Paul Klee (1879-1940) Switzerland

Paul Klee was born in 1879 in Switzerland. Klee’s musical talent was clear from a young age, and he began giving violin performances already as a child. Klee found both older and more contemporary music to be too bound up in tradition, and neither spoke to his artistic sensibility. He therefore began studying art in Munich in 1898, after barely managing to finish high school. After graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich, Klee began experimenting with different modes of artistic expression, and developed a more abstract style of painting. During that period, he studied in places such as Italy, and became acquainted with Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc and other avant-garde artists. His major breakthrough came in 1914, after making progress with his painting on his own. During World War I, Klee was summoned to serve military service in Germany. He served behind the front, which allowed him to continue to paint during the war. He fled to Switzerland with his family in 1933. Paul Klee’s work ultimately revolved around Cubism and Expressionism. By the time of his death in 1940, he had managed to produce 9,000 works.