Standing Man c. 1940s

Curator: Here we have Franz Kline's pencil drawing, "Standing Man," created around the 1940s. It’s an early work, showing the genesis of his approach to form. Editor: My initial impression is of lightness, almost impermanence. The figure barely exists, rendered in the simplest lines, like a ghost of a person. Curator: Exactly! Kline is capturing the essence of figuration through abstraction. Note how the visible strokes are confident, deliberate, but spare. What do you make of the figure itself? Editor: The subject appears almost burdened, with details suggesting work clothes and accessories—a pouch, a hat, tools perhaps. The sketchiness conveys a sense of labor and everyday struggle. There's an absence of adornment, and yet a kind of symbolic presence emerges, amplified through the starkness. Curator: It’s interesting to interpret those symbols within the context of Abstract Expressionism. While many artists were embracing pure abstraction, Kline’s retention of the figure, however fragmented, suggests an underlying narrative and relationship to cultural archetypes. The abstracted form reminds me of early modernism but is more raw. Editor: Yes, the hat and the overall shape of the figure remind us of archetypal labourers of the era, perhaps farmers or blue-collar workers. The fact that it’s a quick pencil sketch seems crucial. The speed and directness reflect a certain urgency and spontaneity that’s central to the abstract expressionist ethos. Curator: The loose strokes imbue the piece with great dynamism. Each line feels imbued with the kinetic energy of the gesture itself. I think, ultimately, the symbolic content of the artwork becomes transformed into gestural abstraction itself, but through memory it retains its symbolic resonance. Editor: Agreed. And the limitations of the medium are revealing: the sketch, reduced to pure essence, asks us to re-imagine how we represent labor and presence, the man standing in our collective consciousness. Curator: Precisely, Kline lets us access his symbolic associations with figuration through his abstract gesture and opens it to the viewer in the process.