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Artwork Details
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Title:Statuettes of Disabled War Heroes
Artist:Paul Klee (German (born Switzerland), Münchenbuchsee 1879–1940 Muralto-Locarno)
Date:1927
Medium:Ink on paper mounted on cardboard
Dimensions:19 3/4 × 12 7/8 in. (50.2 × 32.7 cm)
Classification:Drawings
Credit Line:The Berggruen Klee Collection, 1984
Object Number:1984.315.9
Inscription: Signed (upper left): Klee; dated and inscribed on cardboard (lower center): 1927 311 figurinen invalider Helden
the artist (1927–d. 1940); his widow, Lily Klee, Bern (1940–46); Paul Klee Society, later Paul Klee Foundation, Bern (1946–52); [Galerie Rosengart, Lucerne, 1952; sold in 1952, through John Rewald, to Vollmer]; Ruth Vollmer, New York (1952–d. 1982; her bequest to Museum of Modern Art); Museum of Modern Art, New York (1983; sold in 1983 to Hirschl and Adler); [Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, 1983; sold in 1983 to Goodman Gallery]; [James Goodman Gallery, New York, 1983; sold in 1983 to Berggruen]; Heinz Berggruen, Paris and Berlin (1983–84; his gift to MMA)
Kunsthalle Basel. "Gedächtnis-Ausstellung Paul Klee," February 15–March 23, 1941, no. 55 (as for sale, for SFr 250).
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. 222).
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. 235).
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. 235).
Mexico City. Centro Cultural Arte Contemporáneo. "Paul Klee: Selección de sesenta obras. The Berggruen Klee Collection. The Metropolitan Museum of Art," October 1989–January 1990, no. 54.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Paul Klee: Of Men and Women," opened March 27, 1990, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Humor of Klee," May 14 or 15–October 4, 1992, no catalogue.
London. Barbican Art Gallery. "A Bitter Truth— Avant-Garde Art and the Great War," September 29–December 11, 1994, unnumbered cat. (pl. 384).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Klee's Line," March 18–July 9, 2000, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Klee Creatures," December 12, 2003–March 14, 2004, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Late Klee," October 18, 2012–March 31, 2013, 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.
Will Grohmann. Paul Klee: Handzeichungen 1921–1930. Potsdam, 1934, p. 24, no. 204.
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. 222–23, 286, 318, ill. (color and bw), relates it to two other stick figure ink drawings of 1927, "Statuette of One Who Staggers" (collection Dr. Carl Djerassi, San Francisco; Helfenstein and Rümelin 2001, no. 4527) and "Statuette of a One-Armed Officer" (Sprengel Museum, Hannover; Helfenstein and Rümelin 2001, no. 4524).
Richard Cork. A Bitter Truth: Avant-Garde Art and the Great War. New Haven and London, 1994, p. 287, pl. 384.
Josef Helfenstein and Christian Rümelin, ed. Paul Klee: Catalogue Raisonné. Ed. Paul Klee Foundation, Museum of Fine Arts, Berne. Vol. 5, 1927–1930. New York, 2001, p. 165, no. 4525, ill., as "Figurinen invalider Helden (Figurines of Disabled Heroes)".
Paul Klee (German (born Switzerland), Münchenbuchsee 1879–1940 Muralto-Locarno)
1921
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