Tag Archives: Klee

The Whimsical and Free Artwork of Gene Davis

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Installation view of Gene Davis’s “Untitled” works, on view in Ten Americans: After Paul Klee

“My last show of symbol paintings are just Klee blown-up large.”—Gene Davis

Gene Davis acknowledged the profound impact of Paul Klee—“his very first mentor”—on his artistic development. Beginning in the 1940s, Davis made regular visits to “the Klee room” at the Phillips, where Klee’s small masterpieces left an “unforgettable impression.” These untitled works by Davis with playful, flat forms were among a series of symbol paintings the artist made at the end of his life that harken back to his early experiments of the 1950s, when he painted freehand compositions with organic motifs (for example, Black Flowers). Davis attributed his “urge to do whimsical, free-hand drawings” to his “early infatuation with Paul Klee and children’s art.” Like Klee, Davis valued spontaneity and intuition over intellect—aspects that lay at the heart of Davis’s artistic methods, whether in his stripe paintings (such as Red Devil) or in his more gestural works.

This work is on view in Ten Americans: After Paul Klee through May 6, 2018.

A Constant State of Change: Painting Nature

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William Baziotes, Sea Forms, 1951. Pastel paper mounted on board. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, purchase

“There is no particular system I follow when I begin a painting. Each painting has its own way of evolving…Each beginning suggests something. Once I sense the suggestion, I begin to paint intuitively.”—William Baziotes

William Baziotes, who studied objects at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, developed an interest in rendering the underwater world. Like Paul Klee, Baziotes strove to become one with nature by penetrating the mysteries of the world that lay hidden beneath the surface. Indeed, because of their close affinities, works by the two artists were shown together in several exhibitions throughout the 1940s and 50s.

In 1957, Baziotes and Klee were presented with French Surrealist Odilon Redon in an exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston. The three were “creatively joined,” the catalogue noted. “In their emphasis on the beginnings of creation, they have shown us that every existence is in a state of development—that every plant, flower, animal, and being is in a state of change—that change is the essence of all nature, all mankind, and all art. . . . Through the free use of imagination, intuition, and visions they have transmitted the secrets of the new worlds of flora, fauna, and beings.”

This work is on view in Ten Americans: After Paul Klee through May 6, 2018.

Creating an Artistic Language

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Adolph Gottlieb, The Seer, 1950. Oil on canvas, 59 3/4 x 71 5/8 in. The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC, Acquired 1952. © Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

In 1941, in the aftermath of Paul Klee’s death and memorial retrospective organized by the Museum of Modern Art, Adolph Gottlieb produced a new, daring series, which eventually included over 500 works. He called these abstract inventions pictographs, or paintings filled with hieroglyphic-like forms. The Seer is one of the largest and last in the series. In a flat grid, Gottlieb juxtaposed abstract symbols conjured through free association with universal archetypes such as the arrow, circle, triangle, and ellipse in a manner reminiscent of Klee’s mature compositions.

During the 1940s, Gottlieb drew on Klee’s example in creating a unique artistic language that reconciled several opposing elements: line versus color, structure versus spontaneity, thought versus feeling, and stasis versus dynamism. According to Klee, these dualities mirror the primal conflict that has existed since the beginning of human existence. Gottlieb echoed the view, noting, “These opposites parallel our inner conflicts which are usually unresolved.”

This work is on view in Ten Americans: After Paul Klee through May 6, 2018.