Paul Klee: Theater Everywhere
Category: Books,Arts & Photography,History & Criticism
Paul Klee: Theater Everywhere Details
Like many of his Bauhaus contemporaries, Paul Klee (1879-1940) was deeply influenced by theater and the stage. Throughout his life Klee attended theatrical performances, from the opera to puppet shows, with an almost fanatical zeal, and characters from plays or opera--Hamlet, Falstaff and Don Giovanni, for example--populate his enigmatic visual world. Various types of character roles and theatrical elements, like clowns and masks, were firmly established themes in his repertoire, and as last year's delightful Paul Klee: Hand Puppets showed, he also delighted in puppetry, making bizarre bricolaged puppets out of household materials to amuse his son Felix. Primarily, though, Klee understood the sympathies between theater and life, absorbing the topos of the world as a stage into his observations: People became actors or marionettes and theatrical events touched upon scenes from everyday life. This publication sheds light on all of these aspects of Klee's fascination with the arts of the stage. A chronology gives a panoramic outline of his several encounters with the theater and a selection of works by contemporary artists makes it clear that Klee was not the only artist to be fascinated with the sharp-eyed perception of theatrical scenarios--the topic is one that continues to engage artists today.
Reviews
All the world's a stage, said Shakespeare in the guise of Jaques in As You Like It; and Klee not only believed it, he perceived it. Klee was a lfelong fan of theater arts, from grand opera to the circus to street puppet theatre, from fantasy drama and comedy to ballet even to some cinema and cabaret. This unusual and important book, presently available as remainders, presents selections from many Klee collections that illustrate this perspective. Thumbing through the book at a store, I was struck by the many, many images of Klee's works that I have never before seen; and I have many books on Klee and have visited several museum exhibits of his paintings and drawings. The book, which accompanied an exhibit in Bern and Brussels in 2007-2008 on the same topic, includes a useful illustrated chronology of theater arts from 1876 to 1940 (the year of Klee's death). Klee, unlike Picasso, had never actually been involved in theatrical art design, yet his works are of masks, caricatures (Charlie Chaplin, Anna May Wong, Josephine Baker, Kaiser Wilhelm II), facial gestures and exaggerated expressions, more direct theatrical references, and folk tale stereotypes. He also made grotesque puppets that Tim Burton would enjoy. Other works concerned dancers, circus acrobats and clowns, and children at play (which of course is theater of imagination). Six brief essays from art historians and critics close the book. I found the discussion by Christine Hopfengart on Klee's advocacy and criticism of the Bauhaus theater program particularly insightful. To put it bluntly, every fan of Klee and those interested in theatrical art design should search for a copy of this book. Even though limited in scope, this book is that worthy.