Paul Klee (German, 1879-1940) 72 Cyanotypes

Provenance Note: Mathilde (Til) Thiele was a German expressionist dancer and choreographer active in the early 20th century. Known for her intense and expressive performances, she was a prominent figure in the dance and performing arts scene. Thiele was influenced by the German expressionist dance movement, which emphasized emotive and exaggerated movements to convey psychological states, often without the constraints of classical ballet. She integrated these elements into her own style, which combined theatricality, emotional depth, and a strong connection to visual art and music of her time. Til’s early life exposed her to many famous artists; living next door to Auguste Macke, who traveled to Egypt and Tunisia with Paul Klee. Later she knew Klee from the Bauhaus.

Paul Klee (German, 1879-1940)
Paul Klee’s highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented with and eventually deeply explored color theory, writing about it extensively; his lectures “Writings on Form” and “Design Theory” (Schriften zur Form und Gestaltungslehre), published in English as the Paul Klee Notebooks, are held to be as important for modern art as Leonardo da Vinci's “A Treatise on Painting” was for the Renaissance. He and his colleague, Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky, both taught at the Bauhaus school of Art, Design and Architecture in Germany. His studio at the Bauhaus was referred to as “the magic kitchen.” His works reflect his dry humor and his sometimes-childlike perspective, his personal moods and beliefs, and his musicality.