*Paul KLEE (1879-1940) Modell 106, Imfarbiger polythonie, 1931 Aquarelle signée en bas à droite. 45,5 x 63 cm - 18 x 25 in. Enregistré dans le catalogue de l'artiste sous le numéro T18(198) en 1931. Watercolor on paper, signed on bottom right Recorded in the artist Werkkatalog as number T18(198) for the year 1931. Provenance : Alfred Flechtheim, Düsseldorf, 1931 Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, Paris 1937 Karl Nierendorf, Koln, 1937-1938 Galerie Simon (Louise Leiris), Paris, 1938 Ludvig Mies van der Rohe, Chicago, acquired from the above on Nov. 10, 1939 Lora F. Marx, Chicago, acquired circa 1950 Sotheby's NY, sale, Nov. 16, 1989, lot 155 Galerie Beyeler, Basel, 1989 Private collection, London, 1989 Exposition : Chicago, Katherine Kuh Gallery, Paul Klee, Déc. 1939 Basel, Switzerland, Beyeler Foundation, Color and Night, April 16-July 30th, 2000. Bibliographie : Paul Klee Foundation, Paul Klee : catalogue raisonné, New York 1998, #5603 Model 106 (extended) in colorful polyphony 1931, 198(T18). Estimation sur demande At the age of 34, Klee discovered the color and clarity of the Mediterannean light during a voyage to Tunisia, where he was also inspired by the the cube-shaped architecture of the arab houses, which were simultaneously rigid and fanciful. The work of this young German artist, the son of a music professor and an amateur musician from Münchenbuchsee, embodies a mix of Western refinement and Eastern exoticism. Both artist and scientist, Klee produced works that embody the union of opposites: East and West, mystic and logic, poetry and mathematics, day and night, the visible and the invisible, the conscience and the unconscience, childhood naivety and artistic refinement, order and anarchy, irony and emotion. Juxtaposed and contradictory elements are simultaneously present in his works. The artist undertook the mission of creating an exterior world existing outside of our own: an art composed of linear, geometric and colored forms. Between 1921 and 1930, Klee taught at the Bauhaus, the innovative school of architecture and art whose goal was to combine fine art and applied arts, and whose teachings were based on the synthesis of the theoretical and the practical in plastic arts. In collaboration with Kandinsky, Klee regularly gave lessons and developed the first systematic theory of pure pictorial means, leading to an exceptional clarification of the suggestive possibilities of abstraction. Our painting was completed in 1931, the year that Klee left the Bauhaus for the Düsseldorf Academy, where he worked more independantly, devoting more time to his personal work. Like Kandinsky, his paintings are composed of a world of symbols that became increasingly simplified over time. As his work becomes ever more abstract, Klee creates a vision composed of signs and symbols. The painting ressembles writing, even hieroglyphs, deftly used to represent the the exterior world of the painter. The Museum of Modern Art presented an important Klee exhibit in 1930, MoMA's first exhibit dedicated to a living artist. Estimate upon request