Visiting the Klee Museum in Bern, Switzerland

My husband and I were in Zurich, Switzerland last month. We took a daytrip to beautiful Bern, and while there, also took the opportunity to visit the newish Paul Klee Museum.

Paul Klee (1879-1940) was born outside of Bern, Switzerland  of a German father and Swiss mother. His father was a music teacher and his mother a singer, and young Paul developed his musical talent playing the violin.

As the museum shows, Klee also began to develop a talent for art quite young, despite his parents’ preference that he pursue a career in music. He would continue his art studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, at the height of Jugendstil. He was heavily influenced by Klimt and Goya.

During his time in Germany, he would draw upon influences of cubism and surrealism. He taught at the Bauhaus school of art at the same time as the Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky. Travels in Italy and, most importantly, Tunisia would greatly influence his art and his passion for color.

He began to develop a successful career in Germany, and his art sold well, but with Hitler’s rise to power, Klee was listed among “degenerate artists”, effectively ending his career in Germany. He returned to Switzerland, where he developed a rare auto-immune disease and died in 1940. Despite his birth in Switzerland, he never managed to obtain Swiss citizenship – but today he is embraced as a Swiss-German artist.

The Paul Klee Museum in his native Bern was opened in 2005. The design is by famed Italian architect Renzo Piano. The idea of a museum took shape after the death of Paul Klee’s only son in 1990. His  began a family discussion about providing his works of art as the core of the collection at the Klee Museum. In 1997, 690 of Klee’s works were donated to the city of Bern by Klee’s widow and his grandson.

in 1998, the land for the future museum was selected and in 2001 Renzo Piano was selected for the work on the museum. Today, the museum sits on the edge of Switzerland’s capital city, in a panoramic point with views of the mountains in the distance. There is a direct bus that travels there from the city center or the train station, but it’s also an easy walk to reach it by foot.

Only a small portion of Klee’s art is on display – I would have definitely preferred more – and there is lots of space for exhibitions. There were excellent films on Klee’s life that played in a loop and were incredibly informative.

A visit to the Klee Museum was an excellent addition to our enjoyable day exploring Bern.