Standing Female Nude c. 1940

Franz Kline made this nude drawing with ink on paper, date unknown. It's all about the raw, immediate gesture, isn't it? A quick, confident line snakes across the page, giving us the figure's essence without fuss. You can sense the artist figuring it out as he goes along. The color is minimal, just this warm, reddish-brown ink against the paper, which gives it a real intimacy, like a glimpse into a private moment. Notice how the line varies in weight, sometimes thick and bold, other times so faint it almost disappears. It's like Kline is playing with presence and absence, revealing and concealing all at once. That little flick of the pen at the foot, is full of confidence. Kline’s later abstract work uses a similar vocabulary of gesture and form. Think about Picasso, another artist who was able to use a minimum of lines to convey maximum emotional impact. Like so much art, this drawing keeps some secrets.