American painter Franz Kline is famous for his association with the Abstract Expressionist movement during the 1940’s and 1950’s. He was a contemporary of other New York School artists, Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner and Robert Motherwell, Franz Kline’s painting are very highly regarded and very collectible. He studied at Boston University and then in London for a year, where he met his future wife. Kline returned to New York and began to paint, as well as working for a department store and as a set designer. Franz Kline started by painting landscapes and murals but over time his style became increasingly abstract. Kline’s large scale black and white paintings are immediately recognizable for their sweeping textured brushstrokes. Whilst categorized as an action painter, Kline did in fact make extensive notes and drawings prior to actually painting but used big strong bold brushstrokes in the execution of his art.
Franz Kline paintings fetch large prices at auction, with over $40 million being achieved for a large black and white canvas at Christie’s in New York in 2012.
New York by Franz Kline was finished in 1953. Other black and white paintings by Franz Kline are Slate Cross, Hazelton 1957, Mahoning 1956 and the very famous Kline painting Lehigh V Span circa 1960.
Buy your reproduction black and white painting by Franz Kline here.