Untitled c. 1950

This untitled piece is by Franz Kline and was made with paint and charcoal on paper. I am really interested in the way that artists build up images, layer by layer, and you can see this happening here as Kline combines an initial charcoal sketch with a bold block of orange paint. The orange feels solid, a definite presence that pushes against the more tentative marks around it. Look at the textures: the smudged charcoal versus the thick, opaque paint. There’s a real physicality to the paint, you can almost see the brushstrokes, the way the paint has been dragged across the surface. Notice that one dark line, cutting across the orange rectangle at the bottom. It’s like a hidden structure trying to assert itself. Kline was a master of abstract expressionism, and his work always feels like a dialogue, a back-and-forth between intention and accident. You can see echoes of de Kooning in his work, that same energy and willingness to let the painting take over. It is a conversation between artists.