Book Description

Acclaimed as the definitive volume on Kline, this book providesfirsthand accounts of his Bohemian life and powerful work.

Franz Kline spent years struggling to find a style for himself and then achieved"overnight success" with his dramatic black and white abstractions. They were,in fact, so successful that they overwhelmed every other aspect of Kline's art,and as a result he has been oversimplified and underestimated. Now, after nearlytwenty years of research, Harry F. Gaugh has written the definitive volume onKline, which provides the first comprehensive view of his life and work, andreveals how unexpectedly complex they both were.

Using interviews and correspondence with dozens of Kline's friends and critics,and quoting from the artist's own letters, the author has created an evocativeportrait of Kline's evolution from an ambitious art student in Boston and Londonto a penniless Greenwich Village artist painting murals in bars just to pay therent, and finally to a mature artist in command of his own unique and hard-wonstyle. Kline made his initial, admittedly modest, reputation as a figurativeartist, and rare photographs of that early work--sketches from life-drawingclass, portraits of Nijinsky, scenes of the Pennsylvania countryside--offer anintriguing background for his later paintings. Not until his late thirties didKline begin to develop an abstract mode, working his way through a series ofstrikingly dissimilar styles. Dr. Gaugh illuminates how talent, training,experimentation, the influence of fellow artists, and pure chance interacted toyield the famous black and white abstractions. When he died in 1962, Kline hadbegun exploring the potential of vibrant color, and the vivid full-colorreproductions of his late paintings make poignantly clear how much the art worldlost with his death at the relatively young age of fifty-one.

With its detailed yet thoroughly readable text and 170 illustrations (many neverbefore published) this comprehensive volume brings to light much new informationabout Kline and enriches the reader's appreciation and understanding of his art. Ê Other Details: 170 illustrations, 70 in full color. 9 x 11" trim size. First published 1985. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A COMPELLING STUDY
Franz Kline (1910 - 1962), surely one of the most individual artists, began as a representational painter, focusing largely on landscapes. It was in the latter 1940s that he began his landmark exploration of abstractionism, achieving plaudits with his black and white presentations.

Art historian and teacher Dr. Harry Gaugh spent some two decades researching the life and work of Kline. This amazing volume is testament to his study. "Franz Kline" holds over 170 illustrations and a fascinating account of the life of this landmark artist who died far too young at 51 years of age.

Dr. Gaugh utilizes interviews and correspondence (including Kline's personal letters) to offer a vivid picture of the artist as a student in Boston and London , then later as a part of Greenwich Village where he executed bar murals to keep the wolf from the door.

Kline's development as an artist is a compelling study, and an evocation of an important time in our cultural history.

- Gail Cooke ... Read more

Book Description