Paul Klee

Booklet from Tate Modern exhibition

When I went to London, in October, and decided to go to the Paul Klee Exhibition in Tate Modern. I had heard of Paul Klee before, but wasn't that enthusiastic about his work. However, my tutor suggested that I went to see his work if I am intending to focus on painting.
The exhibition was brilliant. It was laid out like a timeline, so I could understand the changes in his artwork and what influenced each piece. I have a booklet in which summaries the exhibition, which is handy as I can go back to it in my studies. Unfortunately I couldn't take pictures of the paintings, meaning I wrote down any that I wanted to look at again or use in my studies. I did look in the gift shop for a cheap book to buy containing the artwork, however, they were either an extortionate price, or the print colour did not reassemble the pieces in which I saw. I hoped that when I got home, I could look online and find the paintings I was interested in (I had a long list). But there were no images!! So I went to the library and looked at the book - 'Paul Klee - The Nature Of Creation: works, 1914-1940' ISBN:0-853318530. It didn't have the exact paintings that I saw in Tate Modern however they had similar pieces.
When looking at the exhibition, I became interested in Klee's technique of 'Oil Transfer' printing, this was where he wanted to paint over his drawings but still wanted the lines to show, so he placed the drawing over a layer of oil paint and another piece of paper, and drew over the lines. This resulted in a oil paint outline, making it possible for him to overlay with watercolour and the lines still visible.
I like Paul Klee's work, due to the use of colour and layering to produce other colours and tone. My favourite work is called - ' Fishes In The Deep'. It is composed of fishes swimming in a black sea, however, through the use of tone and shapes, Klee makes it look like the fishes are moving. I love the use of colour and the contrast. Unfortunately I cannot find a picture to put up here!!
Paul Klee is now one of my favourite artists, due to his colour in his paintings, but also because he covered a vast variety of techniques through out his life. I am going to study the way he used colour through reading more about when he was a Master of Arts.