Corinthian II

Broad black brushstrokes cut across a bare white surface, crossing and overlapping to form sharp, angular shapes that feel caught in motion. The marks seem to lean against each other, building a structure out of raw gesture rather than recognizable imagery. This piece, titled Corinthian II, was painted in 1961 in oil and is held at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Franz Kline (1910–1962), an American artist, worked within abstract expressionism and action painting, approaches that emphasized the physical act of applying paint. Worth noticing is how the black forms seem to push and pull against the white ground, creating a sense of weight and tension even though the composition contains no recognizable objects, only the stark contrast of dark gesture against an open field of white.