Prelude: The Early Work of Franz Kline
Hirschl & Adler Modern is delighted to announce an exhibition of early works by American Abstract Expressionist painter Franz Kline (1910鈥�1962). The installation will feature more than 20 paintings and works on paper from 1940 to 1950, before Kline d茅buted his large-scale black-and-white canvases in his first solo exhibition at the Charles Egan Gallery, New York, in 1950.
Franz Kline is celebrated for his powerfully gestural black-and-white paintings incorporating abstract motifs and physical brushwork. Less known, however, is the stylistic experimentation that preceded and, in some ways, presaged the artist鈥檚 now iconic work. This exhibition focuses on the imagery Kline produced prior to his affiliation with New York School artists Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Robert Motherwell, Hans Hoffman, and Philip Guston.
Originally trained as a figurative painter, Kline was an exceptional draftsman. Unlike other post-war Abstract Expressionists who sought out European precedents, Kline embraced the urban landscape of New York City and rural industrial scenes around his childhood home of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Marked by a distinctly realist approach, the street scenes, interiors, and portraits from this period show Kline grappling with what he wanted to paint and who he wanted to be as an artist. Although figurative in appearance, the paintings reveal the flattened space, reduction of form, bold outlines, and daring composition that would define Kline鈥檚 mature work.
Of early works, New York Times art critic Roberta Smith once wrote, 鈥淭he works themselves reveal how Kline鈥檚 considerable talents for drawing and painting culminate in the architectonic calligraphies of his mature style 鈥� he was almost from the start an impressive painter. Had he never made his black-and whites, he would still be an artist worth cherishing鈥� (鈥淓xpressionism鈥檚 Sooty Anomaly,鈥� New York Times, March 1, 2013).
The artworks in this presentation come from the collection of the artist鈥檚 friend and earliest patron I. David Orr (1904鈥�1997) of Long Island, New York. Orr acquired examples over a twenty-year period, which illustrated not only Kline鈥檚 stylistic evolution, but also the parallel evolution of Orr鈥檚 own taste as a collector. Together they speak to the seismic shift that took place in American visual arts during the 1940s and made New York the center of the art world, while offering rare insight into the artistic process and emergence of one of the most influential artists of the 20th century.
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Hirschl & Adler Modern is delighted to announce an exhibition of early works by American Abstract Expressionist painter Franz Kline (1910鈥�1962). The installation will feature more than 20 paintings and works on paper from 1940 to 1950, before Kline d茅buted his large-scale black-and-white canvases in his first solo exhibition at the Charles Egan Gallery, New York, in 1950.
Franz Kline is celebrated for his powerfully gestural black-and-white paintings incorporating abstract motifs and physical brushwork. Less known, however, is the stylistic experimentation that preceded and, in some ways, presaged the artist鈥檚 now iconic work. This exhibition focuses on the imagery Kline produced prior to his affiliation with New York School artists Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Robert Motherwell, Hans Hoffman, and Philip Guston.
Originally trained as a figurative painter, Kline was an exceptional draftsman. Unlike other post-war Abstract Expressionists who sought out European precedents, Kline embraced the urban landscape of New York City and rural industrial scenes around his childhood home of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Marked by a distinctly realist approach, the street scenes, interiors, and portraits from this period show Kline grappling with what he wanted to paint and who he wanted to be as an artist. Although figurative in appearance, the paintings reveal the flattened space, reduction of form, bold outlines, and daring composition that would define Kline鈥檚 mature work.
Of early works, New York Times art critic Roberta Smith once wrote, 鈥淭he works themselves reveal how Kline鈥檚 considerable talents for drawing and painting culminate in the architectonic calligraphies of his mature style 鈥� he was almost from the start an impressive painter. Had he never made his black-and whites, he would still be an artist worth cherishing鈥� (鈥淓xpressionism鈥檚 Sooty Anomaly,鈥� New York Times, March 1, 2013).
The artworks in this presentation come from the collection of the artist鈥檚 friend and earliest patron I. David Orr (1904鈥�1997) of Long Island, New York. Orr acquired examples over a twenty-year period, which illustrated not only Kline鈥檚 stylistic evolution, but also the parallel evolution of Orr鈥檚 own taste as a collector. Together they speak to the seismic shift that took place in American visual arts during the 1940s and made New York the center of the art world, while offering rare insight into the artistic process and emergence of one of the most influential artists of the 20th century.
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