Lot 175 : FRANZ KLINE

Franz Kline - 1910-1962

Auction Location: United States of America - 2006
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Title:

FRANZ KLINE

Description:

THE COLLECTION OF HANS AND ALICE DE JONG, HENGELO/ASCONA

1910-1962
STUDY FOR WASHINGTON BRIDGE

18 1/2 by 23 3/4 in. 47 by 60.4 cm.

signed

ink and gouache on paper

Executed in 1957.

PROVENANCE

Acquired by the present owner directly from the artist in 1957

EXHIBITED

Rotterdam, Museum Boymans-van Beunningen, Nederlanders Verzamelen hedendagse kunst, February - April 1962, cat. no. 62, illustrated
Arnhem, Netherlands, Gemeentemuseum; Lyngby, Denmark, Sophienholm, oog in oog met hans en alice de jong, June 1970 - January 1971, cat. no. 36, illustrated (in the de Jong's residence)
Humblebaek Louisiana, Danmark Museum for moderne kunst, American Art 1950 - 1970, cat. no. 26

NOTE

Franz Kline was a relatively unknown artist who seemed to rise to the top of the artworld from nowhere and without warning. Even in the late 1940s, a year or two before his breakthrough, Kline was painting mildly expressionistic landscapes and somber portraits. The black and white paintings for which he is known didn't evolve out of European modernism or under the influence of his peers. Rather, they came from enlargements of Kline's early drawings. He would select details from his figurative drawings, a sketch of a rocking chair for example, then crop and enlarge them so that they became abstract. Later, the brushstrokes themselves became the main focus of his work, monolithic forms divorced from any external reality. These later works were not merely reproductions of originals in another scale but had their own identity.

Study for Washington Bridge was made in 1957. The subject derives from Kline's affinity for the emblems of American technology: its bridges, engines and buildings. In this study, Kline uses strong, vital linear forms with bursting energy. The feeling of this enery is the essence of Kline's work. It comes from the handling of his material - knowing, but deliberately careless - and from the simplicity of his image. Seemingly hapazard, every stroke is placed with care and thought. "A stroke would be placed, Kline would step back to study it, then would come another". (David Anfam, Franz Kline, Black & White 1950-1961, Houston, 1994, p.26). In this work, as in many of his works, Kline attacks the idea of order and harmony in his determination to find new means of expression to replace outworn cliches. He sought the "destruction" of "planned things" and exploited "disorganization". The blue in this work is used to destabilize the monochrome, to avoid any sense of harmony. Study for Washington bridge is a perfect example of his search for rupture, collision, imbalance and velocity.