Felix Klee

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Felix Klee (born November 30, 1907 in Munich , † August 13, 1990 in Bern ) was a German-Swiss art historian , painter and theater director .

life and work

Mathilde Klee, Lily Klee sitting on their knees with Felix Klee, Hans and Ida Klee-Frick, Bern 1908

Klee was born in Munich as the only child of the painter Paul Klee and Lily Klee , née Stumpf. Since the mother made a living for the family with piano lessons and concerts until 1913, the father took care of the household and the upbringing of the son. At the beginning of March 1909 Felix Klee fell seriously ill, which is why his father kept a detailed "Felix calendar" in his diary, in which he recorded the son's medication, malaise, appetite, body temperature, first attempts at speaking and games.

Paul Klee: hand puppet from 1919, untitled (crowned poet)

Felix Klee, who had a penchant for puppetry, received the first eight self-made hand puppets and a puppet theater from his father for his ninth birthday . Around 50 hand puppets were made by 1925; 30 are preserved in the holdings of the Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern. In September 1921 the family finally moved to Weimar , where Paul Klee held a teaching post at the Bauhaus . Felix Klee became the youngest Bauhaus student at the age of fourteen. He graduated from the preliminary course in the winter semester of 1921/22 with the photographer Umbo , among others .

Paul Klee was defamed by the National Socialists in 1933 as a “ degenerate artist ” and emigrated with his wife to Bern. Felix Klee stayed in Germany as a theater and opera director with his wife Euphrosine Klee-Grejowa.

In 1944 Klee was drafted into the war and, released on September 16, 1946, returned from Irschenhausen - Ebenhausen to Sommerhausen , where his wife and son Alexander lived after the evacuation from Würzburg. In 1948 he and his family also moved to Bern. There the sole heir asserted his rights to the entire estate of his father. A four-year legal dispute between him and the Klee-Gesellschaft was settled by an out-of-court agreement at the end of 1952. The estate has been divided. Both collections remained in Bern, they became Paul-Klee on the initiative of Felix Klee's heirs - Livia Klee-Meyer († 2011), Felix Klee's second wife, and Alexander Klee, Felix Klee's son from his first marriage Foundation and the Bernese authorities reunited with the opening of the Paul Klee Center in 2005.

Felix Klee made his father's work a central task. Knowing the genesis of most of the pictures and his fatherly thinking, he became an expert interpreter of Paul Klee and his artistic contemporaries. He was the editor of his father's diaries, poems and letters.

He is the main speaker in the children's book Who Lives in White Cubes? (Leipzig 2016).

Honors

Felix Klee received an honorary doctorate from the Philosophical-Historical Faculty of the University of Bern in 1987 for his services to the art of his father and the First Class Cross of Merit from the Federal President of the Federal Republic of Germany .

Fonts

  • Paul Klee. Life and work in documents , Diogenes, Zurich 1960
  • Diaries of Paul Klee 1898–1918 , ed. by Felix Klee. DuMont, Cologne 1957, 1979
  • Paul Klee Diaries 1898–1918 , text-critical new edition, Ed. Paul Klee Foundation, arr. Wolfgang Kersten, Stuttgart 1988
  • Paul Klee Diaries 1898–1918 , ed. by Felix Klee. Dumont Buchverlag, Cologne 2006, ISBN 3-8321-7705-1
  • Diaries 1898–1918 and texts . New edition, ed. by Felix Klee and Alexander Klee. Dumont Literature and Art Verlag 2007, ISBN 978-3-8321-7775-1
  • Poems . Edited by Felix Klee. Arche, Zurich 2005 (2nd edition), ISBN 3-7160-1650-0

Radio plays (selection)

Speaker:

Director:

literature

  • Michael Baumgartner, Cathrin Klingsöhr-Leroy, Katja Schneider (Eds.): Franz Marc. Paul Klee. Dialogue in pictures , exhibition catalog. Nimbus. Art and books, Wädenswil 2010, ISBN 978-3-907142-50-9
  • Hand puppets . Edited by Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern, foreword by Andreas Marti, texts by Christine Hopfengart, Aljoscha Klee, Felix Klee, Osamu Okuda, Tilman Osterwold, Eva Wiederkehr Sladeczek. Hatje Canz, Ostfildern 2007, ISBN 978-3-7757-1739-7
  • Thomas Kain, Mona Meister, Franz-Joachim Verspohl (ed.): Paul Klee in Jena 1924. The lecture . Minerva. Jenaer Schriften zur Kunstgeschichte, Volume 10, Art History Seminar, Jenoptik AG , Druckhaus Gera, Jena 1999, ISBN 3-932081-34-X
  • Felix Klee: Works on paper: Pictures by Felix Klee 1913–1921 , Kunstverein Reutlingen, Hans Thoma-Gesellschaft, 1991
  • Eckhard Neumann, Walter Gropius: Bauhaus and Bauhauslers: Confessions and Memories . Hallwag, Bern 1971, p. 21 f
  • Susanna Partsch : Klee . New edition Benedikt Taschen, Cologne 2007, ISBN 978-3-8228-6361-9
  • Werner Wüthrich: Felix Klee . In: Andreas Kotte (Ed.): Theater Lexikon der Schweiz . Volume 2, Chronos, Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-0340-0715-9 , p. 997.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Michael Baumgartner, Cathrin Klingsöhr-Leroy, Katja Schneider (eds.): Franz Marc. Paul Klee. Dialogue in pictures . Wädenswil 2010, p. 204 f.
  2. Michael Baumgartner, Cathrin Klingsöhr-Leroy, Katja Schneider (eds.): Franz Marc. Paul Klee. Dialogue in Pictures , p. 214
  3. ^ Paul Klee: Handpuppen , hatjecantz.de, accessed on May 6, 2017
  4. Partsch: Klee , p. 52
  5. Biography Paul Klee , zpk.org, accessed on May 6, 2017
  6. Quoted from the web link Werner Wüthrich: Theaterlexikon der Schweiz
  7. Thomas Kain, Mona Meister, Franz-Joachim Verspohl (ed.): Paul Klee in Jena 1924. The lecture , Jena 1999, p. 322
  8. Quoted from the Weblink Zentrum Paul Klee
  9. A silent patron in: Tages-Anzeiger of May 4, 2011
  10. Nicole Aeby: A Bernese, but not a Swiss (April 21, 2005). www.swissinfo.ch, accessed on January 11, 2011 .
  11. Quoted from the website spiegel.de
  12. Eva-Maria Magel: Somebody found his master there. In: FAZ.net . March 23, 2017, accessed October 13, 2018 .
  13. Quoted from the Weblink Zentrum Paul Klee