20th Century Art 
15 March 2018
Paul Klee, Angriff und Abwehr - Image 1 of 1
20th Century Art 
Paul Klee, Angriff und Abwehr - Image 1 of 1
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Paul Klee 1879–1940

Angriff und Abwehr

1922
pen on paper laid down on board 4½ h × 11 w in (11 × 28 cm)
estimate: $40,000–60,000
result: $38,750
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Signed to left 'Klee' and dated to upper left '1922 8/12'. Titled, dated and inscribed to lower edge '1922/75 Angriff und Abwehr'.
provenance: Galerie Rosengart, Luzern | Collection of Dr. and Mrs. Herbert Katzin, New York | Thence by descent
literature: Paul Klee, Catalogue Raisonné 1919-1922, Vol. III, Paul Klee Foundation, pg. 410, no. 2899 Paul Klee. Handzeichnungen 1921-1930, Grohmann, no. 9

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This work is from the collection of Dr. Herbert M. Katzin, an ophthalmologist and pioneer in corneal transplant surgery and eye bank research. He was associated with the Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital, where he served at various times as director of research for the eye bank, director of the corneal clinic, president of the medical board and chairman of the department of ophthalmology.  Dr. Katzin was co-author of the Atlas of Eye Surgery (McGraw-Hill, 1957 and 1962) and the Rehabilitation of a Child's Eyes (Mosby, 1961), among other books. In 1981, he traveled to China to teach surgeons the techniques he developed. The trip became the subject of a documentary film, China Eye. 

Paul Klee 1879–1940

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Paul Klee was born in Münchenbuchsee, Switzerland in 1879. His formal training in art began under the instruction of the famed academic painter Franz von Stuck in Munich. Klee had his first solo exhibition of art in 1910 in Switzerland. Shortly after, he was asked to create a set of lithographs for a new edition of Voltaire’s satire Candide. Klee joined the Munich artistic collective known as the Blue Rider in 1912 and developed a friendship with its founding member, Wassily Kandinsky. Klee’s art was shaped by his Transcendentalist philosophy, and his work reflects his interest in returning to the childlike nature of the self. In 1920, Walter Gropius appointed Klee to be one of the masters of the Bauhaus school in Weimar, Germany. Klee taught the famed entry-level "Vorkurs," or groundwork course, that was required of all Bauhaus students and also led the elective painting courses alongside fellow master Kandinsky. Klee would teach at the Bauhaus until 1931 when he accepted a position teaching at the Art Academy of Dusseldorf. However, the position wouldn’t last as Klee was singled out by the Gestapo and fired from his post in 1933. Later that year, Klee and his family returned to Switzerland. In the years before his death, Klee was at his most prolific. Klee died in 1940, but his work lives on in the permanent collections of museums around the globe.

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