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Dancing Girl

An abstracted painting of a pink girl, arms and legs outstretched, rendered in dark-brown lines and circles against a brown background, with scattered stick drawings around her. The lines are illuminated by surrounding points of color in yellow, orange, green, pink, and beige.
© 2018 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

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  • An abstracted painting of a pink girl, arms and legs outstretched, rendered in dark-brown lines and circles against a brown background, with scattered stick drawings around her. The lines are illuminated by surrounding points of color in yellow, orange, green, pink, and beige.

Date:

1940

Artist:

Paul Klee
German, born Switzerland, 1879–1940

About this artwork

Directly affected by the Nazis’ ascent to power, Paul Klee was dismissed in 1933 from his teaching post at Dusseldorf Academy, where he had spent two years after leaving the Bauhaus. Exiled to Switzerland, Klee suffered physically and psychologically, and his artistic output diminished significantly. Between 1937 and 1940, however, Klee regained artistic momentum and produced several hundred paintings and over 1,500 drawings. In these later works, Klee continued to experiment with unusual media and techniques to produce multidimensional effects. Dancing Girl also reveals Klee’s limitless humor—his signature at the lower right was made by a monogrammed handkerchief, which he laid over the surface to begin his painting.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Modern Art

Artist

Paul Klee

Title

Dancing Girl

Place

Germany (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1940

Medium

Oil on cloth

Inscriptions

signed, l.r.: "P K"

Dimensions

53.3 × 51.2 cm (21 × 20 7/8 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of George B. Young

Reference Number

1959.172

Copyright

© 2018 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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