(Attributed to) Franz Kline (1910-1962), Untitled, n.d., oil on canvas, H. 58 x W. 68 inches, James A. Michener Art Museum. Gift of Mari and James A. Michener.

When I first arrived at the Michener in 1989, the museum’s collection was virtually non-existent. The collection held fewer than 50 objects and most were not high quality. The only paintings of note were a small group of Abstract Expressionist canvases which Jim Michener had left in his Bucks County home. In the 1960s, Jim Michener had built an excellent collection of American paintings, the bulk of which had been given to the University of Texas at Austin. Among the works that had been left in Jim’s Pipersville home were paintings by Karl Knaths, Grace Hartigan, Kyle Morris, Helen Frankenthaler and the prized object, a large (58 x 68) untitled canvas by Franz Kline. Kline, who died in 1961 at the age of 51, was a giant of the New York School who, along with Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, came to symbolize the power and vitality of postwar American Abstract Expressionism. Read More »