Highlighting a recent gift of fifteen vintage photographs from Marjorie and Leonard Vernon and the Aaron Siskind estate, this exhibition explores Siskind’s photographic contributions to abstraction and their relationship to Abstract Expressionist painting.
Aaron Siskind and Franz Kline: Expression Through Abstraction traces both the aesthetic similarities between the two artists’ practices and the means through which they collaborated and influenced each other’s work. Siskind and Kline became friends in 1948, when introduced to each other by their mutual dealer, Charles Egan. By 1950, they kept nearby studios, helped each other install exhibitions, and advised each other’s practices. Aaron Siskind and Franz Kline presents major works made by each artist for the other, including Kline’s 6-foot by 9-foot abstraction, Siskind (1958), and Siskind’s photographic series Homage to Franz Kline (1973–75). An additional selection of works paired Kline’s Tower (1953) and Buttress (1956), inspired by New York’s postwar urban renewal, with Siskind’s West Street, NY (1950) and Chicago 4C (1948).
Aaron Siskind and Franz Kline: Expression Through Abstraction is organized by Rebecca Morse, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.