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Lot Essay
In 1914, Klee visited Tunisia with his friends August Macke and Louis Moilliet. This trip would have a lasting influence on his artistic output long after his return to Munich and through his time at the Bauhaus. Inspired by the gently diffused light in North Africa, Klee began to remove color from pictorial description and thus was able to approach abstraction more closely. This adeptly rendered street scene, Strassenskizze aus Kairouan, demonstrates his move toward a more independent representation, with its detachment of color from form.
On 15 to 16 April 1914, Klee, Macke and Moilliet visited the city of Kairouan. Spending this short journey in a daze, Klee sketched around town but quickly became overcome by his surroundings. In his diary, he writes, “I now abandon work. It penetrates so deeply and so gently into me, I feel it and it gives me confidence in myself without effort. Color possesses me. I don’t have to pursue it. It will possess me always, I know it. That is the meaning of this happy hour: Color and I are one. I am a painter” (The Diaries of Paul Klee, 1898-1918, Berkeley, 1964, p. 297).
(fig. 1) The artist and August Macke (riding) in April 1914 in Tunisia.
On 15 to 16 April 1914, Klee, Macke and Moilliet visited the city of Kairouan. Spending this short journey in a daze, Klee sketched around town but quickly became overcome by his surroundings. In his diary, he writes, “I now abandon work. It penetrates so deeply and so gently into me, I feel it and it gives me confidence in myself without effort. Color possesses me. I don’t have to pursue it. It will possess me always, I know it. That is the meaning of this happy hour: Color and I are one. I am a painter” (The Diaries of Paul Klee, 1898-1918, Berkeley, 1964, p. 297).
(fig. 1) The artist and August Macke (riding) in April 1914 in Tunisia.