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Exhibition

Paul Klee's Circus

October 13, 2012–March 10, 2013

Paul Klee (1879-1940) had a passion for performance. His engagement with the subject ran from the depiction of opera singers to the production of functional hand puppets. This focused exhibition presents a selection of prints and drawings by Klee that addresses personalities often associated with the circus — acrobats, jugglers, animal handlers, clowns, buffoons — and places these designs in dialogue with the work of Alexander Calder, creator of the 20th century’s most famous sculptural circus.

Paul Klee, Narretei (Buffoonery), 1922, lithograph; Extended loan and promised gift of the Carl Djerassi Trust I to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art