FRANZ KLINE Mnuchin Gallery April 23- June 21, 2025

Installation view, Franz Kline, Mnuchin Gallery, New York, NY

FRANZ KLINE
Mnuchin Gallery
April 23- June 21, 2025
 

By MICHAEL KLEIN May 20, 2025

The great success of paintings by Franz Kline is their deliberate absence of color. As if taking a stance directly opposite Kooning in an argument about what defines Abstract Expressionism. As if he were determined to ignore color completely in his mature work, and mostly through the 50s, he ignites the canvas with the bold contrast between black and white, underscored by his forcible and dramatic gesture as he applied paint to canvas.

From his legendary studio on 14th St in New York City, a studio I had visited when it was occupied by Ruth Kligman back in the 90s. I pictured him as he is seen in this portrait photograph—determined, assured, and rigorous in his method and ideology.

The Mnuchin exhibition is a terrific presentation of Kline at his best. Now 75 years since his first show with Charles Egan Gallery, these works declare the same forceful energy and visual impact as they did when shown for the first time to an audience just coming to terms with Abstract Expressionism and its school of painters.

Bold and daring, Kline constructed his images, drawing from his experience of growing up in an industrial part of Pennsylvania, and also from living in a growing city surrounded by bridges and highways, seemingly abstracted in many of the canvases like Forty Fort, 1958, or Lundgevade, 1958-59, or Pittston, 1958. If Pollock declared he was nature, Kline too, but his nature was urban in size, scope, and range.

The accompanying works on paper in the show are the thoughtful abstractions that Kline then used to build his even larger, more powerful expressions. Thinking on paper is how best to describe these works, some actually titled “study for,” like “Study for Harleman, 1960”. The plan is made, the next step, the action to get it on canvas. As Carter Ratcliff noted in his essay in the accompanying catalogue, “Kline works on his forms until they clicked into place.”

Harelman, 1960
 

So many painters today have such great admiration for Kline. I think it was his individualism and his determination to create something outstanding. He raised the bar high for those who follow today. It is a pity this show won’t travel, it deserves to be seen across the country.

The handsome catalogue for the exhibition contains two outstanding essays: critic Carter Ratcliff and art historian Robert Mattison. It is noted Mattison is engaged with the Kline catalogue raisonne. A retrospective is long overdue…a chance to survey the history and career and to see a stunning accumulation of great works in one place. It would be a matter of first-rate curating and excellent historical research. Perhaps when the catalogue raisonne is published, the time will be right for a major museum exhibition. I will be there for sure. WM

A footnote to this review for those eager to know more about Kline:

I highly recommend The Artist's Material, Franz Kline, published by the Getty Conservation Institute, 2022.