Paul Klee: handzeichnungen, 1921-1930 by Klee, Paul; Grohmann, Will; (Wigman, Mary) - 1934

Postdam and Berlin: Müller & I. Kiepenheuer Verlag, 1934. First edition. Number 30 of 525 from the confiscated first edition. Smooth yellow cloth boards (29 cm.), titled and illustrated in black, reproducing an original illustration from Klee on front panel. Some bubbling to cloth and general scuffing to boards. Contents feature 30 pages of text, ten pages of which represent the first catalogue of Klee's works by Grohmann, followed by 72 plates, which are printed on thick cardstock with perforated edges, presumably to afford easy framing of the images. This set complete. With ink ownership inscription, of Mary Wigman, to front endpaper, accompanied by a 1934 pencil inscription from Grohmann to Wigman. With Paul Klee having already abandoned the German climate for his native Switzerland in late 1933, it seemed somewhat dubious for art critic Will Grohmann to plan the publication of a three volume catalogue raisonné for the German public. Nonetheless, in a letter to Klee, Grohmann confirmed that the first of those volumes—being the one present here—was to appear in October 1934. By the Spring of 1935, the remainder of the edition would be confiscated by Nazi officials; with the publication of the other two volumes placed indefinitely on hold. This particular association copy adds a fascinating twist to the story. Before the edition was confiscated, one of its recipients was the innovative choreographer, and alleged Nazi sympathizer, Mary Wigman, a friend of Grohmann's from Dresden, who is here presented with a nostalgic inscription from Grohman: “In alter treu u. freundschaft." Of the few annotations to the text—possibly made by Wigman herself, or possibly by Grohmann—is a mark next to number 76 in Grohmann's catalogue, pointing to Klee's Drei Hexen from 1927: a work which appears to have built upon the theme of Wigman's own Hexentranz, which premiered a year earlier, in 1926.