As if carved from a block of wood, both heads are composed of angular planes of color that ambiguously jut forward or recede into the background. The interacting planes suggest volume, yet circles and rigid horizontals and verticals defining the facial features appear to hover in front of these planes, and have the opposite effect of flattening the space. The ambiguities are not only spatial. The gender is unknown; the space is uncertain. Are we seeing two people, or two aspects of one person? The overall impression is what Klee called "fluctuating equilibrium."
Details
- Artist Name: Paul Klee (Swiss, 1879-1940)
- Title: Two Heads
- Date: 1932
- Medium: Encaustic, oil (?) and pencil on canvas
- Dimensions: 31-7/8 x 33-1/2 in. (81.0 x 85.1 cm)
- Credit Line: Norton Simon Museum, The Blue Four Galka Scheyer Collection
- Accession Number: P.1953.066
- Copyright: © Norton Simon Museum
Object Information
Galka Scheyer;
Pasadena Art Institute, Pasadena, 1953-1954;
Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena,1954-1975;
Norton Simon Museum, 1975.
Klee and America
- The Phillips Collection, 2006-06-16 to 2006-09-10
- The Menil Collection, 2006-10-06 to 2007-01-28
Oranges and Sardines: Conversation on Abstrat Painting with Mark Grotjahn, Wade Guyton, Mary Heilmann, Amy Sillman, Charline von Heyl, and Christopher Wool
- Hammer Museum, 2008-11-09 to 2009-02-08
8 Modes of Modern Painting
- New York, Julian Levy Gallery, 1934-10-22 to 1934-11-02
German Expressionist Painting, 1900 - 1950
- Pomona College (Claremont, Calif.), 1957-10-25 to 1957-11-23
- Santa Barbara Museum of Art, 1958-01-07 to 1958-02-09
- University of California, Berkeley Art Museum, 1957-12-03 to 1957-12-18
The Blue Four: Feininger, Jawlensky, Kandinsky, Paul Klee
- Los Angeles, University of California, Art Department, 1933-11-13 to 1933-12-01
Recent Pictures by Paul Klee
- Los Angeles, Putzel Gallery, 1937-11-15 to 1937-12
Paul Klee Memorial Exhibition [organized by MOMA]
- Los Angeles, Stendahl Art Galleries, 1941-05-08 to 1941-05-18
The Blue Four: Feininger, Jawlensky, Kandinsky, Paul Klee
- Los Angeles, Los Angeles Museum, 1933-10-04 to 1933-10-30
Klee exhibition
- Oakland Art Gallery, 1935-09-01 to 1935-09-29
Paintings and Prints by Paul Klee
- San Francisco Museum of Art, 1937-01-12 to 1937-02-07
Impossible Realities: Marcel Duchamp and the Surrealist Tradition
- Norton Simon Museum, 1991-07-04 to 1992-03-08
Paul Klee
- Norton Simon Museum, 1987-07-23 to 1988-05-15
Paul Klee 1879-1940: A Restrospective Exhibition [organized by The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Pasadena Art Museum]
- Pasadena, Pasadena Art Museum, 1967-02-21 to 1967-02-04
- San Francisco Museum of Art, 1967-04-13 to 1967-05-14
- Columbus Museum of Art, 1967-05-25 to 1967-06-25
- Cleveland Museum of Art, 1967-07-05 to 1967-08-13
- Kansas City, William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art, 1967-09-01 to 1967-09-30
- Baltimore Museum of Art, 1967-10-24 to 1967-11-19
- St. Louis, Washington University, Gallery of Art, 1967-12-03 to 1968-01-05
- Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1968-01-15 to 1968-02-15
30 Years of Painting, Water Colors, Drawings and Lithographs by Paul Klee
- Modern Institute of Art (Beverly Hills, California), 1948-09-03 to 1948-10-06
Paul Klee Memorial Exhibition [organized by MOMA]
- San Francisco Museum of Art, 1941-04-14 to 1941-05-05
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
50 years bauhaus
- Stuttgart, Wurttembergischer Kunstverein, 1968-05-05 to 1968-07-28
- Royal Academy of Arts (Great Britain), 1968-09-19 to 1968-10-27
- Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, 1968-11-30 to 1969-01-01
- Paris, Musee National d'Art Moderne, 1969-04-01 to 1969-06-22
- Illinois Institute of Technology, 1969-08-25 to 1969-09-26
- Toronto, Art Gallery of Ontario, 1969-12-05 to 1970-02-01
- Pasadena Art Museum, 1970-03-16 to 1970-04-26
- Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, 1970 to 1971
- Tokyo, National Museum of Modern Art, 1971 to 1971
The Art of Paul Klee
- Santa Barbara Museum of Art, 1960-04-12 to 1960-05-08
Paul Klee: Fifty Paintings, Drawings and Prints from the Galka E. Scheyer Collection
- Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1959-10-24 to 1959-12-06
- Minneapolis, University of Minnesota, University Gallery, 1960-01-04 to 1960-02-08
- Minneapolis, Walker Art Center, 1960-03 to 1960-04
Paul Klee
- Norton Simon Museum, 1986-06-05 to 1987-06-28
The Galka Scheyer Collection: Klee, Nolde, Jawlensky, Moholy-Nagy, Schmidt-Rottluff, Schwitters, Archipenko, Kandinsky, Lissitzky, Feininger, Kirchner, Dix_1
- La Jolla, Art Center in La Jolla, 1960-07-05 to 1960-08-14
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
The Blue Four-Galka Scheyer Collection From The Norton Simon Museum
- Henry Art Gallery, 1997-07-17 to 1997-10-05
- Paul Klee, p. 31
- Verdi, Richard, The Burlington Magazine, note 32 p. 153
- Huggler, Max, The Drawings of Paul Klee, 1965, p. 24
- Huggler, Max, Paul Klee: Die Malerei als Blick in den Kosmos, 1969, p. 140
- The Blue Four Galka Scheyer Collection, Norton Simon Museum of Art at Pasadena, 1976, no. 288
- Paul Klee: Catalogue Raisonne, Volume 6, 1931-1933, 2001, fig. 5028 p. 297
- Barnett, Vivian Endicott, The Blue Four Collection at the Norton Simon Museum, 2002, no. 345 pp. 336-337
- Wyatt, Jean, Risking Difference: Identification, Race and Community in Contemporary Fiction, 2004, cover
- Sotheby's, Boundless: India, 2019, p. 65 ; p. 65 (ill.)
Additional Artwork by Artist
Image reproduction permission may be granted for scholarly or arts related commercial use. All image requests, regardless of their intended purpose, should be submitted via the reproduction request form.
Images may be protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights. Additional permission may be required.
Please allow up to four weeks for your request to be reviewed. Approved requests for the reproduction of an image will receive a contract detailing all fees and conditions of use of the image. Upon receipt of both the signed contract and full payment, the Office of Rights and Reproductions will provide the image. A complimentary copy of the published material must be provided to the Norton Simon Museum.