FRANZ KLINE
THE EARLY WORK OF FRANZ KLINE
While strolling through an open-air market in Washington Square Park in 1939, the young collector I. David Orr (1904–1997) met a struggling artist named Franz Kline (1910–1962) who was selling what he could to get by. Orr purchased a small work from the artist on the spot, beginning what would be a deep and genuine friendship that profoundly influenced both the artist and his earliest patron. (For the most in-depth exploration on Kline’s early work, see Robert S. Mattison’s exhibition and catalogue Franz Kline: Coal and Steel [Allentown, Pennsylvania: Allentown Art Museum of the Lehigh Valley: 2012]. Mattison is the preeminent scholar of the artist and author of the catalogue raisonné of Kline’s paintings from 1950 to 1962.)
From their first meeting, Orr supported Kline as he gained his footing in the New York art world. Orr purchased dozens of Kline’s works as they were completed, and commissioned portraits of himself, his wife Miriam, and daughter Sue. He even paid Kline for handyman jobs around the house. The artist spent so much time at the Orr home that he was given a room upstairs as his personal studio space.
Today Kline is celebrated for the powerful and heroic black-and-white paintings incorporating abstract motifs and physical brushwork that debuted in his first one-person show at Charles Egan Gallery in New York in 1950. Less known, however, is the stylistic experimentation that preceded and presaged the artist’s now-iconic work. This exhibition focuses on the imagery Kline produced in the 1940s, as he developed his most influential relationships with Willem and Elaine de Kooning and other artists associated with the New York School.
Originally trained as a figurative painter, Kline was an exceptional draftsman. Unlike other post-war Abstract Expressionists who sought out European
Franz Kline and David Orr courtes y of sue orr
Miriam & Sue Orr with Flute
precedents, Kline drew from memories of his youth growing up in industrial Northeastern Pennsylvania during the boom and decline of the anthracite coal mining industry. These early works are dominated by the bold forms of modern industry including coal buildings, bridges, railroads, and train trestles. At the same time, Kline painted his immediate surroundings in New York City, drawing upon the urban architecture and energy of the city as inspiration for structure and form.
Interiors were equally if not more important. Kline’s first wife Elizabeth suffered from depression and schizophrenia, which resulted in frequent hospital stays for her and acute loneliness for the artist. When Elizabeth was home, Kline painted her constantly, either seated in a chair or at a table, in both black-andwhite and vibrant color. Some of the most profound works in this exhibition feature a solitary rocking chair, presumably painted when Elizabeth was in the hospital. Her absence in these paintings is palpable.
Though quasi-figurative or more realistic in appearance, these sophisticated paintings and works on paper show Kline grappling with what he wanted to paint and who he wanted to be as an artist. The flattened space, reduction of form, bold outlines, thick black brushstrokes, and daring compositions would define Kline’s mature work.
Remarkably, Orr acquired Kline’s work over a sustained twenty-year period and kept his collection intact. He supported his friend’s career by sponsoring solo museum shows at important institutions, which included most of the works in this exhibition. This marks the first time that these works have been offered on the market since they were acquired by Orr eight decades ago. As a group they illustrate not only Kline’s stylistic evolution, but also the parallel evolution of Orr’s own taste as a collector. Together they speak to the seismic shift that took place in American visual arts during the 1940s and made New York the center of the art world, while offering rare insight into the artistic process and emergence of one of the most influential artists of the 20th century.
We wish to thank Sue Orr, Glenn Macura, and Robert Balsam for making this exhibition possible. At Hirschl & Adler, special thanks are due to Madeleine Hermann, Tom Parker, and Eric Baumgartner.
SHELLEY FARMER Director, Hirschl & Adler Modern
Portrait of I.D. Orr
Hudson Street on a Sunday Afternoon
Oil on canvas 17 x 21 in.
Lehigh River 1944
Oil on canvas
20 1/4 x 26 1/4 in.
Jonquils
Oil on canvas
20 x 16 in.
Portrait of M. J. Orr
Oil on canvas
21 x 17 in.
Self-Portrait
1945
19 3/8 x 13 1/2 in.
Study for Portrait of I. David Orr 1948
Ink and paint on paper
7 1/4 x 6 in.
Studio Interior
1946
Oil on canvas
17 1/2 x 14 1/2 in.
Oil on canvas
Studio Interior
18 1/4 x 16 1/4 in.
Reclining Nude
3 5/8 x 8 1/4 in.
Interior-Studio 1946
Pen, ink, and pastel on paper
3 1/2 x 3 1/2 in.
Oil on canvas
Ink on paper
Tea Kettle
1945
Oil on Masonite
15 1/2 x 23 1/2 in
Still Life
1947
Oil on Masonite
10 x 15 in.
Nijinsky as Petrouchka 1947
Oil on canvas
24 1/4 x 20 1/8 in.
Hanging Laundry, Moonlight & Graveyard about 1948
Oil on canvas
24 1/8 x 20 1/8 in.
Pennsylvania Landscape
1948–49
Oil on canvas
27 3/4 x 34 1/2 in.
PA Street Scene (Pennsylvania Mining Town)
1947
Oil on canvas
15 x 19 in.
30 1/2 x 43 1/2 in.
Seated Nude Figure 1947
Ink and watercolor on paper
6 x 4 3/4 in.
Seated Woman (Elizabeth) 1948
Ink and pastel on paper
6 3 ⁄16 x 4 7/8 in.
Chatham Square 1948
Oil on canvas
41 x 30 in.
Oil, ink, and pastel on paper
8 1/8 x 5 1/4 in.
Seated Figure
1948
Ink, paint, and pastel on card stock
6 x 4 3/4 in.
Elizabeth 1949 Oil on canvas 24 x 29 in.
Elizabeth (Seated Figure with Cat) 1947
Ink and pastel on paper
6 x 4 3/4 in.
Kitska 1949
Watercolor, ink, and pastel on paper
3 7/8 x 5 5/8 in.
design
Elizabeth Finger Design
photography
Eric W. Baumgartner
cover
Chinatown (detail)
1948
Oil on board
30 1/2 x 43 1/2 in.
frontis
Gloria 1947
Oil on board
16 x 12 in.
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