Exhibition: Paul Klee at the Centre Pompidou in Paris

The rosegarden, 1920

Paul Klee (1879-1940) is an artist that cannot be placed in a specific genre. He was in the middle of several significant artmovements at the beginning of the 20^th century. 

He was inspired by African art and artists like Picasso, Malevich, Kandinsky and Macke. He had an exhibition with Der blaue Reiter and was an artteacher at Bauhaus.

But in the end, he always went his own, unique way.

When he made a trip to Italy, he was moved by the classical art he saw and knew he could never be that good. 

His solution was not to try to imitate, but to do something else completely, he used a lot of humor in his work for example. He began painting figuratively, but his work became more abstract and colour became more important.

When in the thirties the Nazi’s gained power in Germany, Paul Klee was accused of making ‘Entartete Kunst’ (degenerate art) and he lost his job at the art-academy. In these somber years he did not paint much and what he painted reflected his misery. 

Struck from the list, 1933

Paul Klee was born in Switzerland, but had the German nationality. Now he tried to get the Swiss nationality, and he succeeded in this after a long process.

Unfortunately for him he was diagnosed with scleroderma in 1935. He kept on painting until his death in 1940 and the works he made during these last years are amongst his most funny and colourful. 

Untitled, 1940

In Paris in the Centre Pompidou there is a large exhibition about Paul Klee. About 250 of his artworks are brought together, from different museums and private collections.

It is hard to make a selection from the almost 10.000 works Paul Klee left that is still coherent, but they solved this problem by using the theme Romantic irony to pick out several of his paintings and other artworks like drawings and sculpting. 
The artworks is divided into seven timeperiods, that give a good impression of his development as an artist. 

Concert of the parties. 1907

I have been a huge fan of Paul Klee for a very long time and I was very happy that I was able to see this beautiful exhibition. There is so much more than I had expected and I loved the diversity in the exhibited works.

The Niessen, 1915

I cannot help it, I love Paul Klee and his work makes me happy. (although I did not like the puppets for the mechanical theatre, they scared me, but then I hate dolls)

I really enjoyed seeing his amazing paintings and I thought it was a very beautiful and worthy exhibition.

So, if you have the chance: go and see it for yourself. 

Paul Klee, Irony at work can be seen at the Centre Pompidou until August 1th 2016. (worth your time!!) 

Pictural architecture in red, yellow and blue, 1923