Paul Klee (18 December 1879 - 29 June 1940), Swiss Expressionist painter, teacher, writer, draftsman, printmaker.
He was one of the most important artists of the 20th century, also being an important art theoretician, considered to be a model and a source of inspiration for the younger generations.
Born in Switzerland, he would merge in his style various influences and sources of inspiration, from primitive art to surrealism and cubism. He grew up in a rather rich family, taking intensive music lessons, as he proved to be a tallented violonist, as Ingres. He chose art over music, after careful deliberations, and in 1900 he enrolled at the Munich Akademie. In 1901 Klee left for Italy, where he remained until 1902 and where he discovered byzanthin art.
His first important works were mainly prints and etchings or drawings, which combined satirical, grotesque and surrealist elements, in a manner that reminded of Goya and Ensor.
After merrying in 1906 the musician Lili Stumpf, Klee settled in Munich, at the time a major center of the artistic avant-garde, and in the same year he exhibited his compositions for the first time, with moderate success. His friendship with Wassily Kandinsky and August Macke encouraged him to join the Expressionist group Der Blaue Reiter, and a crucial point in his career was the trip to Tunisia, made in 1914. Fascinated by the richness of colors and the life of the place, Klee dramatically changed his style, producing vivid compositions, reminescent of the mosaics he saw in Italy.
After World War One Klee taught at the Bauhaus school, where he was a coleague of Kandinsky. He published in 1925 one of his most interesting art essays, Pedagogic Sketchbook, in which he tried to define and analyse the principal visual elements and methods that he used. In 1931 he began teaching at the Dusseldorf Akademie, but was fired and persecuted by the Nazi governement, who placed his on the list of the "degenerate artists". He would leave Germany for Switzerland in 1933, but he was already very sick and worked with great difficulties. This changed his manner of painting, as Klee began using a simpler style, with black and thick lines.
