Sam Francis, Untitled from the Deluxe [signed] edition of the 1 Cent Life Portfolio (hand signed twice, #85/100, acquired from the Estate of Robert Indiana), 1964

Sam Francis

Untitled from the Deluxe [signed] edition of the 1 Cent Life Portfolio (hand signed twice, #85/100, acquired from the Estate of Robert Indiana), 1964

Lithograph on wove paper (Hand signed twice by Sam Francis)

Pencil signed twice by Sam Francis on the front; numbered 85/100 on the portfolio colophon

Frame Included

This Sam Francis is a rare hand signed example, from the Deluxe Edition of the legendary 1 Cent Life Portfolio, published in a limited edition of only 100, numbered 85/100, reserved for artists and collaborators; the present print being from the collection of Robert Indiana, one of the artists who contributed to the portfolio)
As these are two works splayed across one portfolio page, many dealers and collectors separate them; however we have kept them as one lithograph, with each side of the page hand signed in pencil by Sam Francis - an extra bonus!
(There was, separately, an unsigned edition of 2,000 which collectors are more familiar with; rarely do works from the hand signed edition appear on the market.) The Sam Francis work is signed twice in graphite pencil on the front.
Signed examples of this portfolio with such superb provenance rarely appear on the marketplace. This is a true collectors item, from the most desirable and influential era in Pop Art history.

Published by E.W. Kornfeld, Germany, Written by Walasse Ting, Edited by Sam Francis

Provenance: Acquired from original, complete 1 Cent Life Portfolio, # 85/100 (Artists & Collaborators) from the Estate and Collection of Robert Indiana

Frame included:Elegantly framed in a hand made museum quality frame under Optium Museum Tru-Vue Plexiglass

Measurements:
Framed:
20.25 x 27 x 1.5 inches
Work:
16 x 22.5 inches

Provenance
Acquired from original, complete 1 Cent Life Portfolio, # 85/100 (Artists & Collaborators) from the Estate and Collection of Robert Indiana

Published by E.W. Kornfeld, Germany, Written by Walasse Ting, Edited by Sam Francis

More about the Signed (Deluxe) Edition of 1 Cent Life portfolio
In 1962, the Chinese-American artist Walasse Ting shared his dream project with painter Sam Francis: to create an anthology of his poetry illustrated by leading artists of their time. Over the next two years, Ting and Francis recruited leading Abstract Expressionists and Pop artists—Andy Warhol, Joan Mitchell, Robert Rauschenberg, Robert Indiana, James Rosenquist, Mel Ramos, Claes Oldenburg and Roy Lichtenstein, among them, along with the European COBRA artists, like Asger Jorn, Karel Appel and Pierre Alechinsky —to create prints for their collaborative publication, which they playfully titled 1¢ Life. Published in 1964 by E. W. Kornfeld in Switzerland in an edition of 2,000 books, 1¢ Life features 62 color lithographs by a total of 28 iconic artists, including colorful lips by Warhol, abstract splatters by Mitchell, and cartoon girls by Lichtenstein. The accompanying many of these Pop Art prints are the poems of Walasse Ting - racy and avant garde for the early 1960s. The lithography was executed by Maurice Beaudet, of Paris. Complete examples of 1¢ Life can be found in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the British Museum and many other public and private institutions around the globe. Today, 1 Cent Life is considered one of the best artist's books ever created- coming out of one of the most influential decades in modern art.

Apart from the familiar regular edition of 2000, only 100 of these lithographic portfolios were hand signed by the artists (the Robert Indiana being stamped with his official stamp), and of those only 40 were reserved for Artists and Collaborators, numbered 60 through 100. (The present work, being # 85/100)

Most lithographs are printed on two separate pages. This famed portfolio was produced and assembled by Chinese-American-European artist Walasse Ting in conjunction with American artist Sam Francis, Swiss publisher E.W. Kornfeld, and French printer Maurice Beaudet - a truly global endeavor. The portfolio, featuring some of the most recognizable lithographs of the era, was the result of an unprecedented, ambitious international collaboration between American Pop Artists of the Sixties and the European COBRA artists.