To-date the foundation has compiled over 150 interviews with artists, friends, family, studio assistants, curators, art dealers, etc. that discuss their relationship with Sam Francis as well as information about their own histories in the art world. Interviews include individuals that knew Francis from the 1940s through 1994, and cover the different studios and countries where Francis lived and worked.
We are collaborating with the 18th Street Art Center to research the deep archive of oral histories around Sam Francis and his network of artistic influence in Santa Monica to add to their Culture Mapping 90404 project. 18th Street Arts Center and Sam Francis Foundation are thrilled to embark on this journey together, exploring cultural ambassadorship, and fostering a collaborative international artist network that will bring powerful artistic minds and research together to shift our paradigms around intractable global issues.
The complete archives of the filmed interviews and transcripts will be housed at the Getty Research Institute (GRI)with a focused website and research portal in the near future.
The individuals pictured here illustrate a few examples of the interviews including art historian/writer, Dore Ashton (in NY); art curator and director Walter Hopps (at the Norton Simon Museum, CA); architect Arata Isozaki (in Japan); and artists Bruce Conner (CA), Luchita Hurtado (CA), and Shirley Jaffe (in France).
