What is Art?

Franz Kline (1910-1962), an American painter and key figure in the Abstract Expressionist movement, had a wonderful way of answering that question. For him, it was all about giving.

Here is the quotation:

“You paint the way you have to in order to give. That’s life itself, and someone will look and say it is the product of knowing, but it has nothing to do with knowing, it has to do with giving.”

I like these words. There are days when the world seems to be one horror after another. Pain and suffering fill the pages of The New York Times. On those days, I feel I understand very little. I wonder whether I might not be doing something more useful than painting. Kline's words reassure. He puts the firmness back into my step as I walk to the studio, and the smile that I call my "painting glow" back on my face It can't hurt the world to be involved in giving. Who knows, if Kline is right, painting may somehow even help.

Kline is best known for his very large black and white paintings. Here is one.