“One day I must be able to improvise freely on the keyboard of colors”

The Swiss city of Munich in the late 19^th century developed a reputation for art that was second only to Paris. The master of Modernism, Paul Klee (1879 – 1940) was in middle of this artistic flourish. Born to a music teacher father and a professional singer mother, and an outstanding violinist himself, the young Paul Klee seemed destined for a career in music. But as things turned out, Klee decided to study fine art, probably inspired by the creative impulse which was brimming over Munich at the end of the 19^th century. But though Klee never became a professional musician, music never completely left him. In a diary he wrote from 1897 to 1918, he recorded his thoughts and opinions about art and music, including the concerts and operas he regularly attended, the books he read and the artworks he admired.

Klee’s compositions showed his considerable graphic skills in evoking moods or impressions, or to tell stories from his many travels. He regularly incorporated letters and numbers in his paintings, to form a complex language of symbols with rhythmical arrangements that show his musical roots. These symbols came from his unconscious mind and like his friend Wassily Kandinsky who sought to explore the mysteries of the divine through art, Klee’s painted harmonies and enigmatic symbols had spiritual meanings for him which he left for his viewers to decipher. As he famously said, “art does not reproduce the visible; rather it makes visible.”

Selected Works of Paul Klee

1914

Juxtaposing squares and straight lines with curves, this work emerged from Klee’s understanding of the ideas of Cezanne, Delaunay, Picasso and Braque. It also shows his fascination with the idea of portraying a landscape from a distance.

1915

In the centre of Klee’s birthplace, Bern, is a medieval city built on a narrow hill and surrounded on three sides by the river Aare. This landscape lent itself to Klee’s faceted style of painting with soft patches of translucent colors.

1917

Painted in 1917, Klee wrote to his wife, Lily of this work: “… a light veil hung over the day, the light just as I like it, and I ventured out into the river’s flood plains.”

1922

Klee often painted squares and circles in his colored geometric compositions. Here, however, he used them differently. “Senecio” is the name of a genus of plants, and this childlike image humanizes plant forms with geometric shapes.

This early painting clear shows Klee’s capacity for fantasy, for imagining things that have never been seen. Despite the delicate playfulness of this work, Klee spoke about the act of artistic creation very seriously. For him, it was a way of approaching the unseen and the creator of all realms. “My hand is entirely the implement of a distant sphere”, Klee said.

1923

In a lecture in 1921, Klee said, “The tightrope walker is a symbol of the balance of forces.” He painted this comical work partly to depict balance and partly to depict artists’ vulnerability in an erratic art world.

1927

When the director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York visited Klee in 1927, he said, “Nothing is more astonishing to a student of Klee than his extraordinary variety. Not even Picasso approaches him in sheer inventiveness.”

1930

Following Bauhaus principles, Klee focused on mathematical elements in this work, expressing his interest in theory but still showing his sense of humor by contrasting the ostentatious title with the elements within the watercolor.

1932

It is when Klee mixed his unique approach to color with his musical background that he was able to establish a style that was entirely his own. Some of his works – like Polyphony explores the rhythms of music through tonal blocks.

Whimsical and Picasso-esque in its use of a double-face and a palette-shaped head, this painting depicts a dancer who is represented almost entirely by a single flowing graphic line. It was Klee who famously said that drawing was just ‘taking a line for a walk’ and in this work he demonstrates this principle in the simplest way.

In ‘Fire at Full Moon’, Klee created a vibrant, mystical piece, expressing awe at the phenomenon of nature.

1938

Although Klee started this painting in 1921, he did not finish it until 1938. One of his largest work, it is created with hieroglyphs from his subconscious. The white face in the middle symbolizes death.

Characteristic of Klee, this picture takes initial ideas from cubism, but then developed them in a new direction. Energy is created through bold lies and the spaces between them, both intentionally enigmatic.

1939

This painting (“In High spirits”) is not only one of Klee’s best known works but one where he combined his ideas on childish games together with the grave historical background of the time. Klee regularly chose the themes of balance and equilibrium, acrobatics and high spirits for his reduced form language of the last works of his life.