Paul Klee

The first book on an outstanding private collection of works on paper by Paul Klee.

Drawing occupies a prominent place in the work of Paul Klee (1879–1940). The artist attached great importance to the act of drawing, and in particular to the line as the principle from which the realization and visual generation of an idea emanate. This aspect of Klee’s aer caught the interest of collectors Sylvie and Jorge Helft, who over almost five decades have assembled some seventy of Klee’s pencil, pen, and pastel drawings, as well as watercolors, etchings, and lithographs, created by the artist between 1914 and 1940. The Helfts’ Klee collection forms an extraordinarily coherent whole.

This book, published in conjunction with an exhibition at the Museo d’arte della Svizzera italiana (MASI) in Lugano, features for the first time this unique selection from Klee’s oeuvre. A conversation between the Helfts and MASI’s director Tobia Bezzola, as well as essays by philosopher Francisco Jarauta, art and literary critic Juan Manuel Bonet, and art dealer and curator Achim Moeller, round out this lavishly illustrated volume.