Born in Switzerland into a family of musicians
and music was an important factor in his life.
After studying art he settled in Munich and his
first exhibition was at the Munich Secession in
1906 . Later the same year he married Lily
Stumpf. Whilst in Munich he met Franz Marc and
Wassily Kandinksy and became associated with the
Blaue Reiter movement.
Klee's work is difficult to classify, as he
moved though cubism and abstract representation.
His work however was greatly admired by the
Surrealists.
For a while following World War 1 Klee taught at
the Bauhaus and then at The Dusseldorf Academy.
In 1931 he was dismissed by the Nazi's for his
'degenerate art' and he returned to Berne in
Switzerland where he died in 1940.