Lithograph on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/sam-francis-1113" aria-label="More by Sam Francis" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Sam Francis</a>
Damn Braces
Presented by J.G. Cluff 1984
abstraction
colour
gestural
irregular forms
non-representational
<p>A lithograph is made by drawing on the surface of a flat stone or zinc plate, then adding a type of ink that sticks to the crayoned marks and pressing a piece of paper against it to make a print. As the dripping and pooling of ink on these lithographs demonstrates, the process was suited to the sort of gestural marks that Francis made in his paintings. He was struck by the subtle receptivity of the 'stone' on which the print is drawn, saying 'you breathe on it and it shows'.</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 2004</em></p>
paper print lithograph
Damn Braces
image: 851 × 632 mm
Presented by J.G. Cluff 1984
<p>A <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/l/lithography" title="Glossary definition for 'Lithography'"><span>lithograph</span></a> is made by <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawing</span></a> on the surface of a flat stone or zinc plate, then adding a type of <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/i/ink" title="Glossary definition for 'Ink'"><span>ink</span></a> that sticks to the crayoned marks and pressing a piece of <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/paper" title="Glossary definition for 'Paper'"><span>paper</span></a> against it to make a <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/print" title="Glossary definition for 'Print'"><span>print</span></a>. As the dripping and pooling of ink on these lithographs demonstrates, the process was suited to the  sort of <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/g/gestural" title="Glossary definition for 'Gestural'"><span>gestural</span></a> marks that Francis made in his <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>paintings</span></a>. He was struck by the subtle receptivity of the 'stone' on which the print is drawn, saying 'you breathe on it and it shows'. </p>
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2004-08-31T00:00:00
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<p><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/francis-damn-braces-p11070" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P11070</span></a> <b>Damn Braces</b> 1960
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<br/>Lithograph 33 1/2 × 24 7/8 (851 × 632) on paper watermarked ‘RIVES’, printed by Emil Matthieu, Zurich and published by Klipstein and Kornfeld, Bern
<br/>Inscribed ‘Sam Francis’ b.r. and ‘27/75’
<br/>Presented by J.G. Cluff 1984
<br/><i>Repr:</i> <i>Sam Francis</i>, exhibition catalogue, Kestner Gesellschaft, Hannover, April–May 1963, p.29 (col.)
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<br/>In 1960 Sam Francis was living in Bern and suffering from tuberculosis. <span>P11070</span> and <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/francis-blue-blood-stone-p11071" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P11071</span></a> were made during this stay in Switzerland and were among the first <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/l/lithography" title="Glossary definition for 'Lithography'"><span>lithographs</span></a> that the artist produced. According to Susan Einstein he was urged to try lithography by E.W. Kornfeld and was introduced to the printer by Gottfried Honegger. Matthieu printed the first series of lithographs, to which these belong, in the summer of 1960. Einstein writes:
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<p>Francis remembers this first session as being an intense learning experience. His fascination with lithography focusses on the stone itself - it is the basis for his imagery, the life-source of his <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/print" title="Glossary definition for 'Print'"><span>prints</span></a>. He perceives the stone as an animated substance with unique physical properties - ‘you breathe on it and it shows.’ Some of the first prints, bearing titles like Blue Blood Stone, Coldest Stone, and Serpent on the Stone, refer to his pursuit of a stone spirit. Thus, he acknowledges a mysterious element which remains partially beyond his control and which causes the image to rise out of the stone. When he comments, ‘A dream is the way I work on stone - not something I think about or formulate in my mind, he does not diminish his own creative role, but, on the contrary, professes that he is the unique medium through which these images can be revealed and preserved.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Although a number of the prints in this series relate to <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>paintings</span></a> made contemporaneously it was not Francis's intention to reproduce, on stone, ideas he had already used in paintings. Francis stated that ‘Images sometimes spill over into a painting and vice versa, but each is worked out in its own way’ (Einstein, p.252).</p>
<p>
<br/>According to Wieland Schmied, writing in the Kestner Gesellschaft catalogue, the images in this series may refer to human organs and represent a ‘stoical (and typically American) attitude towards death and pain’ (p.14). During this period Francis made a number of paintings, commonly known as the ‘Blue Balls’ paintings, which seem to relate not only to human organs but also to Japanese art. Francis had visited Japan in 1957 and 1960. His treatment of space and the demonic nature of some of his images are likened by Selz to those found in Japanese art. <span>P11070</span> is an image of this kind.
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<br/>Both works are printed in blue and red; <span>P11070</span> is predominantly blue and <span>P11071</span> is predominantly red. Both works were executed in tusche which suited the artist's desire to transpose the drips and splashes of his paintings directly into the lithographic <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/m/medium" title="Glossary definition for 'Medium'"><span>medium</span></a> and to make <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/g/gestural" title="Glossary definition for 'Gestural'"><span>gestural</span></a> marks. Although the size of the lithographs is smaller than anything Francis had previously painted, the scale of the markings is large. According to Selz ‘the small size of the stone... affected his painting’ (note 38, p.280) in that the paintings of the early 1960s were in a smaller format than preceding works.
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<br/>In commenting on this catalogue entry the artist stated that the title of <span>P11070</span> ‘is part of one of W— Blake's aphorisms “Damn Braces Bless Relaxes”.
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<br/>	‘I speak to William Blake in my dreams &amp; he sings to me.’
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<br/>This entry has been approved by the artist.
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<br/><b>Published in:</b>
<br/><i>The Tate Gallery 1982-84: Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions</i>, London 1986
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-10-13T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
abstraction colour gestural irregular forms non-representational