Book dossier

Emil Nolde

by Emil Nolde, Jolanthe Nolde, Manfred Reuther

The book, its title a reference to a characterization that his artist friend Paul Klee bestowed on Nolde, is published on the occasion of the exhibition 'Emil Nolde' at Zentrum Paul Klee and includes, in addition to the illustrations of the works on show, the first ever publication of correspondence between the Nolde and Klee couples. Any encounter with the unknown seemed to always inspire Emil Nolde's artistic work. In his oeuvre there are great number references to the grotesque, the fantastic and the exotic - a fascination he shared with Paul Klee. Grotesques enabled both to critically comment on contemporary events. Fantastic depictions in Nolde's work stem from the serious examination of the unknown and uncanny and, accordingly, take a central position in his work, while in Paul Klee's work, the realm of ghosts, demons and other hybrid beings as an exciting parallel world seems to rather serve a kind of edification. For Nolde as well as for Klee and many of their contemporaries, exotic motifs formed a new inspiring vocabulary of forms, which helped them transcend the restrictions of the European tradition. Exhibition: Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern, Switzerland (17.11.2018 - 03.03.2019).