Tightrope Walker (1923): Art, History and Details

Tightrope Walker (1923) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Paul Klee (German, 1879–1940).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This lithograph is one of Paul Klee’s many depictions of tightrope walkers, a subject that he saw as reflecting the balance and tension necessary to artistic creation. Against a field of pink, the figure occupies only a small portion of the sheet, much of which is filled with an abstracted landscape of winding stairs and paths. Klee employed a variety of lithographic techniques in the print—from the fine pen lines used to sketch the tightrope walker and his surroundings to the smooth gradient above and below him, making him appear as if spotlit.

Object facts

• Title: Tightrope Walker
• Date: 1923
• Creator attribution: Paul Klee (German, 1879–1940)
• Culture: Germany, 20th century
• Type: Print
• Technique: color lithograph
• Collection: PR - Lithograph
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 1961.154

A detail from the museum

Paul Klee made this print during a decade spent on the faculty of the Bauhaus, an influential German art school.

Collection credit

Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.