Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, Lyonel Feininger and...

Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, Lyonel Feininger and Alexei Jawlensky were struggling avant-garde European artists in 1924 when they were christened “The Blue Four” by arts agent Emmy (Galka) Scheyer, who hoped to sell their works in the United States.

More than 50 years later, the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena is sponsoring “The Blue Four and Their Contemporaries,” an exhibition of more than 50 works by these early 20th-Century artists as well as paintings and graphics by members of the Die Brucke and the Blaue Reiter groups.

Some of the other featured artists include E.L. Kirchner, Emil Nolde, Franz Marc, Otto Dix, Max Pechstein, Kurt Schwitters and sculptors Wilhelm Lehmbruck, Ernst Barlach and Oskar Schlemmer.

Several of these artists taught together at the Bauhaus, Walter Gropius’ German design studio that promoted a synthesis of painting, sculpture and architecture. Most were later branded as “degenerate” by the Nazis and forbidden to work.

For those who missed the recent Los Angeles County Museum of Art show that re-created the 1937 exhibit of works banned under Hitler, this is an excellent opportunity to see examples of German Expression-

ism and other contemporary styles in a smaller setting.

The show runs through Feb. 23. The museum is open Thursday through Sunday, noon to 6 p.m. Admission is $4 for adults and $2 for students and senior citizens. Members and children under 12 accompanied by an adult are admitted free. For more information, call (818) 449-3730.