Skip to main content

Franz Kline Art

American, 1910-1962
Franz Kline (1910 – 1962) was an American painter. He is associated with the Abstract Expressionist movement of the 1940s and 1950s. Kline, along with other action painters like Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Robert Motherwell and Lee Krasner, as well as local poets, dancers, and musicians came to be known as the informal group, the New York School. Although he explored the same innovations to painting as the other artists in this group, Kline's work is distinct in itself and has been revered since the 1950s. Kline was born in Wilkes-Barre, a small coal-mining community in Eastern Pennsylvania. He studied art at Boston University from 1931 to 1935, then spent a year at the Heatherley School of Fine Art in London where he met his future wife, Elizabeth V. Parsons, a British ballet dancer. She returned to the United States with Kline in 1938, and Kline worked as a designer for a department store in New York state. He moved to New York City in 1939 and worked for a scenic designer. It was during this time in New York that he developed his artistic techniques and gained recognition as a significant artist. He later taught at a number of institutions including Black Mountain College in North Carolina and the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. He spent summers from 1956 to 1962 painting in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Kline's artistic training focused on traditional illustrating and drafting. During the late 1930s and early 1940s he worked figuratively, painting landscapes and cityscapes in addition to commissioned portraits and murals. His individual style can be first seen in the mural series Hot Jazz, which he painted for a New York bar in 1940. The series revealed his interest in breaking down representative forms into quick, rudimentary brushstrokes. The personal style he developed during this time, using simplified forms, became increasingly more abstract. Many of the figures he depicted are based on the locomotives, stark landscapes, and large mechanical shapes of his native, coal-mining community in Pennsylvania. This is sometimes only apparent to viewers because the pieces are named after those places and objects, not because they actually look like the subject. With the influence of the contemporary New York art scene, Kline worked further into abstraction and eventually abandoned representationalism. From the late 1940s onward, Kline began generalizing his figurative subjects into lines and planes which fit together much like the works of Cubism of the time.
(Biography provided by ArtWise)
to
1
3
2
2
1
1
1
1
Overall Height
to
Overall Width
to
2
1
3
1
1
3
7,071
3,652
2,513
1,211
1
1
1
1
1
Artist: Franz Kline
Untitled
By Franz Kline
Located in Beverly Hills, CA
Provenance: Marlborough Gallery David McKee, Inc. Manny Silverman Gallery Private collection, Los Angeles
Category

1950s Abstract Expressionist Franz Kline Art

Materials

Paper, Ink

Untitled, #7246
By Franz Kline
Located in Palm Desert, CA
"Untitled, #7246" is an abstract Post-War oil on paper laid on board created by Franz Kline in c. 1958. The artwork is 18.125 x 23.25 inches and with the frame it is 24.75 x 30 x 2 i...
Category

Mid-20th Century Post-War Franz Kline Art

Materials

Oil

Franz Kline Juillet-Août-Septembre 1964, original vintage limited edition poster
By Franz Kline
Located in New York, NY
Franz Kline Franz Kline Juillet-Août-Septembre 1964, original vintage poster, 1964 Extremely scarce European offset lithograph exhibition poster Limited Edition of 500 (unnumbered) 2...
Category

1960s Abstract Expressionist Franz Kline Art

Materials

Lithograph, Offset

Related Items
Untitled (Fresh Air School) /// Contemporary Abstract Expressionist Walasse Ting
By Walasse Ting
Located in Saint Augustine, FL
Artist: Walasse Ting (Chinese-American, 1929-2010) Title: "Untitled (Fresh Air School)" Portfolio: Fresh Air School *Unsigned edition Year: 1972 Mediu...
Category

1970s Abstract Expressionist Franz Kline Art

Materials

Lithograph

Frankenthaler, Mary Mary 1991, New York City, Lincoln Center
By Helen Frankenthaler
Located in Fairfield, CT
Artist: After Helen Frankenthaler (1928-2011) Title: Mary Mary (Lincoln Center Honorary) Year: 1991 Medium: Offset lithograph poster on extra thick Somerset paper Edition: 2000 Size...
Category

1990s Abstract Expressionist Franz Kline Art

Materials

Lithograph, Offset

Yellow Tail I
By Sherron Francis
Located in Austin, TX
Acrylic and mixed media on canvas. Signed, titled, and dated verso. 40 x 76.5 in. 41.75 x 78.25 in. (framed) Custom framed in a solid, unfinished maple floater. Provenance Watson/de Nagy & Company, Houston Private Collection, New York Sherron Francis was born in 1940, in Downers Grove, IL outside of Chicago. She originally enrolled at the University of Oklahoma, but later transferred to the Kansas City Art Institute to focus more on art. Initially, Francis' practice was focused on figurative art, with visiting professor and renowned modern realist Philip Pearlstein remarking on Francis’ draftsman acumen. In the early 1960s, art dealers and gallerists from New York would visit the Institute to entice promising artists by offering scholarships and financial aid. Because such financial arrangements were only made for men, Francis had to persuade the school's leadership to allow for women to also be eligible for merit-based aid. Her advocacy was successful, and she ultimately graduated from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1963. She would then proceed to obtain her MFA from the University of Indiana, before assuming a teaching position at Eastern Michigan University. In 1968, with only $300 on hand, Francis moved to 16 Waverly Place in SoHo, New York. The neighborhood was a hotbed for young AbEx artists of the day, and she quickly befriended the likes of Peter Reginato, Walter Darby Bannard, Michael Steiner, Peter Young, Peter Bradley...
Category

1970s Post-War Franz Kline Art

Materials

Canvas, Mixed Media, Acrylic

Untitled (SF-348) (Fresh Air School) /// Abstract Expressionist Sam Francis Art
By Sam Francis
Located in Saint Augustine, FL
Artist: Sam Francis (American, 1923-1994) Title: "Untitled (SF-348) (Fresh Air School)" Portfolio: Fresh Air School *Unsigned edition Year: 1972 Mediu...
Category

1970s Abstract Expressionist Franz Kline Art

Materials

Lithograph

"Boy from Mansos, " Karl Zerbe, Green Figurative "Degenerate" Art Collage
By Karl Zerbe
Located in New York, NY
Karl Zerbe (1903 - 1972) Boy from Mansos, 1963 Collage and acrylic on canvas 35 x 23 inches Signed lower right Provenance: Lee Nordness Galleries, New York Karl Zerbe was born on September 16, 1903 in Berlin, Germany. The family lived in Paris, France from 1904–1914, where his father was an executive in an electrical supply concern. In 1914 they moved to Frankfurt, Germany where they lived until 1920. Karl Zerbe studied chemistry in 1920 at the Technische Hochschule in Friedberg, Germany. From 1921 until 1923 he lived in Munich, where he studied painting at the Debschitz School, mainly under Josef Eberz. From 1924 until 1926 Karl Zerbe worked and traveled in Italy on a fellowship from the City of Munich. In 1932 his oil painting titled, ‘’Herbstgarten’’ (autumnal garden), of 1929, was acquired by the National-Galerie, Berlin; in 1937, the painting was destroyed by the Nazis as "Degenerate art...
Category

1960s Post-War Franz Kline Art

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

Abstract - Offset and Lithograph after Willem De Kooning - 1985
By Willem de Kooning
Located in Roma, IT
Abstract is an offset and lithograph print realized after a drawing by Willem De Kooning of 1945. The print suite was realized in 1985 in a limited edition of 2500, and curated by X...
Category

1980s Abstract Expressionist Franz Kline Art

Materials

Lithograph, Offset

Bacon, Portrait Isabel Rawsthorne, 2003 (after)
By Francis Bacon
Located in Fairfield, CT
Artist: Francis Bacon (1909-1992) Title: Portrait Isabel Rawsthorne Year: 2003 Medium: Offset Lithograph on premium paper Size: 39.25 x 27.5 inches Condition: Excellent Notes: Publis...
Category

Early 2000s Abstract Expressionist Franz Kline Art

Materials

Lithograph, Offset

Jim DINE Eight Sheets from an Undefined Novel (sample portfolio)
By Jim Dine
Located in NEW YORK, NY
Jim Dine Eight Sheets from an Undefined Novel: A rare, highly-collectible sample portfolio of 8 offset printed lithographs advertising Jim Dine's Eight Sheets from an Undefined Novel...
Category

1970s Abstract Expressionist Franz Kline Art

Materials

Offset, Lithograph

Woman - Offset and Lithograph after Willem De Kooning - 1985
By Willem de Kooning
Located in Roma, IT
Woman is an offset and lithograph print realized on Fabriano Paper after a drawing by Willem De Kooning of 1952. Signed o the plate on the lower. The print suite was realized in a...
Category

1980s Abstract Expressionist Franz Kline Art

Materials

Lithograph, Offset

Bacon, Personnage Couche 1966
By Francis Bacon
Located in Fairfield, CT
Artist: After Francis Bacon (1909-1992) Title: Personnage Couche, exhibition poster Year: 1966 Medium: Offset Lithograph on wove paper Size: 28 x 17....
Category

1960s Abstract Expressionist Franz Kline Art

Materials

Lithograph, Offset

Mid Century Bay Area Figurative Original Oil Painting -- Motherhood
By Honora Berg
Located in Soquel, CA
Original Bay Area Figurative of Mother and Baby in Oil Paint on Laid Paper Original oil painting depicting a modern twist of a mother and baby by Honora Berg (American, 1897-1985), ...
Category

1950s Post-War Franz Kline Art

Materials

Oil, Illustration Board, Laid Paper, Stretcher Bars

Two Women's Torses - Offset and Lithograph after Willem De Kooning - 1985
By Willem de Kooning
Located in Roma, IT
Two Women's Torses is an offset and lithograph print realized on Fabriano Paper after a drawing by Willem De Kooning of 1952. Signed o the plate on the lower. The print suite was ...
Category

1980s Abstract Expressionist Franz Kline Art

Materials

Lithograph, Offset

Previously Available Items
Franz Kline-Untitled-49" x 37.5"-Poster-1997-Abstract-Black & White
By Franz Kline
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Open edition reproduction of Franz Kline, Untitled, 1957.
Category

20th Century Franz Kline Art

Materials

Offset

Franz Kline-New York, NY-20" x 16"-Serigraph-1991-Abstract-Black & White
By Franz Kline
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Museum Reproduction Edition Serigraph printed by Editions Limited in 1991 and Published by Gallery A.P. J. Graphic Station. Copyrighted Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, 1991 and from the ...
Category

20th Century Franz Kline Art

Materials

Screen

Franz Kline-New York, NY-20" x 16"-Serigraph-1991-Abstract-Black & White
By Franz Kline
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Museum Reproduction Edition Serigraph printed by Editions Limited in 1991 and Published by Gallery A.P. J. Graphic Station. Copyrighted Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, 1991 and from the ...
Category

20th Century Franz Kline Art

Materials

Screen

Franz Kline-Untitled-49" x 37.5"-Poster-1997-Abstract-Black & White
By Franz Kline
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Open edition reproduction of Franz Kline, Untitled, 1957.
Category

20th Century Franz Kline Art

Materials

Offset

Franz Kline-Untitled-49" x 37.5"-Poster-1997-Abstract-Black & White
By Franz Kline
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Open edition reproduction of Franz Kline, Untitled, 1957.
Category

20th Century Franz Kline Art

Materials

Offset

Franz Kline-New York, NY-20" x 16"-Serigraph-1991-Abstract-Black & White
By Franz Kline
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Museum Reproduction Edition Serigraph printed by Editions Limited in 1991 and Published by Gallery A.P. J. Graphic Station. Copyrighted Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, 1991 and from the ...
Category

20th Century Franz Kline Art

Materials

Screen

Franz Kline at Sidney Janis (1950s exhibition poster)
By Franz Kline
Located in NEW YORK, NY
Franz Kline at Sidney Janis 1958 Rare original 1st printing featuring gallery dates and exhibit info on verso Offset lithograph 22 x 26 inches Double qua...
Category

1950s Modern Franz Kline Art

Materials

Lithograph

Franz Kline art for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Franz Kline art available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Franz Kline in ink, paper and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 1950s and is mostly associated with the abstract style. Not every interior allows for large Franz Kline art, so small editions measuring 12 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Mercedes Matter, Lawrence Kupferman, and Seymour Lipton. Franz Kline art prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $104,000 and tops out at $104,000, while the average work can sell for $104,000.

Recently Viewed

View All