Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Paul Klee (1879-1940) created some of the most innovative and best-loved works of the twentieth century in etching, drawing, ink, pastel, oil paint, and watercolor. Although he moved freely between media and from figuration to abstraction, Klee's works remain instantly recognizable, often characterized by a playfulness and wit that can sharpen to biting satire on occasion.

In 1920 Klee was appointed to teach at the Bauhaus, where he remained for ten years as an influential and much-loved figure. In 1933 he returned to Switzerland having been dismissed from his position by the Nazis; his work was included in the infamous Degenerate Art exhibition in 1937 and Klee spent the rest of his life unable to return to the country that had fostered his career.

This retrospective book, which accompanies an exhibition at the Tate Modern, surveys Klee's entire career, focusing on particular moments in depth and allowing his work to be seen in the context of the times in which he lived. Despite his quirky lyricism, he is revealed as an artist troubled by the challenges of the modern world, far more complex than he may first appear.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Paul Klee famously declared that "art does not reproduce the visible, rather it makes visible." Editor Gale (Tate Modern) and his fellow contributors make visible further complexities of an artist who seemed bound to surround his visual life with "carefully ordered confusion" as he continuously improvised with styles, motifs, materials, and meanings, working on several images at once. This handsome exhibition catalogue offers in full color a number of works not frequently reproduced/displayed, including several from private collections. Unusual--and of great interest--are five short essays evaluating Klee's artistic agendas for his major solo exhibitions beginning in Munich in 1920 and ending in Zurich in 1940, the year of his death. Of exceptional value is the detailed biographical chronology, illustrated with lesser-known photographs and supplemented with significant historical events and telling quotations about Klee from his contemporaries. Essays on Klee and the Bauhaus, the artist's experimentation with his own form of pointillism, and his late reworking in Switzerland of earlier subjects in larger formats offer new perspectives to the vast Klee literature. Gale's standout essay "Square/Fish" considers Klee's unusual reconciliation of a surrealistic mental liberation with the demanding rigors of constructivism in his art of the 1920s. --Janice Simon, University of Georgia

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Matthew Gale is Head of Displays and Curator at Tate Modern.