Franz Kline (1910-1962) (Hardcover)

~ Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev (Editor), David Anfam (Editor), Dore Ashton (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

This landmark exhibition catalog surveys the entire career of one of the last great painters of high modernism, Franz Kline. It features over 70 major works, including paintings, drawings, sketches, and documentary material. The works included have been selected from collections from around the world with the intent of showing all of Kline's achievements, from the early figurative oil paintings of the late 1930s and 1940s to his breakthroughs in Abstract Expressionism seen in a selection of his large-scale black-and-white works. This volume traces Kline's art from its beginnings to his last painting in 1961, just a few months before the artist's death.
Kline, along with Pollock and Motherwell, was at the center of Abstract Expressionism and "action painting" in the America. This volume demonstrates in the monumental canvases, as well as in his many small-scale sketches made on paper, newspaper, and even telephone book pages, how Kline embraces gesture, experience, and emotion with direct and raw energy.
--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev is the chief curator at the Castello di Rivoli, Museo d'Arte Contemporanea. She has written extensively on contemporary art and its relations with postwar European art. Among her publications is the first survey monograph on Italian informel artist Alberto Burri (1996).
David Anfam is a world-renowned expert on American Abstract Expressionism and is a regular contributor to The Burlington Magazine. His publications include Abstract Expressionism (1990), Franz Kline and Black & White, 1951-1961 (1994).
Dore Ashton is professor of art history at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Arts and Sciences in New York. She wrote about Franz Kline in Arts and Architecture magazine as early as 1956. Among her many books on modern art is About Rothko (1996).
--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Skira (December 28, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 8876241418
• ISBN-13: 978-8876241413
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 9.8 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #685,415 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The quintessential Ab Ex painter, April 5, 2007

By	Claude Reich (Florianopolis, Brazil and Paris, France) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

A thoroughly documented catalogue with beautiful reproductions that manage to give a fair idea of the power of Kline's paintings. The size effect is lacking of course, but you do get to see a lot of nuances in the different types of blacks; you even get to distinguish the brushstrokes (rare through mere reproductions). A book worth the investment.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent book, October 17, 2005

By	Jon Rader (Seattle, WA, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Franz Kline is a painting master and this book is a definitive and complete representation. Like many abstract painters, Kline's process and spirit is as fascinating as his final works. This book shows many wonderful aspects to Kline's creative approach and (as expected) many images of his fine work. The book is thorough and inspring. I highly recommend it.