Villas for Marionettes (Villen für Marionetten)

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Villas for Marionettes (Villen für Marionetten)

Artist Paul Klee (Swiss, 1879-1940)

Place of OriginGermany

Date1922

DimensionsFrame: 19 1/2 × 17 1/2 × 2 5/8 in. (49.5 × 44.5 × 6.7 cm)
Painting: 11 3/4 × 9 in. (29.8 × 22.9 cm)

MediumOil on wood panel

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LineGift of Thomas T. Solley

Object number

1996.15

Not on View

Label TextPaul Klee, along with Joan Miró, helped to prove that Modern art did not always need to be self-consciously serious. What at first seems to be a sober meditation on form and color, upon closer inspection reveals visual puns and a humorously literal take on the whimsical title. The fractured construction of the painting consists of arches, staircases, windows, roof gables, and basic forms like circles, rectangles, and squares. It is a collage of viewpoints—side-on and from above, close-up details and faraway glimpses. The color scheme suggests a night scene. The repeated curved shape recalls curtains drawn to one side—simultaneously implying a window and a stage (such as the performance space for the marionettes of the title). An incisive caricaturist early in his career, Klee matured into an internationally respected artist. In 1921 he was appointed to the faculty of the prestigious Bauhaus School of design in Weimar, Germany. As the Nazis came to political power, he fled Germany and lived in Switzerland until his death in 1940.Published ReferencesKlipstein & Kornfeld, Bern, 17.-18.6.1960, no. 441 repr. (col.)

Zahn, Leopold, Paul Klee. Im Lande Edelstein, Baden-Baden, 1952, repr. (col.).

Bosshard-Rebmann, Margit, Paul Klee (Sammlung Richard Doetsch-Benzinger, Basel), Basel 1953, no. 4.

Kroll, Christian, Die Bildtitel Paul Klees. Eine Studie zur Beziehung von Bild und Sprache in der Kunst des zwanzigsten Jahhunderts, dissertation, Bonn, 1968, p. 36.

Paul Klee-Stiftung, Paul Klee. Volume 3, 1919-1922: catalogue raisonne, edited by The Paul Klee Foundation, Museum of Fine Arts, Bern, London, 1999, page. 444, repr., no 2999.

Exhibition HistoryStuttgart, Kunstgebaude am Schlossplatz, Neue deutsche Kunst, 1924, no. 92.

Munich, Galerie Neue Kunst Hans Goltz, Paul Klee. Zweite Gesamtausstellung 1920-1925, 100. Exhibition, 1925, no. 12.

Bern, Kunsthalle Bern, Gedachtnisausstellung Paul Klee, 19410, no. 8.

Basel, Galerie d'Art Moderne, Marie-Suzanne Feigel, Paul Klee, Tafelbilder und Aquarelle, 1949, no. 12.

Basel, Kunstmuseum Basel, Sammlung, Richard Doetsch-Bensinger. Malerei, Zeichnung und Plastik des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts, 1956, repr., no. 157.

Wuppertal, Kunst- und Museumsverein Wuppertal; Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Totter dan; Frankfurther Kunstverein; Stadtische Galerie im Lehnbachhaus, Munich; Museum am Ostwall, Dortmund, Sammlung Sir Edward and Lady Hulton, London, 1964-1965, repr., no. 77 (col).

Zurich, Kunsthaus Zurich, Sammlung Sir Edward and Lady Hulton, London, 1967/1968, repr., no 79 (col.).

Muniich, Haus der Kunst, Paul Klee 1879-1940, 1971, repr. no. 53.

Basel, Galerie Beyeler, Klee. "Kunst ist ein Schopfungsgleichnis", 1973, repr. (col.). no. 21.