Paul Klee

Klee was born in Muchenbushsee, Switzerland on December 18, 1879. The son of two musicians, he studied violin at an early age and performed with the Bern Symphony orchestra. An interest in drawing and art led him to Munich, which at the time was the artistic capital of Germany, to study at the Munich Academy in 1900. Klee's early works were pen and ink drawings, deriving influence from Christian and Byzantine art in addition to James Ensor and Francisco de Goya. These drawings were a combination of surreal, satirical and grotesque elements. In 1906, Klee married the pianist, Lili Stumpf and joined the abstract expressionist group, The Blue Rider, founded by Kandinsky and Macke. A trip to Tunisia in 1914 provided him with an intense connection to color, followed by transparent color planes in his paintings that lasted throughout his life. Klee worked as an instructor at the Bauhaus in Weimar, Germany and then at the Dusseldorf Academy until Hitler came to power in 1933. The last part of his life was spent suffering from the debiliating disease sclerodera, which eventually took his life in June of 1940. Klee's work is difficult to categorize into one specific genre but has be described as surreal, geometric, abstract, humerous, primitive and imbibed with mythic allusionism and has had a profound effect on 20th century art.

Paul Klee Images:
Castle and Sun
Cityscape with Yellow Windows
Farbtafel, 1930
Fish Magic
Flowers in Stone
Haus-Inneres
Lady Apart
Red Bridge
Senecio
Sinbad the Sailor
Sweet & Bitter Island
With Two Dromedaries and a Donkey
Zitronen