A prominent figure from the second wave of Color Field painting, American artist Sherron Francis and her remarkable oeuvre fell into oblivion in the early 2000s when the Waverly Place loft buildings, where she had a studio that doubled as a home, were sold. Losing her creative space happened in sync with the art market crash, ushering Francis to relocate and reorganize her entire life. These existential circumstances led Francis to reorient her career, opting for obscurity and a life away from the epicenter of the art scene at Long Island’s North Fork.
For Sherron Francis' oeuvre, the journey of rediscovery began in 2022, when the New York-based gallery Lincoln Glenn reintroduced the artist’s works to the spotlight with the show Sherron Francis: A Retrospective. Building upon that strong foundation of re-illuminating her story, Lincoln Glenn amplifies Francis’ voice by reiterating her contributions to Abstract Expressionism and Color Field painting in the new show Sherron Francis: Splash of Serenity, 1973-77.
Drawn to the arts from a young age, Chicago-born Sherron Francis (b. 1940) received her first formal academic lessons in drawing at the University of Oklahoma. After transferring to the Kansas City Art Institute, Francis graduated in fine art. However, the painter's curiosity led her to explore interior design and pottery, always staying in touch with her incredible drive to experiment.
Moving to New York in 1968 proved pivotal for Francis. A couple of years after adjusting to the big city's art scene, she abandoned the figure in favor of the sweeping abstract tide. But instead of mindlessly following trends, Sherron Francis developed a distinct approach to Color Field painting, becoming an authentic voice of the movement in the 1970s. This prompted Peter Schjeldahl, reviewing the artist's solo exhibition, to remark in the New York Times that Francis evaded the detriment of being derivative of Rothko and Frankenthaler by employing "a single canny formal device."
Revisiting the artist's golden decade, the exhibition surveys pivotal works chronologically flanked by Francis' participation in the Whitney Biennial (1973) and the introduction of commercial insulation gravel into her pigments (1977). At the same time, the works featured in Splash of Serenity connect to the overarching discussion of the mid-1970s about the uncertain status of abstraction, reassessed and questioned amidst new art tendencies such as minimalism and conceptual art.
Championing the revival of abstract art, Sherron Francis produced a series of paintings in the mid-1970s that echo the canvases of Abstract Expressionism's first wave. However, she elevates that framework by shifting the focus from existentialist issues to atmospheric naturalism. In Untitled (1977), Francis adopts the heavy impasto, harnessing its potential as a palpable, tactile form instead of a mere trace. This is most evident in the remarkable translucency of Untitled (1975), which demonstrates the artist’s distinct process of gradually building layers to achieve subtle shifts in hue, texture, and movement.
The exhibition Sherron Francis: Splash of Serenity, 1973-77 will be on view at Lincoln Glenn Gallery in New York from April 18th until June 8th, 2024.
The show is accompanied by a richly illustrated catalog featuring an essay by Alex Grimley.
