Paul Klee: A Personal Type of Art

Paul Klee - Demon above the Ships (Dämon über den Schiffen) - 1916 - Watercolor and ink on paper with ink border on board - 9 3/8 x 8 1/8" (23.7 x 20.7 cm) - Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) New YorkSwiss painter Paul Klee  (1879-1940) is often labeled as an Expressionist or a Surrealist—he chose not to be associated with any one art movement. However, he assimilated, and even anticipated, most of the major artistic tendencies of his time in his work. Using both representational and abstract approaches, he produced an immense oeuvre of some 9,000 paintings, drawings, and watercolors that embody an amazing variety of styles. His works tend to be small in scale and are remarkable for their delicate nuances of line, color, and tonality. Music figures prominently in his work, and even more so—literature. His art has had a wide and profound influence.