Modern abstract lithograph on deckle-edge paper, numbered 80/100 and signed in pencil lower right, dated 1986, floated in frame. Bright and bold colors of red, green, blue, yellow, and black, splatter-like on a white background. Provenance: Gallerie Des Artes. As an Abstract Expressionist painter, Sam Francis is regarded as one of the 20th century's leading interpreters of color and light. He lived a life that was made for biography. Born in San Mateo, California, the artist taught himself to paint while he was encased for three years in a full-body cast, the result of an acute case of spinal tuberculosis. Over his 50-year, wildly successful career, Francis made over 10,000 artworks, starred in more than 100 solo exhibitions, and in the late 1950s to mid-1960s, commanded the highest prices of any living painter. Overall size: 31 1/2 x 48 in. Sight size: 23 1/2 x 40 in.