![]() The vertical bars that run through the painting show evidence of Kline's rapid application, especially at the edges where the paint skids and skims the surface. For Four Square, such a description is apt. The perceived force in Kline's painting is based on an almost impossible combination of velocity and bracing stillness, where the brushstroke speeds across the canvas and finds the point of impact either on the edge of the canvas or against the opposite color. Campbell, "Reviews and Previews, Art News, 53 (Summer 1954), p. The result is the final work not only traces the creative journey-as an automobile which has passed through a snow storm carries with it the snow-but it is the point where the picture has come to a stop at a junction between black and white forces." (L. "In this third exhibition, he has slashed, sliced and otherwise altered the pictures by the action of one color upon the other. Lawrence Campbell's writes precisely on this phenomenon in Art News which was accompanied by a reproduction of Four Square (which was identified as Untitled Painting): As shown in Four Square, the black is a deep rich velvety presence whereas the white is its brilliant foil also the black is visible as the positive space and the foreground, while the white is the negative counterpart accentuating the background. Kline's use of black and white does more than simply show contrast of high tonal values he plays with the illusions of depth and surface, negative and positive space. cat., Barcelona, Fundacio Antoni Tapies, 1994, p.28).Īnother review of the show describes in vivid detail the effect of Kline's virtuoso technique. Foster, Franz Kline: Art and the Structure of Identity, exh. "Occasionally we see an exhibition that comes on the scene with such aplomb, such visual impact that there can be no doubt that we are witnessing a sequence of visual statements that will make a lasting impression and alter the idea of what a painting is" (quoted in S. Hubert Crehan, a critic for Art Digest, wrote: ![]() The title Four Square may refer to the Four Corners, where the boundaries of Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico meet all converging to form a quasi-gridded square.Ī review of the Egan show reveals the critic's intuitive awareness of the historical importance of Kline's paintings. Together with works by de Kooning and Pollock, Kline's paintings created a triumvirate that defined the quintessential traits of Abstract Expressionism in the 1950's: larger-than-life scale, denial of discernable subject matter, sense of immediacy and action, abstract marks on canvas that energetically trace the movements of the artist's hand. Critics were flummoxed by his paintings' apparent lack of subject matter, and yet, they were taken in by their highly arresting quality. ![]() Only four years previously, Kline burst upon the art world with his strikingly monumental black and white abstract paintings. Franz Kline's Four Square was first exhibited at the Charles Egan Gallery where the artist's third one-man show was held in 1954.
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