Kleinode - Kunstsammlung NRW / Online-Sammlung

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Foto: Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf

Information

Artist

Paul Klee

1879
Münchenbuchsee bei Bern, Schweiz

1940
Locarno-Muralto, Schweiz

Work data

Material/Technique

Pastel on cotton mounted on jute, with colored paste borders, on stretcher

Dimensions

Image: 57.6 × 76.5 × 2.1 cm
Frame: 68.7 × 87.1 × 5 cm

Signature

Bez. o.l.: "Klee", a.d. Keilrahmen: "1937 U 14. "Kleinode" Klee"

Accession Number

0041

Catalogue Raisonné

Cat. Rais. Nr. 7150

Acquisition year

1960

Provenance

The work “Kleinode” by Paul Klee remained the property of the artist from the year it was created in 1937. After his death in 1940, it became the property of Klee’s wife Lily as part of his artistic estate. Due to an agreement negotiated in Washington on May 25, 1946, the Paul Klee estate of around 6,000 works was at risk of being liquidated in favor of the Allied countries upon the death of the artist’s widow. Therefore, on behalf of Lily Klee – and two days before her death – the Bernese businessman Rolf Bürgi sold the entire artistic estate to the Bernese businessman Hermann Rupf and the Bernese publisher Hans Meyer-Benteli on September 20, 1946. Together with Bürgi and the Bernese architect Werner Allenbach, the two founded the Klee-Gesellschaft on September 24, 1946 and transferred the Paul Klee estate into its possession. By 1950 at the latest the work was part of the personal collection of Rolf Bürgi, who had been collecting works by Paul Klee since before 1946. In June 1953, Bürgi sold the work together with two other works to the Curt Valentin Gallery in New York. At an unknown date, G. David Thompson purchased it for his collection, where it remained until it was sold to Galerie Beyeler in Basel in 1960. The state of North Rhine-Westphalia subsequently purchased the work “Kleinode” from Galerie Beyeler together with 87 other works by Paul Klee. They formed the basis of the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, which was founded in 1961.

Credit line

Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf

Exhibitions

Paul Klee. Konstruktion - Intuition, 7.12.1990-2.3.1991, Städtische Kunsthalle Mannheim, Mannheim
Der gestirnte Himmel, 20.8.-18.10.1997, Arp Museum Rolandseck, Remagen
Unser 20. Jahrhundert - Meisterwerke von Picasso bis Beuys, 14.7.-28.10.2000, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf
Paul Klee. Kleinode. Die Sammlung, 22.6.-25.8.2001, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf
Paul Klee. Erzählung und Schöpfung, 23.6.-9.12.2006, Kawamura Memorial Museum of Art, Sakura/Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, Sapporo/The Miyagi Museum of Art, Sendai
Masterpieces of Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen / Meisterwerke der Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, 17.10.2008-30.5.2009, Nagoya City Art Museum, Bunkamura Museum of Art in Tokyo, Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art in Kobe
Die Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen zu Gast in Gottorf. Picasso, Klee, Beckmann, Matisse und weitere Künstler in Schloß Gottorf, 18.7.-24.10.2009, Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte, Stiftung Schleswig-Holsteinische Landesmuseen, Schloß Gottorf, Schleswig
100 x Paul Klee. Geschichte der Bilder, 28.9.2012-20.4.2013, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, K21 Ständehaus
Paul Klee! Meisterwerke aus der Kunstsammlung NRW, 20.3.-18.7.2015, Kunsthalle Emden
museum global: Prolog: Paul Klee. Eine Sammlung auf Reisen, 12.10.2018-9.3.2019, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf (K20 Grabbeplatz, Kleehalle)