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Home , Franz Stuck, Harmony, Paul Klee

Paul Klee Articles by Alfred H. Barr, Jr., James Johnson, Sweeney, Julia and

Author Museum of Modern (New York, N.Y.)

Date 1941

Publisher The Museum of

Exhibition URL www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/2816

The 's exhibition history— from our founding in 1929 to the present—is available online. It includes exhibition catalogues, primary documents, installation views, and an index of participating artists.

MoMA © 2017 The Museum of Modern Art MoMA 135 c.2 ARCHIVE

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tf ARTICLES BY / ALFREDH. BARR, JR., JAMES JOHNSON SWEENEY JULIA AND LYONEL FEININGER

THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, NEW YORK O/IAA I 3?

TRUSTEES OF THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART

Stephen C. Clark, Chairman of the Board; Wallace K. MacLeish, William S. Paley, Mrs. John Parkinson, Jr., Harrison, 1st Vice-Chairman ; Samuel A. Lewisohn, 2nd Mrs. Charles S. Payson, Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., Vice-Chairman; John Hay Whitney, President; Alfred Beardsley Ruml, Carleton Sprague Smith, Edward H. Barr, Jr., Vice-President and Director; John E. M. M. Warburg. Abhott, Executive Vice-President; Mrs. John S. Shep- pard, Treasurer; Mrs. Robert Woods Bliss, Mrs. W. Murray Crane, Marshall Field, Edsel B. Ford, Philip L. HONORARY TRUSTEES: Frederic Clay Bartlett, Goodwin, A. Conger Goodyear, Mrs. Simon Guggen Frank Crowninshield, Duncan Phillips, Mrs. Rainey heim, Mrs. David M. Levy, Henry R. Luce, Archibald Rogers, Paul J. Sachs.

Seven thousand copies of this book have been printed for the Trustees of the Museum of Modern Art by the Plantin Press, New York, in January, 1941.

Copyright 1941, The Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53 Street, New York City. ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This traveling exhibition bas been selected in part from the Klee memorial exhibition held jointly at the Buchholz Gallery and the Willard Gallery in New York in October 1940. The Mu seum is indebted to Mr. Curt Valentin for his help in assembling the exhibition and for the use of the cuts which appear on pages 8 and 12. The Museum also extends special thanks to Mr. J. B. Neumann and to Mr. Karl Nierendorf whose collections have been heavily drawn upon for important additions to the exhibition. Mr. Neumann assisted the Museum in its Exhibition in 1930.

In addition, the Museum wishes to thank the following who have generously lent to the exhi bition: Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., New York; Lyonel Feininger, New York; Philip Goodwin, New York; Miss Jane Greenough, Coeur d'Alene, Paul Klee 1926 Idaho; , New York; George L. K. Morris, New York; Karl Nathan, New York; John S. Newberry, Grosse Pointe; Perry Rath- bone, St. Louis; Bernard J. Reis, New York; \ Miss Helen Resor, New York; Allan Roos, New York; Mme. , Hollywood; CONTENTS Herman Shulman, New York; Dr. W. R. Valentiner, Detroit; Mrs. Benjamin Watson, Acknowledgment 3 New York; Buchholz Gallery, New York; J. B. Introduction by Alfred H. Barr, Jr.* 4 Neumann, New York; Nierendorf Gallery, New Paul Klee by James Johnson Sweeney** 6 York; Miss Marian Willard, Albright Art Gal Recollections of Paul Klee lery, Buffalo; Germanic Museum, Harvard by Julia and Lyonel Feininger** 7 University; Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford. Catalog 9 This book has been prepared by the Department Chronology 11 of Circulating Exhibitions to accompany the Bibliography 12 memorial travelling exhibition which is to be Plates 13 shown in: The line cut on the cover is adapted from Klee's Letter Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Ghost, No. 61 in the present exhibition. Mass.; The Club of Chicago, Chicago, 111.; The Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon; *Reprinted with revisions from the catalog of the Museum of Modern Art's Klee exhibition held in 1930. The San Francisco Museum of Art, San Fran **Reprinted from the catalog of the Paul Klee exhi cisco, Calif.; Art Museum of St. bition held at the Buchholz Gallery and the Willard Gallery in October, 1940 by courtesy of Curt V alentin. Louis, St/ Louis, Mo. g q expressive (as opposed to the descriptive) pos INTRODUCTION sibilities of color and to the charm of the Alfred H. Barr, Jr. apparently artless and naive. In he became acquainted with three His father a Bavarian, liis mother Southern other young painters, Kandinsky, a Russian French, Paul Klee was born, with geographical who had also studied under Stuck, , appropriateness, in near the town and , the last two, both of them of Berne, in the year 1879. His childhood was men of great promise, lost to during passed in an atmosphere of for his father the First World War. The four formed the was a professional musician and conductor of nucleus of the famous group the orchestra in which his son at an early age which raised the banner of revolt in staid played the violin. His mother, too, came of a academic Munich, won a considerable success musical family so that for a time he expected to in Berlin and made the word become a musician. However, after much de known throughout the world. Marc painted bate, he was sent in 1898 to Munich to study compositions of animals, using brilliant, pure , at first at the Knitt school, and then color, a line of great and a Cubistic tech with at the Academy. Stuck was nique. Kandinsky's abstract Improvisations an academic painter of bizarre and macabre were among the first to disregard entirely all subjects, at times coarsely banal, hut with con vestiges of representation. But Klee, while he siderable imaginative power. In 1901 Klee made experimented with abstract design, continued the orthodox journey to Italy, but quite un- his researches in the realm of fantasy. orthodoxly he preferred early Christian art to In 1912 Klee visited Paris, where he stayed that of the quattrocento, Baroque to High for over a year. , Picasso, , and the Naples aquarium Delaunay, became his friends. A journey to to the classical antiquities of the Naples Mu Tunis (Kairuan) in 1914 seems to have been seum. equally important in the discovery of himself. For the next few years Klee lived with his Shortly after the War, the town of parents, producing very slowly a remarkable asked the architect to reor series of etchings, among them Perseus (No. lb) ganize the . The , as the new which he exhibited in Switzerland and Munich. school was called, was primarily a technical Though he visited Paris he did not at first school devoted to the study of materials and become aware of the post -Impressionist and design in , furniture, typography, Fauve revolutions. He found himself more con and other modern industrial arts. As a "spiritual cerned with drawing and than with " to these technological and utili painting. Goya's fantastic Caprichos interested tarian activities Gropius invited three painters him as did the other-worldly engravings of to live at the Bauhaus and give instruction in Blake and Fuseli. Of more recent draughtsmen drawing and painting. They were the Russian he found Kubin's weird humor, the bizarre Kandinsky, the American Feininger, and the pathos of , and Redon's visionary Swiss Klee, three of the most gifted as well as lithographs most to his . He read the tales most adventurous artists at work in Germany. of Hoffmann and of Poe, the prose and of Klee remained as professor at the Bauhaus from Baudelaire. His admirations both in graphic art 1920 to 1928. In 1926 the Bauhaus moved to and literature were clearly fantastic. and in the same year Feininger, Jav- He moved to Munich in 1906. In the next lensky, Kandinsky, and Klee, formed the Blue four years he came to know through exhibitions Four which exhibited throughout Germany and van Gogh, then Cezanne, and finally Matisse, America. Klee also sent to the Societe who opened the eyes of the young artist to the Anonyme exhibitions in New York and Brooklyn. 4 Klee was "claimed" by the Surrealist group Their appeal is primarily to the sentiment, in Paris but refused to become in any formal to the subjective imagination. They have been sense a member of the movement. His work is, compared, for this reason, to the of however, perhaps the finest realization of the young children at an age when they draw spon Surrealist ideal of an art which appears to be taneously from intuitive impulses rather than purely of the imagination, untrammelled by rea from observation. They have been compared to son or the outer world of empirical experience. the fantastic and often truly marvelous draw About 1929 Klee left the Bauhaus and accept ings of the insane who live in a world of the ed a professorship in the Diisseldorf Academy mind far removed from circumstantial . where he taught for three years. In the spring Klee's work sometimes suggests the painting of 1933 came the Nazi revolution which forced and ornament of primitive peoples such as: all art in Germany to conform to the timid and palaeolithic bone carvings, Eskimo drawings vulgar prejudices of Adolf Hitler. Klee left Ger and Bushman paintings, the pictographs of the many in and returned to Berne. In American Indian. Drawings made subcon Switzerland he died seven years later, honored sciously or absentmindedly or while under hyp throughout the world wherever the human nosis occasionally suggest Klee's devices. In spirit still retained its freedom. fact, Klee has himself at times made "auto matic" drawings with some success. The child, Klee, when one talked with him seemed the the primitive man, the lunatic, the subcon opposite of eccentric, in spite of his amazing art. scious mind, all these artistic sources (so When I visited him at Dessau in 1927 he was recently appreciated by civilized taste) offer living in a house designed by Gropius as a valuable analogies to Klee's method. machine a habiter near the factory -like Bauhaus But there are in Klee's work qualities other building. He was a smallish man with pene than the naive, the artless, and the spontaneous. trating eyes, simple in speech and gently Frequently the caricaturist which he might humorous. While one looked over his drawings have been emerges in drawings which smile in his studio one could hear his wife playing a slyly at human pretentiousness. Often he se-' Mozart sonata in the room below. Only in one duces the interest by the sheer intricacy and corner were there significant curiosities, a table ingenuity of his inventions. At times he charms littered with shells, a skate's egg, bits of dried by his gaiety or makes the flesh creep by creat moss, a pine cone, a piece of coral, fragments of ing a spectre fresh from a nightmare. textiles, a couple of drawings by the children of Of course he has been accused of being a his neighbor, Feininger. These served to break "literary" painter. For the person who still the logical severity of the Gropius interior and insists upon regarding painting as decorative, Bauhaus furniture —and perhaps also served as or surface texture, or pure, formal composition catalytics to Klee's creative activity. the accusation is just. But Klee defies the purist and insists as do Chirico and Picasso upon the Much has been written in German and French right of the painter to excite the imagination about Klee's art. Indeed few living painters and to consider dreams as well as ma have been the object of so much speculation. terial for their art. For a work by Klee is scarcely subject to meth Klee is a master of line which seems negligent ods of criticism which follow ordinary formulae. hut is unusually expressive. Couple in the Twi His pictures cannot be judged as representa light and The Holy One (No. 13) are suggested tions of the ordinary visual world. Usually, too, by the most sensitive calligraphy. The Shep they cannot be judged merely as formal com herd (No. 41) presents no earthly beings but positions, though some of them are entirely creatures of the mind drawn with the finality of acceptable to the esthetic purist. hieroglyphics. Equally interesting to the Klee 5 enthusiast are such humorous graphic con trivances as the Apparatus for Magnetic Treat PAUL KLEE ment of Plants (No. 16), Metamorphosis, and James Johnson Sweeney The (No. 19). Klee's abstract designs have little to do with In an age that blasted privacy Paul Klee built a for they, too, are improvisations rather small but exquisite shrine to intimacy. than abstractions of things seen. Evening Archi Klee did not belong to the tradition of the tecture is a subtle of squares and great decorators. Though he derived from the triangles of color; Classical Coast, a mosaic-like German Expressionist school that stemmed out composition of horizontal bands. Three Poly of van Gogh and Munch, he was a designer in phonic Subjects (No. 50) and Abstract Trio are feathers rather than in flame. In an age that felt obviously suggested by music; they seem re "it was necessary to shake an adult to get a re lated to the linear abstractions of Miro, Masson action out of him," Klee lived fully in elabo and Ernst. rating nuances and in capturing fancies. He was Klee made a study of masks in theatrical and not a painter whose work speaks to us from a ethnographic museums, and experimented with distance. Klee was fundamentally a cabinet their power to startle and bind the imagination. artist who should be read and re-read —-in a Actor's Mask (No. 32) reminds one of Melane- manner of speaking, on the knee. The subtle sian ceremonial masks in its startling, hypnotic complexity of his texture justifies it. He spoke effect. Comparable as disquieting apparitions in a mixed tongue of representational and are the large Mask of Fear (No. 52), the Idol for technical phantasy. These were fused by a re House Cats, and the Child Consecrated to Suffering. markably untrammelled sensibility. The result The arrow is a motive which frequently was a curious pictorial poetry all his own. And occurs in Klee's compositions. It is used to in this character of so much of Klee's work we indicate the movement and direction of forces often feel a closer affinity with Oriental art than as in the diagrams from Klee's course at the with that of the Occident. Bauhaus (see back cover). In Dead Cataract the Yet if Klee did not belong to the tradition of arrows point in the direction of the snake's the great Western decorators, he was the prod movement. In Mixed Weather (No. 42) the uct of a tradition that has deeply marked our arrow sweeps along the earth like a tempest times. Klee was born in 1879. As a consequence beneath the dripping moon. In Wounded Mother his early impressionable years fell within the Animal it is more literally a missile. nineties —in Central the decade of Klee has used a variety of media, all of them Munch and Hodler, of van de Velde and Obrist, handled with remarkable skill and inventive and particularly of the -Jugendstil ness. He combines watercolor and ink, oil and movement. The keynote of the painting of this gouache, using diverse surfaces including paper, period was a stress on the basic linear pattern of canvas, linen, burlap, silk, tin and compo- an expression. Behind it lay the discovery of the board. Like the Cubists and Surrealists he has Japanese print in the middle of the nineteenth made many experiments with textures. century and more recently, the adaptation of Nothing is more astonishing to the student of the Japanese print's broad, running contour- Klee than his extraordinary variety. Not even lines by Gauguin, van Gogh and their Syn- Picasso approaches him in sheer inventiveness. thetist followers. Out of it came a new recog In of imagination also he can hold his nition of the immediacy and intimacy with own with Picasso; but Picasso of course is in which the emotions speak through the hand comparably more powerful. Picasso's pictures when it is not too closely controlled by the often roar or stamp or pound; Klee's whisper a conscious, reasoning mind. soliloquy —lyric, intimate, incalculably sensitive. This was the door that opened the art of the 6 twentieth century. In , es ent units or elements are subordinated has the pecially since the Renaissance, design, planning, apparent advantage of efficiency. But if civili coordination of the parts with the whole had zation is to survive, a new balance of interests commonly taken precedence over our desire for must be achieved. In art a rational organization variety, multiplicity, chance and the unfore of the broader outlines of an expression, alone, seeable. The East had always recognized the is never enough, in spite of the most careful wealth of obscure nervous and organic impulses subordination of parts to the whole. In life the that a free manual, or "calligraphic" style con inelastic, inorganic, anti-vital, machine-attitude tributed toward enriching our expression's must give way to a system which will allow for sensibility. With the liberation of the hand we the free development of sensibility and in begin to see a new rhythmic ordering of Euro telligence. pean pictorial expression that had its base in the Yesterday, in a blind, self-satisfied world, organic life of the individual, rather than in the Klee was forced to withdraw into himself to conscious mind. The way was then clear for the protect the sensibility his art cultivated. To Fauves, the Expressionists, the Surrealists, and morrow will find Klee's work a delicate distilla for artists like Picasso, Kandinsky and Miro in tion of those qualities most needed to give life all of whom we recognize a predominant stress to a renewed art in a renewed world. on the linear approach. In Klee's work a period of wide experimenta tion succeeded his Art Nouveau apprenticeship. RECOLLECTIONS During the decade following 1905 we see traces of many influences: Matisse, Kubin, Nolde, the OF PAUL KLEE new German interest in children's drawings, Julia and Lyonel Feininger Kandinsky, Delaunay and the P aris Cubists in general. Finally, about 1917 Klee's early bent No attempt is made here to speak of Paul Klee's began to reassert itself: "phantasy expressed in work, which is well known and accessible in predominantly linear compositions" a calli collections of museums and galleries to every* graphic expression sensitive to the most delicate enthusiast. suggestions of the nervous system, responsive Knowing the work before the man we ad to the most subtle unconscious associations. mired the small drawings and paintings of the This was the Klee whom the Surrealists recog early period, those runic scratchings on copper nized as a precursor: a precursor in just such plates, hieroglyphs on silk and canvas of figures expressions of free sensibility as they ambi- and buildings, animals and flowers which cre tioned to achieve: an explorer of intimate lyric ated a microcosmic world, charming in a strange rhythms, who never felt the need to undertake and unheard-of way. Our first thought was 's destructive work before concen that the man who drew these lines must be a trating on the problems raised in art by the musician besides being a draftsman. Guessing "discovery" of the unconscious. This was the that the instrument was either the flute or the Klee who was to persevere in his scruples of violin, the latter proved to be right. In fact Klee craftsmanship and yet grow in invention, light the painter is unthinkable without Klee the ness of touch and richness of texture from those musician. Dreamer and visionary, Klee was closing years of the last war down to his death short and somewhat sturdy, yet fine boned and in 1940. of delicate physique. The overwhelming im Today we are faced by another vast social pression we got of Klee, when we first met him crisis. We see a world torn between the two at the Bauhaus in 1922, was of his eyes. They great forces, democracy and totalitarianism. Xo- were brown, wide open, extremely far apart day a planned organization to which all constitu beneath a broad forehead, they seemed to look 7 through and past one. His jaw bones were contributing to his recognition of structure and rather large, but the mouth was of the most of color these objects contained a delicate sensitiveness. A man whose wisdom deeper meaning for him. Klee once said that he was profound, and whose knowledge in many felt his innermost self related to all things under, fields was amazing. Seemingly ageless, and yet on and above this earth. Other objects in his to whom, as to an attentive child, all experi studio, products of his spare moments, were ences of the eye and of the ear, of taste and contraptions pieced together of flimsy materials touch, were ever new. Ripe, because his reaction such as gauze, wire and bits of wood, some to experiences were resolved into terms of cre capable of moving by draughts of air, others ative incitement, mastered and controlled by manipulated by a tiny crank — ships of wierd his supreme intellect. No outburst broke his design, animals, marionettes and masks, which calm; his emotions found their outlet in his he made for a Punch and Judy theatre for Felix, work, in utter creative silence, and in his inter his son. pretations on the instrument he mastered. Never One never could pass Klee's house in the was there the least suggestion of a pose, nor yet evening without hearing the sounds of music. of exuberance. He was a supremely good listen Klee practising on his violin —or playing with er. His habitual attitude always seemed to be Frau Klee at the piano —or with some friends one of self-communion, of "inner" listening. in a trio or quartet. His playing on the violin But when asked to express an opinion, or to de was spiritual to a high degree, with perfect liver a judgment, his answers were fraught with technique. Music was a fundamental necessity the power of conviction, given with impersonal to Klee. Although lie had been trained in the objectivity, in quiet tones, and the listener was classical tradition and his deepest love belonged placed under the spell of his personality. to Bach and Mozart— yet later composers such Our memory of Klee in his studio —in the as Ravel, Cesar Franck, Stravinsky, Schoen- midst of seeming, though carefully ordered, con berg, Hindemith were not excluded. He strove fusion, for he was meticulous in his habits — to penetrate into every realm of musical sound was of the man himself with his never ex and wherever a new aspect of musical ex tinguished pipe, surrounded by a number of pression opened for him, he willingly followed easels, each carrying one of those miraculous with study and rendering. His acceptance of creations, his paintings, growing into com music might be said to be universal. pletion slowly and by stages. His method of If one commences to recall the years passed in working can really be compared to the organic close association with Klee the wealth and pro development of a plant. There was something fusion of memories becomes too large and over akin to magic in the process. For hours he would whelming, hundreds of details contribute to sit quietly in a corner smoking, apparently not build up the human picture of this most unusual occupied at all —but full of inner watching. man and artist. Then he would rise and quietly, with unerring surety, he would add a touch of color here, draw a line or spread a tone there, thus attaining his vision with infallible logic in an almost sub conscious way. Klee loved to collect about him small objects of , in themselves of no importance, such as wings of butterflies, shells, colored stones, strangely formed roots, mosses and other growths. These he brought home from his lonely wanderings about the countryside. More than 8 12. Moonplay (Mondspiel), 1921 CATALOG Watercolor, 20 x 15)4 inches Lent by Dr. W. R. Valentiner, Detroit Except for the prints, the pictures are arranged chron ologically, regardless of medium. The original German *13. The Holy One (Die Heilige), 1921 title follows the English translation. An asterisk before Watercolor, 17)4 x 12% inches a title indicates that the picture is illustrated by the Lent by Mme. Galka Scheyer, Hollywood half-tone reproduction which bears the same number. 14. In the Spell of the Stars (Im Bann des Ge- la. Virgin in the Tree (Jungfrau im Baum), 1903 stirnes), 1921 Etching, 9x11% inches Watercolor, 12)4 x 17% inches Lent by the Buchholz Gallery, New York Lent by Miss Jane Greenough, Coeur d'Alene

*lb. Perseus, the Triumph of Brain over Body, 15. Gate to Hades (Das Tor zum Hades), 1921 1904 (Der Witz hat iiber das Leib gesiegt) Watercolor, 10% x 15% inches Etching, 3% x 4% inches Lent by Mme. Galka Scheyer, Hollywood Lent by the Buchholz Gallery, New York *16. Apparatus for Magnetic Treatment of Plants *lc. Little World (Klein Welt), 1914 (Apparat fur magnetische Behandlung der Pflan- Etching, 5)4 x 3% inches zen), 1921 Lent by the Buchholz Gallery, New York Watercolor, 18% x 12% inches 2. Reading Girl, 1910 Lent by the Germanic Museum, Cambridge Pen drawing, 6 34 x 9 inches 17. Memories of Nymphenburg, 1921 Lent by Curt Valentin, New York Watercolor, 6x4% inches 3. Two Women (2 Damen), 1911 Lent by the Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. Collection, Ink drawing, 5 34 x 4 inches New York Lent by J. B. Neumann, New York *18. Dying Plants (Sterhende Pflanzen), 1922 4. The Hopeless (Die Hoffnungslosen), 1914 Watercolor, 19 x 12% inches Watercolor, 834 x 5 inches Lent by Philip Goodwin, New York Lent by Marian Willard, New York *19. The Twittering Machine (Die Zwitscher-Mas- 5. Introducing the Miracle (Vorfiihrung des Wun- chine), 1922 ders), 1916 Watercolor, 16% x 12 inches Watercolor, 10)4 x 9 inches Collection The Museum of Modern Art, New York Lent by Allan Roos, New York 20. Moon over the Town (Mond iiber der Stadt), 6. Angel Descending (Angelus Descendens), 1918 1922 Watercolor, 6x4 inches Oil on canvasboard, 13% x 19% inches Lent by Mrs. Benjamin Watson, New Y ork Lent by Herman Shulman, New York 7. Morning Star, 1919 21. Abstract Trio (Abstractes Terzett), 1923 Watercolor, 8% x 5% inches Watercolor and ink, 12 % x 19% inches Lent by Perry Rathbone, St. Louis Lent anonymously *8. Cosmic Composition (Kosmische Komposition), 22. Wounded Mother Animal (Getroffenes Mutter- 1919 tier), 1923 Oil on wood, 16 x 18% inches Watercolor, 9 x 12% inches Lent by the Nierendorf Gallery, New York Lent by Karl Nathan, New York 9. Rhythm of Windows (Rhythmus der Fenstcr), *23. Mrs. R. on a Journey in the South (Frau R. auf 1920 Oil on board, 20% x 16% inches Reisen im Siiden), 1924 Lent by the Buchholz Gallery, New York Watercolor, 14% x 10% inches Lent anonymously 10, The End of the Last Act of a Drama (Schluss des letzten Aktes eines Dramas), 1920 24. Pointed Profile (Scharfes Profd), 1923 Watercolor, 8x11 inches Watercolor, 11% x 8% inches Lent by Allan Roos, New York Lent by Philip Goodwin, New York 11. The Angler (Der Angler), 1921 25. Metamorphosis (Metamorphose), 1924 Watercolor, 19% x 12% inches Watercolor, 10% x 13% inches Lent by John S. Newberry, Grosse Pointe Lent anonymously 9 26. Couple in the Twilight (Das Paar in der Dam- *41. The Shepherd (Der Hirt), 1929 merung), 1924 Oil on wood, 19/4 x 26)4 inches Watercolor, 11J4 x 17J4 inches Lent by Bernard J. Reis, New York Lent by J. B. Neumann, New York *42. Mixed Weather (Gemischtes Wetter), 1929 27. Ode to a Garden (Gedicht auf einen Garten), 1924 Mixed medium on canvas, 19/4 x 16)4 inches Oil on canvas, 12 x 18 inches Collection The Museum of Modern Art, New York Lent by the Nierendorf Gallery, New York Gift of Mr. Cary Ross

*28. Water Plant Scripts (Wasser Pflanzen Scbrift- *43. The Dancer (Tanzer), 1930 bild), 1924 Oil and ink on linen, 17)4 x 143 4 inches Watercolor, 9)4 x 11)4 inches Lent by J. B. Neumann, New York Lent by Lyonel Feininger, New York 44. Battle (Gefecht), 1930 29. Idol for House Cats (Gotten Bild fur Haus Gouache, 1134 x 1734 inches Katzen), 1924 Lent by J. B. Neumann, New York Oil and lace, 14)4 x 18)4 inches *45. The Mocker Mocked, 1930 Lent by Mme. Galka Scheyer, Hollywood Oil on canvas, 17 x 2034 inches 30. Bay of Mazzaro (Die Bucht von Mazzaro), 1924 Collection The Museum of Modern Art, New York Gouache, 11)4 x 1734 inches Gift of J. B. Neumann Lent by J. B. Neumann, New York *46. In the Grass (Im Gras), 1930 31. Mr. Pep and His Horse (Herr Pep und sein Oil on canvas, 1634 x 20 inches Pferd), 1925 Lent by Sidney Janis, New York Watercolor, 11/4 x 14 34 inches 47. Upper Town T (Obere Stadt T), 1930 Lent by the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford Tempera, 19)4 x 2534 inches *32. Actor's Mask (Schauspielermaske), 1925 Lent by Lyonel Feininger, New York Oil on wood, 13 34 x 1234 inches 48. Dead Cataract (Toter Katarakte), 1930 Lent by Sidney Janis, New York Oil on canvas, 21)4 x 1734 inches *33. Around the Fisii (Um den Fisch), 1926 Lent by the Nierendorf Gallery, New York Oil on canvas, 1834 x 25 )4 inches 49. Classic Coast (Klassische Kiiste), 1931 Collection The Museum of Modern Art, New York Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Purchase Fund Oil on canvas, 3134 x 26)4 inches Lent by the Nierendorf Gallery, New York *34. Exotic Garden (Exotischer Garten), 1926 Oil, 2334 x 1934 inches *50. Three Polyphonic Subjects (Drei Subjekte, Lent by the Buchholz Gallery, New York polyphon), 1931 Watercolor, 19 x 24)4 inches 35. Deep Sea Flowers (Tiefstfeeblumen), 1927 Lent by the Nierendorf Gallery, New York Gouache, 934 x 12 34 inches Lent anonymously 51. Rose Arbor (Rosenhag), 1932 Gouache, 8)4 x 12)4 inches *36. The Jester (Figurine der JNaar), 1928 Lent by the Nierendorf Gallery, New York Oil on canvas, 2834 x I834 inehes Lent by the Nierendorf Gallery, New York *52. Mask of Fear (Maske Furcht), 1932 37. The Gay Repast (Bunte Mahlzeit), also trans Oil on burlap, 39)4 x 22)4 inches Lent by Allan Roos, New York lated "A Motley Meal," 1928 Oil on wood, 3334 x 2634 inches 53. of an Athlete (Athleten Kopf), 1932 Lent by Miss Helen Resor Gouache, 23 x 19 inches Lent by Herman Shulman, New York 38. Lost Game (Verlorenes Spiel)-, 1928 Oil on canvas, 13 x 1734 inches 54. Mask of a Woman (Frauenmaske), 1933 Lent by Karl Nathan, New York Oil, 22 x 18 J4 inches Lent by the Nierendorf Gallery, New York 39. Marionettes in a Storm (Marionetten im Sturm), 1929 *55. Square Dancer (Gittertanz), 1934 Watercolor, 1734 x 13 inches Watercolor, 19 x 12 inches Lent by the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford Lent by Marian Willard, New York 40. Old Warrior (Alter Krieger); 1929 *56. One Who Understands (EinYerstandiger), 1934 Watercolor, 1834 x 12)4 inches Oil on canvas, 21)4 x 16)4 inches Lent by J. B. Neumann, New York Lent by George L. K. Morris, New York 57. Beginning Landscape Painter (Beginender Land- schafts Maler), 1935 CHRONOLOGY Gouache, 14;^ x 7% inches 1879 Born, December 18, near Berne, Switzerland. Lent by the Nierendorf Gallery, New York Father a Bavarian music teacher and con 58. Child Consecrated to Suffering (W-Geweihtes ductor. Mother of Southern French stock. Kind), 1935 1898 To Munich. Studied drawing at the Knilt Gouache, 6 x inches School and at the Academy under Franz Lent by the Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo Stuck. 59. Equation (Gleichung), 1936 1901 To Italy with Hermann Haller. Gouache, 12 x 18)^ inches 1903 05 With parents at Berne. Trips to Paris, Mu Lent by Marian Willard, New York nich, and Berlin. Exhibited first etchings in 60. Evening Architecture (Architektur Abends), Switzerland and Munich. 1937 1906 Married a musician and settled in Munich Oil on canvas, 23M x 17^ inches where he lived until 1920. Lent by the Nierendorf Gallery, New York 1908 10 Came to admire the work of van Gogh, Ce 61. Letter Ghost (Geist eines Briefes), 1937 zanne, and especially Matisse. Gouache, 13 x 19 inches 1912 Founded with Kandinsky, Franz Marc and Collection The Museum of Modern Art, New York Auguste Macke the group called Der Blaue Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Purchase Fund Reiter (The Blue Rider) which held exhibitions 62. Severing the Snake (Zerteilung Der Schlange), in Munich and Berlin. 1938 1912-13 Paris. Knew Apollinaire, Picasso, Rousseau, Tempera on burlap, 14)^ x 19 inches and Delaunay. Exhibited. Lent by the Nierendorf Gallery, New York 1914 Kairuan in Tunis. 63. The Man of Confusion (Der Mann der Verwech- 1916-18 The war. In the army as "painter" and other slung), 1939 services. Oil on canvas, 26 x 20 inches 1920 Invited by Gropius to become a professor at Lent by the Nierendorf Gallery, New York the Bauhaus Academy, Weimar, together *64. Exotic (Exoten), 1939 with Kandinsky and Feininger. Oil on canvas, 27 x 21 inches 1924 First one-man exhibition, New F ork, Societe Lent by the Nierendorf Gallery, New York Anonyme. 1926 Moved with the Bauhaus to Dessau. Formed In addition to the pictures in the exhibition, works of with Feininger, Javlensky and Kandinsky the Paul Klee are in the following American public collections : group called the Blue Four which exhibited Barnes Foundation, Merion, Pennsylvania in Germany and America. 2 watercolors 1928 Visit to Egypt. First one-man show in Paris. Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn 1929 Fiftieth birthday exhibition in many German 1 watercolor and Swiss museums. Detroit Museum of Art, Detroit 1930 One-man exhibition, The Museum of Modern 1 watercolor Art, New York. / r 1931 To Sicily. Solomon Guggenheim Foundation, New York 1931-33 Professor at the Diisseldorf Academy. 10 watercolors, 1 gouache ( 1934 Left Germany and settled in Berne, Switzer Museum of Modern Art, New York land. 1 watercolor v 1910 Died, June 29, at Lugano, Switzerland. Museum of Living Art, New York 1 watercolor, 1 gouache -1 Phillips Memorial Gallery, Washington 4 oils, 1 gouache, 2 watercolors

The diagram at the right is one of the variations on an "active" line taken from page 6, fig. 2 of Klee's Peda gogical Sketchbook, Bauhaus book §2, Munich, 1925 11 /¥ BIBLIOGRAPHY

Berne, Kunsthalle. Ausstellung Paul Klee. 1935. Ex hibition catalog

Bill, Max. Paul Klee. 16il Das Werk 27:209 16 Ap 1940

Buchholz Gallery, Willard Gallery, New York. Paul Klee. 30p 27il 1940. Exhibition catalog, with essays hy James Johnson Sweeney and Julia and Lyonel Feininger

Bulliet, C. J. The significant moderns and their pic tures. pl72-4 4il New York, Covici Friede, 1936 Limbour, Georges. Paul Klee. 1 il Documents 1:53—4 Crevel, Rene. Paul Klee. 37il Paris, Librairie Galli- Ap 1929 mard, 1930 Neue Kunst Fides, Galerie, Dresden. Paul Klee. 12p Einstein, Carl. Die kunst des 20. jahrhunderts. p 5il 1929. Exhibition catalog, with a foreword by Rudolf 153-7 8il Berlin, Propylaen-Verlag, 1926 Probst

Flechtheim, Alfred, Gai.erie, Berlin. Paul Klee. 16p New York. Museum of Modern Art. Fantastic art, 16il 1929. Exhibition catalog , surrealism. p215-6 Oil. Exhibition catalog with an Flechtheim, Alfred, Galerie, Berlin. Paul Klee. 12p introduction by Alfred II. Barr, Jr. 4il 1930. Exhibition catalog New A ork. Museum of Modern Art. German paint Flechtheim, Alfred, Galerie, Berlin. Paul Klee. 29p ing and . p26-7 2il 1931. Exhibition catalog 1931. Exhibition catalog, with an introduction by Will with an introduction by Alfred H. Barr, Jr. Grohmann New York. Museum of Modern Art. Paul Klee. 28p Goldwater, Robert. Primitivism in modern painting, lOil 1931. Exhibition catalog with an introduction by p 153—160 3il New York, Harper Brothers, 1938 Alfred H. Barr, Jr.

Grohmann, Will. Klee at Berne. 1 il Axis no2:12 3 Ap Read, Herbert. Klee: imagination and phantasy. lOil 1935 XXe Siecle no4: 30-3 D 1938

Grohmann, Will. Paul Klee. 27p 84il Paris, Cahiers Schardt, Alois. Das iibersinnliche bei Paul Klee. 3d d'Art, 1929 Museum der Gegenwart 1:36-46 1930

Grohmann, Will. Paul Klee, handzeichnungen 1921 Schiess, H. Notes sur Klee a propos de son exposition a 1930. Berlin, 1934 la galerie Simon. 8il Cahiers d'Art 9:178-84 1934 Grohmann, W ill. Paul Klee 1923-4. 15il Jahrbuch der Thieme, Ulrich und Becker, Felix. Allgemeines lexi- Jungen Kunst 1924: 143-51 kon der bildenden kiinstler. 20:424-6 Notice by L. Hausenstein, W'ilhelm. Kairuan, oder eine geschichte Scheewe vom maler Klee und von der kunst dieses zeitalters. Thwaites, J. A. Paul Klee and the object. 8il Parnassus 134p 43il Miinchen, Kurt W olff, 1921 9no6:9— 11, no7:7-9 N-D 1937 Huyghe, Rene. Histoire de Tart contemporain: la Wedderkop, H. Von. Paul Klee. 16p 33d , peinture. passim 2il Paris, Librairie Felix Alcan, 1935 Klinkhardt & Biermann, 1920 Justi, Ludwig, Von Corinth bis Klee. pl93-7 3d Berlin, Vitrac, R. A propos des oeuvres recentes de Paul Klee. Verlag von Julius Bard, 1931 lOil Cahiers d'Art 5:300-6 1930 Klee, Paul. Schopferischen konfessionen. Tribune der Kunst und Zeit. 13:28-40, 1920. Zahn, Leopold. Paul Klee, leben, werk, geist. Pots dam, Kiepenheuer, 1920 Klee, Paul. Padagogisches skizzenbuch. 51p 87il Miin chen, Albert Langen, 1925 Zervos, Christian. Histoire de l'art contemporain. p393-406 18il Paris, Editions Cahiers d'Art, 1938 Klumpp, Hermann. Ahstraktion in der malerei: Kan- dinsky, Feininger, Klee. passim 6il Berlin, Deutscher Zurich, Kunsthaus. Klee. 12p 12il 1940 Exhibition Kunstverlag, 1932 catalog 12 (it*# f*A*tg£.)

lb. Perseus, the Triumph of Brain over Body, 1904

I lc. The Little World, 1914 8. Cosmic Composition, 1919 13. The Holy One, 1921 16. Apparatus for Magnetic Treatment of Plants , 1921 18. Dying Plants, 1922 19. The Twittering Machine , 1922 me

23. Mrs. R. on a Journey to the South, 1924 32. Actor's Mask, 1925 33. Around the Fish , 1926 34. Exotic Garden, 1926 36. The Jester, 1928 41. The Shepherd, 1929

28. Water Plant Scripts, 1924 .

42. Mixed Weather, 1929 55. Square Dancer , 1934

« —

43. The Dancer. 1930 45. The Mocker Mocked, 1930 46. In the Grass, 1930 50. Three Polyphonic Subjects, 1931 52. Mask of Fear, 1932 .56. One Who Understands, 1934 v , . . I

64. Exotic, 1939

EXCERPTSFROM THE "PEDAGOGICAL SKETCHBOOK" WRITTEN BY KLEE FOR HIS STUDENTS AT THE BAUHAUS acUtr/.

jL * $e*et Jun&vtrschi*f>un<\ Fig. 1. Line and plane: three stages. At left, the active line (pro ge&iet duced by a moving point); at right, the active plane (produced by a moving line); in the middle, intermediate or transitional terri -OTP tory with linear forms giving the effect of planes. Ha. 1.

Fig. 2. Active, intermediate and passive factors: the watermill. (I) The conflict of the two forces, (a) gravity and (b) the resisting mountain (both active factors), is expressed by (II) the diagonul waterfall (intermediate ) which turns (III) the mill (passive factor).

Fig. 2.

Fig. 3. Active intermediate and passive factors: (I) the waterfall (active); (II) the mill wheels (intermediate); (III) the trip ham mer (passive).

"WcAftr

Fig. 4. Earth, water and air. Symbols of the province of statics are the plummet, which points toward the cen ter of the earth, and the balance. Fig. 4.

Reprinted from the catalog of The Museum of Modern Art's Kauhaus exhibition held in 1938.