The last “hill” of the Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern designed by Genoan architect Renzo Piano

Those who admire the paintings of Ganesh Pyne are aware of the influence of Paul Klee on his sensibility.

The artist, who used to live in a dark lane in north Calcutta but moved southwards after his marriage, says it was Klee’s writings in books like Thinking Eye that had attracted him. Klee’s premise that logic was the bulwark of modernist art drew Pyne to Klee’s writing, but he drifted away from the master’s art as it became too rarefied for his taste.

But few are aware that long before the modernist movement in the West made any impact on India, an exhibition of the works of Bauhaus teachers was held in Calcutta in the 1922, and nobody knows what happened to the works.

This precious fact would have been lost had not art historian Ratan Parimoo, who used to teach at MS University in Baroda, dug it up for his doctoral thesis in 1972.

It was published as a book, The Paintings of the Three Tagores — Abanindranath, Gaganendranath and Rabindranath — Chronology and Comparative Study.

He found two newspaper clippings at the Indian Society of Oriental Art office in Calcutta. One was The Statesman dated December 15, 1922, and the second was of The Englishman. These cuttings were reprinted in Rupam magazine, edited by OC Gangooly, in its June 1923 issue.

When Parimoo visited the Bauhaus archive now in Berlin in 1993, he found the general impression was that Rabindranath Tagore, who had visited the Bauhaus Institute in Weimar, perhaps, had a hand in the works of Bauhaus teachers being exhibited in Calcutta.

The teachers whose works were exhibited were Lyonel Feininger, drawings and woodcuts; Johannes Itten, 23 drawings; and watercolours by Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee. Fifty years later in the 1970s, Interpol tried to find out what happened to the works but drew a blank. The probe gave rise to speculation of the Geegans of Calcutta, to borrow an Anita Loos expression, who may have been involved in the scam.

These thoughts crossed my mind as I first set eyes on the magnificent Zentrum Paul Klee on the busy motorway of Bern, particularly because Calcutta, which still does not have an art museum — not even a National Gallery of Modern Art, like Mumbai — is about to get one, thanks to the state government and the Calcutta Municipal Corporation.

Zentrum Paul Klee, which has an undulating form of shimmering glass like the Swiss Alps that forms its backdrop, opened as recently as June 20, 2005, and could serve as a role model for the planned Calcutta museum. As our guide (from IT) gleefully told us, the centre is not a museum but is meant to draw people like herself, who initially had zero interest in museums. So Zentrum Paul Klee has other attractions — a well-equipped space meant to nurture the creativity of children, restaurant, shop, research centre, rooms for hire for theatre productions, chamber music (Klee was talented violinist), conferences, seminars and even for weddings — besides the 4,000 works of Paul Klee that it houses.

This monographic institution was built around the works contributed by the Klee family and donations of the orthopaedist Maurice E. Müller. Located near Klee’s grave, the cultural centre was designed by Genoese architect Renzo Piano.

Piano felt the centre should be dedicated to “poet of stillness” and created the three “hills” of steel girders that form its north-south axis running parallel to the motorway. The light and airy structure sensitive to the rise and fall in temperature outside, to sunlight and wind speed, is an engineering feat. The middle hill is where Klee’s works are exhibited. The hills are connected by a 150-m long thoroughfare known as Museumstrasse that connects the various facets of the centre which reflects Klee’s multi-faceted personality.

Does not the great legacy of Rabindranath, who is quoted at the drop of a hat but whose memory is being desecrated all the time, deserve such a centre? Perhaps the new museum — although it is not only Tagore — will make amends for past injustice to our heritage.

The plot on which the centre is built was donated by the Müller family. The motorway rolls through it and the grounds facing the centre are used for farming so that topography blends seamlessly with this “nature harnessed” miracle.