Paul Klee (December 18, 1879 – June 29, 1940)
This past Tuesday marked the birthday of Modern Art master Paul Klee -- a revolutionary artist in his time. Known for working with many different types of media -- including watercolor, oil paints and ink -- the Swiss-born German painter defied categorization throughout his career.
Born in Muchenbuchsee, Switzerland, Klee studied both art and music at an early age. In his teens, he decided to seriously pursue a career in art and in 1898 went to Munich to study with artists Franz von Stuck and Heinrich Knirr at the Academy of Fine Arts. After his studies, Klee traveled to Italy and then settled in Munich in 1911, where he met Franz Marc and other avant-garde artists.
Although he was connected with the Bauhaus Art Movement and the German Expressionist Group "Der Blaue Reiter" (The Blue Rider), Paul Klee's style had its own signature flair. His paintings tended toward flat, semiabstract compositions and usually featured delicate, dream-inspired color harmonies. At once childlike and sophisticated, Klee's work was strongly influenced by music and poetry.
During his successful career, Klee exhibited regularly and also famously taught at the Bauhaus school of art and architecture along with his friend and contemporary, Wassily Kandinsky. Today, his work is celebrated in museums worldwide, and particularly in the Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern, Switzerland. The famed Zentrum features the world's largest collection of Klee's paintings, drawings and watercolors, in addition to biographical archives from his life.
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