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Fred R. Kline
Fred R. Kline is a Generalist art historian, art dealer, artist, writer and poet. Over the last thirty years, his numerous and diverse discoveries of “lost art” have been featured in the New York Times, Art & Antiques, and in other publications, and many of them have been acquired by notable museum, corporate, and private collections—the Getty Museum, the Morgan Library, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Clark Art Institute, and the Thaw Collection among them. Some of his notable discoveries—both established as well as decisively attributed—would include: Italian Renaissance Drawings by Leonardo da Vinci and Baldarsare Peruzzi; Old Master & 19th c. Drawings by El Greco, Annibale Carracci, Sir Peter Lely, Joseph Anton Koch, Honore Daumier, Vincent Van Gogh; Old Master and 19th c. paintings by Jan Brueghel the Elder (2), Frans Snyders, Pier Francesco Mola, Gottlieb Schick, Sir Edwin Landseer; ten paintings by the American 19th c. master George Caleb Bingham; two extremely rare 16th century Indochristian sculptures that closely followed the Conquest of Mexico; a folio of Henri Gautier-Breska’s drawings, photographs, and manuscripts; and not least Wild Bill Hickok’s only known poem which was published in the New York Times. A feature article on Kline’s art discoveries was published in the New York Times in 2002.
During the 1970s while a writer on the Editorial Staff of National Geographic, he published articles in the magazine and in books, and survived several Arctic adventures in Alaska and Baffin Island upon which a novel-in-progress is based. His public sculpture “Temple of the Hills” in Santa Fe, a human scale Stonehenge, was chosen for national recognition in 1995 by Art in America and the Smithsonian Outdoor Sculpture Survey. At the invitation of Poet Laureate Josephine Jacobsen, he recorded a selection of his American-haiku (Birthsongs) at the Library of Congress and was the first poet to record haiku and to add musical accompaniment to his reading; his two other books of poems—I, Dodo and Crazy Love—received critical praise from Conrad Aiken, Peter Matthiessen, Jerzy Kosinski, and many others. He lives near Santa Fe, New Mexico in the Pecos River Valley at 7th Heaven Ranch, a nature preserve amidst pines and rocky bluffs at 7,500 feet, with his wife and colleague Jann Kline and their dogs, with occasional visits from children and grandchildren.
ART EXPLORER--A SEARCH FOR LOST ART IN AMERICA: A MEMOIR OF DISCOVERY is currently in progress.
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Academic Studies, Teaching, Academia
Studies
B.A. 1967(English) & M.A. 1968 (Creative Writing), San Francisco State University.
Courses of study (1957-69) in Philosophy & Humanities: San Antonio College, University of Texas/ Austin, Trinity University/San Antonio, University of the Americas/Mexico City, University of California/Berkeley.
Teaching & Academia
Public School: Bryant Middle School, Dos Palos, CA, 8th Grade English teacher, 1968-69.
College & University: Columbus College of Art & Design, Columbus, OH, English and Creative Writing Instructor, 1969-72
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY:, Special Assistant to President Frank Rhodes/Associate Director of University Relations/English Instructor/ Contributing Writer Cornell Alumni Magazine, 1979-80.
Board of Advisors, College of Santa Fe (2002-2006)
Some Publications & Works in Progress
Four books of poems—49 Poems (Austin, 1964), I, Dodo(San Francisco, 1968), Crazy Love(Columbus, 1970), Birthsongs (Washington, 1972). Notable recognition from Conrad Aiken, Norman O. Brown, Peter Matthiessen, Josephine Jacobson, and others.
National Geographic Magazine, Editorial Staff Writer, Washington, DC, 1972-77. Published National Geographic Magazine articles include “Library of Congress” (1975), “Baltimore”(1975), “San Antonio”(1976). Traveled arctic regions of Alaska and Baffin Island on assignments. Co-authored book, Alaska, High Roads to Adventure ( 1976, National Geographic Books). Explored areas of Baffin Island including: Auyuittuq National Park, the northernmost National Park in North America; Penny Icecap; Cumberland Sound; mounted 1976 Pagnirtung Pass Expedition from Broughton Island to Pangnirtung (published account “Trek Across Pangnirtung Pass”, 1977, Washington Post Sunday Magazine).
In Progress, 2010: “Art Explorer: A Search for Lost Art in America-A Memoir of Discovery".
“Collecting Artists of Texas—A Surprising State of the Arts” by Fred R. Kline (first published in ANTIQUES WEST, 1993), a widely reprinted and influential essay,
Some of Kline’s art discoveries were described in his essay: “You Never Know: An Ongoing Search for Lost Art in America” (ART & ANTIQUES, Feb.1989). In July 1989, an article in ESQUIRE magazine featured Kline’s art investment activities. An April 2, 2002 NEW YORK TIMES feature “An Art Explorer Finds the Real Creators of Works” further documented some of Kline’s art discoveries.
Art Awards
Poems: Recorded selection of poems at Library of Congress in 1975 at the invitation of U. S. Poet Laureate Josephine Jacobson.
Sculpture: Public sculpture site Temple of the Hills (Santa Fe, NM) chosen for special recognition and publication in annual selection of United States public sculpture in 1995 ART IN AMERICA ANNUAL.
Sculpture: Temple of the Hills chosen for inclusion in the Smithsonian United States Outdoor Sculpture Survey, 1997.
Art History
Fred R. Kline Gallery (then Private Dealers), from 1982 were among the earliest dealers specializing in historic Texas paintings. ( Ron Hall Gallery, Fort Worth and Valley House, Dallas were notable among the first dealers.)
Consultants in Historic Texas Paintings (Fred & Jann Kline) by invitation of the Curator of the Texas State Capitol, Austin, mid-1980s. Organized and co-curated several notable loan exhibitions of 19th & early 20th century Texas paintings at the Capitol.
Director & Editor, George Caleb Bingham Catalogue Raisonne Supplement of Paintings and Drawings, ongoing from 2006, see www.GeorgeCalebBingham.org
Director & Editor, Thomas Nast Catalogue Raisonne of Paintings, from 2010
Early Geography & Miltary Service
Born 1939 in Hagerstown, Maryland, early childhood during WWII in Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. Former hometown: San Antonio, Texas, 1947-64; Thomas Jefferson High School (class of ’57). United States Marine Corps (active duty 1960-62, Southeast Asia).
Family
Fred & Jann Kline have five children, seven grandchildren.
7 Avenida Vista Grande, Suite B-7 Santa Fe, NM 87508 505.988.1103
Text and images © 2010 Fred R. Kline Gallery