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Paul Klee (December 18, 1879 – June 29,
1940) was a Swiss painter.


Klee was born in Münchenbuchsee (near Bern) of
Switzerland into a musical family - his father,
Hans Klee, taught music at the Hofwil Teacher
Seminar near Berne. In his early years, Paul
wanted to be a musician, but decided on the visual
arts in his teen years.  He studied art at the
Academy of Fine Arts, Munich|Academy of Fine Arts
in Munich with Heinrich Knirr and Franz von Stuck.
After travelling to Italy and then back to Bern,
he settled in Munich, where he met Wassily
Kandinsky, Franz Marc, and other avant-garde
figures, and became associated with the Blaue
Reiter. Here he met Bavarian pianist Lily Stumpf,
whom he married; they had one son.

In 1914, he visited Tunisia and was impressed by
the quality of the light there, writing "Color has
taken possession of me; no longer do I have to
chase after it, I know that it has hold of me
forever ... Color and I are one. I am a painter."

Klee worked with many different types of media
– oil paint, watercolor, ink, and more. He
often combined them into one work. He has been
variously associated with expressionism, cubism
and surrealism but his pictures are difficult to
classify. They often have a fragile child-like
quality to them, and are usually on a small scale.
They frequently allude to poetry, music and dreams
and sometimes include words or musical notation.
The later works are distinguished by spidery
hieroglyph-like symbols. His better known works
include Southern (Tunisian) Gardens (1919), Ad
Parnassum (1932), and Embrace (1939).

Following World War I, in which he fought as part
of the imperial German army, Klee taught at the
Bauhaus, and from 1931 at the Düsseldorf Academy,
before being denounced by the Nazi Party for
producing "degenerate art".

Composer Gunther Schuller also immortalized seven
works of Klee's in his Seven Studies on Themes of
Paul Klee.  The studies are based on a range of
works, including  Alter Klang Antique Harmonies,
Abstraktes Terzett Abstract Trio, Little Blue
Devil, Twittering Machine, Arab Village, Ein
unheimlicher Moment An Eerie Moment, and
Pastorale.

In 1933, Paul Klee returned to Switzerland; in
1935, he was diagnosed with scleroderma. The
progression of his disease can be followed through
the art he created in his last years.

He died in Bern in 1940.

Today, a painting by Paul Klee can sell for as
much as US$7.5 million.

A museum dedicated to Paul Klee was built in Bern,
Switzerland, by the Italian architect Renzo Piano.
It opened in June 2005. It houses a collection of
about 4000 art works by Paul Klee. Around 200
pieces of art are on display.

==External link==
*http://www.fantasyarts.net/Paul_Klee_Paintings.ht
m Paul Klee Paintings, Biography, and Historical
Information
*http://www.zpk.org/ww/en/pub/web_root.cfm Zentrum
Paul Klee - The Paul Klee museum in Bern

lived|b=1879|d=1940|key=Klee, Paul