Art. The Vital Gesture: Franz Kline in Retrospect.

This article focuses on the two moments in the career of painter Franz Kline that enables one to make the distinction between instrumental and personal artistic discoveries more vivid. The first was when he became an abstractionist; the second was when he became Franz Kline. There is some controversy as to whether Kline went abstract all at once or whether abstraction came gradually into his work, and the fact that this cannot be settled suggests it was the kind of decision one makes in joining a party or getting involved with someone or entering a profession.