Paul Klee
Untitled1930

On view:

Broad Contemporary Art Museum, floor 3

Vertical abstract painting with a large yellow concentric oval floating above an arrangement of pale rounded shapes, organic blobs in rust and brown, and a blue color field, all against a near-black background

Artist or Maker: Paul Klee
Switzerland, 1879-1940
Title: Untitled
Place Made: Switzerland
Date Made: 1930
Medium: Oil over India ink on plywood
Dimensions: 17 1/4 × 15 in. (43.82 × 38.1 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of the Robert Gore Rifkind Collection and purchased with funds provided by the William Preston Harrison Collection
Accession Number: 78.11
Classification: Paintings
Collecting Area: Modern Art
Curatorial Notes: Paul Klee was a prolific artist, producing over ten thousand works in a range of techniques and materials. Despite the artist’s tendency toward experimentation and an idiosyncratic style, one can identify a longstanding interest in the patterns of growth and recurrence in Klee’s work, whether in the natural or manmade world. Looking to the constructive energies underlying all matter, he aimed to “merge architectonic with poetic painting.” In this untitled painting, a vibratory energy courses through the dance of celestial, natural, and geometric or architectural forms, lacking symmetry but fully balanced.
Lauren Hanson
Provenance: The artist (1879-1940). [Alfred Flechteim, Dusseldorf/Berlin/Paris/London until 1930]; [Herbert Tannenbaum ( Das Kunsthaus), Mannheim/Amsterdam/New York]; [Daniel- Henry Kahnweiler, Paris until 1934]; [Karl Nierendorf, Cologne /Berlin/New York]; [Israel Ber Neumann, Graphisches Kabinett, New Art Circle, Neumann Gallery, Berlin/New York]; Victor Collection, Pleasantville; [Earl Stendahl Gallery, Los Angeles]; Abraham and Margit W. Chanin, New York; [Staempfli Gallery, New York]; sold to Morton D. May (1914-1983), Saint Louis; [Marlborough Fine Art Ltd., London by 1974]; sold to Robert Gore Rifkind (1928-2019), Beverly Hills; sold and given in 1978 to LACMA.
Selected Bibliography: Tuchman, Maurice; R. Welsh; C. Blotkamp; C. Eldredge; S. Ringbom; Å. Fant; J. Bowlt; C. Douglas; R. Long; L. Henderson; H. Watts; J. Moffitt; W. Rushing; W. Moritz; D. Kuspit; G. Imanse; E. Kasinec; B. Kerdimun; R. Galbreath; Judi Freeman. The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting 1890-1985. New York: Abbeville Press, 1986.
Helfenstein, Josef, and Christian Rümelin, eds. Paul Klee: Catalogue Raisonné. London and New York: Thames & Hudson, 2002. Catalogue raisonné, vol. 5, no. 5322, p. 504, illustrated.
Helfenstein, Josef, and Christian Rümelin, eds. Paul Klee: Catalogue Raisonné. London and New York: Thames & Hudson, 2001.
Copyright: © Zentrum Paul Klee / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / PROLITTERIS, Switzerland

Related Unframed

Paul Klee
Untitled1930

On view:

Broad Contemporary Art Museum, floor 3

Artist or Maker: Paul Klee
Switzerland, 1879-1940
Title: Untitled
Place Made: Switzerland
Date Made: 1930
Medium: Oil over India ink on plywood
Dimensions: 17 1/4 × 15 in. (43.82 × 38.1 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of the Robert Gore Rifkind Collection and purchased with funds provided by the William Preston Harrison Collection
Accession Number: 78.11
Classification: Paintings
Collecting Area: Modern Art
Curatorial Notes: Paul Klee was a prolific artist, producing over ten thousand works in a range of techniques and materials. Despite the artist’s tendency toward experimentation and an idiosyncratic style, one can identify a longstanding interest in the patterns of growth and recurrence in Klee’s work, whether in the natural or manmade world. Looking to the constructive energies underlying all matter, he aimed to “merge architectonic with poetic painting.” In this untitled painting, a vibratory energy courses through the dance of celestial, natural, and geometric or architectural forms, lacking symmetry but fully balanced.
Lauren Hanson
Provenance: The artist (1879-1940). [Alfred Flechteim, Dusseldorf/Berlin/Paris/London until 1930]; [Herbert Tannenbaum ( Das Kunsthaus), Mannheim/Amsterdam/New York]; [Daniel- Henry Kahnweiler, Paris until 1934]; [Karl Nierendorf, Cologne /Berlin/New York]; [Israel Ber Neumann, Graphisches Kabinett, New Art Circle, Neumann Gallery, Berlin/New York]; Victor Collection, Pleasantville; [Earl Stendahl Gallery, Los Angeles]; Abraham and Margit W. Chanin, New York; [Staempfli Gallery, New York]; sold to Morton D. May (1914-1983), Saint Louis; [Marlborough Fine Art Ltd., London by 1974]; sold to Robert Gore Rifkind (1928-2019), Beverly Hills; sold and given in 1978 to LACMA.
Selected Bibliography: Tuchman, Maurice; R. Welsh; C. Blotkamp; C. Eldredge; S. Ringbom; Å. Fant; J. Bowlt; C. Douglas; R. Long; L. Henderson; H. Watts; J. Moffitt; W. Rushing; W. Moritz; D. Kuspit; G. Imanse; E. Kasinec; B. Kerdimun; R. Galbreath; Judi Freeman. The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting 1890-1985. New York: Abbeville Press, 1986.
Helfenstein, Josef, and Christian Rümelin, eds. Paul Klee: Catalogue Raisonné. London and New York: Thames & Hudson, 2002. Catalogue raisonné, vol. 5, no. 5322, p. 504, illustrated.
Helfenstein, Josef, and Christian Rümelin, eds. Paul Klee: Catalogue Raisonné. London and New York: Thames & Hudson, 2001.
Copyright: © Zentrum Paul Klee / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / PROLITTERIS, Switzerland