Over his prolific artistic career, Martin Kline has become renowned for his masterful use of encaustic (hot wax enriched with pig-ments.) Historically, the ancient application of the material dates back almost two thousand years to the Greco Roman era. It was used intermittently in Egypt and then during the Byzantine epoch it became a way to portray warmth and ethereal qualities in the depiction of icons. Later resurgences occurred in the Philippines in the 1600s, but encaustic was relatively dormant until it regained popularity in the early 20thcentury among artists such as Diego Rivera and Wassily Kandinsky, followed by Jasper Johns, among others.
In the 1990s Kline adopted encaustic into his artistic practice and took the technically difficult-to-master material to another level. His proficient gestures, drips, and
splashes eventually became more and more textured, enhancing the surfaces by taking an additive approach. Kline painstakingly applies the melted material with the use of a paintbrush, allowing it to cool and harden before adding another layer. These repeated gestures make for sculptural works that take on the appearance of blossoms, blooms, feathers, etc., with center focal points that draw the eye in and then out to the rest of the composition.
Luminous colors perform a dance with the shadows resulting from the texture, making for a unique and enriching viewing experience. The prowess of Kline's signature style of painting with encaustic can be taken a step further when he chooses to cast the works in bronze or stainless steel, creating actual singular sculptures out of them. Kline's mastery graces many esteemed collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Morgan Library, and the Whitney Museum in New York, among others. Kline's new paintings and sculpture are currently being exhibited at Heather Gaudio Fine Art in Greenwich, Connecticut.
Heather Gaudio Fine Art
382 Greenwich Ave, Greenwich, CT
www.heathergaudiofineart.com
