Static-Dynamic Gradation
1923 · Oil and gouache on paper bordered with gouache, watercolour and ink, mounted on paperboard · The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
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This print
About this work
- Artist
- Paul Klee (1879–1940)
- Year
- 1923
- Medium
- Oil and gouache on paper bordered with gouache, watercolour and ink, mounted on paperboard
- Original size
- 43.5 × 29.2 cm
- Collection
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
- Movement
- Bauhaus
Columns of small rectangles step from near-black at the outer edges through browns and dull reds to bright orange, olive, blue, green and white at the centre, so that the colour seems to glow outward from the middle of the sheet. A painted border in dark gouache frames the whole. Klee made it in 1923 at the Bauhaus in Weimar, where his teaching dealt with gradation, the step-by-step movement of a colour from dark to light, and with the balance between stillness and movement that the title names. Like his other square pictures of these years, it treats colour almost as music, with rhythm, intervals and a climax at the centre. The work is in The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, part of the Berggruen Klee Collection given in 1987.
This full-bleed edition prints the work edge to edge from a high-resolution scan of the original, very slightly cropped (a few percent at most) to fit the sheet. The gallery edition shows the whole work, uncropped. The original is in the public domain.
Where it works
A grid of browns and dull reds brightening to orange, blue and white at the centre, for a study, dining room or home office at 16×24 in black. A chocolate brown, rust or warm grey wall; it pairs with Ancient Sound, Abstract on Black.
Style, size & framing detail
- Style
- Bauhaus painting
- Era
- 20th century (1923)
- Orientation
- Portrait
- Mood
- classic
- Rooms
- dining room, study or library, home office, living room
- Good gift for
- housewarming, art lovers
Size. We'd hang this one at 16×24. Prints at 12×18, 16×24 in — 12×18 for a shelf, desk or a gallery-wall grid; 16×24 above a desk, console or in a hallway.
Framing. Printed edge to edge: a slim black or natural wood frame right to the image, or let the canvas wrap do the framing. Also available gallery-wrapped on canvas, ready to hang with no frame.
Pairing. Pairs as a set of three with other famous painting prints (10% off three or more).
Details & materials
Shipping & returns
Is this the whole painting, or a crop?
Is Static-Dynamic Gradation in the public domain?
What is it printed on?
When was Static-Dynamic Gradation painted, and in what medium?
What size works above a sofa or bed?
About this design
The Madten promise
An exhibition poster
The same artwork as a gallery exhibition poster — title, artist & date typeset beneath the image on a soft ground.
A fine-art print
The same artwork as a clean fine-art print — the image shown large with a minimal caption.
