In the Kairouan Style, Transposed in a Moderate Way

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In the Kairouan Style, Transposed in a Moderate Way

Switzerland, 1914
Drawings; watercolors
Watercolor and pencil on paper on bristol board
5 11/16 x 8 7/16 in. (14.5 x 21.5 cm)
Partial, fractional and promised gift of Janice and Henri Lazarof (M.2005.70.51)
Not currently on public view

Label

Just before the outbreak of World War I, Paul Klee traveled to Tunisia. The light of the North African country and its effect on the perception of color had a dramatic impact on his art....
Just before the outbreak of World War I, Paul Klee traveled to Tunisia. The light of the North African country and its effect on the perception of color had a dramatic impact on his art. Klee would paint his first fully abstract works after this trip, including the two watercolors seen here, employing a vocabulary of colorful geometric forms. This geometric framework would remain important to him, even as he returned to figuration in his art. Klee joined the Bauhaus faculty in 1921 and taught at the school until 1931, working as the form master for the bookbinding, stained glass, and mural painting workshops.

Wall label, 2021.
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Bibliography

  • Barron, Stephanie. Envisioning Modernism: The Janice and Henri Lazarof Collection. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Munich; New York: DelMonico Books-Prestel, 2012.