PAUL KLEE 1879 – 1940

Paul Klee was a Swiss-born German artist who was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented with and eventually deeply explored color theory, writing about it extensively. His works reflect his dry humor and his sometimes-childlike perspective, his personal moods and beliefs, and his musicality.

Klee has been variously associated with Expressionism, Cubism, Futurism, Surrealism, and Abstraction, but his pictures are difficult to classify. He generally worked in isolation from his peers and interpreted new art trends in his own way. He was inventive in his methods and technique. Klee worked in many different media including oils, watercolor, pastels, etching, and others. He often combined them into one work. He used canvas, burlap, muslin, linen, gauze, cardboard, metal foils, fabric, wallpaper, and newsprint. Klee employed spray paint, knife application, stamping, glazing, and impasto, and mixed media such as oil with watercolor, watercolor with pen and India ink, and oil with tempera.

“Once Emerged From the Grey Of Night” is a picture poem, most likely composed by Klee himself. Letters and numbers were held in high esteem as a way of expressing himself in an original way. I was inspired by this image and Klee’s efforts to mix painting and poetry. My quilt is the first part of a famous quote by the artist – “A line is a dot…” The rest of the quote will be the next in my series of works inspired by Paul Klee.

Paul Klee’s “Once Emerged From The Grey Of Night”

“My quilt, “A Line Is A Dot…”

Detail view: