The intention of the exhibition is the examine the work of Klee from the perspective of his own thinking and reveal the fundamental role he has had in the development of twentieth century art. The route through the exhibition begins with the phrase “Colour is possessed by me, I am a painter” noted in Klee’s diary during his travels in Tunisia in 1914 and with work from that period such as “Red and White Domes”.
It then follows on with the paintings and drawings in fluid and playful colours from the twenties which were to strongly influence the Surrealists. Moving onto the Bauhaus years it finally comes on to the “pointillist” Klee, interested in the relationship between painting and music, with work carried out in the thirties using a dotting technique and large paintings about rhythm made shortly before the death of the artist in 1940.
The exhibits have been lent by a number of museums, for the most part in the US and Germany – including the Metropolitan, the Guggenheim and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Prefectural Museum of Art in Aichi (Japan) and the Klee collection in Berne.
From 17 January to 1 April 2002
Paul Klee: The Nature of Creation
Hayward Gallery London
http://www.hayward-gallery.org.uk/
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