375
Paul Klee
Grundverhexte Landschaft, 1924.
Pen and ink drawing and watercolor
Estimate:
€ 100,000 / $ 110,000 Sold:
€ 118,750 / $ 130,625 (incl. surcharge)
Grundverhexte Landschaft. 1924.
Pen and ink drawing and watercolor.
Klee 3521. Signed and titled in lower right, as well as dated and inscribed with the work number "149" in bottom center outside the image. On Ingres laid paper, originally mounted on cardboard and on an extra board. 28.5 x 32.5 cm (11.2 x 12.7 in), size of sheet. Backing board: 32,5 x 47,9 cm (12,8 x 18,9 in).
[CH].
• Part of the acclaimed Collection Ilse and Hermann Bode since it was made.
• Singular motif in Klee's characteristic pictorial language.
• Surreal composition from his important innovative time at the Bauhaus.
• First exhibited at the Kestner-Gesellschaft in Hanover in 1931.
• Paul Klee surprises the observer with astonishing ideas from his marvelous imagination.
PROVENANCE: Collection Ilse and Hermann Bode, Hanover (acquired directly from the artist, who noted "Dr Bode Zahnarzt in Hannover 300 GM" in his oeuvre catalog).
Private collection Germany (inherited).
EXHIBITION: Paul Klee. Gemälde, Aquarelle, Graphik 1903-1930, Kestner-Gesellschaft, Hanover, March 7 - April 5, 1931.
Paul Klee, Kestner-Gesellschaft, Hanover, May 20 - June 22, 1952, cat. no. 84.
Zeitgenössische Kunst aus hannoverschem Privatbesitz, Kestner-Gesellschaft, Hanover, 1954, cat. no. 80 (with an exhibition label on verso of the board).
Die Pelikan-Kunstsammlung, Kunstverein Hannover, April 28 - June 16, 1963, cat. no. 65 (no illu.).
Die Pelikan-Kunstsammlung, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich, January 8 - February 7, 1965, cat. no. 69 (no illu.).
Paul Klee. Das Werk der Jahre 1919-1933 (Gemälde, Handzeichnungen, Druckgraphik), Kunsthalle Köln, April 11 - June 4, 1979, cat. no. 137 (with illu.).
Paul Klee. Sonderklasse, unverkäuflich, Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern, October 21, 2014 - February 1, 2015, Museum der bildenden Künste, Leipzig, March 1 - May 25, 2015.
revonnaH. Kunst der Avantgarde in Hannover 1912-1933, Sprengel Museum Hannover, September 23, 2017 - January 7, 2018, p. 21 (with illu.).
Sprengel Museum, Hanover (as loan until spring 2021, verso of the board with a label that is partly inscribed by hand and partly in typography).
LITERATURE: Bernd Rau, Kunstmuseum Hannover und Sammlung Sprengel, Bestandskatalog Paul Klee. Gemälde, farbige Blätter, Zeichnungen, druckgraphische Werke, Hanover 1980, cat. no. A5 (with illu.).
Pen and ink drawing and watercolor.
Klee 3521. Signed and titled in lower right, as well as dated and inscribed with the work number "149" in bottom center outside the image. On Ingres laid paper, originally mounted on cardboard and on an extra board. 28.5 x 32.5 cm (11.2 x 12.7 in), size of sheet. Backing board: 32,5 x 47,9 cm (12,8 x 18,9 in).
[CH].
• Part of the acclaimed Collection Ilse and Hermann Bode since it was made.
• Singular motif in Klee's characteristic pictorial language.
• Surreal composition from his important innovative time at the Bauhaus.
• First exhibited at the Kestner-Gesellschaft in Hanover in 1931.
• Paul Klee surprises the observer with astonishing ideas from his marvelous imagination.
PROVENANCE: Collection Ilse and Hermann Bode, Hanover (acquired directly from the artist, who noted "Dr Bode Zahnarzt in Hannover 300 GM" in his oeuvre catalog).
Private collection Germany (inherited).
EXHIBITION: Paul Klee. Gemälde, Aquarelle, Graphik 1903-1930, Kestner-Gesellschaft, Hanover, March 7 - April 5, 1931.
Paul Klee, Kestner-Gesellschaft, Hanover, May 20 - June 22, 1952, cat. no. 84.
Zeitgenössische Kunst aus hannoverschem Privatbesitz, Kestner-Gesellschaft, Hanover, 1954, cat. no. 80 (with an exhibition label on verso of the board).
Die Pelikan-Kunstsammlung, Kunstverein Hannover, April 28 - June 16, 1963, cat. no. 65 (no illu.).
Die Pelikan-Kunstsammlung, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich, January 8 - February 7, 1965, cat. no. 69 (no illu.).
Paul Klee. Das Werk der Jahre 1919-1933 (Gemälde, Handzeichnungen, Druckgraphik), Kunsthalle Köln, April 11 - June 4, 1979, cat. no. 137 (with illu.).
Paul Klee. Sonderklasse, unverkäuflich, Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern, October 21, 2014 - February 1, 2015, Museum der bildenden Künste, Leipzig, March 1 - May 25, 2015.
revonnaH. Kunst der Avantgarde in Hannover 1912-1933, Sprengel Museum Hannover, September 23, 2017 - January 7, 2018, p. 21 (with illu.).
Sprengel Museum, Hanover (as loan until spring 2021, verso of the board with a label that is partly inscribed by hand and partly in typography).
LITERATURE: Bernd Rau, Kunstmuseum Hannover und Sammlung Sprengel, Bestandskatalog Paul Klee. Gemälde, farbige Blätter, Zeichnungen, druckgraphische Werke, Hanover 1980, cat. no. A5 (with illu.).
Deciphering Paul Klee's pictorial inventions mostly is a speculative endeavor. If we take a closer look at the seemingly surreal "Grundverhexte Landschaft", a look at the lecture given by Klee in Jena in 1924 is quite helpful for an analysis. The lecture comprises a section titled "From the exemplary to the archetypal!" in which he explains: "The artist who gets stuck somewhere in the process becomes presumptuous. But those artists who continue the quest for the mysterious origin where primordial law feeds all creation are really qualified. […] Who would not want to dwell there as an artist? In the bosom of nature, the origin of creation, where the secret key to everything is kept? "(Paul Klee, Über die moderne Kunst, Bern 1945, p. 47). Of course, Klee's remarks on modern art are also borne by his seemingly endless poetry. In a way it may reflect his teachings at the Bauhaus, which he had developed for his students. And yet one can almost literally use this short passage as a basis for a decryption of "Grundverhexten Landschaft" in order to coax meaning out of this "fantastic" landscape. It is not decprypted, even if an abundance of associations emerges the longer we look at this structure floating in space. One could begin with a primordial bubble filled with life-giving plasma and floating in a gigantic cosmos, and a line along which microorganism perform photosynthesis in order to enable the ancestors of plants and animals to grow. In the end, Klee transfers the line, enriched with erotic references and provided with stabilizing structures, in a precisely targeted direction: According to the theory of evolution, the goal would be the birth of the primates. Is Klee‘s drawing the beginning a shortened evolutionary line for the development of the earth? Maybe. "It will not occur to anyone to ask the tree to form the crown in the same way as the root," said Klee in his lecture. "Everyone will understand that there cannot be an exact mirror relationship between below and above. It is clear that the various functions in different elementary areas must produce lively deviations." (Paul Klee, Über die moderne Kunst, Bern 1945, p. 13). “Grundverhexte Landschaft” is an astonishing structure that hovers somewhere in the vast galaxies and gives us a dreamlike encounter with Paul Klee's intriguing discovery. [MvL]
375
Paul Klee
Grundverhexte Landschaft, 1924.
Pen and ink drawing and watercolor
Estimate:
€ 100,000 / $ 110,000 Sold:
€ 118,750 / $ 130,625 (incl. surcharge)