Franz Kline
Born: Wilkes Barre, USA 1910.
Died: New York City, USA 1962.
Franz Kline had much in common with the Abstract expressionist group of artist with whom he is associated. However, in many ways, his paintings were quite distinct from their work. He trained at Boston University (1931-195) and travelled to London, where he studied painting and drawing at Heatherley's Art school. Back in New York, in 1940, he received various bar room mural commissions. It was not until 1946 that hi8s awareness of developments in paintings, specifically in the gestural works of de Kooning and the "action painting" of Jackson Pollock, for example, inspired him to veer toward abstraction. By 1950, he had begum producing the monumental, black and white canvases such as Meryon, for which he is best known. Like a small, calligraphic sketch magnified to monstrous proportions, the power of this image, typically produced with a house-painter's brush, is awesome. The white areas, the "negative" spaces, were equally as important as the black, positive blocks. However, Kline's palette was not limited to monochrome. The colourful, saturated hues he applied to some of his canvases were not merely decorative but satisfied his desire, "to feel free to work both ways."
Masterpieces:
Blueberry eyes
Black Iris
Meryon.
text: The A-Z of Art, Nicola Hodge and Libby Anson.
Images: google images.