Arcana:

(FRANCIS, SAM). Selz, Gabrielle. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2021. First Edition. 8vo. Cloth in Pictorial Dust Jacket. Artist Biography. As New/As New. 0-520-31071-3

Pre-order your copy of this engaging new study of the Art and Life of Sam Francis. Author Gabrielle Selz will be signing for us on Sunday, November  12th, and we will begin shipping orders the following Tuesday. Please email us at books@arcanabooks.com with any questions. Thanks!

392pp, 22 b&w and 11 color photos illustrations. "Light on Fire" is the first comprehensive biography of Sam Francis, one of the most important American abstract artists of the twentieth century. Based on Gabrielle Selz’s unprecedented access to Francis' files, as well as private correspondence and hundreds of interviews, this book traces the extraordinary and ultimately tragic journey of a complex and charismatic artist who first learned to paint as a former air-corps pilot encased for three years in a full-body cast. While still a young man, Francis saw his color-saturated paintings fetch the highest prices of any living artist. His restless desire resulted in five marriages and homes on three continents; his entrepreneurial spirit led to founding a museum, a publishing company, a reforestation program and several nonprofit organizations. "Light on Fire" captures the art, life, personality, and talent of a man whom the art historian and museum director William C. Agee described as a rare artist participating in the “visionary reconstruction of art history,” defying creative boundaries among the likes of Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and Willem de Kooning. With settings from World War II San Francisco to postwar Paris, New York, Tokyo, and Los Angeles, Selz crafts an intimate portrait of a man who sought to resolve in art the contradictions he couldn’t resolve in life." A brand new, most handsome example of the first edition of this engaging study additionally SIGNED by author Gabrielle Selz.

Inventory Number: E211024SFLOF