Franz Josef Kline Abstract Expressionist Oil Painting, Circa 1947 with Catalogue

Item Details

Franz Josef Kline (American, 1910 – 1962)
Untitled (view of the artist’s studio), circa 1947
Oil on panel
Signed to lower right and to verso
Address inscribed to verso where Franz Kline lived in the late 1940s
Inscribed labels attached to verso

Literature
Harry Gaugh, The Vital Gesture: Franz Kline, New York, 1985, pg. 83, illustrated in color (view of the artist’s studio).

An oil painting on panel by the renowned Abstract Expressionist Franz Kline, created circa 1947 and the catalogue by Harry Gaugh titled The Vital Gesture: Franz Kline (1985), is included. A picture of the artist with the painting is featured on page 83 of the catalogue. An inscription to the verso of the painting reads ‘52 E. 9 ST / N.Y.C’, which is documented as the address Kline lived in the late 1940s. This location was in a neighborhood where other artists gathered, such as Hans Hofmann who lived across the street, and Willem de Kooning who often visited Kline as they were close colleagues and de Kooning’s studio was located a block away on East Tenth Street.

Featuring the artist’s studio, this work was painted at a time when Kline was experimenting with abstraction and expressionist qualities beginning in 1946, after he had developed a relationship with Willem de Kooning and other artists. It was in the 1940s that Kline was often painting Greenwich Village and Pennsylvanian landscapes, street scenes, views of studios, such as this. A couple years after he painted this work, he started embracing his trademark monumental black and white paintings, making this painting and others from the late 1940s precursors to his famed Abstract Expressionist style. Exhibiting a dynamic interplay of mass and space, gestural brushstrokes, and overlapping planes of vibrant colors, this work is demonstrative of an overall tight planar composition. Green, yellow, and orange are prominent colors in the painting, which were colors of primary interest to Kline during this experimental period in his career. This work presents Kline as a colorist and foreshadows the aggressive slashing and propulsive brushstrokes of his mature style.

Condition

- small spots of in-painting scattered throughout; surface scratches, accretion, and paint loss scattered throughout; minor scratches and finish loss scattered throughout frame.

Dimensions

- measurement of painting unframed; frame measures approximately 19.25" W x 19.25" H x 2" D

Item #

ITMG382916