Circus Rider (Bleecker Street Tavern Mural)

1940

Franz Kline

Associated Names
Franz Kline

Artist, American, 1910 - 1962

This square painting is loosely painted in broad strokes of brown, ocher yellow, olive green, black, and red. Several overlapping forms fill the composition, but their shapes and relationships are ambiguous.
A large brown animal-like form stretches across the lower half of the painting. Its head, near the lower left, has long pointed ears or horn-like projections and an elongated muzzle. Behind it, pale, dark, and golden shapes overlap and merge, suggesting additional animals or parts of a circus scene, though many details are difficult to distinguish. Curving black lines and patches of white, yellow, and green further interrupt these forms. 
In the upper right, two people appear among the swirling shapes. One wears dark clothing and a dark hat, with one arm bent behind his head and the other extended diagonally downward. Nearby, another person in a pale yellow top and greenish clothing leans backward or reclines, though the position of the body is unclear. Across the background, sweeping areas of green, brown, and yellow are crossed by thin red and black lines. A small, curved red shape resembling a circus performer hangs near the upper left.
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Artwork overview


Artwork history & notes

Exhibition History

1961

  • Franz Kline: Bar Room Paintings: 1940, The Collector's Gallery, New York, 1961, no. 7, as Horseback Riders.

Bibliography

2005

  • Joselow, Evie T. "The Early Work of Franz Kline: The Bleeker Street Tavern Murals, 1940." PART 9 (Spring/Summer 2004; on-line Journal of the Graduate Center, CUNY, Ph.D. Program in Art History).

Inscriptions

lower left: KLINE '40; across top reverse, the artist's initials in monograph within a circle: BAR ROOM PAINTING / 1940 / FK

Wikidata ID

Q46635313

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