'The East is Red' is a powerful example of Sam Francis’s mature graphic work, combining intense colour with the expansive sense of space that lies at the heart of his artistic language. Brilliant passages of red, blue, yellow and green appear to float, collide and dissolve across the sheet, while areas of untouched paper become an active part of the composition. This dynamic relationship between colour and emptiness reflects Francis’s deep engagement with both Abstract Expressionism and Japanese aesthetics, particularly his fascination with the expressive possibilities of negative space.

Created in 1970, 'The East is Red' dates from an important period in which Francis increasingly explored the edges of the pictorial field, allowing colour and gesture to surround areas of luminous open space. Published by The Litho Shop in Santa Monica in an exceptionally small edition of only 15 impressions, the work combines the spontaneity of Francis’s painting with the remarkable richness and saturation achievable through lithography.