Seated Woman c. 1945

Editor: This is "Seated Woman," an ink drawing made around 1945 by Franz Kline. I find the quick, bold lines really striking; they create such a sense of immediacy and capture movement. How do you see Kline’s mark-making influencing the way we perceive the subject, or even the definition of drawing itself? Curator: Consider how ink as a material carries connotations. Cheap, readily available… tied to production of documents, news. Kline elevates the humble media of ink and paper, usually used for everyday work, into the realm of high art. But does he truly divorce it from its function? Editor: That's interesting. I guess not. He's taking something ubiquitous and making it “art.” How do you think the social climate surrounding Kline at the time might have affected the type of art he was making and the materials he used? Curator: Post-war America witnessed a boom in industrial production. We can view this piece as reflecting that mood of practical materiality; it's less about depicting likeness and more about process and material. Kline foregrounds the evidence of his labor: each visible stroke speaks to the physical act of making. Consider how Kline’s Seated Woman disrupts that divide of high and low materials. Editor: So it is about re-thinking not only subject but material. What did that signify? Curator: Possibly that the experience of everyday labor or ordinary existence, visualized in that cheap ink, becomes a valid, or indeed the central, subject for modern art. The raw application, stark contrast...it forces us to look at the mechanics of representation. The making itself embodies meaning. Editor: I hadn’t thought about it that way, focusing on what the piece *is*, not just what it represents. Thank you. Curator: Focusing on process always reveals so much, especially in something that seems as immediate as Kline’s drawing. There is always more to uncover, so look for the artist's traces!