Westöstliche Bauten (West-Eastern Buildings) – part of the “Fragmented Works”
The “Westöstliche Bauten” combine several aspects of the art of one of the 20th century's most important artists. The sheet was created in 1928. In 1926, Paul Klee and the Bauhaus relocated to Dessau, where he could work in a more private environment than in Weimar, as the master's house provided him with a private studio. In Dessau, Klee worked on several pieces simultaneously. Structures and designs developed in parallel, intersecting and influencing each other. Our sheet is part of the “Fragmentierte Werke” (Fragmented Works) group, which includes around 250 works from the period between 1905 and 1940. Klee’s practice of dividing his works and grouping them as individual pieces or in new combinations was extensively explored in the critical 1995 exhibition by Wolfgang Kersten and Osamu Okuda, “Paul Klee. Im Zeichen der Teilung“ (Paul Klee. In the Sign of Division). These divided pictures are an essential reference to Paul Klee's practice of systematically curating his own work. The counterpart corresponding to our sheet is titled ”Marjamshausen" (CR no. 4595).


Theory and practice in harmony
The “Westöstliche Bauten” is a fantastic view of a dreamy, imaginary place. The buildings are composed of squares of various sizes in groups shaded in different colors. Some groups shine brightly, others retreat into a subtle green, with a bright blue sky above. These imaginary buildings cannot be clearly attributed to either Eastern or Western architectural traditions. Paul Klee discovered this different, “Eastern” architecture on his travels to Tunis in 1914 and to Egypt at the end of 1928. Since his legendary trip to Tunis, the impressions he gained there have repeatedly found their way into his works. Klee had already discovered the significant influence of Islamic design on European architecture during his first trip to southern Italy in 1902. “Westöstliche Bauten” is one of Paul Klee’s “square paintings,” a series of works he painted from around 1914 until his death. These works are composed exclusively of rectangular color fields. In his lectures, Klee discussed the order and effect of colors and forms in detail. His oeuvre represents the exploration and implementation of his theories.


Westöstliche Bauten – Potential for cultural understanding
The title of the print, “Westöstliche Bauten” (West-Eastern Buildings), may have been inspired by the poetry collection “West-östlicher Divan” (West-Eastern Divan) by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, a copy of which was also part of Paul Klee’s library. This collection of poems is a testament that different cultures can meet and understand each other. This is a theme that Paul Klee certainly must have considered many times during his eventful life. Paul Klee combines the rich variety of forms found in the West with those found in the East through a unifying structure of colors and varying square shapes. [EH]