100 x Paul Klee

Dusseldorf

The purchase of 88 works by Paul Klee (1879 – 1940) by the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia in 1960 furnished the impetus for founding the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen in Düsseldorf. Today, the Klee collection – which has grown to include 100 works – is one of the most comprehensive by this artist in Germany, and the focus of international attention. Now for the first time, all of these works are presented to the public together at K21. The focus of the exhibition 100 x Paul Klee is not exclusively on Klee’s creative achievement, but on the historical vicissitudes of these works of art as well. Klee began teaching at the Düsseldorf Art Academy in the early 1930s, and immigrated to Switzerland in late 1933 under pressure from the National Socialist dictatorship.

These paintings, drawings, and watercolors offer invaluable insights into the oeuvre of this remarkably multifaceted artist while providing a wide-ranging overview of Klee’s virtually inexhaustible creativity. Featured alongside works dating from the turn of the 20th century and documenting his earliest beginnings as a graphic artist are those which reflect his experiences during the legendary trip to Tunisia in 1914. Precisely composed paintings dating from 1919 represent Klee’s adoption of oil painting; the geometric-constructivist works were produced in connection with his teaching activities at the Bauhaus in Weimar and Dessau. Drawings and oil paintings from the late periodic, finally, feature a cryptic, symbol-laden idiom. Klee also reflected with sensitivity and a razorsharp perspective on the events of his time, at the same time generating an artistic cosmos which synthesizes tragicomedy and irony, lightheartedness and gravity, playfulness and calculation.

Kunstsammlung NRW

September 29th, 2012 – February 10th, 2013
Ständehausstraße 1
40217 Düsseldorf
Germany

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