Small World (Kleinwelt)

12 February – 18 March 1912

The second “Blue Rider” exhibition: 17 drawings

Seventeen of Klee’s graphic works were shown at the second exhibition of the “Blue Rider” editors, at Hans Goltz’s Munich gallery; it was called “Black-White” because it included only graphic works and watercolours. His ink drawing “Steinhauer” was also reproduced in the almanac, whose only issue appeared in May 1912; Klee’s meeting with Hans Arp dates from the same period.

2 – 18 April 1912

Second trip to Paris: Kahnweiler, Uhde, Picasso

With his wife, Klee visited Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler’s gallery, saw the collection of Wilhelm Uhde and works by Braque, Derain, Matisse, Picasso, Rousseau and Vlaminck. He also met Henri Le Fauconnier and Karl Hofer.

11 April 1912

Robert Delaunay’s studio: discovering abstraction

On 11 April Klee visited Robert Delaunay’s studio in Paris and discovered abstract painting detached from natural forms; his understanding of light and colour changed substantially. In December he began translating Delaunay’s essay “On Light” (La Lumière) for Herwarth Walden’s magazine Der Sturm, and in 1914, under Delaunay’s influence, he painted “Abstraction. Coloured Circles Interwoven with Coloured Ribbons”.

25 May 1912 – September 1913

Exhibitions in Cologne (1912) and Berlin (1913)

Four of Klee’s drawings were shown at the international art exhibition of the association of West German artists and friends of art in Cologne (25 May – 30 September 1912). In September 1913 he exhibited watercolours and drawings at the First German Autumn Salon in Berlin.

from 3 April 1914

Tunisia with Macke and Moilliet: Klee the painter

On 3 April 1914 Klee set out from Bern with August Macke and Louis Moilliet, via Lyon and Marseille to Tunisia — Saint-Germain, Sidi Bou Said, Carthage, Hammamet, Kairouan — and he alone of the three kept a diary. Struck by the light, Klee wrote that colour had taken possession of him for ever and that he was a painter; back home he painted his first purely abstract work, “In the Style of Kairouan”, built of coloured rectangles and a few circles.

March 1916

First exhibition of abstract watercolours at Walden’s

Herwarth Walden’s gallery held the first exhibition of Klee’s abstract watercolours, a success with the public. He gave the works new titles, marking his break with war themes, and Walden asked him for more.