Paul Klee (1879-1940)

Feier und Untergang

Details

Paul Klee (1879-1940)
Feier und Untergang
signed 'Klee' (lower right), dated, numbered and titled '1920/200 Feier und Untergang' (on a strip of the artist's mount attached to the reverse)
oil on paper laid down on the Artist's original backboard with painted borders
15½ x 10 5/8 in. (39.4 x 27 cm.) with borders
Painted in 1920

Provenance

Galerie Beyeler, Basle (4391), by whom acquired by the present owner in the 1950s.

Literature

Exh. cat., Paul Klee Im Zeichen der Teilung, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Dusseldorf and Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Jan.-July 1995, no. 18, p. 162 (illustrated in a general photograph of the Artist's studio, p. 163), and as no. 1900.200 (p. 343) (see illustration below).

Exhibited

Basle, Kunstmuseum, Ausstellung zum 10 Todestag, June-Aug. 1950, no. 9.

Sale room notice

Sold with a photo-certificate from the Paul Klee Stiftung dated Berne, 13 May 1997 stating that the work is recorded in the artist's Werkkatalog as No. 1920, 200.

Lot Essay

Feier und Untergang belongs to a fascinating group of works executed by Klee throughout his career which he cut and remounted as he worked. The catalogue for the Dusseldorf exhibition titled Paul Klee Im Zeichen der Teilung held at the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen in April 1995 lists over 100 works which fall into this category. Most were remounted and given inscriptions on the mounts. The most important, as here, were remounted and their margins then painted or worked up to suit the subject.

Feier und Untergang has not been seen in public since it was included in the major Basle retrospective exhibition held in 1950 celebrating the 10th anniversary of the artist's death.

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