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The Limits of Reason
German: Grenzen des Verstandes, English: The Bounds of the Intellect
The Limits of Understanding
Boundaries of the Mind
Reproduction in René Crevel's Paul Klee (1930)
ArtistPaul Klee
Year1927 (1927)
Typepainting (oil, watercolor and pencil on canvas)[1] Canvas tempera[2]
Dimensions56.44 cm[1] cm × 41.50 cm[1] cm (?? × ??)
LocationPinakothek der Moderne, Munich
OwnerMusée Rodin

Limits of Reason (German: Grenzen des Verstandes) is a 1927 painting by Paul Klee (1879-1940). It is in the permanent collection of the Pinakothek der Moderne—Pinakothek of modern art—in central Munich's Kunstareal.

Provenance

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Galerie Neue Kunst Fides 1926

The Limits of Reason was first exhibited in in 1926 in Rudolf Probst's Galerie Neue Kunst Fides in Dresden, along with 99 other tempera/water colors by Klee.

German art dealer, art collector, journalist and publisher, Alfred Flechtheim (1878 – 1937)[1][3][4] acquired it for his private collection in 1928 and displayed it in his gallery in both 1928 and 1929. In 1931, he loaned it to the New York Museum of Modern Art.

By 1958 the painting was owned by Theodor and Woty Werner. In 1971, with Erich Steingräber as museum director, through the Werners' legacy,Grenzen des Verstandes (inventory number 14234) became part of the permanent collection of the the Bavarian State Painting Collection—the Pinakothek der Moderne—Pinakothek museum of modern art in Munich.[1]

Description

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"The work is a striking example of Klee 's Bauhaus period, in which the polarization of static - dynamic was fundamental. It is considered programmatic in the context of the dispute over the orientation of the Bauhaus. His filigree, technical perfection suggestive line framework in the lower part of the painting and the red centrally placed circular shape in the upper third stand on a white primed canvas, which reminds in its structure and color to Kasimir Malevich."[1]

The painting is an "immensely complicated structure made up of linear pieces" above which is a "perfect sphere floating in space" with a gap between the two, a gap between the human capacity of reason and the human desire to fully understand.[5][6]

Background

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Klee produced over 9,000 works.

Klee was the son of a musicologist and he drew parallels between sound and art.[7]

The painting has been described as surrealist. Along with other works by Klee during the Bauhaus period in Dessau, it has been called interpretative, and later, constructivism. His work has been compared to works by Malevich, Gabo and Tatlin. This painting has similarities to other works by Klee, such his Rope Tilers.

Critical analysis

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In his 1930 publication Paul Klee, René Crevel contrasted Klee's work with that of romanticism, situating Klee as an artist after The Flood. "cette échelle rouge perdue au sein de l’éther tourterelle. Cette échelle, voilà bien l’escalier, le seul qui puisse nous mener jusqu’au tremplin d’où nous sauterons, à pieds joints, dans l’impossible, puisqu’il s’agit enfin de décrocher la lune." A black and white reproduction of Limits of Reason was included in this book.[8]

Grenzen des Verstandes

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The debut album of the Ensemble Sortisatio, entitled 8 Pieces on Paul Klee, was recorded in 2002 in Leipzig and then in Lucerne, Switzerland and published by Creative Works Records in 2003. In 2006/07, the Hungarian composer and pianist Andor Losonczy (1932-2018) created a piece, Grenzen des Verstandes, as part of this Klee project. It was premiered by the Leipzig Ensemble Sortisatio in the 2008 concert series musica aperta at the Kunstmuseum Winterthur[9] a gallery in Winterthur in the canton of Zürich in northern Switzerland. The Kunstmuseum was built in 1915 and is operated by the local Kunstverein.

Further reading

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From alfredflechtheim.com

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  • Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen (ed.), Annual Report, Munich 1972, p. 5
  • Munich Yearbook of Fine Arts, Munich 1972, p. 240, p. 243.
  • Christian Geelhaar, Paul Klee. Fruits on red, in: Pantheon, 30, No. 3, 1972, p. 228.
  • David R. Burnett, Klee as Senecio: Self-Portraits 1908-1922, in: Art International, 21, H. 5, 1977, pp. 12-18, here p. 13.
  • Mark Rosenthal, Paul Klee and the Arrow, Ann Arbor 1983 (also Diss: Iowa City 1979), p. 111.
  • Beeke S. Tower, Klee and Kandinsky in Munich at the Bauhaus, Ann Arbor (Mich.) 1981 (also: Diss., Providence 1978) 1981, p. 177, 179.
  • Jim. M. Jordan, Paul Klee and Cubism 1912-1926m, Ann Arbor (Mich.) 1981 (also Diss: New York 1974 and Princeton 1984), P. 189-191.
  • Albert Cook, The Sign in Klee, in: Word & Image, Vol. 2, No. 4, October-December 1986, pp. 363-381, here p. 374.
  • Stefan Frey and Wolfgang Kersten, Paul Klee's business connection to the Galerie Alfred Flechtheim, in: Ausst. Cat. Alfred Flechtheim, Dusseldorf 1987, pp. 64-99, here 67.
  • Carla Schulz-Hoffmann et al., State Gallery of Modern Art Munich. A tour of the collection, Munich 1987, p. 67.
  • Sarah Lynn Henry, Paul Klee's pictorial mechanics from physics to the picture plane, in: Pantheon, 47, 1989 pp. 147-165, here p. 153.
  • Carla Schulz-Hoffmann, The Woty Collection and Theodor Werner, Munich 1990, No. 30.
  • Cathrin Klingsöhr-Leroy, Paul Klee, Ostfildern 1994, p. 48.
  • Carla Schulz-Hoffmann et al., The Full Moon. State Gallery of Modern Art Munich. Explanations of selected works. 1995, p. 187f.
  • Cathrin Klingsöhr-Leroy, Paul Klee in the Pinakothek der Moderne, Mus.-Cat. Bavarian State Painting Collections, Munich 1999 p.150-159.

Center Paul Klee, Berne (ed.): Paul Klee. Life and work. Ostfilfern 2013, p.198ff.

  • Handwritten lists by Paul Klee "February 1928 / for Alfred Flechtheim Berlin / I Department of the Painting Collection (by Fides)" and "February 1928 / II Department of the Painting Collection / for / Alfred Flechtheim Berlin"
  • Location Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern; Donation Family Klee
  • Rosi Hulisch, Galerie Alfred Flechtheim, Berlin, to Paul Klee, 15.11.1933
  • "Valentin handed me your letter from the 10th ds. As far as I can, I have gladly picked out the missing data: [...] 21.II.29 / Exchange Bernheim, I could not find out. During the Paris exhibition, several pictures, which were first reported as sold, and this message had already been forwarded to you, were exchanged or the sales withdrawn. According to my records, 13 paintings were sold in the Paris and Brussels exhibitions, some of which came from the Lot owned by Mr. Lange, Krefeld. "
  • Location: Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern; Donation Family Klee

Paul Klee

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  • Franciscono, Marcel (1991). Paul Klee: His Work and Thought. University Of Chicago Press. p. 406. ISBN 0-226-25990-0.
  • Argan, Guilo Carlo (1961). Spiller, Jürg; Humphries, Lund (eds.). Preface. Paul Klee, The Thinking Eye. London.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • "The private Klee: Works by Paul Klee from the Bürgi Collection". Edinburgh: Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. 2000.
  • Herbert Read (1959). A concise history of modern painting. London.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • Partsch, Susanna (1993). Paul Klee 1879–1940. Köln: Taschen Basic Art. ISBN 3-8228-0299-9.
  • Editors of American Heritage Dictionaries (2005). "Paul Klee". The Riverside Dictionary of Biography. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. pp. 452–453. ISBN 978-0-618-49337-1. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  • Danto, Arthur Coleman (1997). Encounters & Reflections: Art in the Historical Present. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-20846-9.
  • Kleiner, Fred S. (7 January 2009). "Paul Klee". Gardner's Art Through the Ages: the Western Perspective. Cengage Learning. p. 724. ISBN 978-0-495-57364-7. Retrieved 14 August 2011.
  • Larson, Kay (2 March 1987). "Signs and Symbols". New York Magazine: 96–99. Retrieved 14 August 2011.
  • Michael, Virginia (19 January 1941). "Klee Paintings Exhibited At Smith College". Hartford Courant. p. A12. Archived from the original on 7 November 2012. Retrieved 14 August 2011.
  • "Schuller – a Renaissance Man". Milwaukee Sentinel. 20 September 1991. Retrieved 14 August 2011.
  • Twittering Machine, MoMA, retrieved 14 August 2011
  • Perl, Jed (13 February 2007). New Art City: Manhattan at Mid-Century. Random House Digital, Inc. ISBN 978-1-4000-3465-9.
  • Richard, Paul (29 March 1987). "Klee; The Magical Exhibit at MoMA". The Washington Post. p. g.01. Archived from the original on 7 November 2012. Retrieved 14 August 2011.
  • Shottenkirk, Dena (16 May 2006). "Klee in America". artnet.com. Retrieved 14 August 2011.
  • Soby, James Thrall (1948). Contemporary Painters. Ayer Publishing. ISBN 978-0-405-01508-3.
  • "Music: the World of Paul Klee". Time. 29 February 1960. Retrieved 14 August 2011.
  • Werckmeister, Otto Karl (1989). The Making of Paul Klee's Career, 1914–1920. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-89358-7.
  • Wheye, Darryl; Donald Kennedy (24 July 2008). Humans, Nature, and Birds: Science Art from Cave Walls to Computer Screens. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-12388-3.

=Alfred Flechtheim

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f "Paul Klee: Limits of the Mind, 1927". Alfred Flechtheim: Art dealer of the avant-garde (in German). nd. Retrieved 1 November 2018.
  2. ^ "Grenzen des Verstandes". Pinakothek Collection. Pinakothek. nd. Retrieved 1 November 2018.
  3. ^ Gee, Malcolm (1981). Dealers, Critics, and Collectors of Modern Painting: Aspects of the Parisian Art Market between 1910 and 1930. London: Garland. ISBN 0-8240-3931-9.
  4. ^ Sontheimer, Michael (25 June 2012). "Stärker als Spiel, Alkohol und Weiber". Der Spiegel (in German). No. 26/2012.
  5. ^ Greenwood, Veronique (1 November 2018). "My Grandfather Thought He Solved a Cosmic Mystery". The Atlantic. Retrieved 1 November 2018.
  6. ^ Spector, Jack J. (2001). "On the Limits of Understanding in Modern Art: Klee, Miro, Freud". American Imago. 58 (1): 479–96. doi:10.1353/aim.2001.0005. JSTOR 26304683. Retrieved 1 November 2018.
  7. ^ Time (1960)
  8. ^ Paul Klee. Gallimard. 1930. Retrieved 1 November 2018.
  9. ^ Gesamtprogramme von musica aperta, www.musica-aperta.ch, abgerufen am 18. Februar 2018.

DEFAULTSORT:Limits of Reason, The Category:Paintings by Paul Klee Category:1927 paintings

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