I know, that is quite a strong statement, but I'll stand by it until I come across a painting I like better. I doubt that will happen anytime soon. It now shares a room at the Simon with two vertical fragments of "Basel Mural III," -- which was re-stretched into 4 tall, separate panels after it was damaged during shipping -- while "Basel Mural II" which is intact, is 5, miles away in the collection of Amsterdam's Stedelijk Museum.
In other words, "Basel Mural I" is a survivor: one panel of a triptych that will never again be entirely whole. Majestic in scale, measuring just under 13 feet tall and nearly 20 feet wide, its vivid blues, blazing oranges and golden yellows burn brightly in a white field that to me represents what art historian Kirk Varnedoe called "the white light of mysticism.
It also draws inspiration from Japanese art, one of Francis' lifelong preoccupations. Painted in oil, with some areas that have the transparency of watercolor, "Basel Mural I" is a painting that goes beyond its visual sources, and beyond the tangible, into something else entirely. Trying to put into words -- in aesthetic and art historical terms -- just where it came from, where it went, and how it did so strikes me as a potentially frustrating and limited exercise. Simply calling the painting and the artist who made it "mystic" might be the best approach.
Francis would have agreed: "The making of a painting has no past that can be traced," he once told an interviewer. If you haven't seen the Basel Mural, you very likely don't know what Sam Francis was capable of at the height of his powers. When I was an art student in the late s and early s I remember seeing Sam Francis prints almost everywhere. During a visit I made to Francis' Santa Monica studio with dealer Riko Mizuno in , I was more impressed by the productive chaos of the place than I was by any of the paintings I saw.
That experience reinforced the idea that Sam Francis knew how to make a lot of art and turn it into a lot of money, but I didn't yet understand the man's greatness. The Basel Mural has served to re-educate me: Sam Francis was extraordinary. Pain was certainly a constant in Francis' adult life.
