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Artists from A-Z Otto Klein

1906–1994

  • Häuser im Schnee bei Kleinhüningen (1941)
    Häuser im Schnee bei Kleinhüningen
    Artist: Otto Klein Dating: 1941 Type: Painting Material: Oil on canvas Measures: 60 x 80 cm Acces / purchase date: 1977 Inventory number: 0223 Copyright: © Nachlass Otto Klein; Fotos: Christian Baur, Basel
  • Eckhaus in Arles (1941)
    Eckhaus in Arles
    Artist: Otto Klein Dating: 1941 Type: Painting Material: Oil on canvas Measures: 75 x 100 cm Acces / purchase date: 1979 Inventory number: 0222 Copyright: © Nachlass Otto Klein; Fotos: Christian Baur, Basel
  • Gemäuer (1981)
    Gemäuer
    Artist: Otto Klein Dating: 1981 Type: Work on paper Material: Gouache on paper Measures: 45 x 63 cm Acces / purchase date: 1982 Inventory number: 0226 Copyright: © Nachlass Otto Klein; Fotos: Christian Baur, Basel
  • Dünenlandschaft in Jütland (1963)
    Dünenlandschaft in Jütland
    Artist: Otto Klein Dating: 1963 Type: Painting Material: Mixed media on Pavatex Measures: 70 x 100 cm Acces / purchase date: n. d. Inventory number: 0225 Copyright: © Nachlass Otto Klein; Fotos: Christian Baur, Basel
  • Winterliches Elsass (1945)
    Winterliches Elsass
    Artist: Otto Klein Dating: 1945 Type: Painting Material: Oil on canvas Measures: 60,5 x 80,5 cm Acces / purchase date: 1977 Inventory number: 0224 Copyright: © Nachlass Otto Klein; Fotos: Christian Baur, Basel
The main theme, which is approached from all sides, is the big city and its loneliness. In terms of colour, the grey tone predominates throughout the work, more or less intensively. Especially with the early pictures (1938-1946) he belongs to the so-called Basel Grey Painters. In grey-toned, impasto paintings he mainly depicted industrial landscapes with few people and old house walls. In 1946 he turned away from oil and tempera painting and started to use his own emulsion-mixing technique with sometimes brighter, sometimes stronger colours. In addition to the city, the thematic circle also includes the figure, the portrait and, time and again, the deserted cityscape with or without boats, the landscape with man-made elements as an atmospheric symbol. In 1959 he temporarily switched to abstraction and a renewed emphasis on grey, and in 1960 he returned to a new representationalism, still with a grey basic tone, but with bright colours that harmonised with it.

Hermann Pfeilschifter