Gaston Bachelard

Gaston Bachelard (1884–1962) was a French philosopher, literary critic, and theorist of imagination, known for his writings on poetics, space, and the philosophy of science. His work, including La Poétique de l’espace (1958), had a lasting influence on twentieth-century literature and art criticism. His ideas were directly engaged by Sam Francis, who became acquainted with Bachelard’s writings through his friendship with Rachel Jacobs, an American philosopher and advocate of Bachelard’s theories, whom Francis met soon after moving to France. Jacobs authored several essays that accompanied Francis’s early exhibitions in Paris. Within this intellectual context, Bachelard’s thought formed part of the broader cultural environment in which Joan Mitchell and other artists were active.