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Artwork Details
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Title:Composition with the Yellow Half-Moon and the Y
Artist:Paul Klee (German (born Switzerland), Münchenbuchsee 1879–1940 Muralto-Locarno)
Date:1918
Medium:Gouache and watercolor on gesso on fabric mounted on cardboard
Dimensions:8 3/4 × 6 5/8 in. (22.2 × 16.8 cm)
Classifications:Paintings, Drawings
Credit Line:The Berggruen Klee Collection, 1984
Accession Number:1984.315.13
Inscription: Signed (upper left): Klee; dated and inscribed on cardboard (lower left): 1918 4
Karl Ströher, Darmstadt; [Galerie Aenne Abels, Cologne]; Oskar Müller Widmann, Basel (until d. 1956); Heinz Berggruen, Paris and Berlin (1968–84; his gift to MMA)
Dresden. Galerie Emil Richter. "Der neue Kreis (supplementary exhibition)," May 1918, no. 17 (as "Kompos. mit Y").
Copenhagen. Galerie Georg Kleis. "'Der Sturm': International kunst Ekspressionister og Kubister malerier og skulpturer," November 30–December 15, 1918, no. 62 or 64 (as "Komposition") [possibly this work].
Dresden. Galerie Ernst Arnold. "II. Expressionistische Ausstellung. Sonderausstellung Der Sturm, Expressionisten, Futuristen, Kubisten," April 1919, no. 141 (as "Komposition 1918/4").
Berlin. Galerie Der Sturm. "Georg Muche, Hans Sittig. Gesamtschau. 78. Ausstellung," September 1919, no. 65 (as "Komposition 1918/4").
Kunstgebäude Stuttgart. "Herbstschau Neuer Kunst. Der Sturm und Uecht-Gruppe," October 25–November 30, 1919, no catalogue [probably this picture].
Paris. Musée National d'Art Moderne. "Paul Klee," November 25, 1969–February 16, 1970, no. 26 (lent by Heinz Berggruen, Paris).
Nationalgalerie Berlin. Staatliche Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz. "Hommage à Schönberg. Der Blaue Reiter und das Musikalische in der Malerei der Zeit," September 11–November 4, 1974, no. 47 (lent by the Berggruen Collection, Paris).
Munich. Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus. "Paul Klee: Das Frühwerk 1883–1922," December 12, 1979–March 2, 1980, no. 335 (lent by a private collection, Switzerland).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Paul Klee: The Berggruen Klee Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," May 6–July 31, 1988, unnumbered cat. (p. 84).
Kunsthalle Tübingen. "Paul Klee: Die Sammlung Berggruen im Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York und im Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris," January 22–April 16, 1989, unnumbered cat. (p. 81).
London. Tate Gallery. "Paul Klee: The Berggruen Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and the Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris," May 17–August 13, 1989, unnumbered cat. (p. 81).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Klee in Munich," January 12–July 21, 1996, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Klee's Best," May 24–September 22, 2002, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Klee Abstract," September 5–December 7, 2003, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Klee: Path to Abstraction," April 9–August 4, 2013, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art [The Met Breuer]. "Humor and Fantasy: The Berggruen Paul Klee Collection," September 1, 2016–January 2, 2017, no catalogue.
Ottawa. National Gallery of Canada. "Paul Klee: The Berggruen Collection from the Metropolitan Museum of Art," November 16, 2018–March 17, 2019, no catalogue.
Georg Schmidt. In Memoriam Oskar Müller-Widmann 1887–1956. [Basel], [1956], unpaginated.
Magdalena Droste inPaul Klee: Das Frühwerk 1883–1922. Ed. Armin Zweite. Exh. cat., Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus. Munich, 1979, pp. 454–55, no. 335, ill. (color).
Jim M. Jordan. Paul Klee and Cubism. Princeton, 1984, pp. 164–65, pl. 67.
Sabine Rewald. Paul Klee: The Berggruen Klee Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1988, pp. 84–85, 273, 317, ill. (color and bw).
Jenny Anger. "Modernism and the Gendering of Paul Klee." PhD diss., Brown University, 1997, vol. 1, pp. 100–102, 126, 132; vol. 2, fig. 62 (color).
Josef Helfenstein and Christian Rümelin, ed. Paul Klee: Catalogue Raisonné. Ed. Paul Klee Foundation, Museum of Fine Arts, Berne. Vol. 2, 1913–1918. New York, 2000, p. 435, no. 1851, ill.
Jenny Anger. Paul Klee and the Decorative in Modern Art. Cambridge, England, 2004, pp. 102, 104, 135, 219–20, 222, 224, 274 n. 85, p. 289 n. 19, fig. 40, notes that Emil Richter asked Klee to send additional works to his May 1918 exhibition [Exh. Dresden 1918], upon which Klee sent four new ones, including this work.
Paul Klee (German (born Switzerland), Münchenbuchsee 1879–1940 Muralto-Locarno)
1920
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