After being at MOMA in New York a few weeks ago I was reminded of how narrowly the argument for modernism has been presented over the years by curators there supported by their own collection and the works that keep appearing over and over again in art history texts like Jansen and Gardiner. Granted the Klines in the Ab Ex show were from MOMA but Kline has never received the attention that Pollack, Rothko, de Kooning, and Newman have received. I think the show went a long way to changing that for me. Especially because I was underwhelmed, I think because of over familiarity, with the late Rothko's and the the Pollacks. There were some early Pollacks that I loved like Stenographic Figures, C1942, but the later drip paintings, at least the ones in that show, that I used to find so muscular, left me cold.
Franz Kline Stopped By... was created as a response to Kline but one using the materials and the approach to image making that I have been practicing in Newfoundland. The following poem is an integral part of the piece and would be on the wall beside it.
Franz Kline stopped
by the studio today
we drank a cup of tea
and listened to Jimi Hendrix
Live at The BBC
what’s with the driftwood
says he,
yiss bye, says I
A little more time in heaven
And you’ll knows why
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