Ravenna

Broad black bands cross a pale, cream-toned surface, their edges rough and angular where the brush dragged quickly against the canvas. The forms seem to lock together like beams or girders, while faint traces of green surface in the gaps between the dark strokes, giving the composition an unexpected warmth. This painting, titled Ravenna, was made in 1961 using oil, and it is held at the Yale University Art Gallery. The artist, Franz Kline (1910–1962), was an American painter associated with abstract expressionism and action painting. One detail worth noticing is how the black shapes press right against the frame's edges, making the cream ground feel compressed and charged rather than empty, so that the eye keeps tracing the sharp turns of each stroke across the surface.