Franz Kline (1910-1962), American painter, was one of the foremost abstract expressionists. His best-known works are large calligraphic paintings.

Franz Kline was born to an immigrant family living in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Following high school, Kline studied art at Boston University from 1931 to 1935, then spent a year at an art school in London. Upon his return to the United States, he worked for a brief period as a designer for a department store in Buffalo, N.Y. Then he moved to New York City, where in 1939 his work was "discovered" at an outdoor exhibition in Washington Square. He worked in 1940 for a scenic designer.

Kline developed into a significant artist during the 1940s. This growth was partially determined by his move from subject-oriented to nonrepresentational canvases. Sheridan Square (1940) suggests Kline's affinity with the treatment of cityscape found in works by painters in the group known as "The Eight" (sometimes...