1. Paul Klee Klee is pronounced “klay.” Swiss artist, 1879 – 1940
Fig. 1: Senecio, Oil on gauze, c.1922, Kunstmuseum, Basel, Switzerland. “Senecio” is the botanical name for a genus of plants with round flower-heads. Suggests the human face as the flower of the body.
Paul Klee
Fig.1

2. Paul Klee loved the innocence of children’s art.
Fig. 2
Paul Klee loved the innocence of children’s art.
Often, he would use children’s art to inspire his own works.
Fig. 3
Fig. 2: This Star Teaches Bending, c. 1940, Colored paste on paper on cardboard, Kunstmuseum, Bern.
Fig. 3:Red Waistcoat Paste color, waxed x 42.5 cm. Kunstzammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Dusseldorf, Germany.
Fig. 4: Woman in Peasant Dress, c. 1940, Paste color on paper, Kunstmuseum, Bern, Switzerland.
Fig. 5: Face of a Face, Kunsthaus, Zurich.
Fig. 5
Fig. 4

3. Some Definitions:
Art is made up of lines, shapes, forms, and color arranged in a composition within limited space. Representational art (or realism) is something that portrays an image. Abstract art uses color and form to bring out feelings and impressions from inside the viewer. As a result, when viewing abstract art, “What do I feel?” is often a more helpful question than “What do I think?” or “What is it?”
The next time you look at an abstract art, don't begin by searching for some identifiable object from your world. You may still see things in abstract paintings, finding birds and trees and animals hidden in the forms; this is natural. Instead, try to enter the world the artist created. Relax and let your eye leisurely wander over the painting's surface. Let your heart and mind react to its colors, shapes, and textures. Let yourself be drawn into the illusion of its spaces, the action of its lines, the mood of its atmosphere. Do we sense tension, anger, peace, balance, or even love?
In looking at figures 6-8, ask students if they know what the artist was drawing (ie., are there representational shapes that define, without question, what the subject matter of the painting is)? Do other students “see” other things? Can you look at it without trying to turn the lines and colors into shapes?
Fig. 6: Flowers in Stone, c. 1939, Oil on Cardboard, Galerie Rosengart, Lucerne, Bridgeman Art Library.
Fig. 7: Park near Lucerne, c. 1938, Oil on newsprint, mounted on burlap, Kunstmuseum, Bern, Switzerland.
Fig. 8: Broken key, c. 1938, Oil on jute, Sprengelmuseum Hannover.
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Paul Klee was an abstract artist. Objects and figures in abstract art look different from the way they look in real life.
Fig. 8

4. Fig. 9
Sometimes you can see things in his paintings like numbers, letters, primitive symbols, & familiar objects.
Fig. 9: Rising Sun, c.1919, permanent collection of Lawrence University.
Fig. 10: Blue Night, c. 1937, Gouache on cotton canvas, mounted on burlap, Kunstmuseum, Basle, Switzerland. Suggests mystery of the labyrinth & Egyptian hieroglyph.
Fig. 11: Zitronen,
Fig. 12: Heroic Roses, c. 1938, Oil on stained canvas, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Dusseldorf.
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Fig. 12

5. Fig. 13
Paul Klee loved bright colors. Most of his paintings are filled with beautiful and exciting colors.
Fig. 13: Castle and Sun, c, 1928, Collection G. D. Thompson, Pittsburgh, PA.
Fig. 14: Southern (Tunisian) Gardens, 1919 (180 Kb); Watercolor, 9.5 x 7.5 in; Collection Heinz Berggruen, Paris
Fig. 15: Erinnerung an einen gart, c. 1914
Fig. 14
Fig. 15

6. Klee loved music. He was an expert violinist.
Fig. 16
Fig. 16: Fugue in Rot (Red), c. 1921, Watercolor, Private collection, Switzerland.
Klee loved music. He was an expert violinist.
He tried to paint the sounds and rhythmic patterns of musical instruments using shapes and colors.

7. Paul Klee used his imagination to create imaginary worlds.
Fig. 17 Cliff Landscape with Palm Trees
Fig. 17: Cliff Landscape with Palm Trees,
Fig. 18: Villa R, Oil on cardboard, c. 1919, Kunstmuseum, Zurich.
Fig. 19: Il Giardino del Tempio
Fig. 18 Villa R
Il Giardino del Tempio Fig. 19

8. 2. Broken-window drawings. (skip ahead two pages for instructions)
Fig. 20
Fig. 20: Boy at Table, c. 1932, Watercolor and india ink on laid paper, Norton Simon Museum, West Palm Beach, Fla.
Select a Project:
Take a line for a walk, or
2. Broken-window drawings.
(skip ahead two pages for instructions)

9. Project 1: Take a Line for a Walk
Fig. 21
Klee said that drawing is like "taking a line for a walk.“
1. Put the tip of a pencil somewhere on the paper, and begin drawing a line. Let the line travel up, down, to the sides, looping over itself, covering the full expanse of the paper. Try very hard not to lift the pencil off the paper, until your instructor says to lift it off.
Figs. 21: Student example (top) and project samples (2 bottom)
2. Color in each segment using oil pastel crayons. Try to make each segment a different color than its neighbors, but don’t be upset if you can’t; the picture will be fine!

10. Project 2: Broken-window drawings.
Fig. 22
Fig. 23
Project 2: Broken-window drawings.
Draw any animal or human figures in simple, blocky drawings. No line should be shorter than one half-inch, and no lines should come closer together than a half-inch unless intersecting.
2. Make a dot anywhere near the center of the page.
3. With a straight edge, draw radiating glass-crack lines outward from these dots to the edges of the paper, separated about the width of pizza slices.
Figs. 21 and 22: Student examples from

11. Project 2: Broken-window drawings.
Fig. 21
Fig. 22
Project 2: Broken-window drawings.
4. Run a glue stick over each glass-crack line.
5. Using oil pastel crayons, color in the drawings, making sure that each segment is a different color than its neighbors. The waxed crack lines should stop the crayon tips from slipping into its neighboring segment.
Figs. 22 and 23: Student examples from
Bottom pictures are project samples.
Bibliography:
Paul Klee, by Mike Venezia, 1991, cy Childrens Press, Inc.
Klee, by Douglas Hall, 1992, Phaidon Press Limited, London, England.
Klee, Translated from the Spanish by Alberto Curotto, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers.