Paul Klee

The German painter and graphic artist Paul Klee was an artist with a wide range of interests, who occupies a prominent place in the ranks of well-known artists of Expressionism, Constructivism and Surrealism. In addition to his artistic work, his legacy also includes writings on art theory.

born 1879 in Münchenbuchsee
died 1940 Muralto
1900 Studies at the Munich Academy
1901-1902 study trip to Rome
1902-1906 Klee lives again in Bern, where he creates his first reverse glass paintings and other etchings.
1908 exhibition at the Munich and Berlin Secession. Acquaintance with Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc and Hans Arp.
1912 Participation in the second Blue Rider exhibition. Klee associates with Alexej von Jawlensky, Rainer Maria Rilke and Herwarth Walden (1878-1941).
Visits the Kahnweiler gallery in Paris, where he sees paintings by Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque (1882-1963) and Henri Matisse (1869-1954).
1913 Klee exhibits at the First German Autumn Salon. Beginning of watercolor painting.
1914 trip to Tunisia with August Macke and Louis René Moilliet (1880-1992).
1916-1918 After infantry training, Klee does his military service in the aviation department in Schleißheim near Munich and in Gersthofen.
1920 Walter Gropius calls Klee to the Bauhaus in Weimar, where he first teaches as a form master and then in a painting class. Exhibition of 362 of his works at Goltz in Munich.
1924 First Klee exhibition in New York.
1925 Relocation with the Bauhaus to Dessau.
Participation in the first group exhibition of the “peinture surréaliste” in Paris, with Max Ernst, Joan Miró (1893-1983) and Picasso, among others.
1926 Klee founds the “Blue Four” with Kandinsky, Lyonel Feininger and Jawlensky. He mainly paints constructive and absolute pictures.
1928 trip to Egypt.
1931 professorship at the Düsseldorf Art Academy.
1933 Under pressure from the National Socialists, Klee is dismissed from teaching.
Move to Berne.
1935 First signs of the deadly disease (scleroderma).
Klee exhibitions in Bern and Basel.
1937 The National Socialists defame Klee’s art as “degenerate” and confiscate 102 of his works from German museums. 17 of them are shown in the exhibition “Degenerate Art”.
June 29, 1940 Paul Klee dies in Muralto im Tess