Buttress - Franz Kline

A powerful 1960 abstract work by Franz Kline, featuring bold black gestural strokes against a white ground.

Buttress, painted by Franz Kline in 1960, represents the mature phase of the artist's career. Kline is recognised for his large-scale works that utilise a restricted palette of black and white. This piece features bold, gestural strokes that intersect across the canvas, creating a sense of structural tension. The application of paint is physical and direct, with visible brushwork that records the speed and force of the artist's hand. Unlike many of his contemporaries who focused on colour field painting, Kline maintained a focus on the relationship between line and space. The black forms in Buttress do not merely sit upon the white background: they define the negative space around them, creating a dynamic equilibrium. The title suggests an architectural support, yet the work remains non-representational. It invites the viewer to engage with the materiality of the paint and the energy of the composition rather than searching for a specific subject. Kline often prepared his compositions using small sketches on telephone book pages, which he would then project onto large canvases to maintain the spontaneity of the original gesture. This method allowed him to scale up his work while preserving the immediacy of his initial ideas. Buttress is a characteristic example of his approach, where the balance of weight and void creates a sense of stability despite the apparent chaos of the brushwork. The work remains a clear example of the mid-century American movement that prioritised the act of painting as a primary subject.