“Klee & Kandinsky. Neighbors, Friends, Rivals” is the title of an exhibition at Munich’s Lenbachhaus (Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Luisenstrasse 33) that opens on October 21 and lasts until January 24, 2016. The Lenbachhaus has the following to say about the relationship between the two artists and the exhibition:
Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky: two names that have come to stand almost as synonyms for classical modernism. They are associated with fundamental avant-garde movements such as the "Blue Rider" and the Bauhaus, and regarded as founding fathers and pacesetters of abstract art. History also records their relationship as one of the great friendships in twentieth-century art.
Klee and Kandinsky were indeed close, though never uncritical, friends for almost three decades. Central to the rapport between them was a focused engagement with each other’s art sustained by many shared aspirations as well as differences on personal and artistic levels. Both artists strove to spiritualize art and explore the intrinsic laws of its visual means. Yet Klee’s ironically refracted realism was alien to Kandinsky’s idealism, and his protean individualism clashed with his friend’s pursuit of the autonomous laws of abstract art.
The exhibition is organized in cooperation with the Zentrum Paul Klee, Berne, and will focus on the years between 1922 and 1931, when both taught at the Bauhaus, worked in a close exchange of artistic ideas, and even lived door to door in one of the "Master Houses" designed by Walter Gropius. Yet their works from the "Blue Rider" period as well as the late oeuvres of the two artists, who died in 1940 and 1944, likewise reflect the bonds of friendship between them.
A collaboration between the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus und Kunstbau, Munich and the Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern.
Tickets cost 12 €. Headsets are available.
Further info at lenbachhaus.de
Getting to the Lenbachhaus Gallery: Subway lines U2 and U8 (exit at Königsplatz), subway lines U1 and U7 (exit at Stiglmaierplatz), Tram 27 (exit at Karolinenplatz), Bus 100 (Museum Line, exit at Königsplatz), All S trains (exit at Hauptbahnhof)
