News Release
ATZ200602E_E_3

June 2, 2020
Artizon Museum, Ishibashi Foundation

New Acquisitions unveiled at Once: The Paul Klee Collection
23 June (Tuesday) to 25 October (Sunday), 2020
The Artizon Museum of the Ishibashi Foundation (Director: Ishibashi Hiroshi ) is delighted to announce that
the New Acquisitions: The Paul Klee Collection will be held.
At the Artizon Museum, the fourth-floor gallery presents Selections from the Ishibashi Foundation
Collection, in which selected works from the more than 2,800 works in the Ishibashi Foundation Collection
are displayed. The Special Section area there will present a special exhibition, each planned with a different
theme, that will shed new light on works in the collection. In 2020, there will be three of these exhibitions,of which the first, held from Tuesday, June 23, to Sunday, October 25, will be the Exhibition of New
Acquisitions: The Paul Klee Collection. In 2019, the Artizon Museum acquired a collection of twenty-fourworks by the Swiss-born Paul Klee (1879-1940) that had been owned by a prominent Japanese collector.
This group of works provides a comprehensive view of most aspects of the artist’s oeuvre, from the 1910s,
when he rose to fame after participating in the Secession exhibition and the Blaue Reiter in Munich,through the 1920s, when he taught at the Bauhaus, and the 1930s, near the end of his life. In both quantityand quality, it may be one of the most distinguished collections of Klee’s work in the world. It clearlypresents the trajectory of Klee’s ceaseless artistic experimentation with a variety of materials andtechniques, his distinctive terrain. This group of works is especially valuable for further spurring
understanding of this artist, his rare creativity, and his art. The exhibition will present twenty-five works,
Klee’s Island (1932), which had already been part of the museum’s collection, plus the twenty-four newacquisitions, for visitors to enjoy experiencing the essence of Klee’s art and its fascination.

Paul Klee, Vision of a Garden, 1925

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Paul Klee Biography

Paul Klee ‒ portrait
Lebrecht Authors / Bridgeman Images/DNPartcom

Paul Klee was born on December 18, 1879, in
Münchenbuchsee, a town near Bern, the capital of
Switzerland. His mother, an opera singer, was Swiss, hisfather, a music teacher, German. In 1900, he entered theMunich Academy, an art school, where he studied with
Franz von Stuck. Settling in Munich, he took part in theSecession exhibition and the Blue Reiter, interacting with
its founders, Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc, and othermembers of their circle. After World War I, he was invited
to the Bauhaus, the national school of modern design
founded in 1919 in Weimar, Germany, receiving his official
appointment as an instructor there in 1921. While
researching, lecturing on, and writing about the mechanicsof art, i.e., design theory, he also worked to revolutionize
his own artistic practice. In 1931, he resigned from theBauhaus and took a teaching position at the Düsseldorf
Academy. In 1933, with the Nazi dictatorship emerging, heleft Germany and returned to Bern. Despite being afflictedwith scleroderma from 1935 on, he continued to create
energetically until his death in 1940 at a nursing home inMuralto, near Locarno, a town in southern Switzerland.

Highlights①

Small Abstract-Architectural Oil Painting <with Yellow andBlue Sphere>, 1915, oil on cardboard
24.1 x 34.3 cm
Klee’s 1914 trip to Tunisia, in northern Africa, with fellow
Blaue Reiter painter August Macke and another friend, wasa major catalyst for his shift to an abstract style. He createdthis painting the following year. In it, Klee reduces thebuilding to large and small rectangles and triangles andcreates combinations of a variety of colors. As the title
indicates, he is clearly conscious of his use of abstraction.
The yellow and blue circles that accent the picture plane
appear to express his memories of the moon as he saw itin Tunisia.

2 of 8②Construction Site for the Strawberry House, 1921, oil on
cardboard39.3×49.5 cm
This painting dates from immediately after Klee wasinvited to teach at the Bauhaus, the national school of art,
design and architecture, founded in 1919 in Weimar,
Germany. The repetition of geometric elements, mainly
rectangles, can often be seen in his works from the early
1920s. In this painting, which depicts the construction ofa structure for raising strawberries, Klee uses manystraight lines on the diagonal and is venturing towards a
three-dimensional style. In addition to the strawberryhouse, a greenway surface expressed in color planes, areservoir, a flag, a simplified depiction of trees, letters of
the alphabet hidden in the painting: all sorts of elements
have been scattered over the picture plane, andgradations of red and green, complementary colors, aredeveloped.

③

Vision of a Garden,1925
oil on cardboard mounted on wooden strainer
24.0×30.0 cm
The composition of this painting, in which the horizontal
lines from top to bottom of the picture plane are drawn
almost uniformly, is an approach Klee occasionallyexperimented with early in his Bauhaus period. In thiswork, three trees have been drawn abstractly in the centerof the picture plane, and marks consisting of three lines
branching off, expressing the growth of plants, are placed
here and there. The image of a garden emerges under a redcircle, which would seem to be the sun. Around it is achurch or some other sort of building, painted evocatively,
melting with the garden into a brown that suggests
darkness, bringing about a wondrous quality, neither nightnor day.

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④The Shepherd, 1929
oil on canvas mounted on plywood
49.8×67.0 cm
A human figure and some four-legged animals are depictedusing geometric lines against a dim background. The poseof the human being, staff in hand, standing as though toprotect the animal in the middle from the four animals in
the foreground, is thought to refer to the “good shepherd”
who would lay down his life for his sheep in the New
Testament’s Gospel According to John. The background,complexly layered with various colors, is swollen withwhite light as though to make the human figure andanimals stand out. This painting tells us of Klee’s endlessinterest in expressing light and color.

⑤Counter-Arrow, 1933
watercolor and plaster on canvas
24.8×76.2 cm
The landscape-format picture plane is composed of aseries of rectangles, almost the same size, laid horizontally.
The nuances of the coating applied to the entire painting
gives its matière a uniform texture, while the regularplacement of the rectangles, divided by color into threetypes, generates a rhythmical dynamism. The arrowplaced, as though hinting at something, on the left side of
the painting is an element that can be seen in several of hisworks from around 1930. This painting was formerly in thecollection of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Klee’s colleague atthe Bauhaus; he acquired it through the art dealer Karl
Nierendorf, with whom Klee was close.

4 of 8⑥Flower in a Valley, 1938
watercolor on cotton on board
42.5×51.0 cm
Klee had continued to experiment with systematicallycomposed paintings based on points and geometric forms.
In the latter half of the 1930s, however, he came toproduce works that boldly combined irregular color planes.
In this painting, he arranged color planes of various sizesand shapes as though pasting them on the black cloth
background. Indeed, this work calls to mind Matisse’s cutouts. The composition, with a flower in full bloom amid thegreen of the valley, the flowing water, and the light pouring
down, displays a technique characteristic of Klee’s lateperiod, his mastery of combining colors and forms freely
and effectively.

Exhibition Overview
Title:
Organizer:
Venue:
Exhibition period:
Opening hours:

Admission (tax included):

Curator:Selections from the Ishibashi Foundation Collection Special
Section New Acquisitions: The Paul Klee Collection

Artizon Museum, Ishibashi Foundation
4F Gallery, Artizon Museum
23 June (Tuesday) – 25 October (Sunday)
10:00 – 18:00 (until 20:00 on Fridays/ suspended until further notice) * Lastadmission 30 minutes before closing.
Closed on Mondays (open 10 August, 21 September), 11 August, 23
September
Online reservation available beginning Wednesday, June 3
Online reservation: 1,100 Yen / Same-day ticket (available at ticket counter):
1,500 Yen/ Student discount: free admission for students (onlinereservationrequired)
Same-day tickets at ticket counter only available in case online reservation
tickets have not been sold out. (No reservation required for middle-school
students and younger.)*Tickets include admission to the two concurrent exhibitions detailed below
Shimamoto Hideaki (curator, Artizon Museum)

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Concurrent Exhibitions
・Jam Session: The Ishibashi Foundation Collection×Tomoko Konoike
Tomoko Konoike: FLIP (6F Gallery)
・Exhibition in Japan of the Japan Pavilion at the 58th International Art Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia,
Cosmo-Eggs (5F Gallery)*Exhibitions “Selections from the Ishibashi Foundation Collection” and Special Section “WomenImpressionists” are also on view.

Artizon Museum

1-7-2 Kyobashi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0031, Japan
Tel. 03-5777-8600 (Hello Dial)
www.artizon.museum

Access5 minutes on foot from JR Kyobashi Station (YaesuCentral Exit); Tokyo Metro Ginza Line Kyobashi Station(Exit 6 or Exit 7); or Tokyo Metro Ginza Line / Tozai
Line / Toei Asakusa Line Nihombashi Station (Exit B1).

Images for Press use* If including only one image, use the main visual ③ shown on page 1 and 3.
* Include image credits as provided.
* Do not trim images or overlay them with text.

For inquiries about this press release:

Artizon Museum Second Exhibition PR Office (within OHANA, Inc.)
Contacts: Takahashi, Hosokawa, SenōTel.: 03-6869-7881 Fax: 03-6869-7801
E-mail: artizon-pr@ohanapr.co.jp
Risona Kudan Bldg, 5F
Kudan Minami 1-5-6, Chiyoda-ku
Tokyo 102-0074

For inquiries about the Artizon Museum,Ishibashi Foundation:
Artizon Museum Public Relations Department
E-mail: publicity@artizon.jp
1-7-2 Kyobashi, Chuo-ku
Tokyo 104-0031

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Entry to the Artizon Museum uses the designated entry system by date and time.
Tickets must be purchased in advance from the museum website.
Ticket price (incl. tax)
GeneralOn-line
ticketJPY 1,100

Same dayticket

JPY 1,500

University,
college, highschool students

Those presenting
disabled persons’handbook

Free entry—Advanced booking
required
Advanced booking

Children through junior highschool
Free entry—Advanced booking
not required(Prior notification required forgroups of 10 or more）*On-line tickets must be purchased up to 10 minutes before the end of each time slot.
*Same day tickets on sale at museum are available only for time slots that have not reached full capacity.

Designated entry system by date and time

The designated entry system by date and time is designed so that visitors may enjoy a more comfortableviewing experience. Please purchase your tickets for an entry time slot for the day you will visit, as shown
below, and make sure you enter the museum within that time slot.
① 10:00 ‒11:30 ②12:00 ‒13:30 ③14:00 ‒15:30 ④16:00 ‒17:30○You may enter at any time within the designated time slot.
○Once you enter the museum, your ticket is valid for the rest of the day; you may stay and enjoy theexhibition until the museum closes.

○At the start of each entry time slot, the museum may be crowded. You may be asked to wait before
entering the museum. We recommend arriving for entry slightly after the start of your time slot.

On-line designated entry time ticket purchase○Tickets go on sale June 3, 2020 (Wednesday)

Tickets must be purchased from the museum website (www.artizon.museum) by clicking on the Ticketing
link and selecting the date and time slot when you wish to enter.
○Tickets must be purchased up to 10 minutes before the end of each time slot.
○Major credit cards are accepted for payment.

Delivery of on-line designated entry time ticket and entry to the museum

After you have purchased your ticket, an E-mail will be sent to your designated E-mail address.
Please access the QR code and download it onto your smartphone. You can also print out the QR code andbring the paper with the print out with you when you visit the museum.

Same day ticket sales

Tickets are available only for time slots that have not reached full capacity; they can be purchased on 1F ofthe museum.

Advanced booking• Entry is free for university and college students and high school students, but advanced booking of theentry time slot is required. Each student must present a student ID upon entrance to the museum.
• Children through junior high school age are admitted for free. No advanced booking is required.

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• Entry is free for disabled visitors (plus one accompanying assistant), but advanced booking of the entry
time slot is required. Disabled visitors must present their disabled persons handbook upon entrance to themuseum.
Group Entry to the museum
For groups of 10 or more children through junior high school age, entry requires prior notification using theE-mail address below. If no notification is received, those groups may not be admitted to the museum if thegalleries are crowded.
E-mail: groupdesk@artizon.jp
Important information• Once your ticket purchase is confirmed, cancellation of the ticket is not allowed.
• Change of the time and date is available only once.
• There are no discounts for group tickets or for senior citizens.
• Entry is only allowed for the designated time slot.
• Resale of tickets for commercial purposes is not allowed.

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