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Past Exhibitions
Kline and Rothko: Six Works from the Lang Collection
- April 9, 2021–August 8, 2021
This installation celebrates the recent gift to the Yale University Art Gallery from the Friday Foundation honoring the legacy of the late Seattle collectors Jane Lang Davis and Richard E. Lang. Exemplifying the Lang collection’s strength in mid-20th-century art of the United States, the foundation’s impactful gift comprises six exceptional works on canvas and paper by the American artists Franz Kline (1910–1962) and Mark Rothko (1903–1970). The gift includes some of the earliest examples of each artist’s mature style that bear subtle references to earlier, representational work, providing a nuanced view of Kline’s and Rothko’s gradual and iterative moves toward new practices. Kline and Rothko: Six Works from the Lang Collection showcases the Langs’ approach to collecting and their particular affinity for Abstract Expressionism, while bringing attention to the stylistic range of two influential contemporaries, who were among those most admired by the collectors.