Lot 21 : Franz Kline (1910-1962)

Franz Kline - 1910-1962

Auction Location: United States of America - 2003
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Description:

Zinc Door signed and dated 'FRANZ KLINE 61' (on the reverse) oil on canvas 92 1/2 x 673/4 in. (235 x 172.1 cm.) Painted in 1961. PROVENANCE Sidney Janis Gallery, New York Mallinckrodt Group, Inc. (formerly International Minerals and Chemical Corporation), Skokie, IL, acquired from the above, January 1962 Their sale; Sotheby's, New York, 4 May 1994, lot 14 Acquired at the above sale by the present owner LITERATURE D. Sylvester, "Franz Kline 1910-1962," Living Arts I, Spring 1963, p. 9 (illustrated). Contemporary Art from the Collection of International Minerals and Chemicals Corporation, Terre Haute, 1983, p. 12, no. 86 (illustrated in color). H. F. Gaugh, Franz Kline: The Vital Gesture, Cincinnati, 1985, p. 148, pl. 148 (illustrated in color). EXHIBITION New York, Sidney Janis Gallery, New Paintings by Franz Kline, December, 1961, no. 8 (illustrated). Washington D.C., Washington Gallery of Modern Art; Waltham, Poses Institute of Fine Arts, Brandeis University and Baltimore Museum of Art, Franz Kline: Memorial Exhibition, October 1962-May 1963, p. 47, no. 102 (illustrated). Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, Turin, Museo Civico di Torino; Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts; Basel, Kunsthalle, Vienna, Museum des 20.Jahrhunderts; London, Whitechapel Art Gallery and Paris, Mus‚e d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Franz Kline, September 1963-September 1964, no. 61 (p. 25, illustrated, Amsterdam; Brussels, p. 20, illustrated, Basel and p. 39, illustrated, Vienna), no. 63, pl. 63 (illustrated, Turin), no. 60, pl. 60 (illustrated, London), no. 59, pl. 59 (illustrated, Paris). Boston, Institute of Contemporary Art, Corporations Collect: Art in the Business Environment, January-February 1965, no. 21 (illustrated). Cincinnati Art Museum; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, The Vital Gesture: Franz Kline, November 1985-September 1986, no. 102 (illustrated). Museu d'Art Contemporain de Barcelona and Museu Serralves, Museu d'Arte Contemporanea, Onnasch: Aspects of Contemporary Art, November 2001-June 2002, p. 55 (illustrated in color). NOTES Zinc Door is an important late painting executed during a last burst of creativity in 1961, a year before the artist's death. "Some of Kline's greatest structural exercises date from 1961: Zinc Door, Shenandoah Wall, Le Gros " (H. Gaugh, Franz Kline, New York, p. 133). Zinc Door is marked by the brawn and power of his best work, bursting with painterly passages that appear to continue outside the edges of the canvas. "He set black and white on fire, respecting their independence as elemental forces yet fusing them in passionate and everchanging manifestations of human emotion" ( ibid, p. 22). Zinc Door 's central massive structure is reminiscent of a portal with two doors swinging open, topped off with a triangular shaped form at the top which adds to its architectural quality. The title may refer to the zinc white color used in this and most of the artist's work. The artist may have also like the title's association with a massive, zinc-lined steel door. Although Kline was concerned with conveying emotion abstractly, he did not mind suggestions of subject matter. As Kline explained, with a directness and good humor that marks all of his artist statements. "There are forms that are figurative to me, and if they develop into a figurative image, that's--it's all right if they do. I don't have the feeling that something has to be completely non-associative as far as figure form is concerned. I think if you use long lines, they become--what could they be? The only thing they could be is either highways or architecture or bridges" (as quoted in M. Tuchman, New York School: The First Generation, Greenwich, 1970, p. 92). Kline was moving towards abstraction throughout the 1940's. His work from that decade is primarily black and white and the lion's share of his output were small scale works on paper. He experienced an epiphany in 1949 when he viewed a projected image of one of his small drawings on the wall. Blown up to a large scale, the image became completely abstract and yet still retained a compositional integrity. From that day forward, Kline eschewed (intentional) figuration and explored the possibilities of abstraction. He began making his trademarks works, in a large scale that are in some sense, monumentalized drawings. Kline's post-1949 work is predominantly black and white, but he began adding color to his palette in 1956, occasionally making full-color abstractions. His best color works are those like Zinc Door that retain the powerful black and white contrast, yet subtly incorporate color passages into the composition-- "Caustic yellows and oranges, acerbic hues that negate impressionistic preconceptions of color as sweetness and light. Kline's late colors do not charm. They transfix" (Gaugh, p. 149). Zinc Door abounds with unexpected passages of color, such as the orange, turquoise and beige highlights along the vertical elements. Kline's utilized small-scale studies sporadically throughout his career, which the frugal artist often painted on telephone pages. In some cases, the artist projected these studies, which appears to be the case in the present painting. The painting and study are very closely related, with the artist even recreating what appears to be a seemingly unintentional black passage at the upper right of the study. The study for this painting is ten years earlier than Zinc Door. Kline's process of constant reappraisal and review of older compositions and studies partly explains the almost uniformly high quality and consistency of the artist's work from 1950-1962. Along with his friend Willem de Kooning, Kline dramatically influenced a generation of abstract painters, including Brice Marden. "Marden based a series of drawings on Zinc Door ; one of Kline's great paintings" ( ibid, p. 20). Mark di Suvero's abstracted architectonic sculptures and Serra's props and encrusted black oil stick paintings also are informed, to a large extent, from Kline's example, as were artists as diverse as Joan Mitchell, Al Held, Cy Twombly and Alex Katz. Franz Kline in his studio, 1961, photograph by Fred W. McDarrah c 2003 Franz Kline Estate/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Study for Zinc Door, 1950-1952, c 2003 Franz Kline Estate/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.