Midsummer's Dream
Lot 173:
Description
Signed Franz Kline Watercolor on Paper Painting
Signed Franz Kline Watercolor on Paper Painting . Signed Top Right Franz Kline Watercolor Gouache painting depicting an artist in his studio painting a nude female model. Obviously, this is not the Abstract work that Kline made him famous, but he did illustration work in this fashion and style during his earlier years.
Born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Franz Kline became one of the most prominent 20th-century American artists working in abstract and non objective styles. His name is most associated with large-scale black and white paintings, and these linear abstractions brought him his first notable public attention in 1950 when they were shown in New York City. Franz Kline began his career as a figure and landscape painter, and studied in the Art Department of Boston University from 1931 to 1935 and Heatherley School of Art in London from 1937 to 1938. He then settled in Greenwich Village of New York where he painted in realist style the local scenery including street scenes and Bohemian night clubs. Some of these in 1940 included Bleeker Street murals of jazz musicians but were not focused on social conditions but on American scenes, which was the prevalent style of that time. In the 1950s, he taught at various institutions, the Black Mountain College, the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and the Philadelphia Museum School of Art. The 1950s brought Kline commercial success as he exhibited in numerous group and solo shows. In 1956 he entered under contract with Sidney Janis—the impresario who championed the careers of Jackson Pollock, Robert Motherwell, Mark Rothko, and Philip Guston—a move that cemented his reputation. Many of his works are on display in major museum collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the MoMA in New York, the Kunstmuseum in Basel and the Tate Gallery in London.
18" x 14"
Condition: good some fading or discoloration to paper due to age
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