Paul Klee

About

Paul Klee was a Swiss-born German artist renowned for his highly individual style influenced by expressionism, cubism, surrealism, and abstraction. Born in Münchenbuchsee near Bern, Switzerland, to a German music teacher father and Swiss singer mother, Klee initially studied art in Bern and later moved to Munich in 1898 to attend the Academy of Fine Arts under Heinrich Knirr and Franz von Stuck. His early career included experimental techniques like reverse glass paintings and etchings, with his first exhibited works being the 'Inventions' series (1903–1905). A pivotal trip to Tunisia in 1914 with August Macke and Louis Moilliet awakened his use of color, famously declaring 'Color and I are one.' He married Lily Stumpf in 1906 and associated with artists like Wassily Kandinsky around 1911.

Abstract, influenced by expressionism, cubism, and surrealism