Scene of an African Village (Afrikanische Dorfscene)

Scene of an African Village (Afrikanische Dorfscene) is an important work by German artist Paul Klee, executed in 1925. Classified as a drawing, the piece utilizes ink on paper, subsequently mounted on a rigid board support, a common practice Klee employed to preserve and frame his delicate graphic works.

Created near the midpoint of Klee’s tenure as an influential professor at the Bauhaus school, this drawing demonstrates his deep commitment to linear abstraction. The composition is structured by a tightly organized cluster of architectural forms, rendered through delicate, overlapping lines that suggest density and three-dimensionality without relying on traditional Western perspective. The subject reflects Klee’s profound, career-defining 1914 trip to North Africa. Although the work is monochrome, the geometric arrangement of huts or buildings captures the light-infused, stacked forms Klee witnessed in Tunisia, transforming them into a concise visual language.

This 1925 piece exemplifies the intellectual rigor Klee pursued during the mid-Weimar period, where he focused purely on geometry and the rhythmic structure of line and shadow using black ink. Klee played a foundational role in defining how drawing could function as an abstract tool, merging architectural rigidity with almost organic fragility.

The meticulous draftsmanship ensures that the Scene of an African Village retains a dynamic sense of volume and space, serving as a key example of the artist's structural drawings from the period. This significant work is preserved in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). As with many works by German modern masters, high-quality archival prints and digital resources ensure wide access for researchers today.