Paul Klee Polyphonies - Cité de la musique

Exhibition
at the Musée de la musique
from 18 October 2011
to 15 January 2012
PRESS RELEASE
Photograph: Light and Sharpness, 1935, Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern

Exhibition - Educational area - Concerts - Concert-promenade - Forum - Tours
Paul Klee Polyphonies
Exhibition at the Musée de la musique from 18 October 2011 to 15 January 2012
Exhibition
Exhibition curator: Marcella Lista, art historian
With Paul Klee Polyphonies, the Musée de la musique presents its first monographic exhibition dedicated
to the work of a painter. One of the most innovative artists of the first half of the 20th century, Paul Klee
stands out because of his exceptional practice and culture of music, both as a professional-level violinist and
as a passionate listener inclined to share his critical vision of the repertoire and its interpretation. What’s more,
music was an integral part of the pictorial theory that Klee gradually developed, fuelling his ongoing quest to give
painting a broader range of expression.
Created in partnership with the Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern, the main lender, the exhibition brings together over
130 works and more than 70 documents taken mainly from his personal archives. Loans from large private
German and Swiss collections, along with the participation of museums such as Munich’s Pinakothek der Moderne,
London’s Tate Modern, the Nationalgalerie in Berlin and the Kunsthaus in Zurich have made it possible to show
some exceptional and rare works. This exhibition is the first major retrospective of the artist to be held
in Paris since ‘Klee et la musique’ at the Musée national d’Art moderne in 1985.
Adopting a chronological presentation, it provides visitors with an insight into Paul Klee’s artistic journey through
the most significant aesthetic debates of the time. Paul Klee’s dialogue with his contemporaries (the artists
of expressionism, cubism and Dadaism) and later his theoretical and pedagogical commitment to Bauhaus
are telling of the keen interest he had in the issues of the avant-garde movement. But in Klee’s artistic ambition,
these concerns are perceived as part of a much broader approach taking in classical as much as modern art.
Music, poetry and the performing arts are constant references, maintaining in his work a rich porosity that
attempts to assimilate several registers of language. His work is a blend of pure form and combinations, learned
and popular culture, in which Mozart and Bach rub shoulders with Offenbach, and later Schönberg, Busoni
and Hindemith. If the notion of ‘polyphony’ in his work describes the ideal of painting that has reached maturity and
become an art form that reflects itself, this exhibition contends that it also hints at a rich, diverse and unexpected
plurality in his work.
This exhibition invites visitors of all ages to explore the world of this unique artist. An audioguide is available,
and the Musée de la musique has set aside a separate area for young people and families called the ‘Hands-on
Klee workshop’ which provides games and experiments in art and sound to complement the exhibition.

Hands-on Klee workshop
To accompany the exhibition, the Musée de la musique has set aside a special area of 220 m2 where children can
explore Klee’s work. The workshop comprises some fifteen educational modules that will help them to understand
the poetic and artistic world of the painter and musician using their hands, feet, eyes and ears, but also their imagination.
Children can enjoy exercises involving handling, observation, experimentation, memorising sounds, drawing
and touching through hands-on puzzles, recreating puppets, magnetic pictures and projections of light, a drawing wall,
a giant hop scotch game on the floor and sound games, all of which are designed to help them appreciate the artist’s
always fascinating work.
Open on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays and every day during the school holidays, from 2pm to 6pm.
Children must be accompanied by an adult.
Catalogue
Edited by Marcella Lista, the exhibition catalogue is co-published by the Cité de la musique and Actes Sud.
With contributions from Michael Baumgartner, Pierre Boulez, Christine Hopfengart, Marcella Lista, Osamu
Okuda, Pascal Rousseau, Beate Schlichenmaier, Peter Vergo, Eric de Visscher and Otto Karl Werckmeister.
Four-colour bound full-page book - 208 pages - e49
Concerts - cycle from 19 to 29 October
The cycle of concerts organised to accompany the exhibition presents works that were part of Paul Klee’s
musical pantheon (Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Brahms), representative examples of the music of his contemporaries
(Schönberg, Hindemith, Busoni), and contemporary works that illustrate the interest that current composers have
in Klee’s oeuvre. Zeugen, the show by Georges Aperghis, features notably the puppets that Paul Klee created for
his son Felix, examples of which are on show in the exhibition. And in the concert performed by the Dissonances
ensemble, David Grimal will play Bartók’s Sonata for violin on the Testore violin that belonged to Paul Klee.
-Wednesday 19 October, 8pm Concert by the Orchestre du Conservatoire de Paris
-Thursday 20 October, 8pm Concert by Les Dissonances
-Saturday 22 October, 8pm Concert by Sergey Khachatryan
-Sunday 23 October, 3pm and 8pm Concert by Georges Aperghis
-Tuesday 25 October, 8pm Concert by Pavel Hula
-Wednesday 26 October, 8pm Concert by the Prazák Quartet
-Thursday 27 October, 8pm Concert by the Ensemble intercontemporain + pre-concert event at 7pm
Forum
Saturday 29 October, 3pm
Paul Klee, painter and musician
Round table chaired by Eric de Visscher, director of the Musée de la musique, with the participation of Michael
Baumgartner, Pascal Huynh, Jean-Claude Lebensztejn and Marcella Lista, followed by a concert by Jean-Sébastien
Dureau and Vincent Planès.
Family show
Wednesday 19 October, 3pm - Thursday 20 October, 10am and 2.30pm
Oh ! - Compagnie Les Orpailleurs - Odyssée Ensemble & cie, music and dance
From age 7

Tours
Guided tours for individuals and groups are available for adults and children. A number of tours are also
available for school groups, families and disabled visitors.
Concert-promenade (around the permanent collections in the Musée de la musique)
Sunday 11 December, from 2.30pm
Paul Klee musicien, featuring the students of the Conservatoire de Paris
Practical information
Prices
Admission to the exhibition: e8
Visitors aged 6 to 26 years: e5
Disabled visitors and accompanying person: free
Opening hours
Tuesday to Saturday 12pm to 6pm
Sunday 10am to 6pm
Open on concert nights until 8pm, from 19 to 29 October
Closed on 25 December and 1 January.
Musée de la musique
Cité de la musique
221 avenue Jean Jaurès
F-75019 Paris
Métro line 5, station Porte de Pantin
Information - bookings: +33 (0)1 44 84 44 84 or www.citedelamusique.fr
A FULL PRESS PACK WILL BE SENT TO YOU DURING THE SUMMER
PRESS CONTACTS
Plastic Arts Press: Opus 64
Valérie Samuel and Arnaud Pain
+33 (0)1 40 26 77 9
a.pain@opus64.com
Music Press: Cité de la musique
Philippe Provensal
+33 1 44 84 45 63
pprovensal@cite-musique.fr
Family Press:
Cité de la musique
Brigitte Berthelot
+33 1 46 26 32 06
bberthelot@cite-musique.fr
Assisted by Gaëlle Kervella
+33 (0)1 44 84 89 69
gkervella@cite-musique.fr