The first in-depth biography of Sam Francis, the legendary American abstract painter who broke all the rules in his personal and artistic life.
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’s 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 nonprofits. 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.
Gabrielle Selz is the award-winning author of Unstill Life: A Daughter’s Memoir of Art and Love in the Age of Abstraction. Her articles have appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times.
"I think of Sam as a modern-day Nijinsky with a big loaded brush. He would get on to a canvas and really clean house. Selz's book really captures his spirit."—Ed Ruscha, artist
"Drawing on her wide-ranging research, insightful observations, and lucid prose, Selz illuminates the feverish life of a survivor, art world misfit, and master of color and light. Her book offers new insights into the origins of Sam Francis’s dazzling art. It’s a page-turner and a revelation."—Patricia Albers, author of Joan Mitchell, Lady Painter: A Life
"Gabrielle Selz’s Light on Fire is a deeply researched and engaging biography of a twentieth-century artist whose luminous paintings once commanded the highest prices in the world. With a personal life (he had five wives) as dramatic as the oversized abstract images he exhibited around the globe, Sam Francis redefined what it meant to be an artist in the post–World War II era. Selz's page-turning book should bring long-overdue attention to a man with enormous talent, appetites, and zest for life."—Frances Dinkelspiel, author of Tangled Vines: Greed, Murder, Obsession, and an Arsonist in the Vineyards of California
"Sam Francis was an important and influential painter, which is enough, but his influence on art and the art world went far beyond his canvases. This richly written book understands that, and unfolds like an ideas-driven novel that brings verve and authority to its examination of Francis's art and life."—Tyler Green, author of Carleton Watkins: Making the West American
"A balanced, fascinating, and at times suspenseful account of a complicated man. Discreet and thoughtful, the author has nonetheless pulled back the curtain on this lion of the twentieth century. I couldn’t put it down."—Anastasia Aukeman, author of Welcome to Painterland: Bruce Conner and the Rat Bastard Protective Association
"A fascinating, meticulously researched account of an elusive and enthralling artist. A sheer delight to read."—Julia Flynn Siler, best-selling author of The House of Mondavi, Lost Kingdom, and The White Devil's Daughters
392 pp.6 x 9Illus: 22 b/w photos, 11 color photos
9780520310711$34.95|£30.00Hardcover
Oct 2021