06 September 2006

Klee visits Tunisia

This month the RaggedClothCafe is discussing Paul Klee. He visited Tunisia with August Macke and Louis Moilliet in April 1914, resulting in 44 watercolour paintings and numerous sketches. The Tunisian paintings are my favourites among his oeuvre -- they exude a sense of him discovering how to "do" this kind of composition. And the colours are wonderful.

Many years ago I bought a thick exhibition catalogue called "Die Tunisreise" (ISBN 3 7757 0177 x), published in Stuttgart in 1982. It has some of Klee's photos from 1914, juxtaposed with his paintings of the scene.These photos were taken in 1982; the paintings were done in 1914:Klee translated windows similar to these into his painting "Curtain":

3 comments:

Sarah Ann Smith said...

Way cool, Margaret...what a treasure of a book! Thanks for sharing, Sarah

Linda B. said...

Yum - the only time I've been to the Hayward was to see the Klee exhibition. It's the squares again!!!

Linda

Unknown said...

The Klee in Tunisa are among my very favourite Klee works as well. Thank you for giving them face here, Margaret!