Comedians' Handbill

Paul Klee

1938 · Gouache on newsprint mounted on cardboard · Modern and Contemporary Art

In tune with the motto "the medium is the message," Klee designed this handbill on a sheet of newspaper that he had covered with caramel-colored gouache. Correcting here and there the figures' contours, he filled the spaces between them with bone-colored gouache. Touches of white and pink gouache add animation. Here in these thick-stemmed, black pictographs, Klee makes his abbreviated black figures from the previous year even thicker. Leaping into our vision as boldly as an advertisement, these signs symbolize syncopated movement, frolicking creatures, and stick figures.

Artist

Paul Klee

Date

1938

Medium

Gouache on newsprint mounted on cardboard

Department

Modern and Contemporary Art

Credit line

The Berggruen Klee Collection, 1984