Klee, Kandinsky, and the Thought of Their Time: A Critical Perspective

Abstract

In an original and broad-ranging study, Mark Roskill shows how social, cultural, and political events in Europe during the first forty years of the twentieth century provide a context for understanding the work of Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky. The two artists, who knew each other well and taught together for some time, responded to philosophical ideas, literature, music, and world events by producing some of the most intriguing and at times perplexing art of their time. Roskill's interpretation considers Klee and Kandinsky in relation to the artistic climate of the Munich Academy, the Bauhaus in both Weimar and Dessau, and other major cultural centers, including Paris. He examines their links with avant-garde groups and movements such as Der Blaue Reiter, Dada, Surrealism, and German Expressionism, and chronicles their struggles against Nazi censors who labeled them degenerate.