Sam Francis and the Basel Murals

This short video provides a brief background on California artist Sam Francis (1923–1994) and his monumental triptych, the Basel Murals, painted in Paris in the late 1950s. His Basel Mural I was donated to the Museum in 1967, and Fragments 1 and 2 of Basel Mural III, which was partially destroyed in the mid-1960s, were donated to the Museum in 2009 by the Sam Francis Foundation. Features Debra Burchett-Lere, Director of the Sam Francis Foundation, and Leah Lehmbeck, Assistant Curator of the Norton Simon Museum.