The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 24, 2024

God of War

God of War

1937
(German, 1879–1940)
Sheet: 35.2 x 29 cm (13 7/8 x 11 7/16 in.); Secondary Support: 64.6 x 49.3 cm (25 7/16 x 19 7/16 in.)
Catalogue raisonné: Helfenstein and Rümelin 6961
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

Shortly before this drawing was made, Paul Klee was exiled from Germany to his native Switzerland due to the political turmoil that led to World War II.

Description

This drawing belongs to a series of large format works with bold colors, thick painterly lines, and pictograph formations that Paul Klee created late in his career. The period during which they were made was marked by anxiety for the artist, as political turmoil grew in Europe during the 1930s. To suggest this experience, Klee painted on a sheet of newspaper, allowing the printed text to intermingle with his own sign-like marks. The article visible here, for example, discusses the Spanish civil war. The figures that dominate the work more subtly suggest this crisis, including a large face with heavy eyelids and an enigmatic smile depicted in layers of yellow paint and several dancing or running figures in the foreground delineated by areas left unpainted.
  • September 14, 1938
    (Galerie Jeanne Bucher-Myrbor, Paris, sold to Lockwood Thompson)
    1938-1992
    Lockwood Thompson [1901-1992], Cleveland, OH, bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
    1992-
    Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Helfenstein, Josef and Christian Rümelin. Paul Klee: Catalogue Raisonné. Bern: Kunstmuseum Bern, 1998-2004 Mentioned and reproduced: vol. 7, no. 6961
    Paul Klee: Oeuvres Récentes. Exh. Cat. Paris: Galerie Simon, 1938.
    Mentioned: no. 34
    Paul Klee. Exh. Cat. New York: Buchholz Gallery/Willard Gallery, 1940. Mentioned and reproduced: no. 86
    Vishny, Michèle. "Paul Klee and War: A Stance of Aloofness." Gazette des Beaux-Arts 92 (December 1978): 233-243 Mentioned: p. 241
    Kersten, Wolfgang. Paul Klee, Übermut: Allegorie der künstlerischen Existenz. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 1990. Mentioned: pp. 60-61; Reproduced: p. 63
    "The Year in Review for 1992." Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 80, no. 2 (February 1987): 39-72. Mentioned: p. 72, no. 230; Reproduced: p. 62 www.jstor.org
    Kersten, Wolfgang and Osamu Okuda. Paul Klee: Im Zeichen der Teilung. Exh. Cat. Düsseldorf: Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, 1995. Mentioned: pp. 214-215
    Francis, Henry S. "Exhibition of Expressionism and Related Movements." Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 26, no. 2 (February 1939): 19. Mentioned: p. 19
    DeLamater, Peg. "Klee and India: Krishna Themes in the Art of Paul Klee." PhD diss., University of Texas at Austin, 1991. Mentioned: p. 245
    DeGrazia, Diane, and Carter E. Foster. Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Exh. Cat. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2000. Mentioned: p. 11, pp. 260-261, 298; Reproduced: p. 261
    Uhde-Stahl, Brigitte. Paul Klees geheime Symbolik. Berlin : Gebr. Mann Verlag, [2018] Reproduced: p. 264; mentioned: pp. 335-337
  • Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000); The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (May 23-August 19, 2001); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX (October 14, 2001-January 6, 2002).
    Selected Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 9-April 11, 1993).
    Exhibition of Expressionism and Related Movements. Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (January 25 - February 28, 1939).
    Paul Klee: Memorial Exhibition. Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA (1941); Arts Club of Chicago (1940); Portland Art Museum, Oregon (1941); San Francisco Museum of Art (April 14 - May 5, 1941); Stendahl Art Galleries, Los Angeles (May 8 - May 18, 1941); City Art Museum, St. Louis (1941); Wellesley College, MA (1941); Museum of Modern Art, New York (1941).
    Paul Klee. Buchholz Gallery/Willard Gallery, New York (October 9 - November 2, 1940).
    Paul Klee: Oeuvres Récentes. Galerie Simon, Paris (January 24 - February 5, 1938).
  • {{cite web|title=God of War|url=false|author=Paul Klee|year=1937|access-date=24 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1992.278