Composed of broad, sweeping, and luscious strokes, Black, White, and Gray suggests unrestrained artistic spontaneity. Yet Kline’s process was quite methodical. He typically began with a sketch, which he projected onto a wall, transforming simple lines into magnified abstract forms, and then replicated in paint. Here, the vertical orientation of the canvas is locked in dynamic tension with numerous horizontals. Kline’s gestural black-and-white paintings elicited comparisons to calligraphy. He knew that art form through multiple sources, including the Japanese avant-garde journal Bokubi (Beauty of Ink), but he was quick to distinguish his painting style, asserting in 1958, "I paint the white as well as the black, and the white is just as important."
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Inscription: Signed and dated (verso): FRANZ KLINE/59
the artist, New York (1959; sold through Sidney Janis Gallery, New York to MMA)
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Three Centuries of American Painting," April 9–October 17, 1965, unnum. checklist.
New York. Whitney Museum of American Art. "Franz Kline, 1910–1962," October 1–November 24, 1968, no. 65 (as "Black, White and Grey").
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Tribute to a Curator: Robert Beverly Hale," November 16, 1978–March 4, 1979, extended to March 18, 1979, unnum. checklist.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Selection Three: Twentieth-Century Art," October 22, 1985–January 26, 1986, no catalogue.
Sidney Janis Presents an Exhibition of New Paintings by Franz Kline. Exh. cat., Sidney Janis Gallery. New York, 1960, unpaginated, no. 6, ill., calls it "Black, White & Grey".
Henry Geldzahler. American Painting in the Twentieth Century. New York, 1965, pp. 200–201, ill.
David Mannweiler. "Museum Opener is 'Metropolitan' Show." Indianapolis News (September 19, 1970), p. 9.
Harry Rand. "The 1930s and Abstract Expressionism." The Genius of American Painting. Ed. John Wilmerding. New York, 1973, ill. p. 292.
Eugene Victor Thaw. "The Abstract Expressionists." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 44 (Winter 1986–87), pp. 13, 47, fig. 8 (color).
Lowery S. Sims in20th Century Art: Selections from the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Vol. 2, Painting: 1945–1985. New York, 1986, pp. 38–39, ill. (color, overall and detail).
Sylvia Hochfield. "Thoroughly Modern Met." Art News 86 (February 1987), p. 116.
Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, ed. Franz Kline, 1910–1962. Exh. cat., Castello di Rivoli Museo d'Arte Contemporanea. Milan, 2004, ill. p. 59.
Richard Prince. Bettie Kline. [New York], 2009, unpaginated, ill.
Alex Katz. "Franz Kline's 'Black, White, and Gray'." The Artist Project: What Artists See When They Look at Art. Ed. Chris Noey. New York, 2017, pp. 120–21, ill. (color).
Max Hollein. Modern and Contemporary Art in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2019, ill. p. 105 (color).
Corina E. Rogge with Zahira Véliz Bomford. Franz Kline: The Artist's Materials. Los Angeles, 2022, pp. 76, 94, 129.
Robert S. Mattison. Franz Kline Paintings, 1950–1962. Online resource [franzkline.hauserwirthinstitute.org/artworks], 2023 (accessed), no. 156, Ref. No. FKTO7ID0, ill. (color).
Franz Kline (American, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania 1910–1962 New York)
1953
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