Paul Klee (18 December 1879 - 29 June 1940) was born in Munchenbuchsee, Switzerland, and is considered both a German and a Swiss painter. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, …

Cat and Bird, 1928 by Paul Klee. Klee was one of the many modernist artists who wanted to practice what he called "the pure cultivation of the means" of painting in other words, to use line, shape, and color for their own sake rather than to describe something visible.

Red Balloon, 1922 by Paul Klee. Paul Klee's persistent shifts in style, technique, and subject matter indicate a deliberate and highly playful evasion of aesthetic categorization. Nevertheless, it is virtually impossible to confuse a work by Klee with one by any other artist, even though many have emulated his idiosyncratic, enigmatic art.

Once Emerged from the Gray of Night, 1918 by Paul Klee. This picture-poem ("Einst dem Grau der nacht entaucht . . .") effects a fusion of plastic and poetic. The origin of the poem is still unknown; this verse is not to be found either in "Psalms," or in the Chinese poems.

Masterpieces by Paul Klee. Once Emerged from the Gray of Night, 1918; Flower Myth, 1919; Cosmic Composition, 1919; Crystal Gradation, 1921; Revolving House, 1921; A Young Lady's Adventure, 1921; Affected Place, 1922; Senecio, 1922; Architecture, 1923; Red Balloon, 1922; Twittering Machine, 1922; The Goldfish, 1925; Fish Magic, 1925; Around the ...

The Goldfish, 1925 by Paul Klee. Paul Klee's attitude to animals was a matter of surprise to his contemporaries. From childhood on he kept a cat, and, as this was known, nobody was surprised at his man variations on this theme. This wondrous goldfish is in deep blue water, other little red and purple fishes rather keeping out of his majesty's way.

Paul Klee's Fish Magic is set squarely within the tradition of German Romanticism, with its blend of fantasy and natural empiricism, of poetry and pragmatics. In this painting, made in the middle of the artist's period at the Bauhaus, the aquatic, celestial, and earthly realms intermingle.

Senecio, 1922 by Paul Klee. Completed in 1922, Senecio is a manifestation of Paul's sense of humor and African culture. The simple colors and shapes, Paul makes use of various shades of orange, red, and yellow to reveal portrait of an old man. Artistic use of shapes gives the false impression that one eye browse is raised.

Highway and Byways, 1929 by Paul Klee. This is the most important painting to come out of Paul Klee's trip to Egypt, from mid-December, 1929, to early January, 1930. He visited Luxor, Karnak, Thebes, Aswan, and Cairo. The journey was nearly as great an experience as the earlier one to …

Kettledrummer by Paul Klee. With Kettledrummer, Klee attained an extremely expressive degree of symbolism, even though he used plastic and chromatic means so sparingly. The figure consists only of two arms, one of which is linked to an encircled eye while the other is isolated in space like an exclamation mark.