Zentrum Paul Klee. Bern
September 18, 2012
Right now there are two exhibitions at Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern, Switzerland. Lower East rushed through the museum/kulturhaus, we suddenly had that one extra hour to spend with Meister Paul Klee. The first exhibition, Master Klee! Teacher at the Bauhaus, “is organised in accordance with the 24 chapters of Klee’s teaching. For each chapter a selection of the notes is displayed. Klee’s attitude is, that it is not the final form that is important, but the path to its achievement, which runs as a dominant idea through his teaching. He constantly emphasised that a form does not exist, but becomes. Therefore he researched its interior and its formation. Using existing growth phenomena in nature he illustrated particularly at the start of his teaching activity the forming of abstract constructions.“ (text from Zentrum Paul Klee).
You will probably need more time than half an hour to dig into this stuff. We used the most of our time there focusing on four-five fantastic pictures, where balance and construction seemed to be the theme.
“Five aspects are of great significance both in Klee’s work as well as in his teaching: Nature, colour, rhythm, movement and construction. A selection of works shows, that Klee was occupied with these themes already before, during and after his activity at the Bauhaus.“ (text from Zentrum Paul Klee).
The other exhibition was quite big, quite lively and quite colorful. Wauh! Higher beings – Sigmar Polke and Paul Klee. And the graphics at the walls was just stunning, we were not allowed to take pictures there, we succeeded with a few anyway.
The two artists never met, Klee died in 1940 and Polke was born in 1941.
“Not in every respect, but still with reference to many artistic concepts, Klee and Polke can be considered as related spirits. They are linked by the way they critically analysed their era and world through their artistic activity, as well as the ambiguity and latent irony always present in their works. At the same time they both retain the awareness that artistic work remains entirely inexplicable and expresses also something slightly profane, just pure matter. In this way incredible analogies are to be found in their works. The bringing together of Polke and Klee in the exhibition Higher beings is then also much more than a private association of the curator. Each œuvre reflects in the light of the other protagonist in such a way, that our vision is freshly directed and makes the new visible.“ (text from Zentrum Paul Klee).
Meister Klee! runs until January 6, 2013 and Higher beings – Sigmar Polke and Paul Klee until October 7, 2012
More info at the Zentrum Paul Klee webpage.