Buffoonery (Narretei)
Paul Klee
German, born Switzerland. 1879–1940
1922
A lithograph by Paul Klee that invents a hybrid, puppetlike buffoon—part bird, part jester—assembled from spare, playful lines and costume motifs to probe movement, mask, and comic identity.
You first notice a stitched‑together creature: a beaked head with a crested helmet, multiple flailing arms and lopsided legs rendered in scratchy, smudged strokes that make the figure wobble between caricature and mechanical marionette.
Created during Klee’s early Bauhaus years, the print compresses drawing, caricature, and theatrical puppet imagery into a compact experiment that helped push representation toward a symbolic, playful form of modern abstraction.
Medium
Lithograph
Dimensions
composition (irreg.): 7 5/8 x 6 5/16" (19.3 x 16.1 cm); sheet: 11 7/16 x 9 1/16" (29 x 23 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of M. Knoedler & Co., Inc.
Accession
179.1957
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
