Martin Kline
Martin Kline's paintings are done using encaustic, a process that uses hot pigment-enriched beeswax, which he applies with a brush. Each layer is built upon, often revealing the layers beneath. The transition between each layer creates an overall pattern or rhythm. The wax is suspended in stunning colors—green, blue, purple—and some in natural beeswax. His paintings display Kline’s fascination with the natural world, his shapes evoking flowers or fungi growing from a tree.
Kline’s sculptural work is equally accumulative. A pair of drum tables, cast in bronze, is covered in layers of protruding, organic shapes. Another piece, a vertical bronze sculpture, snakes up from the base like vertebrae on a spine.
Douglas Hyland, Director of the New Britain Museum of Art in New Britain Connecticut where Martin Kline recently had a major mid-career retrospective, writes, “Because his work is lyrically abstract, critics and art historians have commented consistently on the romantic sensibilities Martin’s paintings and sculptures evoke. He blends aspects of the beautiful with the sublime. His vision boasts the remarkable qualities of originality and consistency so that all of his works have a distinctive cohesive quality yet each explores a different theme and is the result of different influences. . . Almost all have an organic quality which tethers them to the tradition of landscape painting. But, instead of a panoramic display, Kline concentrates on a slice of nature magnified and thus examined intensely. His beguiling and seductive creations engage us aesthetically but also intellectually because of the questions they evoke with regards to man’s role with nature.”
Kline's work can be seen in collections all over the world including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Albertina in Vienna.
Shadow Aspect (I), 2012, encaustic on panel, 48x48x3.5" Sold> Inquire Stainless Spiral, 2012, stainless steel (unique cast), 24x24x3"> Inquire Epiphany, 2008, encaustic on panel, 68x48x4"> Inquire White Falls, 2008, encaustic on panel, 24x18x2"> Inquire Big White Dream, 2017, encaustic on linen, 70x110x2.5"> Inquire Knossos, 2014, encaustic on linen, 40x30x2" Sold> Inquire Dreambox, 2011, encaustic on panel, 6.5x6.5x6.5"> Inquire Bloom, 1999, bronze (unique cast), 20x20x2"> Inquire Stainless Diagonal Painting, 2010, stainless steel (unique cast), 10x10x1.5"> Inquire Vase, 2004, bronze (unique cast), 12x13x13"> Inquire Jewel, 2018, encaustic on panel, 40x40x3"> Inquire Three Graces, 2000, encaustic on wood, 15.5x13x9"> Inquire Dream Bat, 2017, stainless steel (unique cast), 32.5x2.5x2.5"> Inquire Tabula Rasa, 2008, encaustic on linen, 32x22x1.5"> Inquire Hard Tack, 2017, encaustic on hammock, nails and rope on panel, 85x42x3.5"> Inquire Small White Collage Box, 2016, bronze (unique cast), 7x6x4.5"> Inquire Ave Maria, 2007, encaustic on panel, 32x32x3"> Inquire Little Leda, 2007, encaustic on panel, 32x32x3"> Inquire Charger, 2004, bronze (unique cast), 3.5x18x18"> Inquire Charger, 2004, bronze (unique cast), 3.5x18x18"> Inquire New White Relief, 2017, encaustic on panel, 24x24x2"> Inquire White Collage Painting, 2015, encaustic on linen, 36x36x3"> Inquire Metier, 2008, encaustic on panel, 46x28x2.5"> Inquire Soft White Painting, 2000, encaustic on panel, 30x10x4.5"> Inquire White Diptych (III), 1996, encaustic on linen, 26x32x1.5"> Inquire Seiche, 2012, encaustic on panel, 48x54x3.375" Sold> Inquire Tiziano, 2014, encaustic on panel, 60x60x3.5" Sold> Inquire Venezia, 2012, encaustic on panel, 42x48x3.5" Sold> Inquire Girondola, 2007, encaustic on panel, 18x18"> Inquire Veronese e Tiziano, 2012, encaustic on panel, 48x54x3.5"> Inquire Little Serenissima, 2015, encaustic on panel, 24x24x3.5"> Inquire Little Tadzio, 2015, encaustic on panel, 12x24x3"> Inquire Dreams of Venice, 2013, encaustic on panel, 48x96x3.5"> Inquire Nocturne in Venezia, 2013, encaustic on panel, 48x42x3.5"> Inquire Turner in Venezia, 2012, encaustic on panel, 42x48x3.375> Inquire The Merry Gondolier, 2012, encaustic on panel, 50x40x5" Sold> Inquire Vanitas, 2012, encaustic on panel, 48x48x2" Sold> Inquire Oracle, 1999, natural beeswax on panel, 40x40x2"> Inquire Totem, 2011, bronze, stone, 36x8x8"> Inquire Drums (Yin, Yang), 2012, cast bronze, 16.5x16.5x16.5"> Inquire Little White to Dark Grey, 2012, encaustic on panel, 16x16x2"> Inquire Pernicious Painting, 2012, encaustic on panel, 24x18x2"> Inquire Orange Sunshine, 2011, encaustic on panel, 24x24x2"> Inquire Love Letter, 2011, encaustic on panel, 16x16x2"> Inquire
Martin Kline
Martin Kline's paintings are done using encaustic, a process that uses hot pigment-enriched beeswax, which he applies with a brush. Each layer is built upon, often revealing the layers beneath. The transition between each layer creates an overall pattern or rhythm. The wax is suspended in stunning colors—green, blue, purple—and some in natural beeswax. His paintings display Kline’s fascination with the natural world, his shapes evoking flowers or fungi growing from a tree.
Kline’s sculptural work is equally accumulative. A pair of drum tables, cast in bronze, is covered in layers of protruding, organic shapes. Another piece, a vertical bronze sculpture, snakes up from the base like vertebrae on a spine.
Douglas Hyland, Director of the New Britain Museum of Art in New Britain Connecticut where Martin Kline recently had a major mid-career retrospective, writes, “Because his work is lyrically abstract, critics and art historians have commented consistently on the romantic sensibilities Martin’s paintings and sculptures evoke. He blends aspects of the beautiful with the sublime. His vision boasts the remarkable qualities of originality and consistency so that all of his works have a distinctive cohesive quality yet each explores a different theme and is the result of different influences. . . Almost all have an organic quality which tethers them to the tradition of landscape painting. But, instead of a panoramic display, Kline concentrates on a slice of nature magnified and thus examined intensely. His beguiling and seductive creations engage us aesthetically but also intellectually because of the questions they evoke with regards to man’s role with nature.”
Kline's work can be seen in collections all over the world including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Albertina in Vienna.