The vital gesture, Franz Kline : Cincinnati Art Museum
(Book)
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Location | Call Number | Status |
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Oak Park Public Library Main Branch - Third Floor | 759.13 KLI | On Shelf |
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Choice Review
Critics have found Franz Kline's work difficult to assess; biographical, psychological, or descriptive approaches alone do not get to the core. Gaugh's study is the most comprehensive assessment to date. Using the sources available to a historian, he treats the abstract expressionist's life and work, tracing their development as one. Kline's early years read like a blueprint for the bohemian life, but there was no sudden breakthrough in his work into abstract expressionism-rather, a gradual process of maturation. The most revealing part of the text is the material on artistic techniques used to create the huge black-and-white abstractions that position Kline squarely among the action painters. Very small studies, flexible wrist gestures in black-and-white, were projected on wall-size canvases; others were enlarged freehand. Areas that appear spontaneous were actually reworked frequently, creating serious conservation problems today. This monograph is well researched, considering the primacy of the material, and generously illustrated with good color plates. The chronology, notes, bibliography, and personal photographs are valuable resources for the reader, but Kline's last paintings-the abstractions of places, moods, and gestures-must still be confronted head-on. Recommended for all art collectors, community college on up and general readers.-G.S. Kashdin, University of South Florida
Publisher's Weekly Review
Kline's fame rests on his dramatic black-and-white abstract paintings. Packed with raw energy, they look like a clash of elemental forces. This attractive, readable monograph, which accompanies a touring exhibition, shows that Kline floundered and was not an especially original painter until he discovered his black-and-white style. Among the 70 color plates and 100 halftones are agreeable figurative pictures, murals for Greenwich Village bars that he painted to pay the rent, landscapes of the Pennsylvania coal country where he grew up and obsessive portraits of Nijinsky, which became alternative self-portraits. Critics have read into the black-and-white and color abstractions noble or tragic faces, desolate landscapes or meditations on the American dream of power used wisely. Their purity and power comes across in the many full-page reproductions. December (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Library Journal Review
Already an acknowledged American master of abstract painting at the time of his death in 1962, Kline has since then become increasingly highly regarded and his works have been collected by museums throughout the world. This volume has been published on the occasion of a retrospective exhibition of Kline's work showing in Cincinnati, San Francisco, and Philadelphia this year and next. Gaugh presents a general chronological survey of Kline's life and the development of his art, with a generous number of reproductions of both the artist's ``signature'' black-and-white canvases and his less well known work with color. The volume works very well as an introduction to Kline and an overview of his work and would be suitable for students and interested general readers as well as for specialists. Kathryn W. Finkelstein, M.L.S., Cincinnati (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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Citations
Gaugh, H. F., & Kline, F. (1985). The vital gesture, Franz Kline: Cincinnati Art Museum (First edition.). Abbeville Press.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)Gaugh, Harry F and Franz Kline. 1985. The Vital Gesture, Franz Kline: Cincinnati Art Museum. New York: Abbeville Press.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities (Notes and Bibliography) Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)Gaugh, Harry F and Franz Kline. The Vital Gesture, Franz Kline: Cincinnati Art Museum New York: Abbeville Press, 1985.
Harvard Citation (style guide)Gaugh, H. F. and Kline, F. (1985). The vital gesture, franz kline: cincinnati art museum. First edn. New York: Abbeville Press.
MLA Citation, 9th Edition (style guide)Gaugh, Harry F., and Franz Kline. The Vital Gesture, Franz Kline: Cincinnati Art Museum First edition., Abbeville Press, 1985.