Four Square 1956

Franz Kline made this painting, Four Square, with house paint on canvas. That's right, not fine art oils, but the same stuff you’d use on your walls at home. Kline's bold strokes of black paint create powerful forms against a white background. You can almost feel the movement of his brush, the sheer physicality of the gesture, and the immediacy of industrial materials. It’s as if the painting happened in one go, although in reality it involved many layers of building up and taking away. There’s a real labor involved in the making, and it is not dissimilar to the work of a house painter or sign writer. The act of applying paint becomes the subject, celebrating the physical process and raw energy of creation. This challenges the traditional idea that art must be delicate or refined, elevating the everyday to the realm of the extraordinary. Kline's focus on material and process helps us understand the power of art to transform the ordinary into something profound, blurring the lines between high art and craft.