Villas for Marionettes (Villen für Marionetten)
Artist: Paul Klee (Swiss, 1879-1940)
Date: 1922
Dimensions:
Painting: 11 3/4 × 9 3/4 in. (29.8 × 24.8 cm)
Frame: 19 1/2 × 17 1/2 × 2 in. (49.5 × 44.5 × 5.1 cm)
Medium: Oil on board.
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Gift of Thomas T. Solley
Object number: 1996.15
Label Text:Paul 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.
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.
On view
In Collection(s)