Until the early 1940s, Franz Kline painted realistic landscapes, portraits, and cityscapes that were inspired by the textures and forms of New York City. Around 1949 he began to make black-and-white canvases such as Painting, which, while abstract, continue to suggest the invigorating energy of urban street life. The artist’s preparation for his paintings included making numerous sketches on newspaper or telephone-book pages. He then translated a small-scale drawing onto canvas, as, what he called, “strokes expanding as entities in themselves.” Utilizing housepainters’ brushes, Kline tacked his canvases to a wood panel in order to obtain the hard surface that he needed to paint his world of eternally colliding forces. Though the many visible drip marks imply a quick, spontaneous execution, the artist returned to this work several times over a two-month period to refine and strengthen its rhythm and spacing.
Over the next two years Kline's brushstrokes become completely non-representative, fluid and dynamic, and he begins painting only in black and white: for him the white is just as important as the black. Viewers also see references to Japanese calligraphy in these paintings, through his exchange with the avant-garde group Bokujinkai and its leader Morita Shiryu, although Kline later denied the connection.
16 October – 4 November 1950
First solo show at the Charles Egan Gallery
At the Charles Egan Gallery in New York Kline's first one-man show opens: eleven abstract paintings with very little colour — brown underpainting near the bottom of “Nijinsky” and fleeting hints of green in “Leda”. Afterwards he is dubbed the “black and white artist”, a label by which he sometimes feels restricted.
early 1950s
An affinity with Pierre Soulages
In the early 1950s Kline's work appears very much inspired by the French painter Pierre Soulages, who had exhibited at Betty Parsons' gallery in New York in 1949.
1951
Taking part in the 9th Street Art Exhibition
A year after his first solo show Kline takes part in the 9th Street Art Exhibition.
1952–1961
The Whitney Annuals and Biennials
Kline's work is included in the Whitney Museum of American Art's Annuals and Biennials in 1952, 1953, 1955 and 1961.
