Paul Klee

(Münchenbuchsee 1879 - 1940 Muralto)

Klee goes to school in Berne, graduating in 1898. He then leaves for Munich, where, until 1901, he studies with Heinrich Knirr and Franz von Stuck. In 1901–1902, he travels to Italy with the sculptor Hermann Haller before returning to Berne, where he lives until 1906. In 1903, he produces his first etchings. In 1905, he joins Louis Moilliet and Hans Bloesch for a trip to Paris. The following year, he settles in Munich, where, in 1911, he is introduced to Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc, and Hans Arp. During a second visit to Paris in 1912, he meets Robert Delaunay and sees paintings by Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, and Henri Rousseau. In 1914, he, Moilliet, and August Macke travel to Tunisia. From 1916 until 1918, he serves in the war. An appointment at the Bauhaus in 1920 takes him to Weimar. In 1924, Klee, Kandinsky, Alexej von Jawlensky, and Lyonel Feininger found the group “The Blue Four.” From 1926, he teaches at the new Bauhaus in Dessau. In 1928, he tours Egypt. A stint at the Düsseldorf Academy of Fine Arts, where he has been made professor in 1931, ends after the Nazis’ rise to power in 1933. Having been removed from his teaching post, Klee returns to Berne.