Editing Paul Klee (section)

== Style and methods ==
[[File:Tale à la Hoffmann MET DT1768.jpg|thumb|upright|''Tale à la Hoffmann'' (1921), watercolor, ink, and pencil on paper. 31.1 × 24.1&nbsp;cm. In the collection of the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]], New York]]
Klee has been variously associated with [[Expressionism]], [[Cubism]], [[Futurism]], [[Surrealism]], and [[Abstract art|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—[[oil paint]], [[watercolor]], [[ink]], [[pastel]], [[etching]], and others. He often combined them into one work. He used canvas, burlap, muslin, linen, gauze, cardboard, metal foils, fabric, wallpaper, and newsprint.<ref>Kagan, p. 26</ref> 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.<ref>Partsch, pp. 58–60</ref>

He was a natural draftsman, and through long experimentation developed a mastery of color and tonality. Many of his works combine these skills. He uses a great variety of color palettes from nearly [[Monochrome|monochromatic]] to highly [[polychrome|polychromatic]]. His works often have a fragile childlike quality to them and are usually on a small scale. He often used geometric forms and [[grid format]] compositions as well as letters and numbers, frequently combined with playful figures of animals and people. Some works were completely abstract. Many of his works and their titles reflect his dry humor and varying moods; some express political convictions. They frequently allude to poetry, music and dreams and sometimes include words or [[musical notation]]. The later works are distinguished by spidery [[Egyptian hieroglyphs|hieroglyph]]-like symbols. [[Rainer Maria Rilke]] wrote about Klee in 1921, "Even if you hadn't told me he plays the violin, I would have guessed that on many occasions his drawings were transcriptions of music."<ref name="Jardi, p. 8"/>

Pamela Kort observed: "Klee's 1933 drawings present their beholder with an unparalleled opportunity to glimpse a central aspect of his [[aesthetics]] that has remained largely unappreciated: his lifelong concern with the possibilities of [[parody]] and [[wit]]. Herein lies their real significance, particularly for an audience unaware that Klee's art has [[political]] dimensions."<ref>[http://www.culturekiosque.com/art/exhibiti/paulklee.html Paul Klee 1933<!-- bot-generated title -->] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080513031101/http://www.culturekiosque.com/art/exhibiti/paulklee.html |date=13 May 2008 }} at www.culturekiosque.com</ref>

Among the few plastic works are [[hand puppet]]s made between 1916 and 1925, for his son Felix. The artist neither counted them as a component of his oeuvre, nor did he list them in his [[catalogue raisonné]]. Thirty of the preserved puppets are stored at the [[Zentrum Paul Klee]], Bern.<ref>Daniel Kupper: ''Paul Klee''. p.&nbsp;81</ref>