Klee at the McNay

This small, focused exhibition combines works by Paul Klee from the McNay’s collection with those from the collection of Robert L. B. Tobin, who was an avid collector and aficionado of the modern master’s work. This is the first time that many of these drawings, watercolors, and prints have been on view together.

Influenced by currents of modern art including Expressionism, Cubism, and Surrealism, Klee developed a highly individual and imaginative visual language that defies definition. Rather, he is seen as an artist’s artist, someone who was widely and critically influential to the development of many artists’ careers in Europe and the United States throughout the twentieth century. 

Klee’s Tightrope Walker is one of the artist’s most famous images. Created in 1923 when Klee was teaching at the Staatliches Bauhaus in Germany, the image represents the challenges an artist faces in balancing compositional forms as well as the role of the artist in society, the role of risk taker and challenger of social norms. It was a motif that Klee often used in his works throughout his career.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.

Whether or not you go, Paul Klee: Life and Work is a beautiful volume offering high-quality reproductions and the latest biographical information on Paul Klee, who helped pave the way for Modernism. Readers will find much to discover and relish in Paul Klee's art. Several lavish reproductions of his iconic works, as well as those that are more rarely exhibited, are featured alongside in-depth biographical information that looks beyond his many artistic achievements to explore the life and times of the man himself. Never-before-published photographs of Klee and his circle, as well as entertaining and enlightening anecdotes, offer a multifaceted perspective on a groundbreaking artist and the events that helped shape his colorful, imaginative work.

Paul Klee: Life and Work