Paul Klee

Paul Klee’s was a Swiss born painter, with a unique style that was influenced by expressionism, cubism, surrealism, and orientalism. His written collections of lectures, Writings on Form and Design Theory are considered as important to modern art as Leonardo da Vinci’s written works were to the Renaissance. As a child, Klee was mainly oriented as a musician, having played the violin since he was eight, but in his teen years, he found that art allowed him freedom to explore his style and express his radical ideas. Although Klee is now considered a master of color theory, he spent a long time in his search for his sense of color. At first, Klee drew in black and white, saying he would never be a painter. But as an adult, after a visit to Tunisia, in which he was impressed by the quality of light, he had found his sense of color and began experimenting with his newfound decision to be a painter.


Born: December 18, 1879; Münchenbuchsee, Switzerland  
Died: June 29, 1940; Muralto, Locarno, Switzerland  
Active Years: 1903 - 1940
Nationality: German, Swiss
Art Movement:  Expressionism, Abstract Art, Surrealism
Painting School:  Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), Bauhaus, Degenerate art
Field: painting, printmaking
Influenced by: Edvard Munch, Robert Delaunay, Franz Marc, Expressionism
Influenced on: Karl Otto Gotz, Nasreen Mohamedi, Dieter Roth, Manuel Cargaleiro, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, Jean Dubuffet
Art Institution: Akademie der Bildenden Künste München (Munich Academy), Munich, Germany, Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
Friends and Co-workers: Josef Albers, Wassily Kandinsky, August Macke, Vadym Meller