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Thick black lines cut down and across a white background in this abstract, vertical painting. Long lines plunge down the composition along the right edge and near the left. A horizontal line connects the two, a little above the center of the canvas, creating an offset H-like form, shifted to our right. A shorter, diagonal line runs from the top edge, near the left leg of the H. It comes down just past the crossbeam of the H and crosses the width to make a second horizontal line. A few pointed, jagged strokes fill in the area between and around the horizontal lines of the H form. The leg near the lower right of the canvas is thicker and serrated along the inside edge. A wide, horizontal band nearly connects the bottom legs at the bottom of the canvas. Black flecks and drips splatter around the white background.

Franz Kline

Four Square, 1956

East Building, Upper Level — Gallery 407-B

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 199 x 128.9 cm (78 3/8 x 50 3/4 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Burton Tremaine

Accession Number

1971.87.12

Artists / Makers

Franz Kline (artist) American, 1910 - 1962

Image Use

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Inscription

upper right reverse: FRANZ KLINE 56

Provenance

Burton G. [1902-1991] and Emily Hall [1908-1987] Tremaine, Madison, Connecticut; gift 1971 to NGA.

Associated Names

Tremaine, Sr., Burton G., Mr. and Mrs.

Exhibition History

1977: Extended loan for use by Ambassador Stoessel, U.S. Embassy residence, Bonn, West Germany, 1977-1981.

1994: Franz Kline: Art and the Structure of Identity, Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Barcelona; Whitechapel Art Gallery, London; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; Saarland Museum, Saarbrücken, 1994-1995, no. 38, repro.

1996: Pintura Estadounidense: Expresionismo Abstracto [Abstract Expressionism and the American Experience], Centro Cultural Arte Contemporaneo, Mexico City, 1996-1997, no. 44, repro.

1997: Founders and Heirs of the New York School, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; The Miyagi Museum of Art, Sendai; The Museum of Modern Art, Ibaraki, 1997, no. 39, repro.

1999: A Rebours: La Rebelión Informalista (The Informal Rebellion) [1939-1968], Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno, Gran Canaria; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, 1999, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

2014: Make it New: Abstract Paintings from the National Gallery of Art, 1950-1975, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, 2014, no. 1, repro.

Bibliography

1980: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 188, repro.

1980: Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1980: 19, 162, repro.

1981: Williams, William James. A Heritage of American Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1981: 246, repro.

1988: Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. Rev. ed. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1988: 190, repro.

1992: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 218, repro.

2022: “Four Square, 1956 (Ref. No. FKNI7IPY).” In Franz Kline Paintings, 1950–1962. Online catalogue raisonné [https://hauserwirthinstitute.org/projects/franz-kline/] (accessed on 3 January 2023).