Paul Klee: Feier und Untergang

Paul Klee (Swiss/German, 1879-1940), *Feier und Untergang*, signed ‘Klee’ (lower right); dated, numbered and titled ‘1920/200 Feier und Untergang’ (on a strip of the artist’s mount attached to the reverse), oil and pen and India ink on paper laid down by the artist on board, 15¼ x 10 in. (38.7 x 25.4 cm.), Painted in 1920, Image Source: Christie’s

“The present painting is part of a group of rhythmic, wooded landscapes that Klee made in 1920, the year after he first began working in oil….The dominant red and brown tonalities reflect the colors of the fall foliage, while the title of the painting–Feier und Untergang (Celebration and Decline)–evokes the bounty of the harvest followed by the advent of winter. Blocks of flat color, familiar from the Orphist elements in Klee’s pre-war work, serve as a unifying structure for the linear forms that comprise the landscape. …Klee was extremely sensitive to the timbre of various landscapes, and his diary repeatedly documents his response to the terrain; he also had assembled a diverse collection of botanical materials that he studied as a repertoire of forms. His goal, however, was not the mimetic translation of observed forms into art, but rather an analogy between nature and the artist’s creative work, which in his view were subject to the same laws. He declared in Creative Credo, “Art is a likeness of the Creation. It is sometimes an example, just as the terrestrial is an example of the cosmic” (quoted in ibid., p. 181).”
READ FULL ESSAY: Christie’s