Modern Artist Paul Klee – History and Works in History of Art

Paul Klee is both German and Swiss painter. Born on 8 December 1879 in Switzerland he is well known to have mastered an individual art style that is highly influenced by art moments such as expressionism, Surrealism & Cubism art prints. As an art student he studied orientalism but later went on to experiment and master the colour theory since he became overwhelmed by the intense light and colour on his visit to Tunisia. His works reflect his dry humour and his sometimes childlike perspective, and also his personal moods and beliefs, and connection to music. Klee enjoyed the company of Master Artist Wassily Kandinsky as a colleague when both of them studied at German Bauhaous School of art, design and architecture.

“First of all, the art of living; then as my ideal profession, poetry and philosophy, and as my real profession, plastic art in the last resort, for lack of income, illustrations.” – Paul Klee

Klee was born to a German father a music teacher by profession and had his mother as a trained singer. Klee started very young in the field of fine art as he actively took part in singing and music but soon began to find fondness in visual art such as paintings, drawing. He gave up music both as rebellion to his parents’ wishes and his belief that music did not bring in him the charm as modern music left less meaning to a musician. As an artist Klee craved the liberty to explore radical ideas and styles as in his sixteen, Klee’s landscape art, scenic art prints already show considerable skill and maturity. He outshined at drawing but always thought he lacked any natural colour sense. In 1898 he began studying Art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. During his times of youthful adventure, Klee spent a lot time in pubs having affairs with lower rank women and models.

After receiving a degree in art, Klee went Italy to study the works of master artists and their colour patters. For him colour represented the hopefulness and graciousness in art, and an anticipation of respite from the gloomy nature that he often expressed in his black-and-white grotesques and satires. He later married to Bavarian pianist Lily Stumpf in 1906 and lived in suburbs of Munich and attended to his art work. Klee’s art works and experience with art grew for the next five years and so was his new approach towards art. He had his first solo art exhibition in 1910

Klee has been acknowledged with various forms of art such as Abstract art, Cubism, Expressionism art, Surrealism, Futurism but most of the times his art paintings are not easy to classify. He invented new art trends in his own way while he worked in complete isolation from his colleagues to do something different. Klee worked in many different media-oil paint, watercolour, ink, pastel, etching, fine art prints and others. He was also a master draftsman as he developed an expertise in colour and tonality.

As Klee learned to control colour with passion and skills, he became a successful teacher of colour mixing and taught the theory to apprentice of the Bauhaus. This evolution in itself is of great interest because his views on colour eventually allowed him to write about it, from a unique viewpoint among his colleagues.

Today, a painting by Paul Klee can sell for as much as 350 Million rupees. An art museum that is purely devoted to Paul Klee was built in Bern, Switzerland, by the Italian architect Renzo Piano. Zentrum. Paul Klee opened in June 2005 and houses a collection of about 4,000 works by Paul Klee. Another substantial collection of Klee’s works is owned by chemist and playwright Carl Djerassi and displayed at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Paul Klee’s works are also available as Fine Art Prints, posters and framed art for the wall decor enthusiast. His art prints have been widely used to decorate walls for thousands of homes around the world since the posters and prints of his art are not only affordable but also a priced possession of any home that they are part of. Paul Klee is a Master Artist not many would like to forget.