Paul Klee

Paul Klee is probably my favorite artist of the twentieth century, so I was excited to learn about the opening this year of the Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern, Switzerland, near Klee's home town of Münchenbuchsee. It has logged over 100,000 visitors in its first three months of operation! Now I know where to plan my dream vacation. Klee was a member of his friend Wassily Kandinsky's Der Blaue Reiter artists' collective in Munich before World War I; after the war he taught at the renowned Bauhaus school of art and architecture. I greatly admire Kandinsky's art as well, and both Kandinsky and Klee sometimes exhibit similar whimsicality and optimism. But Klee's work has a more organic feel than Kandinsky's largely mechanistic designs, and some of his paintings (especially his later works, after being denounced by the Nazis as "degenerate") explore darker themes. The Artcyclopedia has a page of links to Klee works in museums around the world, and the Zentrum has an online database of over 300 of Klee's works. This tie is from the Gallery Collection by Christina Desiree, and is based on Klee's work "Aeolian," which I have not been able to find a picture of, unfortunately. This is one of several Paul Klee ties I have in my permanent collection.

Speaking of Bauhaus, the band of the same name, the godfathers of Goth, has regrouped for a "The Resurrection Tour," and Mrs. Veneer and I are going to see them at the Strathmore Music Center in Kensington, Maryland, on the 22nd! We were fortunate enough to see singer Peter Murphy with his new band earlier this year, and now this! Bauhaus comes to the suburbs! WOW!