Painting Number 2

Broad, slashing bars of black sweep and cross over a white ground with the force and immediacy of a single huge gesture, like monumental brushed calligraphy. Franz Kline stripped his Abstract Expressionism down to stark black and white, enlarging small ink sketches into bold architectural strokes charged with raw energy. Now in the Museum of Modern Art, Painting Number 2 exemplifies his powerful signature style - no color, no image, only the dramatic collision of black and white, the speed and weight of the painter's arm made permanent, abstraction reduced to pure, muscular gesture.