Four Square

1956

Franz Kline

Artist, American, 1910 - 1962

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.
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On View

NGA, East Building, EU-407-B, E

Artwork overview

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

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

Associated Names

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.

  • 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).

Inscriptions

upper right reverse: FRANZ KLINE 56

Wikidata ID

Q20194870

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