Paul Klee. Theatre here, there and everywhere

Paul Klee – Theatre here, there and everywhere places the artist’s lifelong passion for the theatre centre-stage – a passion that spanned all genres and all settings. The theme runs like a thread through the Zentrum – from the art on display, via the exhibition gallery (its natural milieu), out onto the central Museum Street, on and in to the concert hall and down to the Creaviva children’s museum; it is even reflected in the supporting programme of music, theatre performances and art interpretation that accompanies the exhibition.

In the works on show the theatre can be seen escaping the confines of the stage: it becomes a comédie humaine, a theatre of life itself. Klee was an inveterate theatregoer and devotee of all things staged, from opera all the way to humble puppet theatre. Figures from all forms of theatre – spoken and musical – such as Shakespeare’s Hamlet fill Klee’s profound visual world; he often resorted to figurines and props such as the clown, the marionette and the mask in his pictorial repertoire. Above all, though, Klee forged a link between theatre and life: drama for him was not something that happened exclusively in a theatrical venue or circus big top – it was very much part of his day-to-day life. The people around him were the actors, the daily occurrences the plays: he personally took upon himself the role of spectator, observing all the goings-on at a safe distance as if through opera glasses. In so doing Klee incorporated the old contour lines of the world as stage: people become players or puppets, theatre events rub shoulders with scenes taken from everyday life.

Paul Klee – Theatre here, there and everywhere represents the first time this central theme in the artist’s oeuvre has been explored and prised open to the public gaze. A theatrically exciting and all-embracing dramaturgy sees the exhibition integrating a stage, incorporating music and plays in all parts of the Zentrum, and teasing out the balancing act – so typical of Klee – between life and the theatre in all its many facets. The exhibition gathers in one place two hundred or so paintings and drawings, which includes some forty works on loan from museums and galleries in Switzerland and further afield such as Tate Modern, London, the Centre Pompidou, Paris, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the San Francisco Art Museum. Moreover, Paul Klee – Theatre here, there and everywhere represents the first time in a long while that all thirty surviving hand puppets made by Paul Klee are being shown together in the same place. Visitors will discover a wealth of biographical evidence charting Klee’s passion for the theatre, and a selection of works by contemporary video makers is evidence that the incisive, sometimes ironic, observation of theatrical situations is something that has fascinated, and continues to fascinate, a whole swathe of artists – Klee was not alone.

Not to be left out, the Zentrum Paul Klee’s Summer Academy in August is focusing on theatre as a theme, its course Spectacle and Situation taking us right up to the present day. The accompanying theatre performances, for their part, are concentrating on contemporary figure and object theatre, which emanates from Klee’s hand puppets and builds on the theatrical themes that appear in his works such as gestures, poses, facial expressions and masks.

In terms of music, the Ensemble Paul Klee – playing as an expanded salon orchestra – will be putting on a series of short concerts incorporating operatic, operetta and musical potpourris throughout the exhibition. And as for the Creaviva children’s museum: it will be inviting visitors of all ages to explore the world of theatre in its thematic workshops and series of interactive activities.