[untitled] 1947

Franz Kline made this untitled painting on paper with ink, maybe in the 1950s. The black marks are so bold and confident, but they also feel really raw and immediate. Like he's working it out as he goes. Look at how the ink sits on the page – in some places it’s thick and almost sculptural, like it’s been dragged across the surface. Then in other areas it’s thin and watery, bleeding into the paper. There’s one mark, right in the center, where the brush seems to have stuttered. It gives the whole thing a kind of syncopated rhythm. Kline was part of the Abstract Expressionist movement, alongside folks like Pollock and de Kooning. But for me, there’s something about the directness of his mark-making that reminds me of Japanese calligraphy. It’s like he’s trying to capture a whole world with just a few strokes. The longer you look, the more it seems to open up.