Untitled

Dark, angular shapes spread across a pale tan surface, each one built from loose, sweeping strokes of ink that seem to swing and cut across the page. The forms have no clear outline or edge, giving the impression of quick, forceful motion rather than careful drawing. This untitled piece was made in 1950 using brush and black ink on wove paper, and it belongs to the National Gallery of Art, where it came as a gift from Elisabeth Ross Zogbaum. Franz Kline (1910–1962), an American artist, worked within abstract expressionism and action painting, approaches that favored direct, physical gesture over fixed subject matter. Looking closely, the thick black strokes vary in weight and pressure, some solid and dense, others thinning out where the brush lifted from the paper.