Bad Band (Schlechte Musik Kapelle)
1920
Watercolor, pen and ink, and black crayon (?) on thin paper; artist-mounted to paperboard
15.2 × 24.1 cm (6 × 9.5 in)
SEE IT IN PERSON
● On view now — Collection Gallery, Room 17, South Wall
Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia · verified July 2026
Discussion
FROM THE BARNES FOUNDATION’S CATALOG
Klee gave this small watercolor the title Schlecte Musik Kapelle (Bad Music Band) . Perhaps the music's badness has resulted from a lack of harmony: the musicians ignore each other as they play their instruments, though at least the yellow trumpeter at front seems to be having fun. Does the purple haze radiating from the band express their dissonant clamor? Klee—a talented violinist from a family of professional musicians—experimented throughout his career with ways of translating musical motifs into painting.
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More by Paul Klee
Sicilian Landscape (Sicilische Landschaft)
After a Sketch from Zurich (Nach einer Scizze aus Zürich)
Place-Signs (Ort-Zeichen)
God of War
Village Among Rocks (Ort in Felsen)
The Last Mercenary (Der letzte Landsknecht)
This Bloom is About to Wither (Diese Blüte Will Verwelken)
Two Red Flowers (Zwei rote Blüten)
