13 September 2008 – 18 January 2009

Paul Klee - Movement in the Workshop

The artist’s studio is a place of creation – one where the outside world is allowed to encroach on the art that emerges there; it is also a quiet, still place of retreat for personal and emotional reflection. The exhibition Paul Klee – Movement in the Workshop traces both aspects in relation to Klee’s studios. For Paul Klee, they were both refuges and quotidian workplaces; they served as his resonators and were strongly imbued with his unique personality. This autumn exhibition, curated by the Zentrum Paul Klee, traces the places in which Klee exercised his talents as an artist and sheds light on the premises where the painter spent a large part of his life.

These include the ‘dens’ the fledgling artist used as studios in Bern, the studios he hired while a student and the kitchen he commandeered in the apartment on Munich’s Ainmillerstrasse, shared for ten years with his wife Lily and their son Felix. The exhibition also includes replicas of Klee’s studios in Suresnes Castle, not far from Munich, at the Bauhaus in Weimar followed by Dessau, and in the apartment on Kistlerweg in Bern – this last was where Paul Klee worked from 1934 until he died in 1940.

The exhibition brings to life Klee’s studios as venues where he worked and developed his ideas, as key locations of intellectual and creative activity, and as dynamic microcosms of the artist in which life-sized photographs afford an intimate insight. Some of these historic photographs feature works by Klee – which are replaced in the exhibition by the actual originals.

Closely linked with the theme of the studio is the artistic work process. Arranged in thematic groups of works, the exhibition presents the formal processes that were characteristic of Klee. These include the ‘dynamic of the line’, the cutting up of pictures, his oil transfer process and spraying techniques, and his predilection for multilayering and overlapping. The exhibition also looks at various aspects concerning conservation and restoration. A special room is devoted to the central theme, namely, Klee’s use of colour: demonstrating the effortless ease with which he handled colour in all its dimensions, and which he explored in all its facets, the space contains a juxtaposition of blue and red works and the pigments he employed.

Visitors are invited to enter Paul Klee’ private world, peek behind the walls of his workplaces and discover the secrets that underlie the creation of his pictures – enjoy your voyage of discovery!

Address

Zentrum Paul Klee
Monument im Fruchtland 3
3006 Bern
phone +41 31 359 01 01
http://www.zpk.org

Opening Hours

Tuesday-Sunday 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.,
closed on Monday

Description of the Museum

The collection presentation is given over exclusively to the works of Paul Klee, with the aim of highlighting the different mood layers in his oeuvre.

Of the 10,000 or so works that make up Paul Klee’s oeuvre a good 40 per cent, that is to say around 4,000 paintings, watercolours and drawings as well as archives and biographical material, has been brought together at the Zentrum Paul Klee. The Centre’s collections are considered as the largest collection of a single artist of world renown.

opened in 2005; architect: Renzo Piano

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