Franz Kline (1910-1962)

Kline forged an heroic abstract style by transforming drawing into a painterly means. His works have rugged, confident and progressive character which is uniquely American. Whether the actual size of the painting is large or small, large spaces are implied, into which one may read the wide expanse of the American landscape and the complex architecture of the urban environment. While dealing with the formal aspects of this style, there is a tendency to overlook its personal aspect, in which the individual is overwhelmed and often solitary. The artist said: "I think there is a kind of loneliness in a lot of them which I don't think about as the fact that I'm lonely and therefore I paint lonely pictures, but I like kind of lonely things anyhow; so if the forms express that to me, there is a certain excitement that I have about that." (quoted in D. Sylvester, "Franz Kline 1910-1962: An Interview with David Sylvester", Living Arts, I, nos. 3-13, 1963, p. 10).