Orange Outline 1955

Franz Kline made Orange Outline with oil on canvas. Kline was one of the leading figures of the New York School. You can see here the gestural style he developed in the 1950s. It's a spontaneous approach to artmaking that broke away from traditional European painting styles. He was inspired by the rise of American industrialization and new technologies. His monumental black strokes against a white background evoke the steel structures of urban landscapes, such as skyscrapers and bridges. It is also possible to understand his work as a critique of Abstract Expressionism, whose heroic individualism became a cliché by the end of the decade. Kline here, instead, embraces a collaborative, anonymous, and industrial aesthetic. By studying exhibition records, artists' statements, and critical reviews from the period we can understand how artists responded to the social and institutional conditions of their time. The meaning of this work remains open to historical interpretation, which is, as always, rooted in its specific context.