VISIONARY REVUE

LANDSCAPE PERCEIVED

      In the summer of 1956 he began a long affair with a rich woman named Kitty Lillaz, whom he called Lila. They travelled across Europe, visiting major museums in the Netherlands, Italy and Spain, and even got as far as Southern India. Not only Netherlandish and Italian Renaissance art is continually evoked in his works, but also the more esoteric styles of Tantric art.
      As a result of this voyage, Klarwein started Flight to Egypt in 1959 (which, despite its title, depicts Hindus bathing in Benares). When he finished this complex and detailed work in 1961 (with help from Fuchs), Kitty Lillaz threw a large party for the painting's unveiling. It was then that he met Dali for the first time.

Sofia Klarwein
and Salvador Dali

      Three years later, Klarwein's wife Sofia became friends with Dali, and this initiated his own long friendship with the Surrealist. Particularly during his years in New York, Klarwein and Dali met often.

PARIS - FALL 2004

LANDSCAPE DESCRIBED

      In the summer of '61 Klarwein was in Deya Mallorca, painting his well-known diptych, Landscape Perceived, Landscape Described. In fact, he first painted the Landscape Perceived. Then, after a hallucinogenic trip, he 'saw' the same landscape in a spiral of Hebrew letters, and so painted Landscape Described.
      Through this and other works, the artist became increasingly known as a 'psychedelic painter' because of the many hallucinogenic effects in his works. But, "I painted psychedelically before I took psychedelics," he later claimed.
      The same summer that he painted this psychedelic diptych, Klarwein was also building a home on Deya - actually on the plot of land just above the upper left corner of Landscape Perceived. The beach of Deya is also visible in his epic work The Annunciation (with a smiling Mati before 'the three kings').
      That same year, Mati Klarwein met his first wife, Sofia. Their often chaotic relationship lasted four years and resulted in the birth of one daughter, Eleonore.
      In the early 60's, Klarwein painted most of his works in a Parisian studio with its storefront gallery on Place Dauphine (on the Ile de la Cité). All-too-often, his studio became home to all-night music jams with the likes of Ornette Coleman or Ravi Shankar.