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Information

Artist

Paul Klee

1879
Münchenbuchsee bei Bern, Schweiz

1940
Locarno-Muralto, Schweiz

Work data

Material/Technique

Crayon and colored paste on silk on jute, on stretcher

Dimensions

Frame: 90,5 × 69,8 × 5,5 cm
Image: 70 × 50,5 cm

Signature

Bez. r.: "Klee", a.d. Keilrahmen: "1939 KK 10 'omphalo-centrischer Vortrag'"

Accession Number

0053

Catalogue Raisonné

Cat. Rais. Nr. 8396

Acquisition year

1960

Provenance

From the year of its creation in 1939, the work “omphalo-centrischer Vortrag” by Paul Klee remained the property of the artist, who that same year sent it on consignment to the art dealer Karl Nierendorf in New York, where it can be found in the Nierendorf Gallery until at least 1945. After Paul Klee’s death in 1940, the work became the property of Klee’s wife Lily. The Nierendorf Gallery probably gave the work, which was held on consignment for Lily Klee, to Curt Valentin, in whose Buchholz Gallery it was part of an exhibition in 1948. It was subsequently included in the collection of Bernhard H. Friedman and the Saidenberg Gallery in New York before G. David Thompson purchased it for his collection in 1954. The work remained in his collection until it was sold to Galerie Beyeler in Basel in 1960. The state of North Rhine-Westphalia subsequently purchased the work “omphalo-centrischer Vortrag” 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
  • L'œuvre ultime de Cézanne à Dubuffet, 3.7.-3.10.1989, Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul
  • Paul Klee, 2.7.-1.11.1992, Galleria d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Palazzo Forti, Verona
  • Paul Klee. Retrospective, 1.4.-22.5.1993, Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, Nagoya
  • Paul Klee 1879-1940, 15.12.-12.2.1988, Musée d'art moderne de Saint-Etienne, Saint-Etienne
  • Paul Klee - In der Maske des Mythos, 30.9.1999-8.1.2000, Haus der Kunst, München
  • Paul Klee - In der Maske des Mythos, 18.2.-20.5.2000, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam
  • 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
  • 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
  • 100 x Paul Klee. Geschichte der Bilder, 28.9.2012-20.4.2013
  • museum global: Prolog: Paul Klee. Eine Sammlung auf Reisen, 12.10.2018-9.3.2019, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf (K20 Grabbeplatz, Kleehalle)
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Service

If you have any questions or comments about works in the collection, please send us an e-mail to
service [​at​] kunstsammlung.de

For image requests and questions about image rights, please contact
vertrieb [​at​] kunstsammlung.de

Further literature on the works in the collection can be found in our special library for art of the 20th- and 21st-centuries:

Werner Schmalenbach Library

Online Catalog

Links

Further works

of Paul Klee

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