NARRATOR:
In 1929, Paul Klee wrote:
KLEE (ACTOR):
“One learns to look behind the façade, to grasp the root of things. One learns to dig down, to uncover, to find the cause, to analyze.”
NARRATOR:
Klee’s forms convey the essence of the wonders he saw in the world around him. He began his compositions spontaneously, then arranged each element like a note in a musical score, or a word in a poem. His poetic titles help guide the way we look at his pictures. Possibilities at Sea, for instance, hints that the skeletal structure in this picture signifies a boat. In his Pedagogical Sketchbook of 1925, Klee drew a wavy line similar to the one here, and wrote:
KLEE (ACTOR):
“The leg strokes of a swimmer—rhythm in loose continuity.”
NARRATOR:
A black arrow points downward; a white one pushes to the border, suggesting additional possibilities.
KLEE (ACTOR):
“The father of the arrow is the question. How do I extend my reach to that point over this river, this mountain? Man’s ideological capacity to traverse both terrestrial and heavenly regions is in contrast to his physical impotence; this is the origin of all human tragedy. How does the arrow overcome the hindering friction? Never quite to reach the point where movement is endless! Consolation: a bit further than usual—than possible?"
NARRATOR:
When he created this picture, Klee was teaching at the Bauhaus, the famed avant-garde school in Germany. Like the work of many of his compatriots, his art was labeled “degenerate” by the Nazis. In 1933, Klee went home to Switzerland, where he remained until his death in 1940.
This work is part of The Blue Four Galka Scheyer Collection at the Norton Simon Museum. To hear Tom Brokaw tell the story behind this extensive and important collection, press 3211.
Possibilities at Sea
1932
Paul Klee (Swiss, 1879-1940)
On View
In contrast to the playful figuration of his earlier work, Possibilities at Sea demonstrates how Klee’s approach was transformed by his decade at the Bauhaus, a leading school of art and design in Germany. Here, his interest in abstract design combines with an experimental approach to the laborious hot-wax technique known as encaustic. Klee considered this composition one of his most successful; when the dealer and collector Galka Scheyer first wrote to the artist in hopes of purchasing it, his wife responded, “He is... just as much in love with ‘Possibilities at Sea’ as you are... He considers the painting a rare work, and there is no thought of a substitute for it.”
Details
- Artist Name: Paul Klee (Swiss, 1879-1940)
- Title: Possibilities at Sea
- Date: 1932
- Medium: Encaustic and sand on canvas
- Dimensions: 38-1/4 x 37-5/8 in. (97.2 x 95.6 cm)
- Credit Line: Norton Simon Museum, The Blue Four Galka Scheyer Collection
- Accession Number: P.1953.067
- Copyright: © Norton Simon Museum
Object Information
The artist, consigned in 1933 and later sold (by Lily Klee) in 1942 to;
Galka Scheyer;
Pasadena Art Institute, Pasadena, 1953-1954;
Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena,1954-1975;
Norton Simon Museum, 1975.
Galka Scheyer;
Pasadena Art Institute, Pasadena, 1953-1954;
Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena,1954-1975;
Norton Simon Museum, 1975.
Paul Klee: a Retrospective Exhibition
- Pasadena, Pasadena Art Museum, 1967-01-01 to 1968-12-31
Paul Klee
- Norton Simon Museum, 1987-07-23 to 1988-05-15
Maven of Modernism: Galka Scheyer in California
- Norton Simon Museum, 2017-04-07 to 2017-09-25
Selections from the Permanent Collection
- Pasadena Art Museum, 1971-07-13 to 1971-09-19
Selections from the Galka E. Scheyer Collection
- Pasadena Art Museum, 1970-09-08 to 1970-12-17
The Blue Four and Their Contemporaries
- Norton Simon Museum, 1991-06-20 to 1992-05-24
Paul Klee: An Exhibition from the Galka E. Scheyer Collection of the Pasadena Art Museum
- University of California, Berkeley Art Museum, 1962-05-03 to 1962-05-27
The Blue Four
Paul Klee
- Norton Simon Museum, 1986-06-05 to 1987-06-28
The Spirit of Modernism: Galka Scheyer in the New World
- Norton Simon Museum, 1994-11-17 to 1996-01-14
My Four Kings: Galka Scheyer and the Blue Four
- Norton Simon Museum, 2002-12-13 to 2003-04-14
- Haas, Robert B., Du, p. 48
- Paul Klee, p. 30
- Franciscono, Marcel, Arts Magazine, p. 124
- Henry, Sara Lynn, Pantheon, fig. 49 p. 159
- Armitage, Merle, 5 Essays on Klee, 1950, p. 22
- Geelhaar, Christian, Paul Klee and the Bauhaus, 1973, p. 150
- Geelhaar, Christian, Paul Klee: Leben und Werk, 1974, pp. 72, 73, 74
- The Blue Four Galka Scheyer Collection, Norton Simon Museum of Art at Pasadena, 1976, no. 285
- Rosenthal, Mark, Paul Klee and the Arrow, 1979, fig. 93 pp. 116-119, 296
- Glaesemer, Jürgen, Paul Klee: Handzeichnungen II 1921-1936, 1984, pp. 225, 226, 228
- Franciscono, Marcel, Paul Klee: His Life and Work, 1991, pp. 248-249
- The Blue Four. Feininger, Jawlensky, Kandinsky, and Klee in the New World, 1997, no. 141 pp. 225, 353
- Paul Klee: Catalogue Raisonne, Volume 6, 1931-1933, 2001, color fig. 5722 p. 170, 210
- Barnett, Vivian Endicott, The Blue Four Collection at the Norton Simon Museum, 2002, no. 342 pp. 330-332
- Linda Henderson, Bruce Clark (eds.), From Energy to Information: Representation in Science and Technology, Art and Literature, 2002, fig. 9.3 p. 199
- Wünsche, Isabel, Galka E. Scheyer and the Blue Four: Correspondence 1924 - 1945, 2005, Plate XIII p. 340
- Ed. Oliver Kase, Paul Klee: Construction of Mystery, 2018, Fig. 9 pp. 70-71
- Gilbert Holzgang, Galka Scheyer : Ein Leben für Kunst und Kreativität, 2023, p. 217 (ill.)
Additional Artwork by Artist
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