Brian Cummings | Kline: re/Touch
“Turin”
The sweeping gestural brushstrokes and dramatic black and white contrasts seen in Turin characterize Franz Kline’s mature work. His goal was to create a dynamic equilibrium through asymmetry and the interaction of black and white. Close looking reveals that upon a white ground, black and white paint have been applied to the surface with equal importance. Kline used commercial house paints and brushes as large as five inches wide to create these emphatic gestures.
Intro and Process
This project reimagines Franz Kline’s Turin as a fully tactile object designed not just to be viewed, but to be felt. Kline’s original work, known for its sweeping black gestures and stark contrasts, has been transformed into a sculptural form that invites non-visual exploration, allowing blind and visually impaired visitors to experience the emotional weight and physical energy of Abstract Expressionism through touch.
By extracting the essence of Kline’s painted strokes and reconstructing them in three-dimensional space, this adaptation seeks to preserve the immediacy of the artist’s hand while introducing a new layer of materiality. Surface textures, ranging from smooth ridges to coarse edges, capture the velocity and tension of the brushwork, while changes in elevation guide the hand across Kline’s sharp visual language.
Turin | re/Touch
Created in collaboration with Haptics Co. 9 and accessibility advisors, the tactile Turin is part of an ongoing initiative to expand inclusive, multisensory engagement within the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. The object was developed using a hybrid process of digital interpretation, hand sculpting, and material experimentation. It stands not as a replica, but as a re-translation, an interpretation that honors Kline’s urgency while opening his work to new sensory dimensions.
Housed within the museum’s Blind Touch Tours collection, the piece also serves as a model for what accessible modernism can look and feel like. It challenges the assumption that paintings are inherently untouchable, and instead positions touch as a valid, even vital, form of aesthetic experience. For many visitors, Turin (Tactile Translation) is not simply an accommodation, it is the primary gateway into Kline’s world of expressive intensity and raw form.
Meet Brian
Brian Cummings
Product Design
Brian Cummings was born in Shawnee, Kansas. He is currently a junior at the Kansas City Art Institute, majoring in Product Design. He is a Creative Designer specializing in experimenting, with a passion for rapid prototyping and hands-on exploration. I thrive in fast-paced environments where quick iteration and ideation drive breakthroughs. My strength lies in turning abstract concepts into tactile, intuitive experiences.
re/Touch: The Feel of Art
A partnership with the Kansas City Art Institute and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
“Brian has a gift to evoke narratives into concepts. And he balances this exploration with an even deeper need to think through making.”
Keith Kirkland
CEO, The Haptic 9 Co.