Paul Klee

Rudolf Probst (Galerie Neue Kunst Fides; Das Kunsthaus), Dresden and Mannheim (by 1928)

Alfred Flechtheim, Dusseldorf, Berlin, Paris and London (1928-1929)

Staatliche Gemäldegalerie, Dresden (1929-1937)

Curt Valentin (Buchholz Gallery), New York (acquired from the above in 1937)

Galka E. Scheyer, Braunschweig, New York, San Francisco, Hollywood (1939)

Acquired from the above on January 9, 1940

Dresden, Akademie and Staatliche Gemäldegalerie, Werke Deutscher Künstler.  Malerei Plastik, 1927, no. 151

Dresden, Galerie Neue Kunst Fides, Paul Klee, Alexej van Jawlensky, 1928, no. 19

Berlin, Galerie Alfred Flechtheim, Paul Klee, 1928, no. 37

Berlin, Galerie Alfred Flechtheim, Paul Klee, 1929, no. 86

New York, Buchholz Gallery, Contemporary European Painters and Sculptors, 1939, no. 9

New York, Buchholz Gallery and Willard Gallery, Paul Klee, 1940, no. 56

Los Angeles, Stendahl Galleries

Providence, Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Private Collections, 1980-89 (long-term loan)

Karl Jakob Hirsch, "Malír  Paul Klee," Musaion 9, December 1929, illustrated p. 209

Carl Einstein, Die Kunst des 20. Jahrhunderts, Berlin, 1931, illustrated p. 541

Robert J. Goldwater, Primitivism in Modern Paintings, New York and London, 1938, p. 154

"A Memorial to Paul Klee," The New Yorker, New York, October 1940, p. 94

"New York Sees Paul Klee Memorial Show," Art Digest, 1940

Carola Giedion-Welcker, Paul Klee in Selbstzeugnissen und Bilddokumenten, Hamburg, 1961, p. 110

Max Huggler, "Paul Klee," Künstler Lexikon der Schweiz XX, vol. 1, Frauenfeld, 1961, p. 525

Will Grohmann, Der Maler Paul Klee, Cologne, 1966, p. 106

Max Huggler, Paul Klee.  Die Malerei als Block in den Kosmos, Frauenfeld and Stuttgart, 1969, p. 102

Christian Geelhaar, Paul Klee und das Bauhaus, Cologne, 1972, pp. 94 and 107

Annegret Janda, Paul Klee und Nationalgalerie, 1919-1937, Dresden, 1986, p. 50

Christine Hopfengart, Klee, Vom Sonderfall zum Publikumsliebling.  Stationen seiner öffentlichen Resonanz in Deutschland, 1905-1960, Mainz, 1989, p. 101

Christina Houstian, Minister, Kindermädchen, Little Friend: Galka Scheyer und "Der Blaue Vier," Bern and Dusseldorf, 1997, p. 48

Christine Hopfengart, Klee an den deutschen "Museen der Gegenwart," 1916-1933, Bern, 2000, p. 81 and 89

The Paul Klee Foundation, Paul Klee, Catalogue Raisonné, vol. 5, 2001, Bern, no. 4238, illustrated p. 45

Following the architect Walter Gropius’ invitation to teach at the Bauhaus, Klee moved to Weimar in 1921, and to Dessau five years later, and the time spent working and teaching there was to be the most innovative and productive of his career.  Inspired by the Bauhaus belief in constructivist art, Klee’s work became increasingly abstract and geometricized, and Junger Garten (Rhythmen) is a magnificent example of this new direction in his art, coupled with the poetic quality always present in his work.  Here, the artist has combined the technique of oil painting with incision marks, creating the effect of a script-like pattern that evokes a mystical, unknown pictorial language.  By depicting symbols and geometric patterns against a flat, nearly monochromatic background, Klee created a combination of pictorial and linguistic signs, characteristic of Egyptian hieroglyphs and other ancient scripts.  

Verging between abstraction and figuration, Klee’s delicately incised lines create a rhythmic, poetic pattern combining abstract lines with shapes evocative of nature.  The artist’s son Felix Klee described his father’s favorite outing to Wörlitz near Dessau, which inspired his depictions of plants and gardens: it was “…surrounded by an enchanting park full of lakes and watercourses that made the visitor forget the monotony of the surrounding Elbe flatlands.  We strolled past Aeolian harps and exotic giant trees, across rickety footbridges, and took the ferries to the islands.  Here Paul Klee was thoroughly in his element, and many of his pictures with plant or water subjects were the outcome of visits to this wonderful park” (Felix Klee, quoted in Roland Doschka, Paul Klee, Munich, 2001, p. 210).