|This biography from the Archives of AskART:| |Born in Wilkes-
Barre, Pennsylvania, Franz Kline became one of the most
prominent 20th-century American artists working in abstract and
non objective styles. His name is most associated with large-
scale black and white paintings, and these linear abstractions
brought him his first notable public attention in 1950 when they
were shown in New York City. Of these paintings with no
coloration, Kline said: "People sometimes think I take a white
canvas and paint a black sign on it, but this is not true. I
paint the white as well as the black, and the white is just as
important." (Herskovic 186)| Franz Kline began his career as a
figure and landscape painter, and studied in the Art Department
of Boston University from 1931 to 1935 and Heatherley School of
Art in London from 1937 to 1938. He then settled in Greenwich
Village of New York where he painted in realist style the local
scenery including street scenes and Bohemian night clubs. Some
of these in 1940 included Blee