weimar republicconcept:era modern
Ad Parnassum
Oil and casein on canvas (1932) by Paul Klee. Depicts a pyramid and abstract sun in a luminous mosaic of individually mixed colored dots. Klee's most technically ambitious painting; the title (Latin: 'Toward Parnassus') refers to the Greek mountain of the Muses and implies artistic aspiration. Created at the Düsseldorf Kunstakademie, one year before Klee was dismissed by the Nazis.
Scholarly Significance
Klee's Ad Parnassum (1932) is his most technically elaborate painting, using thousands of individually mixed color dots in a pointillist technique to create an imaginary pyramid landscape. Painted the year before he was expelled from the Düsseldorf Academy by the Nazis.
Notes
- ·Painted at the end of Klee's tenure as professor at the Düsseldorf Kunstakademie (1931–1933).
- ·Uses a pointillist technique of individual mixed-color dots that create an overall luminous mosaic effect — the most technically intricate of Klee's large paintings.
- ·The pyramid form may reference Egyptian art (Klee traveled to Tunisia and Egypt) and the universal aspiration toward art.
- ·The title 'Ad Parnassum' — the Latin for 'toward Parnassus' (home of the Greek Muses) — suggests a meditation on artistic ambition and the summit of creative aspiration.
- ·Klee was dismissed from the Düsseldorf Kunstakademie in April 1933 by the Nazi government; 17 of his works appeared in the 1937 Entartete Kunst exhibition.
- ·After dismissal, Klee returned to Bern, Switzerland, and developed the late stripped-down style of his final years.
- ·The Zentrum Paul Klee (Bern) and Kunstmuseum Bern together hold the world's largest Klee collection.