Franz Kline expressed himself through abstract art

The painter Franz Kline was born in Wilkes-Barre in 1910, and he crafted a more complicated body of work than practically any other artist from Luzerne County. For decades, admirers have circled his abstract masterpieces, looking for meanings that Kline had refused to spoon feed them. To be a fan of Franz Kline is to embrace the subjectivity of art and the fluidity of the artistic process.

Kline’s early life in Wilkes-Barre was marked by a critical tragedy. His father committed suicide when Franz was seven years old, and his family subsequently relocated to Lehighton, Carbon County. Kline would eventually graduate from Lehighton High School, where he was a cartoonist for the school newspaper. A few years down the road, after he had moved out of Lehighton, Kline’s artistic talents were requested in the creation of a mural for the local American Legion. The resulting piece, “Lehighton,” is a highlight of Kline’s early work.

Kline attended Boston University and the Heatherley School of Fine Art in London, where he found inspiration in “the Old Masters,” specifically Rembrandt. Following his education, he settled in New York’s Greenwich Village neighborhood. Kline picked up some interesting gigs during his first few years in New York, including another mural, 1940’s “Hot Jazz,” which he made for the Bleecker Street Tavern.

According to legend, Kline saw one of his black and white drawings blown up to a larger size in 1948. The image of the black and white aesthetic in this format was striking, and Kline saw the potential of more aggressive brushstrokes and monochromatic coloring. Around this same time, Kline became artistic allies with abstract expressionists like Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock. These interactions mostly centered around the Cedar Tavern, the heart of the world’s abstract expressionist movement. The patrons of the bar would form an important sect of the New York School of artists.

Kline was a pioneer in action painting, which is to say that his brushstrokes were more a reflection of the process of painting than the end result of those efforts. The vague imagery of Kline’s work was not random, however, as he was noted for being a meticulous planner. Regarding his process, Kline would often work at night and in deliberately poor lighting, a departure from the standard rules of painting. His efforts culminated in a breakthrough exhibition at New York’s Charles Egan Gallery in 1950.

As the 1950s progressed, Kline’s place in the abstract expressionist movement was that of a master. Some of his pieces, such as 1956’s “Mahoning,” inspired intrigue both within the movement and back home in Northeast Pennsylvania. Though Kline was tight-lipped when it came to explaining his art’s meaning, many pondered the possible connections between Kline’s work and his memories of growing up in Luzerne and Carbon counties.

Kline returned to colored paintings in the late 1950s, bringing on a new wave of classic pieces, such as 1958’s “Black Reflection.” It was a stunning shift for Kline, though he did continue to experiment with the capabilities of monochrome pallets during this era. Up until his death in 1962, Kline traveled, taught and worked along the East Coast, from North Carolina to Cape Cod. In the years directly preceding and following his untimely passing, Kline’s work was displayed in Europe, South America, and across the United States.

Though Kline’s work, and that of most abstract expressionists, is rather difficult to decipher, art critics and artists have combed through his catalog over the decades. Kline’s contemporaries and successors have referenced him as an influence, and that includes those who live and work in Luzerne County. On a lesser but still impressive note, Kline’s work has sold at auction for millions of dollars, including one of his “Untitled” pieces from 1957 being sold for $40 million in 2012.

Franz Kline’s career is about as influential as it gets. His avant-garde approach to painting valued the journey over the destination, and he pulled from many art traditions in order to revolutionize the form itself. In turn, artists and entertainers from across the globe have taken inspiration from the movement Kline helped to build.