The Cobra Museum in Amstelveen presents Klee and Cobra. A Child’s Play an exhibition on view 28.01 – 22.04 2012.

The impressive oeuvre of Paul Klee (1879-1940) reveals an exceptional desire to experiment. The Netherlands first became acquainted with Klee’s work in 1948, when the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam presented a now legendary exhibition of the work of the Swiss artist. The press and the public were enchanted by the world of Paul Klee. Today, the work of this modern master is seldom seen in the Netherlands. In early 2012, with Klee and Cobra: A Child’s Play, that will change. This in-depth exhibition at the Cobra Museum reveals shared fascinations on the parts of both Klee and the Cobra artists for the wondrous, imaginary world of the child. In all, over 130 masterpieces by Paul Klee and 120 by Cobra artists (Karel Appel, Constant, Corneille, Eugène Brands, Asger Jorn, Pierre Alechinsky and others) have been brought together for this exhibition from international collections.

The presentation reveals similarities and differences between Klee and Cobra, both in their working methods and in their ideas about the role and the meaning of the child in art. Klee and Cobra: A Child’s Play centres on five themes: the imagination of the child, fantastic animals, acrobatics, masks, aggression. Visitors will experience how both Klee and the post-war Cobra artists translated the free expression of children into radical new art, which still today remains colourful, spontaneous, raw and pure.

Klee and Cobra has been organized in collaboration with the Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern and the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebaek, Denmark. – www.cobra-museum.nl

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3. Cobra Museum presents Nathaniel Mellors – The Nest