The exhibition very “ironic” Paul Klee Centre Pompidou – Le Figaro

PICTURES – The Parisian museum exhibits until 1 August 2016 an impressive series of works by the German painter. The retrospective plunges through the prism of Bauhaus and cubist paintings in the “satirical” universe of the artist

ironic, satirical. C ‘ is a little-known dimension of Klee proposed in Paris an exhibition of the Centre Pompidou devoted to this German artist prolific, open to avant-garde, constructivism to Picasso, but fiercely determined to “be his own style.”

First major retrospective in France since 1969, meeting since Wednesday and until August 1, 230 works of the painter chosen by Commissioner Angela Lampe coming primarily from the Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern and major international collections.

“The art of Paul Klee seems familiar,” writes the director of the Museum of Modern Art, Bernard Blistène to preface of the catalog. “Which of us has in fact recognized the artist and his works (…) an image that seems close or intimate?” It is through a less obvious feature Angela Lampe offers to reread the work Klee, exceptionally abundant. “The irony that irrigates all his work”

“I wanted to have another point of view, propose a new vision,” says Angela Lampe, who is German like Klee. “Even if it does not have to make a leitmotif, it is something that radiates and to re-read his work,” says the Commissioner.

This “distancing”, so characteristic of the artist perceives especially through his self-portraits or drawings series. Klee makes sculptures of sketches inspired by Daumier, which include the influence in the small puppet theater made later for his children. He also played with the title of his work, practicing double meaning, or with the works themselves, not hesitating to cut in half to radically change the meaning.

The exhibition Klee follows the relationships with the major artistic trends of his time as cubism or constructivism. The painter will try and strict geometry, but despite success stories, “it does not match his temperament” and “refuses primary colors,” notes Angela Lampe.

For him, art must be “a flaw in the system.” Klee establishes a principle, then he transgresses, noted composer Pierre Boulez, a great admirer of the painter, which he dedicated a book ( The fertile Country ).

In 1930, Paul Klee experiencing archaic period, facing the great ancient civilizations and marked by the search for textures, the influence of the mosaic and series of other signs and pictograms. Egyptian and seems barely emerged and Entwined looks like an aboriginal artwork.

Klee is also marked by Picasso, a large exhibition is presented in 1932 in Zurich. The Spanish master is in its biomorphic period, organic which will influence the work of Klee. The two men met in 1933 and then in 1937 in Bern, but the current does not pass.

Exiled in Switzerland after Hitler came to power and seriously ill, Klee realized the last year of his life more than 1,200 works, including the exhibition offers a striking selection.