Study Visit : Paul Klee at Tate Modern 25th January 2014

This was an informal study visit which was organised by a group of students via the 'OCA sketchbooks' group on Facebook. The is a group in which I am active and regularly post my sketchbook work and have the opportunity to look at other students' work.  I have include a number of images in my write-up here as they are all in the public domain, Klee having died more that 70 years ago.

The organisers had managed to get some funding at the last minute via OCASA so we were accompanied on the visit by OCA tutor Jim Cowan who gave us an introductory talk about the artist , his life and work and also what to expect within the exhibition.

Before attending the visit I had read "Paul Klee: Life and Work" by Boris Friedewald  (Prestel 2011). I hadn't found this book particularly user friendly. It seemed a bit disjointed with the illustrations not easily relatable to the text on the nearby pages. However during the talk given by Jim I was surprised at how much of Klee's history I had retained.
Klee was a musician as well as an artist and the influence of music can be seen coming through in his work especially in terms of visual harmony. His big breakthrough in working with colour and abstraction came during his 1914 trip to Tunisia.

In the style of Kairouan 1914 (watercolour)

 

  

 

There were various identifiable phases to Klee's life. He was a member of 'Der Blaue Reiter' along with his neighbour Wassily Kandinsky. He spent time working at the famous Bauhaus and also as a teacher at the Dusseldorf academy from where he was dismissed by the Nazis and had to go into exile after being named as a 'degenerate artist'.

The exhibition was very large stretching over several large rooms, this was possible by virtue of the fact that despite being tormented by a painful and disabling skin condition called scleroderma in his later years, Klee was a very prolific artist. He was also very organised, cataloguing every piece of work he produced.

There was a fantastic array of techniques on display here and Klee was experimental and inventive in his approach. I particularly liked his use of an 'oil transfer' technique. He also used spray painting and used a sieve to create fine drops of pain over stencilled surfaces. There was so much of interest to see. I have selected just a few of the works to talk about but it was really quite difficult to choose.

With the Violet Pentagon 1919
 

Washy watercolours in shades of mauve, violet and yellow are contrasted with thick dense colour in more acid colours and dense primary red with black in angled shapes around the central pentagon. Although completely abstract, the arrangement of colours is such that the pentagon seems to recede and the bright angled shapes around it create movement almost seeming to spin around the pentagon. I found it interesting that such a simple construction could create such a powerful impression of depth and movement.

Red-Green and Violet-Yellow Rhythms

I love the harmony and rhythm of this painting. It is also interesting to note the cross-over in language between music and painting. This piece concentrates on harmony and balance of colours. There is a strong diagonal rhythm to the painting. The forms include tree-like forms and geometric shapes which suggest possible abstracted architectural forms. I find the colour combination and tonal relationships quite restful. There is a horizontal and vertical component to the composition and perhaps this makes it more restful than if it were all about diagonals. There is an illusion of depth with the juxtaposition of dark and light shapes. The dark shapes seem to recede and apparent overlapping of light coloured shapes contributes to the illusion of depth.

With the Rainbow 1917
 

I was initially a bit confused by this image. There are subtle gradations of watery colour and overall harmony in the centre which seems to be contradicted by the bright opaque frame of primary red around the outside. Discussing this with Jim he pointed out that this would have been a deliberate decision and asked me to consider why Klee might have done this. I think once again this was to create depth. the frame makes the darker and more muted colours seem to recede. As I looked more closely I started to see a sweeping curved path or road heading from the  centre bottom and receding towards architectural forms with the rainbow in the distance.

I particularly liked some of the oil transfer pieces. Klee put oil paint on to a sheet of paper and placed it oil side down on another piece He then draw an image on the reverse side of the oil covered sheet to transfer oil paint onto the lower sheet.

City Between Realms 1921

 

This image contains simplified architectural forms and zig-zag arrows pointing upwards and more prominently downwards. Is this a representation of heaved and hell? Is the prominent downward arrow a comment on the direction in which we are heading?



Ghost of a Genius 1922. Oil transfer and watercolour
 

Is this a self portrait? It looks a bit like Klee with a domed head and a short beard. It also has a puppet-like quality. Did he feel like a puppet or is he just attracted to puppet forms? (He used to make puppets). The figure looks melancholy to me with a slight dejected tilt of the head. Interpreting it with the title maybe he is 'washed up' and recalling past triumphs. I really like the accidental marks that are made by the oil paint sticking to the ribbed texture of this paper.

Comedy 1921 Oil transfer and watercolour
 

I really like this bizarre collection of elongated part-humanoid creatures. One seems to be lying down with another standing on top. Have they fallen and are being trampled by the parade or are they acrobats? I like the colour scheme. The graded jade-green focuses the attention on the upper 2/3rd of the paper and the pale yellow figures stand out against it. Once again the accidental marks made by the oil transfer give an interesting textural element to the otherwise cartoonish work.

A Young Lady's Adventure 1922 - watercolour
on paper

 

The girl looks serene and happy but again has a puppet like appearance. She is walking in a very dark environment. This makes me feel a sense of dread. There is a strange dark bird-like form in front of her. There is a red zig-zag arrow pointing back in the direction from which she has come - is this a warning? Is the girl naïve or blithely ignoring danger?

Fish Magic 1925 - Oil, Watercolour and Collage on Paper

I love this sgraffito technique. Klee has also attached a square of fabric to the centre of the page along with the diagonal line does this represent fishing equipment/net?
The dark ground allows the bright sgraffito fish to stand out. I also adds a sense of mystery to the piece as a whole.

Fire at full moon 1933
 

The full moon is represented by a yellow circle and the fire is represented by a red cross. The surrounding colours are dark and menacing. The red fights with the colours around it possibly signifying danger and the descent of the world surrounding Klee into darkness. This was done around he time that the National Socialist party (Nazi) came to power in Germany. it is surely not a coincidence that the dangerous red cross is reminiscent of a swastika?

Overall the study visit was an enjoyable and stimulating experience. Thank you to Jim Cowan for stimulating me to think more clearly about what I saw and tank you to Steve Cussons for all her effort in organising a group of students from far flung places to be in the same place at the same time. It was great to meet and compare experiences of the OCA with fellow students - This and the social media groups help to reduce the isolation of distance learning.

Looking at the work of Klee has given me ideas on a number of techniques I'd like to experiment with.