Village Among Rocks (Ort in Felsen)
1932
Gouache with ink on canvas
46 × 56.5 cm (18.1 × 22.2 in)
SEE IT IN PERSON
● On view now — Collection Gallery, Room 22, West Wall
Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia · verified July 2026
Discussion
FROM THE BARNES FOUNDATION’S CATALOG
Klee translates a village in a rocky landscape into multicolored polygonal shapes separated by black lines. Created at the end of Klee's tenure at the Bauhaus, the famous German design school that had sought to unite architecture, fine arts, and crafts, Village among Rocks can be interpreted as a totalizing work of painting, stained glass, and architectonics. Klee also drew upon Gestalt psychology to construct the expanding and contracting surfaces of this scene in order to guide the viewer's engagement.
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