Alexander Klee (1940-2021)

From the very beginning, Alexander Klee, Paul Klee’s grandson, as co-founder of the Zentrum Paul Klee and member of its Board of Trustees, helped to establish the institution and encouraged and supported its work with extraordinary generosity. In this way he contributed enormously to the conservation, exploration and international dissemination of the oeuvre of his grandfather Paul Klee.

Equally, Alexander Klee made an impact in his own right as an independent artist under the name of Aljoscha Ségard. While Aljoscha Ségard went his own way as an artist, Alexander Klee remained tirelessly committed to the work of Paul Klee. From the mid-1970s he supported his father Felix Klee, the son of Paul and Lily Klee, in the administration of the Klee family collection, and was active in the Board of Trustees of the Paul Klee Foundation, which he chaired from 1990 until 2004. In 1992 he introduced the idea of a museum in Bern devoted to Paul Klee, and supported the Zentrum Paul Klee, which opened in 2005, with the generous gift of valuable archive materials from the possession of the Klee family, which he helped to organise along with his stepmother Livia Klee-Meyer. In placing the Klee family’s collection with the Zentrum Paul Klee in 2005, Alexander Klee made an important contribution to the wide-ranging exhibition work done both here in Bern and abroad. It is to a great extent down to his tireless dedication to the work of Paul Klee that the Zentrum Paul Klee is now the leading centre of competence worldwide devoted to this master of modern art.

Alexander Klee died suddenly in the early hours of 1 March 2021. We will always keep his independent spirit, his critical eye and his wise sense of humour in grateful memory.

The team of Zentrum Paul Klee and Kunstmuseum Bern.