Franz Kline

Although Kline's paintings look as if they were executed in a spontaneous burst of activity, they were often painstakingly pre-planned through preliminary studies. Additionally, as in the case of Accent Grave, close inspection reveals passages of reworked areas - white over black and vice-versa - indicating that the final composition was carefully orchestrated. The painting's title derives from the downward sloping black shape in its upper region, which suggests an accent grave in French phonetics.