The Titles of Franz Kline's Works - a Taxonomy

7/22/2019 The Titles of Franz Kline's Works - a Taxonomy

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The Titles of Franz Klines Works : a Taxonomy________________________________________________________________________

Martin Gladu

The people who knew him [Kline] said that

he would talk endlessly about coal countryand what it was like,the mines and the miners,

and talk about the names of the cities.So many of his paintings are named after coal areas.

The titles are almost a type of code for the feelingsthat are behind those paintings.

Dr. Robert S. Mattison

The relationship of titles to paintingsin abstract expressionism practice is never clear-cut.

Klines are named after trains, ballets,

figures in Wagnerian operas, subway stops, and placesthat had some meaning for him,

without the paintings necessarily bearingany pictorial relationship to the bearers of those names

Arthur Coleman Danto

Introduction : From Pennsylvania to New York City

Hunter & Jacobus (1992:272) described Franz Kline as one of the powerfullyconcentrated talents in the American vanguard. Indeed, with Jackson Pollock andWillem de Kooning, the Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania native was a key figure of Action

Painting, the gestural branch of the New York School of Abstract Expressionism.

Kline loved everything about New York City. As John Gordon rightly noted, hesomewhat became the personification of the suave, sophisticated citizen of New York ;his work became the symbol of its vigor (...) Kline studied his environment, whether cityor country, with discerning and appreciative eyes. (Gordon 1969) But while hisappreciation for the citys sensual features never wavered, it most probably neversupplanted his emotional attachment to the sloping, industrial landscapes of the CoalRegion :

"Franz Kline held court at the Cedar Street Tavern almost every night after ten. He would talk to

anyone and consequently was the most accessible of his peers to young artists and to me. Franzwas the most amiable of the older Abstract Expressionists. As one admirer recalled 'He liked beerat the Cedar Bar and English tea in the studio. He could play the dandy or the clown, act like TedLewis, Wallace Beery, or Mae West, talk about rugs, vintage cars, Gericault's horse, baseball, and

Baron Gros. He loved jazz and Wagner. He was a confirmed New Yorker, but had roots that henever forgot in the gritty coal country of eastern Pennsylvania...." Irving Sandler (2004:58-59)


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The above quotes from Sandler and Mattison give evidence that the Coal Region wasindeed never far from the painters thoughts, and many are those who have witnessedfirst hand the deep imprint its scenery and people had left on him :

Or about how Ed [Meneeley] and Franz Kline hit if off after meeting at the Cedar Tavern inNew York, calling out Native American place names like Tamaqua or Mauch Chunk as though

they spoke a secret language after discovering they had common roots in Wilkes-Barre, PA. JoelFinsel (2012)

So strong were Klines roots in the Coal Region that many connoisseurs have postulatedthat his black girders and joists and I-beams, built in layers and then feathered into whitepictorial voids (Graham-Dixon 1994) were subconscious manifestations of the industrialinstallations he longly observed as a budding drafsman. Having himself claimed that hisinspiration came from unconscious sources, there may very well be some truth to thishypothesis. That said, such a freudian program is not the aim of this humble paper. Whatis of interest to me is rather to categorize the titles of his paintings so as to try anduncover any invisible threads that might tie them together into a significant and perhaps

telling whole. And studying what the painter himself (or those very close to him) havesaid about either the titles or of the naming process that birthed them appears the propermethodology for such an investigation.

Therefore, what follows is a taxonomy of the titles of Klines paintings or at least thoseI could certify as his as no catalogue were ever produced of Klines oeuvre. Eachcategory is supported by one or more selected quotes, or by a brief remark.

Kline in his own words

The quotes from Mattison and Finsel both imply a rather interesting fact : Kline had a

keen interest in the toponymy of Pennsylvania. Whats more, the painter even appears asan amateur onomastician who specializes in the Native American place names of easternPennsylvania. This is obviously something that needs to be taken into account if one islooking to create a decisive taxonomy such as the one proposed here.

To some, studying the naming of such abstract imagery may initially appear like a deadend research project, one that is seemingly unproductive and far too extrapolative. Afterall, as Coleman Danto (2001:119) rightly observed : The relationship of titles topaintings in abstract expressionism practice is never clear-cut. That said, rather than tryto establish such a relationship, I see a more interesting project in pursuing Klinesinterest in onomastics on his own terms, so to speak. In short, I posit that studying the

names of his paintings can lead to a better appreciation of his art by way of his passions,interests and life experiences.

Let us first turn to the artist himself and see what he had to say on the subject :

After youve thought out of, lets say, four titles, thats about as much as you can think of, sowhen my paintings look somewhat alike I give them similar titles. Now take the paintings I havecalled Bethlehem. Youll find quite a number of Pennsylvania titles among my pictures because


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I came from that part of the country. Sometimes its just that I like the names the wordsthemselves. (...) Some pictures I dont even title, and if I do (as long as six months after theyve

been painted) its only for identification. Often titles refer to places Ive been at about the time apicture was painted, like the composition I called Palladio. It was done after Id been to the

Villa Malcontenta near Venice, but it didnt have a thing to do with Palladian architecture. I havealways named my paintings after Ive painted them. Franz Kline (quoted in Gaugh 1994:180)

We gather from this explanation that Kline went through a process of naming works thatwas :

a) sometimes based on the principle of similarity (ie. similar paintings -> similar titles)b) sometimes guided by a sensibility to word sound and the poetics of phonetics (ie.

selection based on the words themselves)c) sometimes guided by mere practicality (ie. only for identification purposes)d) sometimes circumstantial (ie. travels that have happened about the time the picture

was painted)e) initiated after the painting was completed

f) probably not always an easy one

While one of the goals of this paper is precisely to shed light on the second and fourthcharacteristics, Kline himself explicated the first and the last :

The first works in only black and white seemed related to figures, and I titled them as such.Later the results seemed to signify something but difficult to give subject (or) name to, and atpresent I find it impossible to make a direct, verbal statement about the paintings in black and

white Franz Kline (quoted in Gaugh 1994:106)

One of the solutions he found to efface this difficulty he had of titling certain works was

to enlist friends and colleagues to help him.

An experience in communal naming : Klines first solo show at the Charles Egan

Gallery

It has been said that Kline chose his titles very arbitrarily (Waldman 1976:53). In myopinion, that is a debatable statement. Indeed, unless one opines that the semiotic relationbetween the painting itself (the signifier) its subject matter (if any), style, colors, etc. and its title (the signified) is arbitrary, the sole knowledge that the titles were chosenbecause each had a special meaning to him suffices to deter this view. In clear, thequestion is whether there can truly be an arbitrariness of choice, to paraphrase Waldman,

when each name is related to a meaningful memory, thought, emotion, etc. Though thisSaussurian view (also held by Coleman Danto) which holds that the semiotic relationbetween the pictures and their titles can be deemed arbitrary is agreeable to a degree, Iwould refrain from saying that Kline picked most his titles arbitrarily because that wouldimply his emotional detachment from the names as subjectively meaningful signs (see thelast part of Mattisons quote above).


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Where it gets interesting is the process by which canvases were sometimes named. Kline,along with his closest friends and colleagues, would sit, have drinks, and ask "What's agood title?" A bit of brainstorming would ensue, and a title would finally be selectedconsensually. New Year Wall, Night is one of many works that got its name this way.This consensual and democratic process is commonly referred to as communal naming.

Days before his first solo show at the Charles Egan Gallery, Kline enlisted Egan,Emmanuel Navaretta (who had been living with Kline for the past ten months), Willemand Elaine De Kooning to help find names for his paintings. In a spirit of levity, with abottle of scotch on the table was how Elaine de Kooning remembered the eight hournaming session (Gaugh 1994:93). Wotan, Riverbed, Caboose, Hazleton, Palmerton : wekept picking names of places that meant something to him, his childhood and trains,she explained (de Kooning 1982). Other canvases were named on this occasion :Hoboken, Clockface, Chief, Cardinal, Nijinsky, Leda, High Street, Wyoming, Nijinsky,Giselle, and The Drum.

According to Navaretta, Kline and himself would sometimes go to Hoboken, New Jerseyto eat fish. Kline simply liked the name and he chose it as a title for his canvas. Navarettaalso recalled that Clockface referred to the clock at Wanamaker's Department Store.Elaine de Kooning, for her part, recalled that Chief and Cardinal were names oflocomotives that Kline remembered from his childhood :

Franz invited the de Koonings to help him title the pictures in his first show. They all had toagree. Franz decided to call one work Chief, named after a Lehighton locomotive, but Elainepersuaded him that the name would go better with the canvas that now bears the title. Irving

Sandler (2004:59)

Leda refers to mythology, and High Street is the name of the subway stop in Brooklyn

near where the Klines lived in 1945. Klines passion for Native American place names isreflected in the title Wyoming.

The story behind Nijinsky is interesting. From 1936 to 1949, Kline sketched or paintedNijinsky as Petrouchka at least six times. His wife, Elizabeth, recalled that they shared acopy of Nijinsky's diary with each other, and that she also gave her husband a copy of theNijinsky biography written by the dancers wife, Romola. Elizabeth would later say that"He [Kline] was overcome by the photo of Nijinsky as Petrouchka. It was apropos of thisthat he went on about Lon Chaney. He said he knew what Petrouchka felt and LonChaney in his circus clown tragedy" (quoted in Gaugh 1985:67-68). David Orr, an earlypatron of the artist, later recalled that in early 1949, Kline claimed to him that he could

paint Nijinsky blindfolded. According to Orr, "to prove his point he proceeded to drawthe head on a corrugated carton which was there at the moment. It must have taken himless than thirty seconds." (quoted in Gaugh 1985:71)

Implicit egotism : Klines sensibility to word sound and to the poetics of phonetics

What comes through his mentionning that sometimes its just that I like the names thewords themselves (quoted in Gaugh 1994:180), is that Kline appeared to have a


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sensibility to word sound and to the poetics of phonetics. To try and induce what thepainters subjective preferences were, I have turned to the (interrelated) notions ofimplicit egotism (Pelham, Carvallo & Jones 2005) and the Name-Letter Effect (Nuttin1985).

Research on these notions indicates that people tend to react positively to anything thatreminds them of themselves, including their own names and the letters in their names.Names can even have effects (presumably unconscious ones) on people's choices ofmates and careers. Nelson & Simmons (2007), for example, presented evidencesuggesting that people are attracted to name-resembling outcomes even when thoseoutcomes undermine their conscious goals. Indeed they found that major league baseballplayers with first or last names starting with the letter K tend to strike out at a rate greaterthan that of other players. (In baseball, the letter K is used to record each time a pitcherstrikes out a batter. So, if a pitcher has 80 Ks, he has cumulated 80 strike outs). They alsofound a significant correlation between the alphabetic order of students last names andtheir relative grades : students whose names start with A or B earn higher grades than

students whose names start with C or D.

I applied such findings to the titles of Klines works. I counted all the occurences of thestress letters found in his two full names (he changed his middle name in 1935), FranzRowe Kline and Franz Josef Kline, and all occurences of the sounds , , ,, and . Note : Kline was named after the Austrian Emperor Franz Josef I by hisfather, Anthony C. Kline. The latter, who committed suicide in 1917, was born inHamburg, Germany. His mother (ne Anna Evita Rowe) was an immigrant fromCornwall, England.

Here are the results of my analysis :

Letters :

F = 44 timesZ = 13 timesK = 38 timesL = 142 timesO = 179 times

Sounds :

= 0

= 0 = more than 60 times = 0 = 79 times.


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The taxonomy

Industrial Pennsylvania

According to Mattison, Kline returned home much more frequently than is commonly

known () and talked constantly about his heritage in coal country (Johnson 2012).

AN ARTIST'S VIEW OF LEHIGHTON the painting features the Carbon House, ahotel located on First and North Street. Kline grew up in Lehighton.BETHLEHEM is a city in Pennsylvanias Coal Region.CARBON HOUSE is a hotel located on First and North Street in Lehighton which waspatronized by employees of the Lehigh Valley Railroad.CHARCOAL BLACK AND TAN obviously refers to anthracit. But it may also refer toDuke Ellingtons Black and Tan Fantasy.DELAWARE GAP is a water gap on the border of the U.S. states of New Jersey andPennsylvania. Delaware is actually a Native American tribe in Pennsylvania. The river

and state take their name from Lord de la Warre, governor of the English colony ofVirginia.INGOT is a term of the mining industry.LEHIGH is a common name in Pennsylvania.LEHIGH RIVER is a river in Pennsylvania. It means "where there are forks" and isreported to be an English corruption of the German shortening of the Delaware name,Lechauweing.LEHIGH RIVER, WINTER is a river in Pennsylvania. It means "where there are forks"and is reported to be an English corruption of the German shortening of the Delawarename, Lechauweing.LEHIGH V SPAN probably refers to a football game.LEHIGHTON is the city where Kline grew up with his mother and stepfather. The latterworked as a foreman for the Lehigh Valley Railroad.LUZERNE is the name of a county whose seat is Wilkes-Barre, Klines birthplace.Luzerne means "lighthouse." The name honors the Chevalier de la Luzerne, a Frenchnobleman who raised critical funds for the colonial forces at a low point during theRevolutionary War. The family name is traced to Luzern, a village in central Switzerlandon Lake Lucerne.MAHONING is the name of a county located in the state of Ohio whose seat isYoungstown. Youngstown was where a 1924 clash between immigrant mill workers andthe Ku Klux Klan happened. In 1937, Youngstown saw a workers strike that turnedviolent and left two dead. It is also a hodonym (ie. the name of a street in Lehighton). It isof Native American origin : "Maho" = lick, "ing" = at the. Various prefixes have beenattached to the word Mahoning to describe the area surrounding a specific mineral lickfrequented by the animals that were essential to the Native Americans survival.PA STREET (PENNSYLVANIA MINING TOWN)PALMERTON is a borough in Carbon County, Pennsylvania. It is located in the CoalRegion.PENNSYLVANIA is a state of the USA. Its name is derived from the geologicalformation that occupies the territory (ie. pennsylvanian).


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PENNSYLVANIA LANDSCAPEPENNSYLVANIA STREET SCENEPITTSTON is a city in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, named in honor of Sir WilliamPitt (the same Pitt as in Pittsburgh).SCRANTON is a city in eastern Pennsylvania.

THORPE Jim Thorpe is a borough in Carbon County, Pennsylvania. Jim Thorpe wasonce known as Mauch Chunk, an Anglicized form of an Indian name meaning BearMountain. The title of the painting may also refer to an American sculptor and painterwho was part of The Washington Color School.WYOMING refers to Pennsylvanias Wyoming Valley. The toponym Wyoming is basedeither on an Algonquin Indian word meaning "large prairie place," or from the DelawareIndian word meaning mountains and valleys alternating (the same as the WyomingValley).

The Lehigh Valley Railroad

Klines passion for trains originates from his years growing up in Wilkes-Barre andLehighton, two cities crossed by the railroad. Moreover, his stepfather was a foreman forthe Lehigh Valley Railroad.

C AND O refers to the pioneering railroad line.CABOOSE is a term of the railroad industry.CARDINAL was the name of a locomotive of the Lehigh Valley Railroad.CHIEF was the name of a locomotive of the Lehigh Valley Railroad.CHIEF (TRAIN)(1942) was the name of a locomotive of the Lehigh Valley Railroad.DIAMOND the nickmane of Wilkes-Barre is "the diamond city". Also, Kline wasfascinated by Black Diamond, the once famous train of the Lehigh Valley Railroad.UNTITLED (LOCOMOTIVE)

New York City

Sensing that his career would progress more in NYC, Kline moved there from Buffalo,New York in 1938.

71 WEST 3RD STREET The Klines were evicted from MacDougal Street and had tomove to 71 West 3rdStreet. Kline later moved from 71 West 3rdStreet to 430 HudsonStreet (second floor).CHATHAM SQUARE is a major intersection in Chinatown, Manhattan, NYC.CHINATOWNCHRISTMAS CHEER FROM MacDOUGAL STREET Franz and his wife wereevicted from 146 MacDougal Street for not paying their rent. They then moved to 71West 3rdStreet, which is also captured as the title of one of his canvases (see above).FISHING BOAT, FULTON FISH MARKET, NEW YORK CITYFULTON FISH MARKETHIGH STREET High Street is a subway stop in Brooklyn. It derives from the fact thatFranz and his wife lived there in 1945.


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LOWER EAST SIDE MARKETMacDOUGAL STREET GREENWICH VILLAGE Franz and his wife were evictedfrom 146 MacDougal Street for not paying their rent. They then moved to 71 West 3rdStreet, which is also captured as the title of one of his canvases (see above).NEW YORK, N.Y. In late summer of 1938, Kline moved from Buffalo to NYC. He

roomed with Frank Hahn at 6 Jane Street, then the two moved to 146 MacDougal Street.They were evicted from MacDougal Street and had to move to 71 West 3 rdStreet. TheKlines then moved from 71 West 3rdStreet to 430 Hudson Street (second floor), and thento 23 Christopher Street (top floor). In 1943, they moved to 150 West 4 thStreet (during1943 Kline would also begin renting a studio in a ground floor storefront at 41 PerryStreet which he would keep until the spring or summer of 1944). In September 1945, theythen decided to move to Brooklyn (Kline commuted on a daily basis to his studio inManhattan at 148 West 4thStreet). In mid-December, they moved to 148 West 4thStreet.In September 1947, Kline moved to 52 East 9th Street (In 1948, Kline shared hisapartment for approximately six months with Earl Kerkam, and then for close to elevenmonths with Emmanuel Navaretta later in 1950), and in 1953, to the top floor of 32 East

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th

Street. In 1957, Kline moved to 473 6

th

Avenue, and from there to 242 West 14

th

Street where he would stay until he died (In June 1961, Kline purchased a bricktownhouse at 249 West 13th Street which adjoined the back of his 14th Street studio).Kline moved no less than fourteen times, including at least three evictions because hewas unable to pay the rent.NINTH STREET The 9th Street Art Exhibition was a historical, ground-breakingexhibition. It was located at 60 East 9thStreet. Interestingly, the Lehighton, PA house hegrew up in was located at 300 South 9thStreet.NINTH AVENUE ELEVATED RAILROAD AT CHRISTOPHER STREET Klinelived at 23 Christopher Street (top floor).SHERIDAN SQUARE, NEW YORK Kline painted murals for El Chico's, a Spanishnightclub on Sheridan Square (located at 80 Grove Street in Greenwich Village).STREET SCENE GREENWICH VILLAGE Kline once lived at 430 Hudson Street(second floor) in Greenwich Village.THIRD AVENUEWANAMAKER BLOCK 1955 The Wanamaker's Department Store burnt while he andde Kooning lived on the same street in NYC. Interestingly, Wanamaker is not only astreet in Lehighton, PA, but Wanamaker, Kempton & Southern, Inc. (aka the "HawkMountain Line") was a privately owned heritage railroad company in Kempton,Pennsylvania.WASHINGTON BRIDGEWASHINGTON SQUARE, N.Y.C. this work was commissioned by Dr. Theodore J.Edlich (Klines doctor), who placed the painting on a folding screen directly in front ofhis examination table.

In French

In 1952, a few of Klines works were shown in the American Vanguard Art for Parisexhibition at the Galerie de France.


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ACCENT AIGUACCENT GRAVEHEAUME is a protective helmet worn by medieval foot soldiers.INITIALELAURELINE

RUETORCHES MAUVE was named after Joseph Torch, a friend and art dealer who soldKline tube paint.

Individuals

His warm and likeable personality made Kline a popular figure of the Village nightlife.

ANDRUS was the name of his cardiologist.ARTISTS WIFEBETSY probably stands for his companion and heir Elisabeth Ross Zogbaum. It might

also refer either to Charles Egans spouse, Betsy Duhrssen, or to his own spouse.DANCER AT ISLIP His wife, Elizabeth, became a patient at the Central Islip StateHospital in May 1946.DOUBLE H Henry Hensche was a painter who had studied under Hawthorne and wohad taught Kline at Boston University. He was the one who first brought Kline toProvincetown.DUSTY RHOADS is a play of words : the character is a hobo. The real Dusty Rhodeswas a pinch-hitter in the Major League Baseball (Kline played baseball at LehightonHigh School).ELIZABETH Kline's wife (ne Elizabeth Parsons) was a former ballet dancer inEngland. Kline also travelled Europe with Elisabeth Ross Zogbaum, his heir andcompanion and the spouse of sculptor Wilfrid Meynell Zogbaum.ELIZABETH AT THE WINDOWGARCIAGISELLE may take its title from Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and ThophileGautiers romantic ballet Giselle, or the Wilis. The ballet is about a peasant girl namedGiselle who dies of a broken heart after discovering her lover is betrothed to another. TheWilis, a group of supernatural women who dance men to death, summon Giselle from hergrave. They target her lover for death, but Giselle's love frees him from their grasp.GLORIAHENRY H II Henry Hensche was a painter who had studied under Hawthorne and whohad taught Kline at Boston University. He was the one who first brought Kline toProvincetown.JOHN THE MOVING MAN Kline moved a lot in his lifetime. John, the moving man,was most probably named after one the movers that Kline hired.LA VERONICALE GROS Kline frequently talked about Baron Gros, a French Romantic painter, at theCedar Street Tavern. The name may also come from Pierre Le Gros lan and/or PierreLe Gros le jeune (his son), two well-known French sculptors.LEDA the myth of Leda gave rise to a popular motif in the Renaissance.


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LUMBER MAN JACKMARS BLACK AND WHITE the series called Mars was named after a girl Klineknew in his student days in Boston. Mars Black is also a pigment.MAYOR LAGUARDIA refers to the former mayor of NYC.MERCE C Merce Cunningham was a dancer. She was Klines colleague at Black

Mountain College, where they both sat on its Advisory Council.MERYON A pioneering master of original etching in France, Charles Meryon was asolitary and disturbed genius of great creative power. The inspiration for the paintingitself was possibly an engraving of a clock tower by the artist.NIJINSKY refers to the Russian ballet dancer and choreographer.NIJINSKY AS PETROUCHKA Nijinsky is known for his work on Igor StravinskysPetrouchka. From 1936 to 1949, Kline sketched or painted Nijinsky as Petrouchka atleast six times. His wife, Elizabeth, recalled that they shared a copy of Nijinsky's diarywith each other, and that she also gave her husband a copy of the Nijinsky biographywritten by Nijinksy's wife, Romola. Elizabeth would later say that "He [Kline] wasovercome by the photo of Nijinsky as Petrouchka. It was apropos of this that he went on

about Lon Chaney. He said he knew what Petrouchka felt and Lon Chaney in his circusclown tragedy." David Orr, an early patron of Kline later recalled that in early 1949 Klineclaimed to him that he could paint Nijinsky blindfolded. According to Orr, "To prove hispoint he proceeded to draw the head on a corrugated carton which was there at themoment. It must have taken him less than thirty seconds."PORTRAIT OF DAVID ORR'S MOTHER David Orr commissioned many (13) ofKline's early works.PORTRAIT OF FREDERICK BHUNENSTEM III There were many Fredericks inKlines life : Frederic Whiting (one of his teacher in England), Frederick Ryan, (a fellowart student and roommate in England), Fred McDarrah (The Clubs doorman), and hisolder brother, Frederick Kline.PORTRAIT OF STEVE Stephen Edlich was Dr. Theodore J. Edlich, Jrs son. Dr.Edlich was Kline's doctor and an early patron of his.PROBST I refers to Jack (Yoachim) Probst, an artist-friend from Greenwich Village.SABRO IV refers to painter-friend Sabro Hasegawa. Sabro Hasegawa sensed that Kline'swork approached his ideal of a synthesis between writing and painting : "Here are daring,strong, straight lines and their sorrows and solitudes," he once said.SAWYERSAWYER GARDEN BARBERSEATED FIGURE ELIZABETHSELF-PORTRAITSISKIND Aaron Siskind was an American photographer involved with the abstractexpressionist movement.VAWDAVITCH refers to the last name of a football player Kline liked in his youth.

Drunken sprees

In 1960, Kline exhibited three paintings whose titles were inspired by drunken sprees :CHICAGO, CALUMET CITY and ORLEANS.


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CHICAGO The name Chicago derives from a word in the language spoken by theMiami and Illinois peoples meaning striped skunk, a word they also applied to the wildleek (known to later botanists asAllium tricoccum).CALUMET CITY During their visit to Chicago (to serve as jurors for the ExhibitionMomentum '57), Philip Guston, Kline and Aaron Siskind went to Calumet City for a

drunken spree. Noah Goldowsky gave them about $200 to finance their "adventure."Upon returning to New York the artists paid Goldowsky back by each sending him adrawing. A calumet is a type of smoking pipe used by Native Americans.ORLEANS Orleans takes its name from the French dynasty.

Native American place names

Many of the place names in the Coal Region are from the Delaware Indians or Lenapesand Susquehanna native American Indians. And, as noted in Carter B. HorsleysChristie's May 11, 2005 Catalogue : Kline was greatly interested in and intrigued by theplace names of his childhhood surroundings, not least those with Native American

origins. He was also the godfather of Ojibwe artist George Morrisons son.

HOBOKEN Kline painted murals for bars in Brooklyn and Hoboken between 1939 and1943. The toponym is either derived from 1) Middle Dutch Hooghe Buechen or HogeBeuken, (meaning High or Tall Beeches), 2) the Dutchmen who visited the futureHoboken NJ in those early years and who called it "Hoebuck" (meaning "high bluff"), or3) the Lenni Lenape who camped seasonally on the island. The latter called the spot"Hopoghan Hackingh," or "Land of the Tobacco Pipe," for they used the green-coloredserpentine rock abundant in the area to carve pipes for smoking tobacco.CROW DANCERSHENANDOAH is an Indian name meaning either "sprucy stream" or "river flowingalongside high hills and mountains." In Iroquois, shenandoah translates into "greatplains." It may also come from the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia where the meaningwould lean toward "daughter of the skies."

Italy and other travels

Kline travelled to Italy for the 1956 and 1960 Annual Venice Biennale. Also in 1960, hewon the Italian Ministry of Public Instruction Prize.

A LONDON CAFE Kline lived in England for two years. Willem de Kooning wouldlater say of Kline : "He was an Anglophile in a nice way." De Kooning also recalledKline's fascination with English actors, particularly Ronald Colman who Kline wouldimitate, saying "You don't take any shit from Ronald Colman."BLACK SIENNA On July 2, 1960, Kline visited Siena to see the Palio delle Contrade,a festival and horse race in Piazza del Campo. Sienna is also an earth pigment.BRUHO Brujo means sorcerer, witch, medicine man or shaman in spanish. El Bruho isa peruvian archeological site. On July 2, 1960, Kline visited Siena to see the Palio delleContrade, a festival and horse race in Piazza del Campo. There, Kline saw a horse namedBruco which sounds like Bruho when uttered in a strong florentine accent.


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PALLADIO Kline and Elisabeth Zogbaum left Venice on June 19, 1960 in a hired carwith a driver, stopping in Vicenza the birthplace of Palladio, the architect of the TeatroOlimpico and Villa Malcontenta. While in Vicenza, Kline took a guided tour of the VillaMalcontenta.PLACIDIA refers to the tomb of Galla Placidia in Ravena which Kline visited on June

21, 1960.RAVENNA After an overnight stay in Verona on June 19, 1960, Kline and ElisabethZogbaum stopped in Padua, visiting the Arena Chapel on June 20. He stayed overnight inFerrara before arriving in Ravena on June 21.SCUDERA his last paintingTURIN is the capital of the Piedmont region of Italy.

Jazz

Kline was a jazz amateur. He hung out with the jazzmen who drank at the Cedar StreetTavern.

BIGARD refers to clarinetist Barney Bigard.HOT JAZZ refers to the subject matter of this mural.KING OLIVER refers to the famous trumpeter.LESTER refers to tenorman Lester Young.

Architecture

Graham-Dixon (1994) wrote : The heaviness of Kline's black girders and joists and I-beams, built in layers and then feathered into white pictorial voids, gives his pictures theirmost powerful quality which is fundamentally architectural. Kline paints a picture withsomething of the stubborn, improvisational character of an amateur carpenter building ahouse.

BUTTRESS is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall whichserves to support or reinforce the wall.CUPOLA is a small, most-often dome-like structure on top of a building.HARLEMAN Johan Harleman and his son Carl were swedish architects.SLATE CROSSSUSPENDEDTHE BRIDGE refers either to the Brooklyn Bridge or the Lehighton-Weissport bridge.VERTICALS

Wagner

On May 23, 1939, the Klines celebrated Franzs 39 thbirthday at the Metropolitan Opera,totally taken by one Wagners Tristan und Isolde. Several days later he purchasedsecond-hand recordings of the opera.CURVINALSIEGFRIED


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WOTAN

Places : the artists studio

ARTIST'S STUDIO WITH EASEL

ENTRANCE TO STUDIOIN THE STUDIOOUTSIDE VIEW OF WEST 14TH STREET STUDIOSTUDIO INTERIORSTUDIO WITH EASEL (ALONZO GASPARO)

Places : other

ANCIENT GROVEBAR ROOM PAINTINGCROSSTOWN

FLANDERS Kline greatly admired Rembrandt (who was from Flanders). Flanderstoday refers to the Dutch-speaking northern part of Belgium.HAMPTON refers to East Hampton, New York where many artists lived, Kline beingone of them. He painted in John Little's barn in East Hampton.HOUSE IN A LANDSCAPEMYCENEA is an archaeological site in Greece. It was the great city and Palace of KingAgamemnon the leader of the Greeks.PROVINCETOWN II is a New England town located at the extreme tip of Cape Cod inBarnstable County, Massachusetts. From 1956, Kline spent his summers there,establishing a studio. Kline bought Shadowlawn at 15 Cottage Street (it is nowKensington Gardens). He used the rear shed, 16 Mechanic Street, as his studio as hadJackson Pollock. Interestingly, the building across the street from Klines 146MacDougal Street apartment is called The Provincetown.RIVERBED refers to the Lehigh River bed.SAUDI ARABYTHE PLAYGROUNDTHE SYNAGOGUE The painting in the style of Rembrandt was commissioned by I.David Orr who Kline had met in 1939. The left half of the work was based on aphotograph that Orr gave to Kline of Jewish pilgrims reading the scriptures inside ashelter in Palestine during the 1920s.VANISHED WORLD David Orr commissioned many (13) of Kline's early works. In1943, Kline would incorporate painted images derived from eight different photographsof Orr's relatives into Vanished World, a dark interior featuring a Jewish bride.

Flowers

DAHLIADYING FLOWERSRED DAHLIAVASE WITH FLOWERS


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Animals (cats, horses, etc.)

Kline frequently talked about Gericaults way of depicting horses.

CAT

GREY DOVEHORSE AND BUGGYHORSES ON THE BEACHKITZKER was the name of his cat.SHASTA (SEATED DOBERMAN) was the name of a friends pet dog.THE HORSETWO CATSTWO HORSES

People and occupations

CIRCUS RIDERFIREMAN AND LADDER probably got its name from the fire that destroyed theWanamakers department store in NYC.MAN WITH A CART: A DOUBLE-SIDED WORKNIGHT FIGURERED CLOWN Kline identified with clowns. In 1938, he wrote his wife : I havealways felt that I am like a clown, and thinking that life might work out as a tragedy, aclown's tragedy.WOMAN RIDING CENTAURWOMAN SEATED AT A TABLE IN THE ATELIERWOMAN WITH CAT

Mechanical

Kline studied mechanical drawing and trained in a foundry workshop at Girard College,an academy for fatherless boys located in Pennsylvania. He loved cars : he purchased aThunderbird on June 6, 1958 and a silver gray Ferrari in July 1960.

CLOCKFACE was named after the clock in NYCs Wanamakers department store.SHAFTTURBIN

Rocking chairs

It is a well-known fact that Kline devoted himself entirely to abstraction in 1948 afterenlarging a small drawing of a rocking chair. But what is less known is that his motherinsisted that he run a furniture store : she often advised him to quit painting and get areal job.

ROCKER


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ROCKING CHAIR (ELIZABETH)SEATED WOMANSMALL SEATED FIGURETWO SEATED FIGURESWOMAN IN A ROCKER

Miscellaneous

AUGUST DAYBLUEBERRY EYESDEVIL'S TEMPTATIONEVENING 4-5.30 PMGREEN NIGHTHARLEY REDHEAD FOR SATURNHERALD

HOMAGEHOMAGE IILOWER HALFMERRY CHRISTMAS HAPPY CORONATION YEARMONITORNEW YEAR WALL, NIGHT was invented by his friends.OPUSTENA translates into "deserted".REQUIEM is a memorial to Jackson Pollock.SPAGNA means Spain in italian.TEAPOT metonimically recalls his years in England and his love of this country.THE BALLANTINE The triangular shape in the center of this painting resembles aletter A, which might also stand for Ale. In the 1950s, Ballantine Ale was the drink ofchoice for the American counterculture.THE CHAIRTHE DANCESTHE DRUMTRAGEDY Kline identified with clowns. In 1938 he wrote his wife : I have alwaysfelt that I am like a clown, and thinking that life might work out as a tragedy, a clown'stragedy. Kline had plenty of tragedies in his lifetime, the suicide of his father, the harshcriticism of his mother and the illness of his wife being the three major ones. Painter PaulBrach declared of Kline's paintings that they are "statements of an acute crisis. (P.Brach, quoted in Franz Kline;Art and the Structure of Identity, exh. cat., Whitechapel ArtGallery, London, 1994, p. 37).TRANSITIONUNDES second person singular present of undo (latin)WAX WINGWESTBRAND

Kline obviously used numerous painterly names : ABSTRACTION, BLACK ANDGREEN, BLACK AND WHITE, BLACK ANGLE WITH YELLOW, BLACK


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REFLECTIONS, BLACK WHITE BROWN, BLACK WHITE AND GRAY, BURIEDREDS, COMPOSITION, DE MEDICI (fka Black and Green. De Medici is the name of atube of green paint), DIAGONAL, FIGURE, FIGURE 8, FOLDED DRAWING, FOURSQUARE (Kline exhibited his work in Washington Square art shows. According to DanRice, Kline attempted "to lock" corners of the canvas with his forms.), FOUR STUDIES,

GREEN OBLIQUE (Study for De Medici), GREEN RED AND BROWN, GREYABSTRACTION, GREY SHAPES ON GREEN, HORIZONTAL, HORIZONTALRUST, LANDSCAPE WITH HOUSE, LAVENDER RUST, ORANGE AND BLACKWALL (which was used as the cover for jazz pianist Dave Brubecks LP Countdown :Time in Space on Columbia Records), ORANGE OUTLINE, OVER GREEN,PAINTED NEWSPRINT, PAINTING (1952), PAINTING NO.2, PAINTING NO.7,PURPLE ABSTRACTION, RED CANYON, RED FIELD (fka Black Over Reds), REDLANDSCAPE, RED PAINTING, RICE PAPER ABSTRACT, ROSE GRAY, ROSEPURPLE AND BLACK, SMALL YELLOW SQUARE, STILL LIFE WITH PUPPET,UNTITLED (STILL LIFE WITH FRUIT), WHITE FORMS, YELLOWABSTRACTION, YELLOW AND RUST, YELLOW ORANGE AND PURPLE, ZINC

DOOR, and ZINC YELLOWS AND GREY.

Bibliography

Unknown (1994)Franz Kline; Art and the Structure of Identity, exh. cat., WhitechapelArt Gallery, London, 1994.

Unknown (2010) Franz Kline : Reprised and with a Mind Open to all Kinds of Things,in Fifty Two Pieces, Jan. 19, 2010. http://fiftytwopieces.blogspot.ca/2010/01/franz-kline-reprised-and-with-mind-open.html

Coleman Danto, Arthur (2001) The Madonna of the Future : Essays in a Pluralistic ArtWorld.University of California Press : Berkeley

de Kooning, Elaine (1982) Strokes of Genius : Franz Kline Remembered(TV serieshosted by Dustin Hoffman, directed by Carl Colby, and produced by Courtney Sale). LosAngeles : Cort Productions, Inc.

Finsel, Joel (2012) Swimming Naked at the YMCA. http://www.swimming-naked-at-the-ymca.com/

Gaugh, Harry (1994)Franz Kline, Abeville Press : NewYork.

Gordon, John (1969)Franz Kline 1910-1962. Published for the Whitney Museum ofAmerican Art by F. A. Praeger : New York.

Graham-Dixon, Andrew (1994) ART / The master builder : Franz Kline didn't talk muchabout his work - one reason, perhaps, why others haven't much either. Andrew Graham-Dixon on a forgotten hero The Independent, Tuesday, July 12, 1994.


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http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/art--the-master-builder-franz-kline-didnt-talk-much-about-his-work--one-reason-perhaps-why-others-havent-much-either-andrew-grahamdixon-on-a-forgotten-hero-1413373.html

Greco, John (2013) Social Realism. http://www.true212.com/english/blog/social-

realism/

Horsley, Carter B. (2005) Christie's May 11, 2005 Catalogue, Contemporary ArtChristie's 7PM, May 11, 2005. Sale 1516. http://www.thecityreview.com/f02sco1.html

Hunter, Sam & Jacobus, John (1992).Modern Art. Prentice Hall, Inc. & Harry N.Abrams, Inc. : New York.

Johns, John,Pelham, Brett, Mirenberg, Matthew & Hetts, John (2002). Name LetterPreferences Are Not Merely Mere Exposure: Implicit Egotism as Self-Regulation.Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 38(2), 170-177.

Johnson, Elizabeth (2012) Franz Klines roots in coal and steel at Allentown ArtMuseum. http://www.theartblog.org/2012/12/flanz-kines-roots-in-coal-and-steel-at-allentown-art-museum/

Kuh, Katharine (2000) The Artist's Voice: Talks With Seventeen Modern Artists, Da CapoPress : New York.

Nuttin, Jozef (1985). Narcissism beyond gestalt and awareness : The nameletter effect.European Journal of Social Psychology, 15, 353-361.

OHara, Michael (2007) Origins of Town Names of Northeast PA.http://www.nepanewsletter.com/towns

Pelham, Brett, Carvallo, Mauricio & Jones, John (2005). Implicit egoism. CurrentDirections in Psychological Science, 14(2), 106110.

Pelham, Brett, Mirenberg, Matthew, & Jones, John (2002). Why Susie sells seashells bythe seashore: Implicit egotism and major life decisions.Journal of Personality and SocialPsychology, 82(4), 469-487.

Runkle, Stephen A. (2003)Native American Waterbody and Place Names Within theSusquehanna River Bassin and Surrounding Subbasins, September 2003, SusquehannaRiver Basin Commission

Sandler, Irving (2004).A Sweeper-Up After Artists, London : Thames & Hudson Ltd.

Shok, Holly (2009) Franz Joseph Kline, The Pennsylvania State University.https://secureapps.libraries.psu.edu/PACFTB/bios/biography.cfm?AuthorID=7285


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Nelson, L.D., & Simmons, J.P. (2007). Moniker Maladies: When Names SabotageSuccess.Psychological Science, 18, 1106-1112.

Solt, Stacy (2012) The inspiration behind the exhibit, Times News.http://www.tnonline.com/2012/oct/03/inspiration-behind-exhibit

Waldman, Anne (1976) ????, Los Angeles : Sun & Moon, nos 1 to 5.

A music publishing expert and former professional musician, Martin Gladu also freelances as atranslator, writer, and researcher. His research interests deal mainly with issues relating to

specialist discursive competence and terminology in certain educative and workplacecommunities.

Documents

The Titles of Franz Kline's Works - a Taxonomy