William Poundstone blogs about the exhibition Sam Francis: Five Decades of Abstract Expressionism from California Collections at the Pasdena Museum of California Art, on view through January 5, 2014.

Poundstone writes: "Curated by Peter Selz and Debra Burchett-Lere, [the show] begins with the figurative watercolors Francis did as therapy from an army hospital bed in his 20s and ends with examples of the poured drip paintings he managed from a wheelchair, with one working arm, in his last illness at age 71… the PMCA show gives viewers opportunity to decide which phase of Francis they think best. I still favor the French Francis, and his 1953 watercolor Cote d’Azur (from the Broad collection) is worth a trip in itself."