Inscription: Signed (upper right): Klee; dated and inscribed on cardboard (lower left): 1921/70 Hängende Früchte
the artist, Munich and Weimar (sold after 1924 through Galka Scheyer, Los Angeles); Annemarie Weinschenk, Wiesbaden (until 1950; sale, Stuttgarter Kunstkabinett, May 10–12, 1950, no. 1488, as "Fallende Früchte," ca. 1922); [Buchholz Gallery, Curt Valentin, New York, until 1951; sold on February 10, 1951, for $500, to Odets]; Clifford Odets, New York and Los Angeles (1951–63); Heinz Berggruen, Paris and Berlin (1965–84; his gift to MMA)
Waltham, Mass. Brandeis University. Slosberg Music Center Gallery. "Paul Klee," May 15–June 15, 1960, no. 7 (as "Hanging Fruits," lent by Clifford Odets, New York City).
Denver Art Museum. "Paul Klee in Review," April 7–May 7, 1963, no. 16 (as "Hanging Fruit," lent by Clifford Odets, Beverly Hills, California).
Paris. Musée National d'Art Moderne. "Paul Klee," November 25, 1969–February 16, 1970, no. 52 (as "Fruits suspendus [Hangende Früchte]," lent by Heinz Berggruen, Paris).
Paris. Berggruen et Cie. "Paul Klee. Les années 20," May–July 1971, no. 11.
Nationalgalerie Berlin. Staatliche Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz. "Hommage à Schönberg. Der Blaue Reiter und das Musikalische in der Malerei der Zeit," September 11–November 4, 1974, no. 52 (lent by the Berggruen collection, Paris).
Munich. Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus. "Paul Klee: Das Frühwerk 1883–1922," December 12, 1979–March 2, 1980, no. 446 (lent by a private collection, Switzerland).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Paul Klee: The Berggruen Klee Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," May 6–July 31, 1988, unnumbered cat. (p. 144).
Kunsthalle Tübingen. "Paul Klee: Die Sammlung Berggruen im Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York und im Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris," January 22–April 16, 1989, unnumbered cat. (p. 143).
London. Tate Gallery. "Paul Klee: The Berggruen Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and the Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris," May 17–August 13, 1989, unnumbered cat. (p. 143).
Mexico City. Centro Cultural Arte Contemporáneo. "Paul Klee: Selección de sesenta obras. The Berggruen Klee Collection. The Metropolitan Museum of Art," October 1989–January 1990, no. 26.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Paul Klee: His Teaching Years," opened April 12, 1991, no catalogue.
Haus der Kunst München. "Elan vital oder Das Auge des Eros," May 20–August 14, 1994, no. 313.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Klee in New York," July 26–December 1, 1996, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Paul Klee at the Bauhaus," April 18–August 17, 1997, no catalogue.
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Sammlung Berggruen. "Klee aus New York: Hauptwerke der Sammlung Berggruen im Metropolitan Museum of Art," June 4–October 18, 1998, no. 16.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Klee Abstract," September 5–December 7, 2003, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Klee: His Years at the Bauhaus (1921–1931)," November 19, 2004–April 3, 2005, no catalogue.
Santander. Fundación Marcelino Botín. "Paul Klee: Colección Berggruen," July 7–September 24, 2006, unnumbered cat. (p. 79; as "Fruta suspendida").
Rome. Fondazione Memmo. "Paul Klee: La collezione Berggruen," October 11, 2006–January 7, 2007, no. 19 (as "Frutti sospesi [Hanging Fruits]").
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Klee: Path to Abstraction," April 9–August 4, 2013, no catalogue.
London. Tate Modern. "The EY Exhibition—Paul Klee: Making Visible," October 16, 2013–March 9, 2014, unnumbered cat. (p. 27).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art [The Met Breuer]. "Humor and Fantasy: The Berggruen Paul Klee Collection," September 1, 2016–January 2, 2017, no catalogue.
Henry McBride. "Rockefeller, Whitney, Senior, Odets, Colin." Art News 50 (June-July-August 1951), ill. p. 35 (installation photo), states that Odets owns over sixty Klees and reproduces a photograph of Odets's study with this picture hanging above his desk.
Will Grohmann. Paul Klee. New York, [1954], pp. 222, 396, 413, no. 151, ill. p. 165, calls it "Hanging Fruit" and lists it in the collection of Clifford Odets, New York; groups it among "fugal images," works influenced by the formal musical pattern of the fugue.
Gualtieri di San Lazzaro. Klee: A Study of His Life and Work. New York, 1957, pp. 178, 290, no. 34, ill. p. 263, as "Hanging Fruits," in the collection of Clifford Odets, New York.
Will Grohmann. Paul Klee. New York, [1967], p. 88.
Richard Verdi. "Musical Influences on the Art of Paul Klee." Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 3 (1968), p. 106 n. 25, calls it "Hanging Fruit".
Max Huggler. Paul Klee. Die Malerei als Blick in den Kosmos. Frauenfeld, 1969, p. 64.
Françoise Cachin-Nora inPaul Klee. Exh. cat., Musée national d'Art Moderne. Paris, 1969, p. 50, no. 52, ill.
Jean-Louis Ferrier. Paul Klee: Les années 20. Paris, 1971, ill. pp. 54–55 and n.p. (color and bw).
Sara Lynn Henry. "Paul Klee, Nature, and Modern Science, the 1920s." PhD diss., University of California, Berkeley, 1976, p. 66, fig. 126, as "Hanging Fruit," formerly in the collection of Clifford Odets, New York.
Eva-Maria Triska. "Die Quadratbilder Paul Klees—ein Beitrag zur Analyse formaler Ausdrucksmittel in seinem Werk und seiner Theorie. Mit einem Exkurs zur Ableitung von Klees Farbenlehre." PhD diss., Universität Wien, 1980, p. 185 n. 24.
Richard Verdi. Klee and Nature. 2nd ed. (1st ed., 1984). New York, 1985, pp. xiii, 115, 199, fig. 103, calls it "Hanging Fruit" and lists it as whereabouts unknown; notes that Klee analyzed the structure of fruit in his Bauhaus lectures of the early 1920s, "from which it is clear that their appeal for him was not only as symbols of fertility but as key examples of the phenomenon of spiral development around a centre (in this case, the seed) in nature".
Sabine Rewald. Paul Klee: The Berggruen Klee Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1988, pp. 144–45, 279, 318, ill. (color and bw), discusses it among Klee's "color-gradation" watercolors of 1921–23, noting that in this picture the layering of colors creates a sense of motion.
Philippe Comte. Klee. [Paris], 1989, p. 42.
Lily Harmon. "The Art Dealer& the Playwright: J. B. Neumann and Clifford Odets." Archives of American Art Journal 29, no. 1/2 (1989), ill. p. 17 (installation photo), erroneously dates the photograph of this picture hanging above Odets's desk to 1950 [see Ref. McBride 1951].
Ulrich Bischoff Staatsgalerie moderne Kunst. "Paul Klee: Wachstum der Nachtpflanzen, 1922." Paul Klee: Wachstum der Nachtpflanzen, Vogelgarten. Munich, 1992, p. 40, erroneously locates it still in a private collection, Switzerland.
Hajo Düchting. Farbe am Bauhaus: Synthese und Synästhesie. Berlin, 1996, p. 81 n. 11.
Sabine Rewald inKlee aus New York: Hauptwerke der Sammlung Berggruen im Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Berlin, 1998, pp. 35, 88–89, 135, no. 16, fig. 33 (installation photo), ill. (color and bw).
Josef Helfenstein and Christian Rümelin, ed. Paul Klee: Catalogue Raisonné. Ed. Paul Klee Foundation, Museum of Fine Arts, Berne. Vol. 3, 1919–1922. New York, 1999, p. 306, no. 2661, ill., as "Hängende Früchte (Hanging Fruits)".
Will Grohmann. Der Maler Paul Klee. 4th ed. (1st ed., 1966). Cologne, 2003, p. 68 [German ed. of Ref. Grohmann 1967].
Josef Albers. Interaction of Color. New complete ed. (1st ed., 1963). New Haven, 2009, vol. 1, pp. 52, 54, 110–11; vol. 2, colorpl. XX-2, discusses the overlapping layers of watercolor in this picture as a demonstration of the Weber-Fechner Law: "the visual perception of an arithmetical progression depends upon a geometric progression".
Matthew Gale inThe EY Exhibition—Paul Klee: Making Visible. Exh. cat., Tate Modern. London, 2013, pp. 24, 246, ill. p. 27 (color).
Paul Klee (German (born Switzerland), Münchenbuchsee 1879–1940 Muralto-Locarno)
1920
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