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332 pages

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In 1933 Paul Klee’s work was branded as ‘Entartete Kunst’ (Degenerate Art) by the National Socialists and he was dismissed from his professorial post at the Düsseldorf Academy of Fine Arts. This led him, together with his wife Lily, to return to his ‘real home’ of Bern. Here his avant-garde art was not understood and Klee found himself in unasked for isolation. In 1935 Klee started to suffer from a mysterious disease. The symptoms included changes to the skin and problems with the internal organs. In 1940 Paul Klee died, but it was only 10 years after his death that the illness was actually given the name ‘scleroderma’ in a publication about Klee. However, the diagnosis remained mere conjecture. Since his adolescence, the dermatologist and venereologist Dr. Hans Suter has been fascinated by Paul Klee and his art, and more than 30 years ago this fascination spurred him to commence research into the illness and its influence on the art of Paul Klee’s final years. It was due to Dr. Suter’s meticulous investigations that Klee’s illness could be defined as ‘diffuse systemic sclerosis’. In this book the author assembles his findings and describes the rare and complex disease in a clear and comprehensible way. Further, he empathetically interprets more than 90 of Klee’s late works. The point of view of a dermatologist renders a unique source of information. It provides, on one hand, new insights into everyday medical practices at the University of Bern in the 1930s, which will fascinate doctors and local historians alike. While, on the other hand, art historians and art lovers will be absorbed by the newly discovered links between Paul Klee's work and his illness.

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Publié par	S. Karger AG
Date de parution	01 février 2010
Nombre de lectures	2
EAN13	9783805593823
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	11 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0178€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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Hans Suter
Paul Klee
and His Illness
Hans Suter
Paul Klee and His Illness
Bowed but Not Broken by Suffering and Adversity
Translated from the German by Gill McKay and Neil McKay
186 figures, 77 in color, and 2 tables, 2010
Copyright 2010 English Edition by S. Karger AG, P.O. Box, CH-4009 Basel (Switzerland) www.karger.com
Printed in Switzerland on acid free paper by St mpfli Publikationen AG, CH-3006 Bern (Switzerland)
ISBN 978-3-8055-9381-6 e-ISBN 978-3-8055-9382-3
Copyright illustrations of works of art: ProLitteris, Zurich (Switzerland) Copyright illustrations of documents and photos (when not otherwise stated): Klee Estate Administration, Bern (Switzerland) In all other cases copyright is vested in the relevant person/institution or their registered office/rights holders.
Despite intensive research the author could not locate all copyright holders. He is however happy to compensate all legal claims as customary and appropriate upon receipt of relevant notification. Some publishing houses that produced certain publications no longer exist.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be translated into other languages, reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means either electronically or mechanically, including photocopying, recording, microcopying, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written consent from the publisher.
The German original edition entitled Hans Suter: Paul Klee und seine Krankheit (ISBN 978-3-7272-1106-5) was published in 2006 by St mpfli Verlag AG, Bern (Switzerland).
The French edition entitled Hans Suter: Paul Klee et sa maladie was published in 2007 by Dr. Hans Suter and is available through the author: Dr. Hans Suter, Lueg, CH-3617 Fahrni (Switzerland) Tel. +41 33 437 59 51, Fax +41 33 437 59 52, E-Mail info@sammlung-suter.ch www.sammlung-suter.ch
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Suter, Hans, 1930-
[Paul Klee und seine Krankheit. English]
Paul Klee and his illness : bowed but not broken by suffering and adversity/Hans Suter; translated from the German by Gillian McKay and Neil McKay.
p. ; cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-3-8055-9381-6 (hard cover: alk. paper)
1. Klee, Paul, 1879-1940-Health. 2. Artists-Diseases-Switzerland-Biography. 3. Artists-Switzerland-Biography. 4. Systemic scleroderma-Patients-Switzerland-Biography. I. Title.
[DNLM:1. Klee, Paul, 1879-1940. 2. Famous
Persons-Switzerland-Biography. 3. Scleroderma, Systemic-Switzerland. 4. Art-Switzerland. WZ 313 S965p 2010a]
N6888.K55S8813 2010
760.092-dc22
[B]
2009049891
Author, concept, choice of pictures, book design and execution: Dr. Hans Suter, Fahrni, Thun (Switzerland)
Translation: Gill McKay and Neil McKay, Stuttgart (Germany)
Publishing: S. Karger AG, Basel (Switzerland) Editing: S. Karger AG, Basel (Switzerland)
Layout, type-setting, image processing, coordination: Gerber Druck AG, Steffisburg (Switzerland)
Font: FF DIN (title), Frutiger Light/Frutiger Bold (text, notes) Binding: Buchbinderei Schumacher AG, Schmitten (Switzerland)
Frontispiece: Paul Klee, 1939, photo by Charlotte Weidler, New York, N.Y. (USA) Embossed illustration: Paul Klee, ecce . , 1940, 138
Contents
Preface Aljoscha Klee
Foreword Hans Christoph von Tavel
Introduction
Notes on Interpreting the Works of Art
1 Paul Klee s Life - Major Milestones
Early Years in Bern
Artistic Training in Munich and Italy, Sojourns in Bern and Munich
Trip to Tunisia, Military Service during World War I, Teaching, Journey to Egypt
Dismissal, Return to Bern, Isolation
Klee Exhibitions in Switzerland: Attracting Little Interest
And My Sole Remaining Wish Is to Be a Citizen of This City
2 Paul Klee s Illness
First Symptoms - Persistent Bronchitis, Pneumonia, Pleurisy and Permanent Fatigue
Measles?
Long Convalescence, Debility, Heart and Lung Complications
A Possible Diagnosis: Scleroderma
Overview of the Forms of Scleroderma
Skin Disorders
Mucous Membrane Disorders
Raynaud s Syndrome
Internal Organ Disorders
Digestive Tract Disorders Lung Disorders Cardiac Disorders Renal Disorders
Death in Ticino
Discussion of the Symptoms and Course of Paul Klee s Illness
How Was Paul Klee s Illness Treated?
Other Medical Opinions on Paul Klee s Illness
F.-J. Beer Lisbet Milling Pedersen and Henrik Permin Philip Sandblom Brigitta Danuser Michael Reiner Christoph Morscher E. Carwile LeRoy and Richard M. Silver Gabriele Castenholz
A Final Assessment of Paul Klee s Illness
Paul Klee s Doctors
3 Paul Klee s Personality
4 The Effects of Adversity and Illness on Paul Klee s Mind and Work
Robust Psyche
What Could Have Caused Such a Serious Illness?
Great Fortitude
Powers of Intuition, Conserving Energy, Concentrating on the Essentials
Belated Accolades
The Final Works
5 Klee s Late Work as a Reflection of His Personality, Social Environment, Illness and Proximity to Death
Isolation and Solitary Internalization
Death Is Nothing Bad
Work Full of Spirituality
Art Is a Parable of Creation
His Illness as a Constant Companion
A New Style of Extraordinary Intensity and Spontaneity
Meeting with Pablo Picasso
His Creation Breathes Lightness and Grace
Productivity Is Increasing and the Tempo Is Accelerating
Illness as Opportunity
6 Summary and Conclusion

Paul Klee and His Illness , Exhibition, Bern, 2005
Special Medical Terms
Index of Terms
Index of Names
Biographical Details of People Referred to in the Text
Bibliography
List of Illustrations
Alphabetical Index of Illustrations of Works of Paul Klee
Abbreviations for Document Locations
Photographic Credits
Appendices
Acknowledgements
World Scleroderma Association
Fig. 1. Symbiosis, 1934, 131
For my wife Marlis Suter-Tr chsel and our daughters Maja Wassmer-Suter and Christa Zaugg-Suter
In loving memory of our son and brother Gerhard Suter (1963-1986)
And for my teacher and friend Professor Dr. med. Alfred Krebs

Preface

Fig. 2 . Aljoscha Klee
As the grandson of Paul Klee, faced with writing a preface to such a meticulously researched and written book and commenting on the tragedy contained in its pages, I find myself delving into a story that is really only relevant to me from a historical perspective. Sadly, I never had the chance to know my grandfather personally, but I have been able to draw on a whole latticework of personal memories. These memories are not directly linked to Paul Klee s illness, but they are a product of my parents recollections and reflections on what they experienced. They were forced to stand by helplessly, watching and sharing in the artist s inevitable decline towards death. As a child growing up, I was not really able to fully understand my parents stories and conversations about Buzzi . But I gained a realization of the mystery of death and the artist s awareness of his own mortality, and this made an impression on me and preoccupied me during my formative years. For example, I was impressed by his determination to continue to achieve as much as his remaining time on earth would allow. Paul Klee still had so much more to say, and he knew it.
His later work, which was not only influenced by his illness, but which was done in defiance of that illness, is surely one of the most brilliant demonstrations of how suffering and sadness can be overcome through art and imagery, and in which, despite everything, irony can still shine through. I welcome this book as an important and sensitive contribution towards the appreciation of Klee s later work.
Aljoscha Klee
Foreword

Fig. 3 . Dr. Hans Christoph von Tavel, PhD
This publication occupies a special place amongst the many scholarly works on Paul Klee, as it fills a big gap in the studies done so far on an artist who is considered so important in the artistic and intellectual history of the 20th century. The subject of his illness has been brought up regularly in discussions of his later work, but for the most part without any specialist medical knowledge. Conversely, medical studies on the final years of the artist, who died in 1940 aged 60, often suffer from a lack of accurate research into the fateful progress of his illness and from a lack of knowledge about Klee s artistic work. The latter has only recently been catalogued in its entirety.
Hans Suter, who worked in Thun and its surrounding area as a specialist in dermatology and venereology, has been a collector and patron of the visual arts for decades. He began his research into the nature and development of Klee s illness more than 30 years ago. The lack of a medical history and the fact that the artist s death happened several decades earlier meant it was necessary to undertake extensive research. This was made particularly onerous by the fact that most of Klee s doctors, friends and collectors, as well as those who witnessed his illness, had by then also died. The artistic and human isolation that Klee suffered in Bern even before the outbreak of his illness - he was forced to leave Germany in 1933 - complicated matters even more. The author meets these challenges with profound medical knowledge, a comprehensive study of relevant literature and original source material, careful historical research and interviews with Klee s son Felix, other surviving contemporaries, and descendants of Klee s circle.
Doctors