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Lot Essay
Franz Kline's color abstracts are often considered the finest examples of the symbiosis that existed between his art and that of his friend and mentor Willem de Kooning. Both artists exerted an intense, yet usually indirect, influence on each other. In the application of color in Red Field, executed in 1955, this influence is at its most explicit, with the shot-silk effect in the intermingling reds and yellows especially recalling de Kooning's gestural abstraction.
Some still find it surprising that Kline, so famous for his black and white paintings, reputedly had color on his palette even when creating those works. He yearned and tried to include color in his paintings, and yet for many years it eluded him, the elemental struggle between black and white kept resurfacing. Kline even apologized to Leo Steinberg on the subject: 'I'm always trying to bring color into my paintings, but it keeps slipping away and so here I am with another black show' (Kline, quoted in H.F. Gaugh, Franz Kline, exh.cat., New York, 1985, p. 132). Indeed, it was only half way through the 1950s that Kline began to harness his palette to great effect in his paintings, allowing them to explode with color, adding countless new and raw dimensions and possibilities through the interplay of the various colors: 'I'm not necessarily after the same thing with these different combinations, for, though some people say that black-and-white is color, for me color is different' (Kline, quoted in S.C. Foster, Franz Kline; Art and the Structure of Identity, exh.cat., Barcelona, 1994, pp. 165). Red Field shows Kline exploring forms that echo through many of his greatest paintings, especially the signature square, here reincarnated in scumbled red and yellow, allowing him to explore the unique dynamism of his abstraction to new effect.
Some still find it surprising that Kline, so famous for his black and white paintings, reputedly had color on his palette even when creating those works. He yearned and tried to include color in his paintings, and yet for many years it eluded him, the elemental struggle between black and white kept resurfacing. Kline even apologized to Leo Steinberg on the subject: 'I'm always trying to bring color into my paintings, but it keeps slipping away and so here I am with another black show' (Kline, quoted in H.F. Gaugh, Franz Kline, exh.cat., New York, 1985, p. 132). Indeed, it was only half way through the 1950s that Kline began to harness his palette to great effect in his paintings, allowing them to explode with color, adding countless new and raw dimensions and possibilities through the interplay of the various colors: 'I'm not necessarily after the same thing with these different combinations, for, though some people say that black-and-white is color, for me color is different' (Kline, quoted in S.C. Foster, Franz Kline; Art and the Structure of Identity, exh.cat., Barcelona, 1994, pp. 165). Red Field shows Kline exploring forms that echo through many of his greatest paintings, especially the signature square, here reincarnated in scumbled red and yellow, allowing him to explore the unique dynamism of his abstraction to new effect.