Head (Kopf)

1921–1931

The preliminary course on the “theory of form”

Klee developed a preliminary course in the “theory of form” that began with the “point as the beginning of all beginnings”, moving through space, and the “cosmic egg” from which line, spiral, square, circle and cube are born. Students listened to lectures illustrated with Klee’s own abstract watercolours and then painted their own, trying to express movement, balance, flight and tension.

1923

Galka Scheyer and the “Blue Four”

At the instigation of Galka Scheyer the “Blue Four” was formed — Klee, Kandinsky, Lyonel Feininger and Alexej von Jawlensky. Scheyer subsequently organised exhibitions of their work in the United States.

26 January 1924

The lecture “On Modern Art” in Jena

At his exhibition at the Kunstverein in Jena Klee delivered the lecture “On Modern Art” (Über moderne Kunst).

1924–1925

Success with the Paris Surrealists

In 1924 Klee exhibited in Paris for the first time and became a hit with the French Surrealists, who were drawn to his partly morbid motifs. At the Paris Surrealist exhibition of 1925 Max Ernst was impressed by his work.

1928–1929

A journey to Egypt

Egypt impressed Klee less than Tunisia, yet in the desert he felt an almost mystical bond with the land: he was drawn to the proportions of the ancient funerary monuments and to the esoteric numerology by which they were built. His later “Ad Parnassum” was influenced by the trip.

1931

Leaving the Bauhaus for the Düsseldorf Academy

Teaching at the Bauhaus shifted ever more from painting towards an architectural aesthetic, which no longer suited Klee: in 1931 he gave up his post there and became a professor at the Düsseldorf Academy of Art.