Paul Klee is one of the most influential artists in the modernistic art movement. While he took inspiration from cubism, expressionism and surrealism, his art cannot be confined to any one genre. Ruby-red Balloon is one of his nigh well-known pieces: a whimsical, geometric painting which displays Klee's talent for color theory. Singulart investigates Red Balloon every bit an example of how Klee effortlessly intertwined his cubist and surrealist influences, likewise equally exploring Klee's beginnings equally a Bauhaus teacher and discussing his part in the infamous "degenerate art" exhibit of 1937.

Who was Paul Klee?

Portrait of Paul Klee / Photo: Hugo Erfurth, 1927.
Portrait of Paul Klee / Photo: Hugo Erfurth, 1927.

Paul Klee was born in Switzerland on December xviii, 1879. Klee'south father was a teacher at the Bern State Seminary and Klee followed in his father's footsteps, becoming a prestigious violin thespian. At age eleven, he received an invitation to play with the Bern Music Association, but despite his natural talent and parent'due south wishes for him to pursue a musical career, Klee abandoned music for art in his teenage years. He felt also inhibited by 18th and 19th century styles of music he was expected to play. On the contrary, as an creative person Klee was free to explore and experiment with different styles.

Klee began his artistic career focusing on his drawing skills, studying in a individual studio for two years. He went on to written report at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich and dabbled in experimental techniques but did not commit to whatsoever one style of fine art. Subsequently completing work for Alfred Kubin, who became ane of Klee's earliest collectors, Klee met August Macke and Wassily Kandinsky, joining them on the staff of the almanac Der Blaue Reiter. Joining Der Blaue Reiter and later on exhibiting at their art shows exposed Klee to new ideas on color theory that would go on to influence his fine art. A trip to Tunisia soon subsequently the 1912 exhibition further inspired him, and he wrote: "Color has taken possession of me; no longer practise I have to chase after it, I know that it has a hold on me forever… I am a painter."

Paul Klee,  In the Style of Kairouan (1914)
Paul Klee, In the Way of Kairouan (1914)

After his render from Tunisia, Klee produced his get-go purely abstract piece, In the Style of Kairouan. Klee'south career was put on hold after he was conscripted into World State of war I, start working as a soldier on the front, then moving to work for the aircraft maintenance visitor. Afterward beingness transferred to work as a clerk at the Royal Bavarian flying school, he was able to continue painting. Even during the war Klee was able to showroom his piece of work, to much critical acclamation.

After the state of war, Klee became a instructor at the Bauhaus. During this period he also became part of a collective known as Die Blaue Vier, alongside Kandinksy, Lyonel Feininger, and Alexej von Jawlensky. Klee was forced to abscond Germany with his family subsequently Hitler's appointment as Chancellor, emigrating to Switzerland in 1933. It was around this time Klee was diagnosed with progressive scleroderma, an autoimmune affliction which hardens the skin and organs. His afterward works reflected his impending expiry, seen in pieces such as Expiry and Fire which features a skull in the center surrounded by the word Tod (the German discussion for death). Klee died on June 29, 1940.

Paul Klee, Death and Fire (1940)
Paul Klee, Death and Fire (1940)

Paul Klee & Bauhaus

Staatliches Bauhaus was a school for the arts, founded in 1919 by Walter Gropius. Gropius envisioned having a identify where a diversity of unlike art styles could be taught under one roof. Klee himself welcomed the conglomeration of different styles, stating "I likewise approve of these forces coming together if the result is achievement."  The Bauhaus was particularly influenced by art movements such as arts and crafts and art nouveau. Although information technology was primarily a school for the artistic practice, it also taught theoretical and intellectual approaches to art. Gropius hoped to provide a place where fine fine art and practicality could intersect.

Klee'due south date at the Bauhaus would testify to exist a pivotal point in his career, and a move that would cement his reputation as one of the world's greatest modernistic artists. Klee originally applied for a educational activity position with the University of Art in Stuttgart, but was rejected. He was then asked to teach at the Bauhaus, and started his position in 1921. Provided with ii studios, Klee took the position of a master of "Form," teaching bookbinding, stained drinking glass and mural painting workshops.

Paul Klee's Bauhaus Notebook  © Zentrum Paul Klee
Paul Klee's Bauhaus Notebook © Zentrum Paul Klee

One of his most infamous lessons was about line drawing, something Klee was clearly adept at. His Pedagogical Sketchbook opens with the quote, "An agile line on a walk, moving freely, without goal," and went on to describe the different styles of line- from lines that delimit themselves to lines that contain fixed points. Klee would also encourage students to paint fish in an aquarium, in guild to try and capture the essence of their movement, and asked them to depict the circulatory arrangement, stating that the blood pulsing through the body was similar to the way art was created.

Klee taught at the Bauhaus until 1931, afterwards which he took a position at the Düsseldorf Academy. All the same, after a newspaper article described him as "a typical Galician Jew," he was fired from his teaching job and forced to flee from Deutschland. This menses was reflected in his arresting self portrait Struck From the List.

Crimson Airship

Paul Klee, Red Balloon (1922)
Paul Klee, Crimson Balloon (1922)

Ruby Balloon demonstrates Klee's capacity to depict inspiration from many dissimilar art styles, in item showing his mastery of color theory. In Red Airship, we meet a circle in the center of the painting, which on closer inspection reveals itself to be the titular balloon. The circle stands out specially because it is at odds to the sharp lines in the background which create an otherworldly, minimalist cityscape. The cubist influence of the background is constructive in getting viewers to focus on the cherry balloon as information technology makes its lazy voyage across the sky.

Klee's option to use oil and chalk on muslin draws further attending to his use of colour and shapes; the muslin makes the colors more hazy and dream-like, while the sharp lines are at odds with the weave of the textile. Red Balloon shows Klee's admiration for childlike, whimsical ideas. Klee was in fact inspired past children's fine art, seeing information technology every bit a pure, untainted view of the world. He said:

"Children also have artistic ability, and there is wisdom in them having it! The more helpless they are, the more instructive are the examples they furnish united states, and they must be preserved free of corruption from an early on historic period."

Klee the "Degenerate Artist"

Degenerate Art exhibition in Munich, 1937  © The Image Works
Degenerate Art exhibition in Munich, 1937 © The Image Works

In 1937, Klee'south works were among the fifteen,000 pieces taken by the Nazis in order to stop the rise of "degenerate fine art." Degenerate fine art was a term coined by the Nazis in the 1920s, used as an umbrella term to draw modern art. Artworks that fell under the "degenerate" label were banned or destroyed, believing the artworks to be an "insult to German feeling." Modern art was specially reviled by Hitler and the Nazi party, equally they believed information technology was a prevarication created by Jews and communists, in club to pollute the minds of the High german population.

These confiscated works were somewhen put into an art evidence titled Degenerate Art, as an attempt by the Nazis to demonstrate the "art of decay" portrayed by these modern artists. The showroom featured around 740 artworks, each displayed next to a scathing commentary from the Nazis. The Nazis also sought to demonstrate a parallel between modern art and mental illness. Klee'southward association with degenerate art meant that he was unable to obtain citizenship is Sweden, though his citizenship asking was granted six days after his decease.

Want to see works in the same style? Cheque out Singulart's Inspired by Paul Klee Collection.