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Franz Kline was an American, Abstract Expressionist painter, known for his bold mark making, which categorized him as an “action painter”. Though Kline spent most of his career in New York City, he was born in the small town of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Kline attended a private academy as a child before moving to Massachusetts as a young man, to study at Boston University.

While receiving a formal academic and art education, Kline started spending summers painting in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Provincetown was known for its thriving art colony that attracted artists from all over North America. After Kline graduated from Boston University in 1935, he decided to continue his education in London, where he studied at Heatherley’s School until 1938.

Kline soon returned to the United States, settling in New York City. The big city proved as an inspiring subject matter for Kline, who began painting urban scenes in the manner of Sloan or Glackens. By the end of the 1940s, Kline’s work began to become more abstract, as he was exposed to cubist and abstract expressionist painters.

By 1950 Kline began to develop his signature style of seemingly spontaneous black and white paintings. Before making bold brush strokes on a final painting, Kline would tear through phonebook pages, making practice sketches.

Kline held his first solo exhibition at the Egan Gallery at 1950, where he soon gained recognition for his energetic and innovative paintings. After creating an extensive series of black and white paintings, Kline slowly began to reintroduce color into his paintings.

Kline continued to exhibit at the Egan Gallery several times in his lifetime. In 1962 Kline died in New York City, with a solid reputation as an American abstract-expressionist painter. His works are now in major American and modern art collections around the world. Do you think you own a painting by Franz Kline? Contact us. We are the Kline experts.