Franz Kline [Hardcover]

Harry F. Gaugh (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 1994

Franz Kline spent years struggling to find a style for himself and then achieved "overnight success" with his dramatic black-and-white abstractions. They were in fact, so successful that they overwhelmed every other aspect of Kline's art, and as a result, he has been oversimplified and underestimated. Based on nearly 20 years of research, this monograph provides a comprehensive view of Kline's life and work and reveals how unexpectedly complex they both were. Using interviews with the artist's friends and critics, and quoting from his letters, the author has created an evocative portrait of Kline's evolution from ambitious art student, to penniless Greenwich Village artist painting murals in bars, to finally, a mature artist in command of his own unique and hard-won style. With its detailed, readable text and 170 illustrations, this book brings to light much information about Kline and aims to enrich our appreciation and understanding of his art.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This was hailed as the definitive volume on artist Kline at its 1985 debut. Along with 170 illustrations (100 color, 70 b&w), the book includes interviews with Kline's friends and critics as well as material from his letters.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"A sympathetic, though unsparing, account of the artist's life is interwoven expertly with the history of his work, resulting in an exemplary study of a contemporary painter's career." (San Francisco Examiner-Chronicle)

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Abbeville Press; First Edition edition (February 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558597700
• ISBN-13: 978-1558597709
• Product Dimensions: 11.4 x 9.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #359,271 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #10 in Books > Arts & Photography > Schools, Periods & Styles > Abstract Expressionism

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A COMPELLING STUDY, April 12, 2002

By 

Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Franz Kline (Hardcover)

Franz Kline (1910 - 1962), surely one of the most individual artists, began as a representational painter, focusing largely on landscapes. It was in the latter 1940s that he began his landmark exploration of abstractionism, achieving plaudits with his black and white presentations.

Art historian and teacher Dr. Harry Gaugh spent some two decades researching the life and work of Kline. This amazing volume is testament to his study. "Franz Kline" holds over 170 illustrations and a fascinating account of the life of this landmark artist who died far too young at 51 years of age.

Dr. Gaugh utilizes interviews and correspondence (including Kline's personal letters) to offer a vivid picture of the artist as a student in Boston and London , then later as a part of Greenwich Village where he executed bar murals to keep the wolf from the door.

Kline's development as an artist is a compelling study, and an evocation of an important time in our cultural history.

- Gail Cooke

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Complete Kline, May 6, 2007

By 

Claude Reich (Florianopolis, Brazil and Paris, France) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Franz Kline (Hardcover)

This book is a very complete and enlightening survey of Kline's art. The author chronogically covers all the aspects of the artist's oeuvre and, though it was written some 22 years ago, this publication is a must-have for anyone interested in the abstract expressionist movement. Many major paintings are thoroughly described, the text quotes many friends of Kline's (dealers and critics)stating previously unpublished opinions and is a rich trove of information.

The illustrations are unfortunately not as good as they would have been had the book been published more recently, which is why I do not give it 5 stars.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Most Thorough Kline Volume To Date, December 11, 2010

By 

disco75 "disco75" (State College, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Franz Kline (Hardcover)

This book was released a decade earlier as *The Vital Gesture* to accompany a Kline retrospective of 1985. As such, it is composed essentially as a review of the artwork, focusing on the shifts from figural to abstract painting, the mediums Kline used, the painterly techniques, and the topics of the paintings that can be discerned from what is known about Kline's life and companions. Gaugh uses an academic approach to compare the works contained within, a mix of color and B&W reproductions. The language is therefore skewed to art-historian and gallerist modes, slightly jargon-laden but generally accessible to the lay reader.

Gaugh presents the most comprehensive source of biographical information about Kline available to readers. His goal is to theorize about the art, however, and he is not presenting a biography as such. The life of the man is not the theme, but merely supporting material in analyzing the paintings. Kline's motives, formative experiences, and relationships are not surveyed except anecdotally in service of understanding the art. In this way, it not until the last quarter of the book that it is mentioned that Kline's father committed suicide when he was 7, and that he lived in a fatherless-boys' boarding school for 11 years, even after his mother remarried. Such watershed events, like the years of institutionalization of his schizophrenic wife in a state hospital, cry out for a psychological biography of Kline, particularly at a time when readers have access to detailed tomes about Pollock, de Kooning, Rothko, etc. Until such time as a genuine biography arrives, Gaugh's volume is the most complete account of this well-regarded Cedar Bar habitue.