Paul Klee wanted to be a painter rather than musician
Paul Klee was born on 18 December 1879 in Münchenbuchsee in the Swiss canton of Bern. The second child of a Swiss singer and a German music teacher, he came into contact with art from an early age, acquiring a basic understanding of music which he cultivated even after settling on art, using it as an important source of inspiration. As well as playing the violin, which he had started learning at the age of seven, Paul Klee was also interested in poetry and drawing. However, his clear drawing talent was initially not encouraged as his parents preferred to make a musician out of their son. But Klee felt ever more drawn to the fine arts and eventually went to Munich, without his parents’ consent, to study painting. This decision was also motivated by his later expressed conviction that music as an art form had already passed its zenith and modern compositions could not match the old masters anyway.
Relaxed student life and formative study trip to Italy
Following the unexpected rejection from the Munich Academy of Fine Arts, Paul Klee first was forced to take a diversion via Heinrich Knirr’s private painting school. In addition, Walter Ziegler also taught him etching, before he was finally able to join Franz von Stuck’s painting class at the academy in October 1900. He had already had the opportunity to meet his colleague Wassily Kandinsky, but because of Kandinsky’s choice to stay away from classes and cultivate numerous affairs with young models in order to acquire a refined sexual experience instead, the momentous joining of the two important painters only occurred years later. Paul Klee turned his back on the academy as soon as March 1901 and undertook a six-month study trip to Italy with the sculptor Hermann Haller. Klee found three things formative on this trip: the Renaissance architecture of Florence, the aquarium in Naples, and the Gothic panel painting of Siena.
Marriage and exhibitions with the Berlin and Munich Secession
On his return from Italy, Paul Klee offered his services for a time as a violinist with the Bernese Music Society and thus financed his further artistic training. He studied and was greatly impressed by the illustrations of Francisco de Goya, William Blake and Aubrey Beardsley in the Munich Kupferstichkabinett (Museum of Prints and Drawings), and visited Paris in 1905 with his artist friend Louis Moilliet where he was often guest at the Louvre and the Palais du Luxembourg. His exploration of Impressionism and reverse glass painting was followed by his return to Munich, marriage to the pianist Lily Stumpf and the birth of his son Felix Klee. During this time, it was primarily Lily Klee who supported the small family by teaching piano. In 1908, Paul Klee took part in exhibitions by the Munch and Berlin Secessions with several works, and went on to become a founding member of the Expressionist artist’s association Sema at the suggestion of the Austrian graphic artist Alfred Kubin who also acquired numerous works by Klee.
Two decisive caesura: Der Blaue Reiter and journey to Tunisia
In the autumn of 1911, Paul Klee met August Macke, Hans Arp, Franz Marc and Wassily Kandinsky. Exchange between the latter two eventually led to Klee joining the editorial community of the almanac initiated by Kandinsky and Marc, Der Blaue Reiter. Although within months Paul Klee was to become one the most important members, he was never fully integrated in the artist group, to which Marianne von Werefkin and Gabriele Münter also belonged. In 1912, he successfully participated in the Blaue Reiter’s second exhibition in the Galerie Goltz, and met Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. However, one decisive caesura in Klee’s oeuvre was the so-called Journey to Tunisia, which he undertook in April 1914 with his friends August Macke and Louis Moilliet. During the three-week trip, Klee, having always rejected the intense study of colour, changed his mind: the exotic dazzling light and colour world of the Orient conveyed to the artist a totally new understanding of his painting. Henceforth, Klee the painter and colour were one, as he noted in his diary.
Artistic breakthrough, Bauhaus period, escape from the Nazi regime
Paul Klee served as a soldier during the First World War but managed to avoid a posting on the front line thanks to the connections of his wife Lily. After the war, he achieved the longed-for artistic breakthrough on a national level with an exhibition in Herwarth Walden’s gallery Der Sturm. Due to his involvement in the Munich Soviet Republic, however, Klee was forced to temporarily flee to Zurich where he came into contact with Dadaism, and in 1920, Walter Gropius appointed him to the State Bauhaus in Weimar. There he soon took on various leadership roles, impressing his students immensely with his skill and talent. His work at this time was marked by particular ingenuity and fairy-tale-like fantasy. In 1931, Paul Klee left the Bauhaus and took on a role as professor at the Dusseldorf Art Academy, which he had to give up in 1933 however on pressure from the National Socialists. The Nazi regime defamed his work as degenerate art and Klee fled once again to Switzerland.
Paul Klee died on 29 June 1940 in Muralto in the Swiss canton of Ticino. Although he was born and died in Switzerland, he remained a German throughout his life – he had applied for federal citizenship but did not live to see the decision.
Paul Klee - Works that have already been sold at Kunsthaus Lempertz: