Description |
Vintage black & white line print from a woodblock signed "Klee." Print is on fine textured paper, possibly mid-20th century or earlier. Measures 15" x 18.5" in a simple silver frame with a few scratches per age. We believe this print to be by the artist Paul Klee (1879-1940). Although not titled on print, Klee called this particular piece, "Garden for Orpheus," originally executed in 1926. The original "Garden for Orpheus" (1926) was done with quill and watercolor paint and measured 12.5" x 18.5." Paul Klee was a Swiss-German painter who was one of the foremost artists of the 20th century. As a boy he did landscape drawings and eventually attended the Munich Academy. His caricatures were among his earliest works and he turned to studying children's drawings that allowed him to incorporate a freedom of expression in his drawings. These two concepts eventually lead him to working in abstract cubism with support of his long-time friend and mentor, artist Vasily Kandinsky. In 1920, Klee accepted a teaching position at the Bauhaus School of Modern Design in Germany and received his first one-man exhibition in Paris, which at that time was the capital of European art. After years of declining health, Klee returned to Switzerland in the 1933. His final paintings and drawings became strongly influenced by the painters Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque and Robert Delaunay; however, Klee's work tended to be small in scale, remarkable for their delicate nuances of line, color and tonality. Though officially he belonged to no movement, Klee produced over 9,000 paintings, watercolors and drawings representing a variety of styles in his lifetime. One of Klee's most famous quotes was: "Art does not reflect what is seen, rather it makes the hidden visible."
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