Paul Klee Biography

Paul Klee was a Swiss-German painter who though originally associated with the German Expressionist group ‘Der Blaue Reite’, refused to adhere to any single artistic movement over the span of his career. He was also a gifted draughtsman and an educator whose lectures on color theory hold an important place in modern art. He taught at the German Bauhaus school of art, design and architecture, and his unique style was influenced by several art movements including expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. A highly creative and independent minded person, he challenged the traditional norms of expression in art and writing and explored abstract and poetic ideas in his paintings and writings. He was a transcendentalist who believed that the material world was only one among many realities open to human awareness. He was also a musician who used to practice on his violin before he started painting; as an artist, he could feel the analogies between music and the visual arts. He experimented freely with artistic techniques and applied paint in ways unusual for his era, and he greatly admired the unrestrained, free-flowing art of children. He suffered from a wasting disease towards the end of his life, the pain of which was reflected in his later paintings. A highly prolific artist, he left behind a legacy comprising about 9,000 works of art at the time of his death.