Apache Dancer (Bleecker Street Tavern Mural)

1940

Franz Kline

Associated Names
Franz Kline

Artist, American, 1910 - 1962

This is a painting of an indoor scene involving dynamic movement. The central focus is on the interaction between two people in dynamic poses and making sweeping gestures. The person on the left appears to be a woman with pale skin and red hair, wearing a short-sleeved shirt and a skirt, and the person on the right appears to be a man with tan skin, a dark beard, a black hat, black pants, and a black jacket over a red-and-white shirt. Other people in the background seem to be engaged in conversation or observing the main action. The architecture in the background includes an arched ceiling and a stairway, in shades of pale blue, yellow, rusty red, and dark green. The brushwork is expressive, using bold colors and thick, swirling brushstrokes.
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Artwork overview

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Commissioned 1940 by the owner of the Bleeker Street Tavern, New York;[1] removed from the tavern by 1961;[2] (The Contemporaries, New York); purchased by Ian Woodner [1903-1990], New York; by inheritance to his daughter, Dian Woodner, New York; gift 2014 to NGA.
[1] The painting was one of ten painted by the artist for the walls of the tavern. Four are in the NGA collection: 2014.145.1-4.
[2] The painting was shown with seven of the eight surviving murals at The Collector's Gallery in New York in February 1961.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1961

  • Franz Kline: Bar Room Paintings: 1940, The Collector's Gallery, New York, 1961, no. 1.

Bibliography

2005

  • Joselow, Evie T. "The Early Work of Franz Kline: The Bleeker Street Tavern Murals, 1940." PART 9 (Spring/Summer 2004; on-line Journal of the Graduate Center, CUNY, Ph.D. Program in Art History).

Inscriptions

lower left: KLINE '40; lower right: SWISE; across top reverse, the artist's initials in monograph within a circle: BAR ROOM PAINTING / 1940 / FK

Wikidata ID

Q46635257

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