| Franz Kline (1910-1962) | ||
| L. James Grattan and
Associates
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Born in the eastern Pennsvlvania
mining town of Wilkes-Barre, Kline produced a long series of black-and-white paintings
resembling Oriental calligraphy or the sweep of suspension bridges. He studied at Boston University's School of Fine and Applied Art and London's Heatherly School of Fine Arts. He moved to New York City in 1938. Kline started painting traditional portraits, landscapes and cityscapes but switched in the 1940s to a more abstract style. His first one-man exhibit was held in 1950. His works grew larger and larger. Requiem is nearly nine feet tall; Orange and Black Wall is 12 feet wide. He taught art until museum sales provided sufficient income in the mid-1950s. He taught at Black Mountain College (NC), Pratt Institute (Brooklyn), Philadephia Museum School of Art, and Cooper Union (New York). A Venice Biennale award in 1960 gained him international recognition. Kline died of a heart attact at age 52. Kline said that, "The final test of a painting, theirs, mine, any other, is: does the painter's emotion come across?"
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"Line Kline"