The Rebellious Curator

Paul Klee was born in Switzerland in 1879. He was trained in violin and almost became a musician but chose instead to study art. He lived and worked in Germany until the Nazi's came into power in the 1930's. The Nazi's condemned much of the art that was being made at the time and banned whatever they deemed as corrupt. Klee's paintings were varied, and tended toward ideas and feelings, so his work was characterized as "degenerate". Klee returned to Switzerland and spent his last years painting large symbolic works about the sorrows of life until his death in 1940.