Sam Francis, The Fresh Air Lithograph (Hand Signed Carnegie Museum Director Edition of 30), 1972

Hand signed and numbered 25/30 on the front
Provenance: Fresh Air Fund Portfolio # 25/30, from the Estate of a former director of the Carnegie Museum.
Publisher: Maeght, Paris for the Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh PA
Catalogue Raisonne: Lembark 155
This mid century abstract expressionist lithograph by Sam Francis, published in 1972, is one of only 30 that was hand signed, as part of the Fresh Air School portfolio. In 1972, the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania exhibited paintings of Sam Francis, Joan Mitchell and Walasse Ting together in a show entitled Fresh Air School. This print and the full regular portfolio were published as a fundraiser in conjunction with the exhibition, in an edition of approximately 1000. However, separate from that unsigned edition, was this very small HAND SIGNED AND NUMBERED edition of only 30 reserved exclusively for museum trustees, the curator, director and major donors. Rarely seen on the market, this is one of those rare hand signed works - hand signed by Sam Francis and numbered 25/30.
Note the present listing is for the Sam Francis work alone as shown.
Catalogue Raisonné: 155, Lembark
Publisher: Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh
Printer: Maeght, Paris
Provenance: Fresh Air Fund Portfolio # 23/30, from the Estate of a former director of the Carnegie Museum.
This work is elegantly floated in a handmade white wood frame under UV plexiglass.
Measurements:
Framed:
19.75 inches (vertical) by 26.75 inches (horizontal) by 1.5 inches
Lithograph:
15 inches by 21.75 inches

Sam Francis biography:
California-born abstract expressionist painter Sam Francis (1923–1994), is regarded as one of the 20th century’s leading interpreters of light and color. Sam Francis maintained studios in Bern, New York, Los Angeles, Paris, and Tokyo, making him the first post–World War II American painter whose reach was truly international. Throughout a long and prolific career, Francis created thousands of paintings as well as works on paper, prints, and monotypes. His work holds references to New York abstract expressionism, color field painting, Chinese and Japanese art, French impressionism, and his own Bay Area roots.

• Courtesy of Gagosian Gallery

More about Sam Francis:
For Sam Francis, exploring the creative process was his driving force. It impacted not only his art, but his view of human progress.
One of the twentieth century’s most profound Abstract Expressionists, American artist Sam Francis (1923-1994) is noted as one of the first post-World War II painters to develop an international reputation. Francis created thousands of paintings as well as works on paper, prints and monotypes, housed in major museum collections and institutions around the world. Regarded as one of the leading interpreters of color and light, his work holds references to New York abstract expressionism, color field painting, Chinese and Japanese art, French impressionism and his own Bay Area roots.
After graduating from Cal Berkeley in 1950 with a degree in art, Francis moved to Paris, where he would go on to be named by Time Magazine as, “the hottest American painter in Paris these days.” A transformative period of his career, Francis immersed himself in a study of Monet’s Water Lilies and was influenced by his close friendships with the Matisse family and artists Al Held, Joan Mitchell, and Jean-Paul Riopelle.
For the next four decades he traveled and studied extensively, maintaining studios in Bern, Paris, Tokyo, Mexico City, New York and Northern and Southern California. Through his travels he was exposed to many styles, techniques and cultural influences, which informed the development of his own dialogue and style of painting. Francis possessed a lyrical and gestural hand, enabling him to capture and record the brilliance, energy and intensity of color at different moments of time and periods of his life. His paintings embody his love of literature, music and science, while reflecting his deep range of emotions and personal turmoil.
Not only are Francis’s paintings valued historically for their aesthetic vision, but his inquisitive mind and spirit have solidified Francis’s legacy as a contemporary renaissance man. His interest in the creative process was expansive and synergistic – art, technology, psychology, science, medicine, and protecting the environment (before it became a movement). He was an early investor in research to find creative solutions to our dependence on non-renewable energy sources and cures for AIDs. In each of these realms, he explored the nature of creativity – what stimulates it, the importance of testing new ideas through experimentation as well as the roles of imagination, intuition and knowledge.
Much like Francis believed his life was a series of ongoing challenges, the Sam Francis Foundation is dedicated to expanding his sense of wonder – his freedom to explore – his mantra to dream – his life force to be creative...

• Courtesy of Sam Francis Foundation