May 14, 1962 - Franz Kline, of 242 West 14th Street, a leader in the abstract expressionist school of painting in New York and of the branch called action painting, died of a heart ailment Sunday in New York Hospital. He would have been 52 years old on May 23. Mr. Kline’s illness prevented him from attending the White House dinner on Friday for the French Minister of Culture, André Malraux. Mr. Kline was one of three American painters invited; the others were Andrew Wyeth and Mark Rothko. His first canvases were realistic, but he soon turned to developing an abstract style unmistakably his own. His huge canvases, usually in black against white, were composed of great lunging streaks and masses of paint, frequently bearing titles indicating their relationship to the energy and excitement of contemporary life.
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