As recognizable as it is unclassifiable, the work of Paul Klee (Münchenbuchsee, 1879-Muralto, 1940) was founded in his younger years on German expressionism to later move through geometric abstraction and surrealism.
But before becoming the giant of 20th century art who dazzled the world with his symphonies of yellows, blues and reds, Klee dreamed of soaking up Spanish culture and getting to know every corner of "the country where
goyas grow up",
as he wrote.
He couldn't fulfill that dream.
The great trip was limited to a brief tour of the north of the Peninsula in 1929 during a vacation with the Kandinsky couple.
To see the works of his beloved painters in the Prado Museum, he had to wait until almost the end of his life, in 1939, during the exhibition of the Prado's treasures in Geneva.
But if the physical approach was scarce, the weight of Spanish culture permeated Klee's life and work just as his paintings inspired the Spanish artists who embraced abstraction.
The historian Alfonso de la Torre analyzes these influences in the book
Klee and Spain.
The Unredeemed Kleenians
(nine editions, 2021).
More information
Paul Klee, master of color and rhythm but a free spirit of styles
The author, an expert on the 20th century, has added the subtitle
Paul Klee and post-war Spanish art
to his essay and divides the book into two distinct parts. In one he narrates Klee's dream for Spain and in the second he speaks of the "star sower" that the Swiss artist became.
Where did Klee's interest in Spanish culture come from? "Spain was a fascination that always accompanied him, almost an obsession," De la Torre replies, to the point that he came to draw up a detailed
Spanien Plan
for the visit. That fascination had to do with the idea of the romantic Spain that was in the German and European culture of his time and that, therefore, functioned as an exciting and energetic component. “His was not, exactly, the trip to the South”, specifies De la Torre, “but rather, the encounter with a culture that he admired. Some of Klee's drawings made in the French Basque Country seemed to look fascinated, yearning, at the other side, the Spanish shore. and their
diaries
they do not fail to mention Spanish culture: Casals, Zuloaga, Cervantes, Tirso de Molina, Calderón, Goya or Velázquez are cited by Klee. His son Félix added his passion for El Greco”.
The book reconstructs Klee's visit to the Geneva exhibition with hitherto little-known details. They were contributed by the artist's son, Felix Klee, in 1981 and had gone almost unnoticed. “Velázquez and Goya followed him like ghosts until the end”, explains the author. “It was the summer of 1939, a year before his death. Let us think of that difficult moment of Klee, repudiated by Nazi violence, cut off from the world and very ill, almost saying goodbye to life in front of the paintings of Velázquez and Goya. Let us also think of the drama of those works from the Prado Museum in exile from the Geneva Museum. In the country where the
goyas
grew up , as Klee said, the clubbing continued. Just thinking about it, imagining Klee seeing those paintings, is exciting. Klee in front of
Las Meninas
in Geneva.
It seemed like a goodbye to all that, a sad irony that, for the first time, at the end of his days, he had the opportunity to contemplate such beautiful paintings, longed for all his life.
The work 'It's dawning', by Paul Klee, painted in 1939, which will be exhibited at the Joan Miró Foundation in Barcelona in October.Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern.
In the second part of the essay, the influence of Klee is analyzed both among his contemporaries and among later creators. Who were and who would be today the unrepentant Kleenians and what did they do to spread the work of the Swiss artist? “In our post-war art, a good part of the abstract artists had their Kleenian period”, responds De la Torre. “That influence was worldwide and amazing, when reviewing the trajectory of many painters [several of the creators of El Paso or the abstract expressionists] we find declared influences of Paul Klee. In Spain, Klee was revered. Pablo Palazuelo, for example, traveled to Paris in 1948 to get to know his work in depth. It is possible to find traces of Klee in the early work of so many artists: Canogar, Chirino, Feito, Millares or Sempere. Edward Westerdahl,A visitor to the Bauhaus, he was one of the constant theoretical promoters of Klee's work and let's not forget that the first Klee originals were seen at the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, it was 1936″.
The influence on Joan Miró
One of the most obvious cases of Klee's weight is found in Joan Miró.
The Catalan artist went so far as to affirm that his work would not be understood without Klee's surrealist symphonies.
Both were discussed in Paris during the 1920s.
“Miró said that Klee allowed him to free himself from the terrestrial connection, while reaching deeper and more exciting areas,” writes De la Torre.
An example of this understanding will be seen in the exhibition that the Miró Foundation in Barcelona will dedicate in autumn to the German-Swiss artist and his relationship with nature.
If in the case of Miró there was understanding and affinity, the same did not happen between Picasso and Klee. The author of the book acknowledges possible influences and mutual respect, but little personal connection: “I think there was something of fascination in Klee when he looked at Picasso”, explains De la Torre, “while asking that the Picassian chalice be removed from him, as he came to say. Although, analyzing Picasso's painting after meeting Klee, one also sees Kleenian notes in certain paintings. The last meeting between the two was a disaster. It was in Bern in 1937. Picasso arrived at the appointment late and flushed from the Valais wine. There they came to stage the irreconcilable differences of character, between the excessive Picasso and the silent Klee. When the date was over,Picasso's first comment was to say cavalierly that the studio looked like a laboratory.
For Alfonso de la Torre, Klee's footprint in Spain shows no signs of ending.
And he gives a few examples of creators in the wake of the Swiss: Eduardo Barco (Ciudad Real, 1970), Alejandro Corujeira (Buenos Aires, 1961), Emilio Gañán (Plasencia, 1971), Carlos Pascual (Madrid, 1950), Luis Palmero (Tenerife, 1957) or Javier Victorero (Oviedo, 1967).