Untitled

Dark angular strokes cross and overlap against a pale, cream-toned sheet, forming a loose web of black marks that seem to pull in several directions at once. There is no single shape to settle on; instead the eye follows the crossing lines as they thicken, thin, and break off. This untitled piece was made in 1940 using brush and black ink on wove paper, and it is held at the National Gallery of Art, having come to the museum as a gift from Elisabeth R. Zogbaum. Franz Kline (1910–1962), an American artist, became associated with abstract expressionism and with action painting, approaches that favored direct, physical gesture over careful description. One detail worth noticing is how the ink varies in density along a single stroke, growing darker and heavier where the brush pressed down, then fading toward a dry, scratchy edge.