Franz Kline, The Jazz Murals, Series of 5 Panels

Lot 93

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New York, NY 10128
United States

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Estate Art Collections

By Guernsey's

Nov 12, 2022

Set Reminder 2022-11-12 14:00:00 2022-11-12 14:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : Estate Art Collections https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/guernseys/estate-art-collections-11222 Original works by Picasso, Chagall, Renoir, Utrillo, Calder, Miro, De Kooning, Warhol, Haring, and other important artists, multi-generational estate art collections to be sold at unreserved auction. Guernsey's auctions@guernseys.com

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Lot Description

Franz Kline (1910-1962)
Jazz Murals – Series of 5 Panels
1933
Signed on one panel
Oil on wood
Each: 36 by 36 in / 91,5 x 91,5 cm
Each framed

Provenance:
Private Collection, New York

Exhibited:
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., The History of Jazz, a two-year traveling exhibition sponsored by S.I.T.E.S.
Queens Museum of Art, New York
Baruch College Gallery, New York; Franz Kline: The Lost Murals
MacDonald Art Gallery of College Misericordia, Dallas, Pennsylvania
Bucknell University, Center Gallery, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania
Jazz at Lincoln Center

Literature:
New York Times, November 17, 1989
Franz Kline The Jazz Murals, 68-page catalogue, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1989

Along with Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline is considered one of the key figures of the American Abstract Expressionist movement. Lost for more than half a century, Franz Kline’s Jazz Murals, the artist’s earliest large-scale paintings, were discovered in the late 1980’s. So significant was this discovery that the New York Times cited the previously unknown Jazz Murals in a 1989 Review of Art.

Franz Kline’s bold stroked canvases established his importance as a twentieth century artist. His approach, however, was years in development. With much of the artist’s early work painted in a realistic manner, he did not approach pure abstraction until the late 1940’s. Even then, he continued to work back and forth between black/white and color, realism and abstraction. The discovery of the Jazz Murals, painted in 1933 when Kline was 23, documents the developing gestural statement of a master.

Growing up in Leighton, Pennsylvania, Kline defined himself as a local artist, drawing cartoons for high school newspaper and yearbook. The Jazz Murals represent his first commission, created for a local roller rink. Painted on the wainscoted walls of the band shell within the rink, the five murals depict a band leader, crooner, drummer, tuba player and trombonist. These highly stylized figures are imbued with the same sense of immediacy insisted upon by most of the Action Painters. There is a joyfulness in the work, and freedom, evidence of the artist’s flowing, confident style.

The roller rink survived the 1930’s and 1940’s, becoming the site of automotive trade shows and other special events. The structure was torn down in 1986. Family members of the original rink owners recognized the value of these early, formative works and removed them the day before the demolition.

The Murals were brought to the attention of nearby Center Gallery of Bucknell University where they became the subject of the 1989 traveling exhibition, Franz Kline: The Jazz Murals. A 68-page catalogue was produced for a two-year traveling exhibit of the Jazz Murals produced by the Smithsonian Institution.

This is an online only sale. Items may be viewed upon appointment in New York City.

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