VIENNA.- Starting on May 9 and running through August 10, the Albertina will present a comprehensive Paul Klee retrospective. The starting point of the exhibition will be Carl Djerassi’s important gift to the Albertina of works by Paul Klee. Additional exhibits from the holdings of the Albertina, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and other international collections and museums will show this important collection in the context of the exceptional creativity of Paul Klee.

The German-Swiss painter and graphic artist Paul Klee (1879–1940) was one of the most interesting and idiosyncratic artistic personalities of classical modern art. His fascinating oeuvre – positioned on the interface between representational and abstract art - interweaves aspects of visual reality and surreal-poetic images to form complex pictures, often with enigmatic allegorical allusions. In addition, there are works whose pictorial architecture places elementary forms of geometry and formal compositional considerations in the forefront, without losing sight of the inner poetry of the picture. Paul Klee influenced many artists – including subsequent generations of artists – especially through his teaching activities at the Bauhaus (1921–1931) and his theory of art, which he presented in a number of essays and writings.

Carl Djerassi, professor of chemistry emeritus and world famous as the father of “the pill”, began compiling his Klee collection more than 30 years ago. Since the 1980s the Carl Djerassi Collection has been housed at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. More than 65 works, an important part of this remarkable collection, have now come to the Albertina – thanks to the generosity of Carl Djerassi. His collection, which focuses on Klee’s graphical works, provides extraordinary insights into the complexity of his oeuvre. The drawings, watercolours, gouaches and graphic prints extend from the early work to the powerful and monumental creations of the artist’s last years.