Kline painted black and white. Large canvases, housepainter's brushes, industrial enamel. The strokes are enormous, fast, and structural: they look like bridges, girders, railway trestles, the infrastructure of an industrial city rendered as abstract gesture. He grew up in the coal country of eastern Pennsylvania and the heavy forms of mining and railroad architecture stayed in his work.
Timeline
1910
Born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. His father's suicide when Franz was seven led to his enrolment at Girard College in Philadelphia, a boarding school for fatherless boys.
1935
Completed studies at Boston University at 25, having spent four years training in art. He then travelled to London to study at the Heatherley School of Art before settling in New York in 1938.
1940
Painted his mural series "Hot Jazz" at 30 for the Bleecker Street Tavern in Greenwich Village, New York. The commission marked an early sign of the bold, gestural style he would later develop.
1949
Experienced a pivotal breakthrough at 39 when he viewed his small black-and-white sketches enlarged by a projector, recognising their potential as monumental abstract compositions.
1950
Held his breakthrough exhibition at 40 at the Charles Egan Gallery in New York, showing large-scale black-and-white paintings that established him as a leading Abstract Expressionist.
1958
Included in the Museum of Modern Art's touring exhibition "The New American Painting" at 48, which visited eight European cities. That year he also began reintroducing colour into his compositions.
1962
Died in New York City at 52 from rheumatic heart disease, ten days before his birthday. His monumental black-and-white canvases had redefined the possibilities of gestural abstraction.
Biography
He studied at Boston University and the Heatherley School of Fine Art in London, then spent the 1940s painting figurative work in New York. The shift to abstraction came suddenly, according to legend, when de Kooning projected one of Kline's small drawings onto a wall using a Bell-Opticon projector. The enlarged image, freed from its original scale, became something else entirely. Kline began painting large.
The black and white paintings of 1950-61 are his contribution. Mahoning, Chief, and Painting Number 2 are decisive, architectural compositions that look spontaneous but were carefully planned. He made small preparatory studies on telephone book pages and newspaper, working out the balance of black and white before scaling up. The white is not background; it is as active and deliberate as the black.
He reintroduced colour in his last years, which surprised people who had defined him by its absence. He died of heart disease in 1962, at fifty-one. The career lasted roughly twelve years. The paintings are in every major museum of modern art.
Kline began painting large. The black and white paintings of 1950-61 are his contribution.
When did franz kline die?+
Franz Kline died in 1962 at the age of 52. Painted black and white with housepainter's brushes, planned every spontaneous-looking stroke in advance, and died at fifty-one after twelve years of work that mattered.
What is franz kline known for?+
Painted black and white with housepainter's brushes, planned every spontaneous-looking stroke in advance, and died at fifty-one after twelve years of work that mattered.
Who is franz kline?+
Painted black and white with housepainter's brushes, planned every spontaneous-looking stroke in advance, and died at fifty-one after twelve years of work that mattered.
Did franz kline have children?+
Painted black and white with housepainter's brushes, planned every spontaneous-looking stroke in advance, and died at fifty-one after twelve years of work that mattered.
Franz kline art movement?+
He studied at Boston University and the Heatherley School of Fine Art in London, then spent the 1940s painting figurative work in New York.
Franz kline famous paintings?+
Kline began painting large. The black and white paintings of 1950-61 are his contribution.
How did franz kline die?+
Franz Kline died in 1962 at the age of 52. Painted black and white with housepainter's brushes, planned every spontaneous-looking stroke in advance, and died at fifty-one after twelve years of work that mattered.
When was franz kline born?+
Franz Kline was born in 1910 in United States. He died in 1962, aged 52.
How did franz kline paint?+
Painted black and white with housepainter's brushes, planned every spontaneous-looking stroke in advance, and died at fifty-one after twelve years of work that mattered.
Where did franz kline live?+
Franz Kline's works can be seen at National Gallery of Art, drawings in the National Gallery of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and 2 other museums worldwide.
Where was franz kline born?+
Franz Kline was born in 1910 in United States. He died in 1962, aged 52.
What paint did franz kline use?+
Kline painted black and white. Large canvases, housepainter's brushes, industrial enamel. The strokes are enormous, fast, and structural: they look like bridges, girders, railway trestles, the infrastructure of an industrial city rendered as abstract gesture.
Where is franz kline from?+
Franz Kline's works can be seen at National Gallery of Art, drawings in the National Gallery of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and 2 other museums worldwide.
_%E2%80%93_LOC.jpg?width=800)
