Paul Klee
(18 December 1879 - 29 June 1940) |
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color theory, union of music and art Art Work
| Name: |
Paul Klee |
| Gender: |
Male |
| Place of Birth: |
Munchenbuchsee, Switzerland |
| Nationality: |
Swiss/German |
| Birth: |
18 December 1879 |
| Death: |
29 June 1940 |
| Website: |
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| Past Auctions: |
Click Here |
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Quick Facts
| Known For: |
color theory, union of music and art |
| Medium: |
watercolor, ink, pastel, etching |
| Method: |
watercolor, ink, pastel, etching |
| Style: |
Expressionism |
| Fine Art Profession(s): |
Painter
Draughtsman
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Biography
Paul Klee was born in Switzerland to a German musical family. His father was a music teacher and his mother a trained singer. Although his parents encouraged him to pursue music as a profession, the young Klee chose art instead, partially in spirit of rebellion.
In 1898, Klee entered the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, where he spent much time in the company of pub crawlers and lower class women. His drawing skills improved immensely, but Klee continued to struggle with his handling of color and despaired of learning how to paint. After receiving his fine arts degree, Klee spent some time in Italy where he grew further frustrated with his apparent lack of color sense. Klee then returned to the home of his parents, where he experimented with some needle etching techniques, and produced a series of 11 etchings on zinc plates called Inventions.
Klee's breakthorough with color did not come until he met Wassily Kandinsky and became involved with the Der Blaue Reiter group of avante garde artists in Munich. Their cubist forms and bold colors inspired Klee to continue his experiments with color. In this period, the painter produced many watercolours and a few landscapes. Klee was particularly inspired by his 1914 trip to Tunisia, where he abandoned any faithfulness to reality entirely and began painting purely abstract works.
In 1919, Klee joined the Bauhaus school in Dessau teaching bookbinding, stained glass, and mural painting. The Bauhaus school, however, was shut down in 1933 by the Nazis for producing "degenerate art." Klee then settled in Switzerland, where he lived until his death in 1940 from wasting disease.
Klee was an incredibly prolific artist during his career. Even in 1939, the year prior to his death, the artist produced over 1,200 paintings within the year. Music also remained an important element in Klee's artworks. His compositions reveal a careful construction technique in which various elements or "notes" were included to produce both harmony and dissonance in turn. Klee's most well-known work today, Ad Parnassum (1932), is considered a representative sample of the artist's unique pointillist technique. |
Samples of Work
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