Ad Parnassum belongs to a group of around seventy paintings known as the ‘pointillist’ paintings, which Paul Klee created during his time as a teacher at the Düsseldorf Art Academy from 1931 to 1932. The common feature of this group is the pointillist application of paint to the surface, a technique invented some 50 years earlier by the ‘divisionist’ painters of late Impressionism, Georges Seurat and Paul Signac. However, Klee interpreted the ‘pointillist’ principle much more freely than his historical models and achieved a previously unattained ‘polyphonic’ complexity in his painting with this technique.
There is, however, a logical explanation for why Ad Parnassum was created in Düsseldorf rather than at the Bauhaus: Klee viewed his time at the Bauhaus – two years after ending his involvement in Dessau – from a position of distance. As a professor at the Düsseldorf Art Academy, he had now entered comparatively calm waters after the turbulent and conflict-ridden years at the Dessau Bauhaus. For this reason, the years 1931 and 1932 can be described as a period of restraint and reflection.
The mountain is the central motif of the painting, created in 1932 – specifically, it is probably the Niesen, which can be seen from Lake Thun in an almost perfect pyramid shape. In Greek mythology, ‘Parnassus’ was the mountain of Apollo, the god of light, and the seat of the Muses. Perhaps Klee is also confidently referring to the fact that he has reached the “summit” of his career as a painter with ‘Ad Parnassum’. Source Nina Zimmer/Parnass Newsletter
Oil paint, lines stamped on, dots initially stamped on with white and subsequently painted over on casein paint on canvas on stretcher frame, original wooden frame, 100 × 126 cm © Kunstmuseum Bern,
Design is fine. History is mine. 