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Lot Essay
Franz Kline, 1954. Photograph by Hans Namuth. Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY. Courtesy Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona (c) 1991 Hans Namuth Estate, Albright-Knox Art Gallery / Art Resource, NY, Artwork: (c) 2013 The Franz Kline Estate / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
"These are painting experiences. I don't decide in advance that I'm going to paint a definite experience, but in the act of painting, it becomes a genuine experience for me.If you look at abstraction, you can imagine that it's a head, a bridge, almost anything - but it's not these things that get me started on a painting" (F. Kline in K. Kuh, 'Franz Kline,' Franz Kline 1910-1962, Milan, 2004, pp. 124-124).
The art of Franz Kline is among some of the most arresting and dynamic art created during the post-war period. With his economical form of artistic expression, his manifestation of pictorial form are comprised almost solely of black and white gestures applied to a surface. In Untitled, Kline makes a highly charged gesture in black that streaks across the white ground. Though apparently casual, the work is finely balanced and controlled. With deep roots in the history of mark-making, Kline conveys a physical immediacy that is both individual and universal.
The intimate nature of Untitled evokes a world unto itself. However, it is far from being insular. The ravishing beauty and intense emotion of these energetic brushstrokes strike a sense of awe within the viewer. While they are historically considered a classic representation of Abstract Expressionism, and also like Pollock's drips, an exemplar of Harold Rosenberg's "action painting," Kline's black and white paintings possess an uncanny sense of immediacy and of being in the present moment. One can easily conjure up an image of the artist "attacking" the surface with brushes dipped in black paint. Because his gesture can be traced with such clarity, one can almost literally trace the movements of his hand and arm, forcing seemingly spontaneous decisions directly onto the paper. Nevertheless, his working method belies this appearance of spontaneity; he often deliberated on making the crucial stroke or made revisions during multiple sittings.
The present work was executed in the 1950-51, during the period when Kline's mature style began to emerge. The bold black lines define the complex spatial relationships, extending out across the surface of the picture plane to infiltrate every corner of the surface. The reductive tonal nature of the palette focuses attention on the act of mark making itself, as well as drawing attention to the nature of the medium as one well suited to the exploration of content, the observational and narrative.
"These are painting experiences. I don't decide in advance that I'm going to paint a definite experience, but in the act of painting, it becomes a genuine experience for me.If you look at abstraction, you can imagine that it's a head, a bridge, almost anything - but it's not these things that get me started on a painting" (F. Kline in K. Kuh, 'Franz Kline,' Franz Kline 1910-1962, Milan, 2004, pp. 124-124).
The art of Franz Kline is among some of the most arresting and dynamic art created during the post-war period. With his economical form of artistic expression, his manifestation of pictorial form are comprised almost solely of black and white gestures applied to a surface. In Untitled, Kline makes a highly charged gesture in black that streaks across the white ground. Though apparently casual, the work is finely balanced and controlled. With deep roots in the history of mark-making, Kline conveys a physical immediacy that is both individual and universal.
The intimate nature of Untitled evokes a world unto itself. However, it is far from being insular. The ravishing beauty and intense emotion of these energetic brushstrokes strike a sense of awe within the viewer. While they are historically considered a classic representation of Abstract Expressionism, and also like Pollock's drips, an exemplar of Harold Rosenberg's "action painting," Kline's black and white paintings possess an uncanny sense of immediacy and of being in the present moment. One can easily conjure up an image of the artist "attacking" the surface with brushes dipped in black paint. Because his gesture can be traced with such clarity, one can almost literally trace the movements of his hand and arm, forcing seemingly spontaneous decisions directly onto the paper. Nevertheless, his working method belies this appearance of spontaneity; he often deliberated on making the crucial stroke or made revisions during multiple sittings.
The present work was executed in the 1950-51, during the period when Kline's mature style began to emerge. The bold black lines define the complex spatial relationships, extending out across the surface of the picture plane to infiltrate every corner of the surface. The reductive tonal nature of the palette focuses attention on the act of mark making itself, as well as drawing attention to the nature of the medium as one well suited to the exploration of content, the observational and narrative.