Dec 23, 2008

Tightrope Walker

Tightrope Walker

1923

Paul Klee

(German, 1879–1940)

Color lithograph

Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland 1961.154

Catalogue raisonné: Kornfeld 95

State: IVc

Location

Did you know?

Paul Klee made this print during a decade spent on the faculty of the Bauhaus, an influential German art school.

Description

This lithograph is one of Paul Klee’s many depictions of tightrope walkers, a subject that he saw as reflecting the balance and tension necessary to artistic creation. Against a field of pink, the figure occupies only a small portion of the sheet, much of which is filled with an abstracted landscape of winding stairs and paths. Klee employed a variety of lithographic techniques in the print—from the fine pen lines used to sketch the tightrope walker and his surroundings to the smooth gradient above and below him, making him appear as if spotlit.

See also
Collection: 
PR - Lithograph
Department: 
Prints
Type of artwork: 
Print

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