Black and Green

Prints and Drawings

1953

Sam Francis
American, 1923–1994

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: Sam Francis
Title: Black and Green
Place: United States (Artist's nationality)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: Made 1953
Medium: Watercolor and gouache on off-white wove paper
Inscriptions: Signed, dated, and inscribed verso, lower center, in pen and black ink: "Sam Francis / 1953 Paris"; inscribed verso, upper right, in graphite: "27"; upper center, in graphite: [arrow pointing up]
Dimensions: 44.7 × 35.8 cm (17 5/8 × 14 1/8 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Richard and Mary L. Gray
Reference Number: 2022.71

Bonn, Germany, Kunst-und-Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublick Deutschland, Sam Francis, 1993, p. 254 (ill.).
Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art, Under Development: Dreaming the MCA’s Collection, 1994, cat. 65.
Art Institute of Chicago, Gray Collection: Seven Centuries of Art, Sept. 25, 2010–Jan. 20, 2011, cat. 104 (ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago, Pure Drawing: Seven Centuries of Art from the Gray Collection, Jan. 25–Oct. 12, 2020; traveled to Berkeley, UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Aug. 4–Nov. 28, 2021.

Private collection; sold, Kornfeld and Klipstein, Bern, Switzerland, June 18–21, 1980. lot 405, to Richard and Mary L. Gray and the Gray Collection Trust, Chicago (promised to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2018); given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2022.

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