Franz Kline in Action

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

Close to De Kooning, Franz Kline is the artist of gesture. He rejects representation and even color.

Kline draws tirelessly the sketches of his automatic gestures. When he is pleased with the balance of his abstract composition, he copies it on a large size canvas.

In this phase subsequent to spontaneity, he joins the meticulous work of the other abstract expressionists. The line is then enormously widened, with blurred edges that are reminiscent of the edges of Rothko's rectangles.

The result looks like some huge imperial Chinese calligraphy, but it is quite the opposite. Forms have no meaning other than the action of the hand that created them.

A large black and white painting made by Kline in 1957, oil on canvas 200 x 280 cm, with a nice balance of the opposition of forces, is estimated $ 20M, for sale by Christie's in New York on November 14. Here is the link to the catalog.

The expression of the forces in the art of Kline is announcing the minimalism. Like him, Yves Klein is an artist of action.

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

I invite you to play the audio shared by Christie's :

 

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

This highly important example of Action Painting was sold $ 40M including premium.