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# Martin Sosin donates 18 Sam Francis prints to Santa Monica College library
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/092405-story/
- Published: 2005-09-24T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T07:49:05.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Education, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*By Daily Press staff*

Santa Monica College has announced that Martin Sosin has donated 18 original Sam Francis prints to the college, which are currently hanging in the campus’ library.

“The pieces are beautiful and they make the library a more lively place,” said Mona Martin, dean of learning resources and head librarian. “We’re extremely grateful for the generosity of Mr. Sosin.”

Some of the prints will be moved to The Madison Project of Santa Monica College, a 541-seat theater currently under construction, when it opens in 2007.

Sosin, a Santa Monica tax attorney, was the business manager and close friend of Francis, the renowned abstract painter who created much of his work in Santa Monica, from 1962 until Francis’ death in 1994.

In 2003, SMC presented the first public showing of a collection of Francis paintings from the private collections of Sosin and members of his family.

“I had always promised Sam Francis I would do everything in my power to expand his legacy as an abstract expressionist,” Sosin said. “The library gives his work wide exposure. And I wanted to commemorate that marvelous library, to show that SMC is a premiere place to go to school.”

Associated with the abstract expressionist movement and Clement Greenberg’s post-painterly abstraction, Francis also was influenced by French painting and Japanese art.

With its sensitivity to sensuous color and light, Francis’ early work related to the organic forms of Jackson Pollock and Clyfford Still, and the atmospheric color veils of Mark Rothko. In his use of space on the canvas to allow free circulation of strong

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 24, 2005.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/092405.pdf?ref=smdp.com)