÌýin the postwar capital were therefore formative for the arc of his career, setting into motion a set of philosophical and theoretical concernsÌýregardingÌýconsciousness, perception, and sensationÌýthat animated his work for decades to come.ÌýAmong his intellectual communityÌýin ParisÌýwere other expatriate American artists like Al Held, Claire Falkenstein,ÌýShirley Jaffe,Ìýand Joan MitchellÌýas well as a vibrant group of curators, philosophers, and criticsÌýwithÌýdirectÌýties to discourses of phenomenology and existentialismÌýstill emergingÌýat the Collège de France.ÌýFrancis’s artistic production in Paris was thus closely alliedÌýtoÌýa rich transnational intellectual exchange in which his paintings were informed byÌýthese strains ofÌýphilosophy, and in which philosophicallyÌýoriented writers used his work to explicate their ideas in commissioned texts for prominent gallery exhibitions.ÌýDrawing on new archival research toÌýaddressÌýFrancis’s atmospheric paintings of this period, which areÌýcharacterized by veils of interlocking biomorphs, this talk demonstrates the significance of French phenomenology for American art in the 1950s long before the English translation of thatÌýdiscipline’s key texts provided a foundation for minimalism in the 1960s.ÌýÌý
Elizabeth BuheÌýis ³Ù³ó±ðÌý2020ÌýTerra postdoctoral fellow at the Centre for American Art at 91ÖÆƬ³§. An active critic for ³Ù³ó±ðÌýBrooklyn RailÌýandÌýArt inÌýAmerica, sheÌýspecializes in art of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries in Europe and America.ÌýCurrent writing projectsÌýaddressÌýhow art mediates knowledge through its intersections with philosophy, social psychology, and processes of perception.ÌýHerÌýworkÌýhas received support from the Henry Luce Foundation, the Getty Research Institute, the Fulbright Commission, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Terra Foundation for American Art.ÌýPresently, she is completing a book manuscript entitledÌýSam Francis: Beside Painting.ÌýÌý
Organised by Professor David Peters Corbett (The Courtauld)Ìý
