Paul Klee

Paul Klee (1879-1940) was a Swiss German artist born in 1879 in Münchenbuchsee, Switzerland. He became one of the most influential figures in 20th-century art, known for his unique blend of abstraction and figuration. Klee's early exposure to music and art, his father's profession as a music teacher, and his mother's artistic leanings profoundly influenced his creative journey. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich and later joined the influential Blaue Reiter group, which focused on the emotional resonance of colours and shapes.

Klee's work is characterized by his innovative use of colour and form, often inspired by his dreams, the natural world and children's art. He once famously stated that ‘drawing is taking a line for a walk’, reflecting his playful approach to creating art. His style evolved over the years, integrating elements of expressionism, cubism, and surrealism, leading to a distinct visual language marked by whimsical motifs and vibrant hues.

Throughout his career, Klee produced over 9,000 works, including paintings, drawings, and prints. Some of his most renowned pieces include ‘Senecio’, with its bold colours and stylized features, and ‘Twittering Machine’, which exemplifies his fascination with the relationship between nature and the playful aspects of human creativity. Klee's time teaching at the Bauhaus, a revolutionary school of art and design, further solidified his impact on modern art, allowing him to experiment and share his philosophies with a new generation of artists.

The Klee family emigrated to Switzerland in late 1933. In that year, Klee began experiencing the symptoms of what was diagnosed as scleroderma after his death. The progression of this fatal disease, which made swallowing very difficult, can be followed through the art he created in his last years. His output in 1936 was only 25 pictures. In the later 1930s, his health recovered somewhat, and he was encouraged by a visit from Kandinsky and Picasso.

Klee's simpler and larger designs enabled him to keep up his output in his final years, and in 1939 he created over 1,200 works, a career high for one year. He used heavier lines and mainly geometric forms with fewer but larger blocks of colour. His varied colour palettes, some with bright colours and others sombre, perhaps reflected his alternating moods of optimism and pessimism. Back in Germany in 1937, seventeen of Klee's pictures were included in an exhibition of ‘Degenerate Art’ (a term adopted in the 1920s by the Nazi Party in Germany to describe modern art) and 102 of his works in public collections were seized by the Nazis.

Klee’s legacy endures in the art world, with his works influencing numerous movements and artists. He passed away on June 29, 1940, but his vibrant explorations continue to resonate, capturing the imagination and inspiring art lovers around the globe.