Mycenae 1958

Franz Kline made Mycenae with oil paint on canvas, though when exactly, nobody seems to know for sure. Look at the way the brushstrokes here seem so immediate, almost like they're shouting at you. The red and yellow, laid down so thickly, create a kind of raw energy. I always think about the physicality of paint, the way it feels to drag a brush across a surface. Here, it's like Kline wanted to capture that very sensation. Focus on how the yellow and red smear over the white ground. It's not about perfection, but about the pure act of painting, the push and pull of color and form. It’s like he's wrestling with the canvas, trying to find some truth in the chaos. It's got that same spirit as some of Joan Mitchell's more energetic canvases, both artists are so good at letting the paint itself do the talking.