PAUL KLEE - A GERMAN-SWISS PAINTER

ART HISTORY
PAUL KLEE - A GERMAN-SWISS PAINTER (1879-1940)

PAUL KLEE PAINTINGS

Born on December 18, 1879, in Münchenbuchsee, Paul Klee was a German-Swiss painter, draftsman, printmaker, teacher and writer. 

He is regarded as a major theoretician among modern artists,  a master of humour and mystery, and a major contributor to 20th century art. 

Klee was born into a family of musicians and his childhood love of music would remain very important in his life and work. 

Klee’s main concentration on graphic work changed in 1914 after he spent two weeks in Tunisia with the painters August Macke and Louis Moilliet. He produced a number of stunning watercolours and  colour became central  to his art for the remainder of his life.

In 1918, Klee moved back to Munich and worked extensively in oil for the first time painting intensely coloured, mysterious landscapes. During this time, he also became interested in the theory of art and published his ideas on the nature of graphic art in the ‘Schöpferische Konfession’ in 1920. 

In 1920, Klee was appointed to the faculty of the Bauhaus in Weimar where he taught from 1921 to 1926 and in Dessau from 1926 to 1931. During this time Klee developed many unique methods of creating art.  The most well known is the oil transfer drawing which involves tracing a pencil drawing placed over a page coated with black ink or oil, onto a third sheet. That sheet receives the outline of the drawing in black, in addition to random smudges of excess oil from the middle sheet.

During his years in Weimar, Klee achieved international fame. However, his final years at the Dessau Bauhaus were marked by major political problems. In 1931 Klee ended his contract shortly before the Nazis closed the Bauhaus. He began to teach at the Düsseldorf art academy, commuting there from his home in Dessau.

In Düsseldorf Klee developed a divisionist painting technique that was related to Seurat’s pointillist paintings.  These works consisted of  layers of colour applied over a surface in patterns of small spots. 

 In December he and his wife left Germany and returned to Berne.

In 1935 Klee developed the first symptoms of scleroderma, a skin disease that he suffered with until his death. Despite his personal and physical challenges, Klee’s final years were some of his most productive times. 

Several hundred paintings and 1583 drawings were recorded between 1937 and May 1940.  Many of these works depicted the subject of death and his famous painting, “Death and Fire”, is considered his personal requiem.

Paul Klee died in Muralto, Locarno, Switzerland, on June 29, 1940. He was buried at Schosshalde Friedhof, Bern, Switzerland. A museum dedicated to Klee was built in Bern, Switzerland, by Italian architect Renzo Piano. Zentrum Paul Klee opened in June 2005 and holds a collection of about 4,000 work.

Source: Artfixx.com