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Black, White, and Gray

Franz Kline American
1959
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 919
Composed of broad, sweeping, and luscious strokes, Black, White, and Gray suggests unrestrained artistic spontaneity. Yet Kline’s process was quite methodical. He typically began with a sketch, which he projected onto a wall, transforming simple lines into magnified abstract forms, and then replicated in paint. Here, the vertical orientation of the canvas is locked in dynamic tension with numerous horizontals. Kline’s gestural black-and-white paintings elicited comparisons to calligraphy. He knew that art form through multiple sources, including the Japanese avant-garde journal Bokubi (Beauty of Ink), but he was quick to distinguish his painting style, asserting in 1958, "I paint the white as well as the black, and the white is just as important."

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Black, White, and Gray
  • Artist: Franz Kline (American, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania 1910–1962 New York)
  • Date: 1959
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: 8 ft. 9 1/2 in. × 78 in. × 1 1/2 in. (268 × 198.1 × 3.8 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: George A. Hearn Fund, 1959
  • Object Number: 59.165
  • Rights and Reproduction: © 2025 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
  • Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

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