Klee and Cobra: A Child's Play

The Cobra Museum presents works by Paul Klee and various Cobra artists in a large-scale international exhibition that brilliantly illustrates the influence the Swiss painter had on the Cobra movement - with a special emphasis on the artists' shared fascination for the wondrous world of children's imagination.

Klee in the Stedelijk

In the spring of 1948, the Amsterdam Stedelijk Museum, under director Willem Sandberg, held a major exhibition of the work of Paul Klee - the first in the Netherlands. The press responded enthusiastically. Soon after, the Stedelijk hosted the first exhibition of the Cobra group, comprised of young, primarily Dutch painters and poets.

Lasting impression

Although the young Dutch Cobra artists only became fully acquainted with the work of Paul Klee at the 1948 exhibition, his work nonetheless made a great impression on both the Dutch and the non-Dutch Cobra artists.

A child's imagination

One of the joint sources of inspiration was a shared love of children's art. Paul Klee and the Cobra artists shared a genuine fascination for the liberating simplicity, the fantasy, the purity and the rich colours of children's drawings. As a boy, Klee had been fervently enthusiastic about drawing. After rediscovering his own childhood drawings in 1902, he would refer back to them for the rest of his life. He also encouraged his son Felix, born in 1907, to draw. This exhibition includes original childhood drawings by both Paul and Felix Klee, which have never before been shown outside Switzerland.

Unique exhibition

This theme has never before been so thoroughly investigated in an exhibition. In all, 120 masterpieces by Paul Klee (oil paintings, works on paper, mixed media works and sculptures) and about 100 highlights by Cobra artists (including Karel Appel, Constant, Corneille, Eugène Brands, Asger Jorn, Pierre Alechinsky and others) are being brought together from international collections. This offers visitors a unique opportunity to view the similarities and the differences between Klee and Cobra.