American Modernism
1910–1960Georgia O'Keeffe's flowers and desert, Franz Kline's black and white. American vision finding its own forms.
Oil on canvas. O'Keeffe's smooth gradations. Kline's house-painter brushes on white canvas.
Georgia O'Keeffe
1887–1986American
Flowers as cosmic forms, desert bones as sculpture. Saw the vast in the intimate and the intimate in the vast.
Smooth, precise gradations of color. No visible brushwork. Clean edges. Desert palette of whites, pinks, blues against warm earth.
Further reading: O'Keeffe (Taschen Basic Art Series) — Britta BenkePigments: Zinc white · Titanium white · Cadmium red · Ochre · Lead white · Cobalt blue · Cerulean blue · Umber · Alizarin crimson · Cadmium yellow · Sienna
Franz Kline
1910–1962American
Painter of black and white — massive calligraphic strokes on white ground. Structural, architectural, absolute.
House-painter brushes, 4-6 inches wide. Commercial black and white enamel. Painted the white as actively as the black.
Further reading: Franz Kline — Harry F. GaughPigments: Cadmium yellow
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