Paul Klee (1879-1940)

Der Tag im Wald was executed when the artist was at the height of his powers. In 1930, the newly opened Museum of Modern Art in New York had given Klee the first retrospective of a living European artist. However, at the same time, the world around him was changing dramatically. The rise of the National Socialist party in Germany led to his suspension from his teaching position at the Düsseldorf Academy and ultimately to his departure for Bern with his family at the end of 1933. In the present work from 1934, an abstracted patterning of forms and colour represents an idyllic and innocent world of nature. The black outlines accentuating the luminosity of the orange, brown, grey and blue tones and the lozenge forms are suggestive of a stained glass window, reflecting the artist's increasingly distanced view of reality as an abstract veil of illusion. As Klee declared 'Art is a likeness of the Creation. Occasionally, it is an example, just as the terrestrial may exemplify the cosmic' (quoted in 'Opinions on Creation', in exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1946, p. 11).