Untitled (Study for Laureline)

As the name suggests, Untitled (Study for Laureline) was painted as part of Franz Kline’s preparation for his large-scale painting of the same name. Painted in 1956, Laureline belongs to a series of powerful abstractions that made Kline one of the most important painters of the twentieth century. David Anfam, the renowned scholar of this period of art history, has written “Each [painting] presents an epic field that functions as a wall, an environment unto itself, and a sheer surface of almost industrial power and rawness upon which momentary radiance contends against ashen gloom” (D. Anfam, “Kline’s Colliding Syntax,” Frank Kline: Black and White 1950-1961, exh. cat., Menil Collection, Houston, 1994, pp. 13-14). In this work, the ferocity of Kline’s hand can be seen in the muscular brushwork, confident and full of bravado as it sweeps the paint out towards the edges and beyond, yet controlled enough to contain the raw energy within.