César Klein (14 September 1876 – 13 March 1954) was a GermanExpressionist painter and designer, probably best known as one of the founders theNovember Group and theArbeitsrat für Kunst.[1] He is associated with theDüsseldorf school of painting.
He was born inHamburg; when he was seventeen, his parents insisted that he be apprenticed to a craft painter. He later studied at the Hamburg School of Applied Arts, theDüsseldorf Art Academy, and theRoyal Museum of Applied Arts inBerlin. In 1910, he was one of the 27 artists rejected from theBerlin Secession who responded by starting theNew Secession. Klein created lithographs and woodcuts, stained glass windows and mosaics, and murals on walls and ceilings, in addition to his easel art.
Given the practical bent of his training, Klein frequently "worked in media that appealed to a mass audience, such as architectural decoration, applied art, poster design, and theater and film design...."[2]
In 1913 he decorated the interior of the newMarmorhaus cinema inBerlin.
In the years afterWorld War I Klein was associated withWalter Gropius, though he turned down Gropius's offer of a teaching position at theBauhaus. Through the 1920s and after, Klein devoted much of his work to designs for theater and film production. He was the set designer forRobert Wiene's 1920 filmGenuine,[3] and for the 1924 production ofErnst Toller'sHinkemann.[4]
Klein was included in the famousDegenerate Art exhibition mounted by theNazi regime in 1937. He was able to resume his career in theatrical design afterWorld War II. He died in 1954, atPansdorf nearLübeck.
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