Paul Klee and Bern (6/13)

It rained again today! I guess I’ll just have to come back to Bern – and Interlaken – and perhaps a few other places. The good news is I had yet another museum to go to – the Zentrum Paul Klee. Klee was born here, in a town just outside Bern, and he came back to Bern when the Nazis including his work among the “Degenerate Art” they criticized in the 1930s. So, Bern claims him as one of their own. Someone build a big museum or “center” to house a collection of his works and to serve as place to promote and discuss art. The building itself is worth seeing, even without the art inside! The area around here is hilly, and the center mimics that hilliness. It is three buildings in the shape of hills, and made from steel and glass. Because of the curved shape of the frame, the building comes out of the landscape in a graceful way. It is a modern building, without points and sharp edges. One of the “hills” is where the collection of Klee’s work is displayed; one is a conference center/ area for symposia; and one (smaller than the others) is an art library and place to restore paintings. One of the best parts is the area for kids on the lower level.  It’s a place where art classes for kids are given.  I wandered through there today, and two classes were going on.  In one, kids of about 8 were standing at easels and painting. In the other, younger kids - 5 or 6 – were drawing on flat tables. They looked totally engaged. There was a pair of exhibits at the top of two matched staircases where kids’ sculptures – all with a “head” (or round ball) as the base, and constructed in white – were displayed, and they were really striking. (By the way, yesterday, I mentioned that there were a bunch of really talented people with inventions/developments in Bern. One that I couldn’t remember yesterday is the development of the artificial hip. I mention it here because I THINK it was that doctor who gave the money to build this Klee center.)

Anyway, I went through the Paul Klee exhibit. I had been excited about the Klee stuff I saw in Lucerne – and it was great, but this went way beyond. The center has a collection of Klee’s work, and rotates the collection in the exhibit hall, primarily to protect the collection because a lot of it is very delicate and would suffer from continuous exposure to light, even to the “dulled” light they have in the exhibit hall. I didn’t realize that Klee worked in a lot of different media – and by that I mean that he did oils, water colors, ink, and any of these mixed with other substances.  One of the most interesting sets of paintings there was done with water color mixed with glue, and applied with a knife rather than a brush. He also painted on different kinds of surfaces – jute, cardboard, mesh over jute, etc.. Another kind of surface was glass, but he painted in reverse. In other words, he painted on the side of the glass that would be toward the frame, and not toward the viewer. There was one of these glass paintings – a picture of his father – in which he painted the whole surface with black (ink, paint?). Then he took a needle and scratched out the details of the subject. After that, he painted the whole thing white. What comes through, as you look at it from the front, is an exquisitely detailed white-on-black portrait of his father, with an expressive face and a full beard. It is unbelievable!

These glass paintings, as well as the ones done with a mixture of water color and glue, have deteriorated a lot over time. There was a video on display about the process of restoring these paintings – or treating them so they won’t deteriorate more. What a labor of love – and detail! It was amazing!

It was also interesting to follow Klee’s life. In 1935, the year Klee returned to Bern from Munich, where he had been teaching, he developed scleroderma, the disease that eventually took his life. His productivity really varied a lot in the last five years of his life, surging in 1939 to an amazingly productive period. During this time, he developed “angel drawings.” The theme of angels apparently refers back to the angels that were in so many early religious paintings. (I can’t remember what the period is called, but Fra Angelico comes to mind.) Klee’s drawings are simply line drawings – pencil drawings, but the use of line conveys so much expression. According to the museum, these paintings are much appreciated by connoisseurs of Klee. And they are charming! I really enjoyed my time at the museum. I had an audio guide, which was done very well.  There was also a movie about Klee’s life running within the museum.  I watched it and, although it was in German, it was shot in a way that I could get a lot out of it without understanding the audio.

This museum was really enjoyable and impressive. After a quick lunch, I walked out of there around 2:30 PM. It was STILL raining, so I decided to go into the city proper (the Klee center is on the east side of town, in the “burbs,” somewhat near to where I’m staying) rather than go to a rose garden, as my host had suggested. (Just one more reason to come back. There’s apparently a terrific view of the city from the rose garden.) I wanted to get inside the Muenster (cathedral) before it closed at 5:00 PM.  So, I did that – beautiful.  And I saw a couple more churches. In one, built for the Dominicans in the 1200s, I think, there was an organist playing - probably rehearsing. He played some “churchy,” beautiful pieces, and then switched gears. At first, I thought he was doing jazz, but then I realized he was playing,” Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen.” I’ve sure never heard that come out of an organ, but it was great. I tried to go into the Bundeshaus (the government hall – this is the capital of Switzerland), but the body was in session today, so they weren’t letting anyone in the building. At one point, I had tea and apple kuchen (not strudel!) with vanilla sauce.  Yum! Even though it wasn’t strudel, the vanilla sauce makes it!  Later, I wandered some more in the old part of town and came upon two different fabric shops.  One, in particular, had some gorgeous things – linen knits that were 100% linen, and some wonderful cottons. The prices were pretty high, too – some 40 Swiss francs per meter (more than $40/meter) for the linen knits. The other fabric store had some pretty things, too, but with more synthetic blends. I didn’t bring anything home, but it was fun to look.

Finally, I had some dinner before I went back to my room. I couldn’t find a place with raclette for my last night in Switzerland, so I settled for fondue – and it was particularly good. Now I’m back at the apartment and am thinking about tomorrow, when I take the train to Frankfurt. Incidentally, I noticed today, after having been speaking Spanish at the house, that was inclined to try to speak Spanish in the city today, rather than English or my few words of German.  It’s something I did in Germany last fall – think “second language” and go to Spanish rather than German involuntarily. Oh, well . . . weird!