Paul Klee (; 18 December 1879 – 29 June 1940) was a Swiss-born German artist. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented with and eventually deeply explored color theory, writing about it extensively; his lectures Writings on Form and Design Theory (Schriften zur Form und Gestaltungslehre), published in English as the Paul Klee Notebooks, are held to be as important for modern art as Leonardo da Vinci's A Treatise on Painting was for the Renaissance. He and his colleague, Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky, both taught at the Bauhaus school of art, design and architecture in Germany. His works reflect his dry humor and his sometimes childlike perspective, his personal moods and beliefs, and his musicality.

Early life and training

Paul Klee was born in Münchenbuchsee, Switzerland, as the second child of German music teacher Hans Wilhelm Klee (1849–1940) and Swiss singer Ida Marie Klee, born Frick (1855–1921). His sister Mathilde (died 6 December 1953) was born on 28 January 1876 in Walzenhausen. Their father came from Tann and studied singing, piano, organ and violin at the Stuttgart Conservatory, where he met his future wife Ida Frick. Hans Wilhelm Klee was active as a music teacher at the Bern State Seminary in Hofwil near Bern until 1931. Klee was able to develop his music skills as his parents encouraged and inspired him throughout his life.

In 1880, his family moved to Bern, where they eventually, in 1897, after a number of changes of residence, moved into their own house in the . From 1886 to 1890, Klee visited primary school and received, at the age of 7, violin classes at the Municipal Music School. He was so talented on violin that, aged 11, he received an invitation to play as an extraordinary member of the Bern Music Association. His other hobbies, drawing and writing poems, were not fostered in the same way as music was.

In his early years, following his parents' wishes, Klee focused on becoming a musician; but he decided on the visual arts during his teen years, partly out of rebellion and partly because modern music lacked meaning for him. He stated, "I didn't find the idea of going in for music creatively particularly attractive in view of the decline in the history of musical achievement." As a musician, he played and felt emotionally bound to traditional works of the eighteenth and nineteenth century, but as an artist he craved the freedom to explore radical ideas and styles. At sixteen, Klee's landscape drawings already show considerable skill.

Around 1897, Klee started his diary, which he kept until 1918, and which has provided scholars with valuable insight into his life and thinking. During his school years, he avidly drew in his school books, in particular drawing caricatures, and already demonstrating skill with line and volume. He barely passed his final exams at the "Gymnasium" of Bern, where he qualified in the Humanities. With his characteristic dry wit, he wrote, "After all, it's rather difficult to achieve the exact minimum, and it involves risks." On his own time, in addition to his deep interests in music and art, Klee was a great reader of literature, and later a writer on art theory and aesthetics.

With his parents' reluctant permission, in 1898 Klee began studying art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich with Heinrich Knirr and Franz von Stuck.  He excelled at drawing but seemed to lack any natural color sense.  He later recalled, "During the third winter I even realized that I probably would never learn to paint." During these times of youthful adventure, Klee spent much time in pubs and had affairs with lower-class women and artists' models. He had an illegitimate son in 1900 who died several weeks after birth.

After receiving his Fine Arts degree, Klee traveled in Italy from October 1901 to May 1902 with friend Hermann Haller. They visited Rome, Florence, Naples and the Amalfi Coast, studying the master painters of past centuries. He exclaimed, "The Forum and the Vatican have spoken to me.  Humanism wants to suffocate me." He responded to the colors of Italy, but sadly noted, "that a long struggle lies in store for me in this field of color." For Klee, color represented the optimism and nobility in art, and a hope for relief from the pessimistic nature he expressed in his black-and-white grotesques and satires. Returning to Bern, he lived with his parents for several years, and took occasional art classes. By 1905, he was developing some experimental techniques, including drawing with a needle on a blackened pane of glass, resulting in fifty-seven works including his Portrait of My Father (1906). In the years 1903–05 he also completed a cycle of eleven zinc-plate etchings called Inventions, his first exhibited works, in which he illustrated several grotesque characters. He commented, "though I'm fairly satisfied with my etchings I can't go on like this.  I'm not a specialist." Klee was still dividing his time with music, playing the violin in an orchestra and writing concert and theater reviews.

Marriage and early years

Marriage

Klee married Bavarian pianist Lily Stumpf in 1906 and they had one son named Felix Paul in the following year.  They lived in a suburb of Munich, and while she gave piano lessons and occasional performances, he kept house and tended to his art work. His attempt to be a magazine illustrator failed. Klee's art work progressed slowly for the next five years, partly from having to divide his time with domestic matters, and partly as he tried to find a new approach to his art.  In 1910, he had his first solo exhibition in Bern, which then travelled to three Swiss cities.

Affiliation to the "Blaue Reiter", 1911
In January 1911, Alfred Kubin met Klee in Munich and encouraged him to illustrate Voltaire's Candide. His resultant drawings were published later in a 1920 version of the book edited by Kurt Wolff. Around this time, Klee's graphic work increased. His early inclination towards the absurd and the sarcastic was well received by Kubin, who befriended Klee and became one of his first significant collectors. Klee met, through Kubin, the art critic Wilhelm Hausenstein in 1911. Klee was a foundation member and manager of the Munich artists' union Sema that summer. In autumn he made an acquaintance with August Macke and Wassily Kandinsky, and in winter he joined the editorial team of the almanac Der Blaue Reiter, founded by Franz Marc and Kandinsky. On meeting Kandinsky, Klee recorded, "I came to feel a deep trust in him.  He is somebody, and has an exceptionally beautiful and lucid mind." Other members included Macke, Gabriele Münter and Marianne von Werefkin. Klee became in a few months one of the most important and independent members of the Blaue Reiter, but he was not yet fully integrated.

The release of the almanac was delayed for the benefit of an exhibition. The first Blaue Reiter exhibition took place from 18 December 1911 to 1 January 1912 in the Moderne Galerie Heinrich Thannhauser in Munich. Klee did not attend it, but in the second exhibition, which occurred from 12 February to 18 March 1912 in the Galerie Goltz, 17 of his graphic works were shown. The name of this art exhibition was Schwarz-Weiß, as it only regarded graphic painting. Initially planned to be released in 1911, the release date of the Der Blau Reiter almanac by Kandinsky and Marc was delayed in May 1912, including the reproduced ink drawing Steinhauer by Klee. At the same time, Kandinsky published his art history writing Über das Geistige in der Kunst.

Participation in art exhibitions, 1912–1913
The association opened Klee's mind to modern theories of color. His travels to Paris in 1912 also exposed him to the ferment of Cubism and the pioneering examples of "pure painting", an early term for abstract art. The use of bold color by Robert Delaunay and Maurice de Vlaminck also inspired him. Rather than copy these artists, Klee began working out his own color experiments in pale watercolors and did some primitive landscapes, including In the Quarry (1913) and Houses near the Gravel Pit (1913), using blocks of color with limited overlap. Klee acknowledged that "a long struggle lies in store for me in this field of color" in order to reach his "distant noble aim."  Soon, he discovered "the style which connects drawing and the realm of color."

Trip to Tunis, 1914
Klee's artistic breakthrough came in 1914 when he briefly visited Tunisia with August Macke and Louis Moilliet and was impressed by the quality of the light there.  He wrote, "Color has taken possession of me; no longer do I have to chase after it, I know that it has hold of me forever... Color and I are one. I am a painter." With that realization, faithfulness to nature faded in importance. Instead, Klee began to delve into the "cool romanticism of abstraction". In gaining a second artistic vocabulary, Klee added color to his abilities in draftsmanship, and in many works combined them successfully, as he did in one series he called "operatic paintings". One of the most literal examples of this new synthesis is The Bavarian Don Giovanni (1919).

After returning home, Klee painted his first pure abstract, In the Style of Kairouan (1914), composed of colored rectangles and a few circles. The colored rectangle became his basic building block, what some scholars associate with a musical note, which Klee combined with other colored blocks to create a color harmony analogous to a musical composition. His selection of a particular color palette emulates a musical key. Sometimes he uses complementary pairs of colors, and other times "dissonant" colors, again reflecting his connection with musicality.

Military career

A few weeks later, World War I began. At first, Klee was somewhat detached from it, as he wrote ironically, "I have long had this war in me. That is why, inwardly, it is none of my concern." Klee was conscripted as a Landsturmsoldat (soldier of the reserve forces in Prussia or Imperial Germany) on 5 March 1916. The deaths of his friends August Macke and Franz Marc in battle began to affect him. Venting his distress, he created several pen and ink lithographs on war themes including Death for the Idea (1915). After finishing the military training course, which began on 11 March 1916, he was committed as a soldier behind the front. Klee moved on 20 August to the aircraft maintenance company in Oberschleissheim, executing skilled manual work, such as restoring aircraft camouflage, and accompanying aircraft transports. On 17 January 1917, he was transferred to the Royal Bavarian flying school in Gersthofen (which 54 years later became the USASA Field Station Augsburg) to work as a clerk for the treasurer until the end of the war. This allowed him to stay in a small room outside of the barrack block and continue painting.

He continued to paint during the entire war and managed to exhibit in several shows. By 1917, Klee's work was selling well and art critics acclaimed him as the best of the new German artists. His Ab ovo (1917) is particularly noteworthy for its sophisticated technique. It employs watercolor on gauze and paper with a chalk ground, which produces a rich texture of triangular, circular, and crescent patterns. Demonstrating his range of exploration, mixing color and line, his Warning of the Ships (1918) is a colored drawing filled with symbolic images on a field of suppressed color.

Mature career

In 1919, Klee applied for a teaching post at the Academy of Art in Stuttgart. This attempt failed but he had a major success in securing a three-year contract (with a minimum annual income) with dealer Hans Goltz, whose influential gallery gave Klee major exposure, and some commercial success. A retrospective of over 300 works in 1920 was also notable.

Klee taught at the Bauhaus from January 1921 to April 1931. He was a "Form" master in the bookbinding, stained glass, and mural painting workshops and was provided with two studios. In 1922, Kandinsky joined the staff and resumed his friendship with Klee. Later that year the first Bauhaus exhibition and festival was held, for which Klee created several of the advertising materials. Klee welcomed the many conflicting theories and opinions within the Bauhaus: "I also approve of these forces competing one with the other if the result is achievement."

Klee was also a member of Die Blaue Vier (The Blue Four), with Kandinsky, Lyonel Feininger, and Alexej von Jawlensky; formed in 1923, they lectured and exhibited together in the US in 1925. That same year, Klee had his first exhibits in Paris, and he became a hit with the French Surrealists. Klee visited Egypt in 1928, which impressed him less than Tunisia. In 1929, the first major monograph on Klee's work was published, written by Will Grohmann.

Klee also taught at the Düsseldorf Academy from 1931 to 1933, and was singled out by a Nazi newspaper, "Then that great fellow Klee comes onto the scene, already famed as a Bauhaus teacher in Dessau. He tells everyone he's a thoroughbred Arab, but he's a typical Galician Jew." His home was searched by the Gestapo and he was fired from his job. His self-portrait Struck from the List (1933) commemorates the sad occasion. In 1933–34, Klee had shows in London and Paris, and finally met Pablo Picasso, whom he greatly admired. The Klee family emigrated to Switzerland in late 1933.

Klee was at the peak of his creative output. His Ad Parnassum (1932) is considered his masterpiece and the best example of his pointillist style; it is also one of his largest, most finely worked paintings. He produced nearly 500 works in 1933 during his last year in Germany. However, in 1933, Klee began experiencing the symptoms of what was diagnosed as scleroderma after his death. The progression of his fatal disease, which made swallowing very difficult, can be followed through the art he created in his last years. His output in 1936 was only 25 pictures. In the later 1930s, his health recovered somewhat and he was encouraged by a visit from Kandinsky and Picasso. Klee's simpler and larger designs enabled him to keep up his output in his final years, and in 1939 he created over 1,200 works, a career high for one year. He used heavier lines and mainly geometric forms with fewer but larger blocks of color. His varied color palettes, some with bright colors and others somber, perhaps reflected his alternating moods of optimism and pessimism. Back in Germany in 1937, seventeen of Klee's pictures were included in an exhibition of "Degenerate art" and 102 of his works in public collections were seized by the Nazis.

Death

In 1935, 2 years after moving to Switzerland and working in a very confined situation, Klee developed scleroderma, an autoimmune disease resulting in hardening of connective tissue.

He endured pain that seems to be reflected in his last works of art. In his last months he created 50 drawings of angels. One of his last paintings, Death and Fire, features a skull in the center with the German word for death, "Tod", appearing in the face. He died in Muralto, Locarno, Switzerland, on 29 June 1940 without having obtained Swiss citizenship, despite his birth in that country. His art work was considered too revolutionary, even degenerate, by the Swiss authorities, but eventually they accepted his request six days after his death. His legacy comprised about 9,000 works of art. The words on his tombstone, Klee's credo, placed there by his son Felix, say, "I cannot be grasped in the here and now, for my dwelling place is as much among the dead as the yet unborn. Slightly closer to the heart of creation than usual, but still not close enough." He was buried at Schosshaldenfriedhof, Bern, Switzerland.

Style and methods

Klee has been variously associated with Expressionism, Cubism, Futurism, Surrealism, and 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. 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.

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 monochromatic to highly 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 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."

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."

Among the few plastic works are hand puppets 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.

Works

Early works
Some of Klee's early preserved children's drawings, which his grandmother encouraged, were listed on his catalogue raisonné. A total of 19 etchings were produced during the Bern years; ten of these were made between 1903 and 1905 in the cycle "Inventionen" (Inventions), which were presented in June 1906 at the "Internationale Kunstausstellung des Vereins bildender Künstler Münchens 'Secession'" (International Art Exhibition of the Association for Graphic Arts, Munich, Secession), his first appearance as a painter in the public. Klee had removed the third Invention, Pessimistische Allegorie des Gebirges (Pessimistic Allegory of the Mountain), in February 1906 from his cycle. The satirical etchings, for example Jungfrau im Baum/Jungfrau (träumend) (Virgin on the tree/Virgin (dreaming)) from 1903 and Greiser Phoenix (Aged Phoenix) from 1905, were classified by Klee as "surrealistic outposts". Jungfrau im Baum ties on the motive Le cattive madri (1894) by Giovanni Segantini. The picture was influenced by grotesque lyric poetries of Alfred Jarry, Max Jacob and Christian Morgenstern. It features a cultural pessimism, which can be found at the turn of the 20th century in works by Symbolists. The Invention Nr. 6, the 1903 etching Zwei Männer, einander in höherer Stellung vermutend (Two Men, Supposing the Other to be in a Higher Position), depicts two naked men, presumably emperor Wilhelm II and Franz Joseph I of Austria, recognizable by their hairstyle and beards. As their clothes and insignia were bereft, "both of them have no clue if their conventional salute […] is in order or not. As they assume that their counterpart could have been higher rated", they bow and scrape.

Klee began to introduce a new technique in 1905: scratching on a blackened glass panel with a needle. In that manner he created about 57 Verre églomisé pictures, among those the 1905 Gartenszene (Scene on a Garden) and the 1906 Porträt des Vaters (Portrait of a Father), with which he tried to combine painting and scratching. Klee's solitary early work ended in 1911, the year he met and was inspired by the graphic artist Alfred Kubin, and became associated with the artists of the Blaue Reiter.

Mystical-abstract period, 1914–1919
During his twelve-day educational trip to Tunis in April 1914 Klee produced with Macke and Moilliet watercolor paintings, which implement the strong light and color stimulus of the North African countryside in the fashion of Paul Cézanne and Robert Delaunay's cubistic form concepts. The aim was not to imitate nature, but to create compositions analogous to nature's formative principle, as in the works In den Häusern von Saint-Germain (In the Houses of Saint-Germain) and Straßencafé (Streetcafé). Klee conveyed the scenery in a grid, so that it dissolves into colored harmony. He also created abstract works in that period such as Abstract and Farbige Kreise durch Farbbänder verbunden (Colored Circles Tied Through Inked Ribbons). He never abandoned the object; a permanent segregation never took place. It took over ten years that Klee worked on experiments and analysis of the color, resulting to an independent artificial work, whereby his design ideas were based on the colorful oriental world.

Föhn im Marc'schen Garten (Foehn at Marc's Garden) was made after the Turin trip. It indicates the relations between color and the stimulus of Macke and Delaunay. Although elements of the garden are clearly visible, a further steering towards abstraction is noticeable. In his diary Klee wrote the following note at that time:

In the large molding pit are lying ruins, on which one partially hangs. They provide the material for the abstraction. […] The terrible the world, the abstract the art, while a happy world produces secularistic art.

Under the impression of his military service he created the painting Trauerblumen (Velvetbells) in 1917, which, with its graphical signs, vegetal and phantastic shapes, is a forerunner of his future works, harmonically combining graphic, color and object. For the first time birds appear in the pictures, such as in Blumenmythos (Flower Myth) from 1918, mirroring the flying and falling planes he saw in Gersthofen, and the photographed plane crashes.

In the 1918 watercolor painting Einst dem Grau der Nacht enttaucht, a compositional implemented poem, possibly written by Klee, he incorporated letters in small, in terms of color separated squares, cutting off the first verse from the second one with silver paper. At the top of the cardboard, which carries the picture, the verses are inscribed in manuscript form. Here, Klee did not lean on Delaunay's colors, but on Marc's, although the picture content of both painters does not correspond with each other. Herwarth Walden, Klee's art dealer, saw in them a "Wachablösung" (changing of the guard) of his art. Since 1919 he often used oil colors, with which he combined watercolors and colored pencil. The Villa R (Kunstmuseum Basel) from 1919 unites visible realities such as sun, moon, mountains, trees and architectures, as well as surreal pledges and sentiment readings.

Works in the Bauhaus period and in Düsseldorf
His works during this time include Camel (in rhythmic landscape with trees) as well as other paintings with abstract graphical elements such as betroffener Ort (Affected Place) (1922). From that period he created Die Zwitscher-Maschine (The Twittering Machine), which was later removed from the National Gallery. After being named defamatory in the Munich exhibition "Entartete Kunst", the painting was later bought by the Buchholz Gallery, New York, and then transferred in 1939 to the Museum of Modern Art. The "twittering" in the title refers to the open-beaked birds, while the "machine" is illustrated by the crank. The watercolor painting appears at a first glance childish, but it allows more interpretations. The picture can be interpreted as a critic by Klee, who shows through denaturation of the birds, that the world technization heist the creatures' self-determination.

Other examples from that period are der Goldfisch (The Goldfish) from 1925, Katze und Vogel (Cat and Bird), from 1928, and Hauptweg und Nebenwege (Main Road and Byways) from 1929. Through variations of the canvas ground and his combined painting techniques Klee created new color effects and picture impressions.

From 1916 to 1925, Klee created 50 hand puppets for his son Felix. The puppets are not mentioned in the Bauhaus catalog of works, since they were intended as private toys from the beginning. Nevertheless, they are an impressive example of Klee's imagery. He not only dealt with puppet shows privately, but also in his artistic work at the Bauhaus.

In 1931, Klee transferred to Düsseldorf to teach at the Akademie; the Nazis shut down the Bauhaus soon after. During this time, Klee illustrated a series of guardian angels. Among these figurations is "In Engelshut" (In the Angel's Care). Its overlaying technique evinces the polyphonic character of his drawing method between 1920 and 1932.

The 1932 painting Ad Parnassum was also created in the Düsseldorf period.  This is one of his largest paintings, as he usually worked with small formats. In this mosaic-like work in the style of pointillism he combined different techniques and compositional principles. Influenced by his trip to Egypt from 1928 to 1929, Klee built a color field from individually stamped dots, surrounded by similarly stamped lines, which results in a pyramid. Above the roof of the "Parnassus" there is a sun. The title identifies the picture as the home of Apollo and the Muses. During his 1929 travels through Egypt, Klee developed a sense of connection to the land, described by art historian Olivier Berggruen as a mystical feeling: "In the desert, the sun's intense rays seemed to envelop all living things, and at night, the movement of the stars felt even more palpable. In the architecture of the ancient funerary moments Klee discovered a sense of proportion and measure in which human beings appeared to establish a convincing relationship with the immensity of the landscape; furthermore, he was drawn to the esoteric numerology that governed the way in which these monuments had been built." In 1933, his last year in Germany, he created a range of paintings and drawings; the catalogue raisonné comprised 482 works. The self-portrait in the same year—with the programmatic title von der Liste gestrichen (removed from the list)—provides information about his feeling after losing his professorship. The abstract portrait was painted in dark colors and shows closed eyes and compressed lips, while on the back of his head there is a large "X", symbolizing that his art was no longer valued in Germany.

Last works in Switzerland
In this period Klee mainly worked on large-sized pictures. After the onset of illness, there were about 25 works in the 1936 catalogue, but his productivity increased in 1937 to 264 pictures, 1938 to 489, and 1939—his most productive year—to 1254. They dealt with ambivalent themes, expressing his personal fate, the political situation and his wit. Examples are the watercolor painting Musiker (musician), a stick-man face with partially serious, partially smiling mouth; and the Revolution des Viadukts (Revolution of the Viadukt), an anti-fascist art. In Viadukt (1937) the bridge arches split from the bank as they refuse to be linked to a chain and are therefore rioting.
Since 1938, Klee worked more intensively with hieroglyphic-like elements. The painting Insula dulcamara from the same year, which is one of his largest (), shows a white face in the middle of the elements, symbolizing death with its black-circled eye sockets. Bitterness and sorrow are not rare in much of his works during this time.

Klee created in 1940 a picture which strongly differs from the previous works, leaving it unsigned on the scaffold. The comparatively realistic still life, Ohne Titel, later named as Der Todesengel (Angel of Death), depicts flowers, a green pot, sculpture and an angel. The moon on black ground is separated from these groups. During his 60th birthday Klee was photographed in front of this picture.

Reception and legacy

Contemporary view

"Klee's act is very prestigious. In a minimum of one line he can reveal his wisdom. He is everything; profound, gentle and many more of the good things, and this because: he is innovative", wrote Oskar Schlemmer, Klee's future artist colleague at the Bauhaus, in his September 1916 diary.

Novelist and Klee's friend Wilhelm Hausenstein wrote in his work Über Expressionismus in der Malerei (On Expressionism in Painting), "Maybe Klee's attitude is in general understandable for musical people—how Klee is one of the most delightsome violinist playing Bach and Händel, who ever walked on earth. […] For Klee, the German classic painter of the Cubism, the world music became his companion, possibly even a part of his art; the composition, written in notes, seems to be not dissimilar."

When Klee visited the Paris surrealism exhibition in 1925, Max Ernst was impressed by his work. His partially morbid motifs appealed to the surrealists. André Breton helped to develop the surrealism and renamed Klee's 1912 painting Zimmerperspektive mit Einwohnern (Room Perspective with People) to chambre spirit in a catalogue. Critic René Crevel called the artist a "dreamer" who "releases a swarm of small lyrical louses from mysterious abysses." Paul Klee's confidante Will Grohmann argued in the Cahiers d'art that he "stands definitely well solid on his feet. He is by no means a dreamer; he is a modern person, who teaches as a professor at the Bauhaus." Whereupon Breton, as Joan Miró remembers, was critical of Klee: "Masson and I have both discovered Paul Klee. Paul Éluard and Crevel are also interested in Klee, and they have even visited him. But Breton despises him."

The art of mentally ill people inspired Klee as well as Kandinsky and Max Ernst, after Hans Prinzhorns book Bildnerei der Geisteskranken (Artistry of the Mentally Ill) was published in 1922. In 1937, some papers from Prinzhorn's anthology were presented at the National Socialist propaganda exhibition "Entartete Kunst" in Munich, with the purpose of defaming the works of Kirchner, Klee, Nolde and other artists by likening them to the works of the insane.

In 1949 Marcel Duchamp commented on Paul Klee: "The first reaction in front of a Klee painting is the very pleasant discovery, what everyone of us could or could have done, to try drawing like in our childhood. Most of his compositions show at the first glance a plain, naive expression, found in children's drawings. […] At a second analyse one can discover a technique, which takes as a basis a large maturity in thinking. A deep understanding of dealing with watercolors to paint a personal method in oil, structured in decorative shapes, let Klee stand out in the contemporary art and make him incomparable. On the other side, his experiment was adopted in the last 30 years by many other artists as a basis for newer creations in the most different areas in painting. His extreme productivity never shows evidence of repetition, as is usually the case. He had so much to say, that a Klee never became another Klee."

One of Klee's paintings, Angelus Novus, was the object of an interpretative text by German philosopher and literary critic Walter Benjamin, who purchased the painting in 1921. In his "Theses on the Philosophy of History" Benjamin suggests that the angel depicted in the painting might be seen as representing the angel of history.

Another aspect of his legacy, and one demonstrating his multi-faceted presence in the modern artistic imagination, is his appeal for those interested in the history of the algorithm as exemplified by Homage to Paul Klee by computer art pioneer Frieder Nake.

Musical interpretations

Unlike his taste for adventurous modern experiment in painting, Klee, though musically talented, was attracted to older traditions of music; he appreciated neither composers of the late 19th century, such as Wagner, Bruckner and Mahler, nor contemporary music. Bach and Mozart were for him the greatest composers; he most enjoyed playing the works by the latter.

Klee's work has influenced composers such as Argentinian Roberto García Morillo in 1943, with Tres pinturas de Paul Klee. Others include the American composer David Diamond in 1958, with the four-part Opus Welt von Paul Klee (World of Paul Klee). Gunther Schuller composed Seven Studies on Themes of Paul Klee in the years 1959/60, consisting of Antique Harmonies, Abstract Trio, Little Blue Devil, Twittering Machine, Arab Village, An Eerie Moment, and Pastorale. The Spanish composer Benet Casablancas wrote Alter Klang, Impromptu for Orchestra after Klee (2006); Casablancas is author also of the Retablo on texts by Paul Klee, Cantata da Camera for Soprano, Mezzo and Piano (2007). In 1950, Giselher Klebe performed his orchestral work Die Zwitschermaschine with the subtitle Metamorphosen über das Bild von Paul Klee at the Donaueschinger Musiktage. 8 Pieces on Paul Klee is the title of the debut album by the Ensemble Sortisatio, recorded February and March 2002 in Leipzig and August 2002 in Lucerne, Switzerland. The composition "Wie der Klee vierblättrig wurde" (How the clover became four-leaved) was inspired by the watercolor painting Hat Kopf, Hand, Fuss und Herz (1930), Angelus Novus and Hauptweg und Nebenwege.

In 1968, a jazz group called The National Gallery featuring composer Chuck Mangione released the album Performing Musical Interpretations of the Paintings of Paul Klee. In 1995 the Greek experimental filmmaker, Kostas Sfikas, created a film based entirely on Paul Klee's paintings. The film is entitled "Paul Klee's Prophetic Bird of Sorrows", and draws its title from Klee's Landscape with Yellow Birds. It was made using portions and cutouts from Paul Klee's paintings.

Additional musical interpretations

 Sándor Veress: Hommage à Paul Klee (1951), phantasy for two pianos and strings
 Peter Maxwell Davies: Five Klee-Pictures (1962), orchestral
 Harrison Birtwistle: Carmen Arcadiae Mechanicae Perpetuum (The Perpetual Song of Mechanical Arcadia) (1977), for orchestra
 Edison Denisov: Drei Bilder von Paul Klee (Three Pictures of Paul Klee) (1985), for six players (Diana im Herbstwind − Senecio – Kind auf der Freitreppe)
 Tōru Takemitsu: All in Twilight (1987), for guitar
 John Woolrich: The kingdom of dreams (1989), for oboe and piano ('Landscape with Yellow Birds', 'The Bavarian Don Giovanni', 'Tale à la Hoffmann', 'Fish Magic')
 Leo Brouwer: Sonata (1990), for guitar
 Walter Steffens: Vier Aquarelle nach Paul Klee (Four Watercolor Pictures to Paul Klee) (1991), op. 63, for recorder(s)
 Tan Dun: Death and Fire (1992), Dialogue with Paul Klee, orchestral
 Judith Weir: Heroic Strokes of the Bow (1992), for orchestra
 Jean-Luc Darbellay: Ein Garten für Orpheus (A Garden for Orpheus) (1996), for six instruments
 Michael Denhoff: Haupt- und Nebenwege (Main and Sideways) (1998), for strings and piano
 Iris Szeghy: Ad parnassum (2005), for strings
 Patrick van Deurzen: Six: a line is a dot that went for a walk (2006), for Flugelhorn, DoubleBass & Percussion
 Jim McNeely: Paul Klee (2007), Jazz album written for the Swiss Jazz Orchestra composed of 8 pieces
 Jason Wright Wingate: Symphony No. 2: Kleetüden; Variationen für Orchester nach Paul Klee (Variations for Orchestra after Paul Klee) (2009), for orchestra in 27 movements
 Sakanaction: "Klee" (2010), from the album Kikuuiki; a song envisioned as a dialogue with Klee's paintings.
 Ludger Stühlmeyer: Super flumina Babylonis [An den Wassern zu Babel]. (2019), fantasia for organ (Introduzione, Scontro, Elegie, Appassionato) on an aquarelle by Paul Klee.
 George Crumb: Metamorphoses, Book 1: No. 1, Black Prince; No. 2, Goldfish and Metamorphoses, Book 2: No. 1, Ancient Sound, Abstract on Black; No. 2, Landscape with Yellow Birds (2019), for piano after paintings of the same name by Paul Klee

Architectural honors
Since 1995, the "Paul Klee-Archiv" (Paul Klee archive) of the University of Jena houses an extensive collection of works by Klee. It is located within the art history department, established by Franz-Joachim Verspohl. It encompasses the private library of book collector Rolf Sauerwein which contains nearly 700 works from 30 years composed of monographs about Klee, exhibition catalogues, extensive secondary literature as well as originally illustrated issues, a postcard and a signed photography portrait of Klee.

Architect Renzo Piano constructed the Zentrum Paul Klee in June 2005. Located in Bern, the museum exhibits about 150 (of 4000 Klee works overall) in a six-month rotation, as it is impossible to show all of his works at once. Furthermore, his pictures require rest periods; they contain relatively photosensitive colors, inks and papers, which may bleach, change, turn brown and become brittle if exposed to light for too long. The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has a comprehensive Klee collection, donated by Carl Djerassi. Other exhibitions include the Sammlung Rosengart in Luzern, the Albertina in Wien and the Berggruen Museum in Berlin. Schools in Gersthofen, Lübeck; Klein-Winternheim, Overath; his place of birth Münchenbuchsee and Düsseldorf bear his name.

Nazi looting and restitutions
In addition to Klee's works that Nazis seized from museums, several of his artworks were looted by Nazis from Jewish collectors and their families. Some of these have been restituted while others have been the subject of lawsuits and claims for restitution. One of the most famous claims was for Klee's Swamp Legend.

Tribute
In 2018, a Google Doodle was created to celebrate his 139th birthday.

Journal
The Zwitscher-Maschine. Journal on Paul Klee (ISSN 2297-6809 ) is a publication dedicated to international studies on Paul Klee. It encompasses art historical and art technological studies, as well as literary or philosophical texts on the life and work of Paul Klee. The journal is freely accessible to authors from the international Klee research community, following an open-access approach known as the 'golden road' primary publishing strategy.

Publications
 Jardi, Enric (1991). Paul Klee, Rizzoli Intl Pubns,
 Kagan, Andrew (1993). Paul Klee at the Guggenheim Museum (exhibition catalogue)  Introduction by Lisa Dennison, essay by Andrew Kagan. 208 pages. English and Spanish editions. 1993,
 Cappelletti, Paolo (2003). L'inafferrabile visione. Pittura e scrittura in Paul Klee (in Italian). Milan: Jaca Book.

Lista, Marcella (2011). Paul Klee, 1879-1940 : polyphonies. Arles: Actes Sud.

Books, essays and lectures by Paul Klee
 1922 Beiträge zur bildnerischen Formlehre ('Contributions to a pictorial theory of form', part of his 1921–22 lectures at the Bauhaus)
 1923 Wege des Naturstudiums ('Ways of Studying Nature'), 4 pages. Published in the catalogue for the Erste Bauhaus Ausstellung (First Bauhaus Exhibition) in Summer 1923. Also published in Paul Klee Notebooks vol 1.
 1924 Über moderne Kunst ('On Modern Art'), lecture held at Paul Klee's exhibition at the Kunstverein in Jena on 26 January 1924
 1924 Pädagogisches Skizzenbuch ('Pedagogical Sketchbook')
 1949 Documente und Bilder aus den Jahren 1896–1930, ('Documents and images from the years 1896–1930'), Berne, Benteli
 1956 Graphik, ('Graphics'), Berne, Klipstein & Kornfeld
 1956 Schriften zur Form und Gestaltungslehre ('Writings on form and design theory') edited by Jürg Spiller (English edition: 'Paul Klee Notebooks')
 1956 Band I: Das bildnerische Denken., ('Volume I: the creative thinking'). 572 pages review. (English translation from German by Ralph Manheim: 'The thinking eye')
 1964 Band 2: Unendliche Naturgeschichte ('Volume 2: Infinite Natural History') (English translation from German by Heinz Norden: 'The Nature of Nature')
 1964 The Diaries of Paul Klee 1898–1918  ed. Felix Klee Berkeley, University of California
 1976 Schriften, Rezensionen und Aufsätze edited by Ch. Geelhaar, Köln,
 1960 Gedichte, poems, edited by Felix Klee
 1962 Some poems by Paul Klee ed Anselm Hollo. London

See also
 Color theory
 Watercolors
 Expressionism
 Der Blaue Reiter

Notes and references

Notes
  Paul Klee's father was a German citizen; his mother was Swiss. Swiss law determined citizenship along paternal lines, and thus Paul inherited his father's German citizenship. He served in the German army during World War I. Klee grew up in Berne, Switzerland, and returned there often, even before his final emigration from Germany in 1933. He died before his application for Swiss citizenship was processed.
  German: Werftkompanie, lit. 'shipyard company'.

References

Further reading

 Franciscono, Marcel (1991). Paul Klee: His Work and Thought. University of Chicago Press, 406 pages, .
 Hausenstein, Wilhelm (1921). Kairuan oder eine Geschichte vom Maler Klee und von der Kunst dieses Zeitalters ('Kairuan or a History of the Artist Klee and the Art of this Age')

 Paul Klee: Catalogue Raisonné. 9 vols. Edited by the Paul Klee Foundation, Museum of Fine Arts, Berne. New York: Thames & Hudson, 1998–2004.
 Rump, Gerhard Charles (1981), "Paul Klees Poetik der Linie. Bemerkungen zum graphischen Vokabular. In: Gerhard Charles Rump: Kunstpsychologie, Kunst und Psychoanalyse, Kunstwissenschaft. Olms, Hildesheim and New York. pp. 169–185. .
 Sorg, Reto, and Osamu Okuda (2005). Die satirische Muse – Hans Bloesch, Paul Klee und das Editionsprojekt Der Musterbürger. ZIP Zürich (Klee-Studien; 2),
 Paul Klee: 1933, published by Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich, Helmut Friedel. Contains essays in German by Pamela Kort, Osamu Okuda, and Otto Karl Werckmeister.
 Werckmeister, Otto Karl (1989) [1984]. The Making of Paul Klee's Career, 1914–1920. University of Chicago Press, 343 pages, 125 halftones.

External links

 Paul Klee's Cats

 Zentrum Paul Klee – The Paul Klee museum in Bern
 Scans of pages of Paul Klee's notebooks from the Zentrum Paul Klee
 Current exhibitions and connection to galleries at Artfacts.Net
 "Creative Credo" – by Paul Klee, 1920

 Paul Klee at The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA)
 Biographie Paul Klee
 "Paul Klee", Der Ararat, Vol. 1, Second Special Number, edited by Hans Goltz, Munich, May–June 1920

1879 births
1940 deaths
19th-century German painters
19th-century male artists
20th-century German painters
20th-century German male artists
20th-century Swiss painters
Swiss male painters
20th-century German printmakers
Abstract painters
Art educators
Academy of Fine Arts, Munich alumni
Academic staff of the Bauhaus
Cubist artists
Deaths from scleroderma
Emigrants from Nazi Germany to Switzerland
Expressionist painters
Academic staff of Kunstakademie Düsseldorf
German male painters
German-language poets
Orientalist painters
Artists from Bern
People from Bern-Mittelland District
State University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart alumni
Swiss printmakers

Paul Klee


Ruthmere, formerly the Albert and Elizabeth Beardsley Residence, is a three-story Beaux-Arts mansion that is the most prominent historic residence in Elkhart, Indiana, United States. Built in 1910, the Ruthmere Mansion is now open to the public as a museum, along with the neighboring Dr. Havilah Beardsley House.

Ruthmere is located along the St. Joseph River in Elkhart. The architect was Enock Hill Turnock, commissioned by Albert and Elizabeth Beardsley in 1908.  The Beardsleys named the mansion in memory of their only child, Ruth, who died at seven months. ("Mere" reflects the Latin root maris and refers to the home's proximity to water.) The mansion was a place of business, family, political and social gatherings until the deaths of the Beardsleys in 1924. Robert Beardsley of The Beardsley Foundation purchased the mansion in 1967 with the main goal of restoring it to its original beauty in order to create a museum for the community. Restoration took place between 1969 and 1973 when the mansion was made available to the public. The property was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, and the Beardsley Avenue Historic District was established several years later.

Interior design and decor
Ruthmere is a three-story house with a basement. The first floor consists of the library, drawing room, dining room and kitchen area. The second floor is private bed and bathrooms and the service quarters. The third floor is primarily for storage. The basement has a game room and working area of house (boiler, wash room). There is also a tunnel that connects the game room to the greenhouse.

Cuban mahogany is the primary wood on the first floor. Pomegranates, a symbol of wealth and prosperity, are found throughout the house carved in plaster and wood as well as stenciling on ceilings. Silk wall coverings are used in a majority of the rooms instead of wallpaper. Hand-painted stencils adorn many ceilings. Hand-painted murals of scenes of Italy also adorn walls and windows.

The house also has a fine art collection, part of the museum's collection, displayed throughout the house. You can find Louis Comfort Tiffany lamps and windows as well as Auguste Rodin sculptures.

Exterior architecture and design
Ruthmere was designed by E. Hill Turnock in an eclectic Beaux-Arts style with Prairie School accents. The three-story structure is faced with buff-colored Belden brick from Ohio and native Indiana limestone. Carved stone quoins, capitals, cartouches and window surrounds add exterior interest.

The covered entrance is supported by square brick pillars created by carved limestone capitals. A balustraded marble piazza across the south facade extends to the east side of the building where a porte-cochere protects visitors as they arrive by carriage or car. From the east porch a covered walkway leads to a greenhouse.

The garage is located to the north of the house. Originally the second floor was an apartment for the chauffeur. In 1980, it was turned into The Robert B. Beardsley Arts Reference Library of American Domestic Architecture and Decorative Arts. The library is a free facility, open to the public by appointment. While the materials do not circulate, the library provides copy services as well as reference services. The library's catalog is accessible through the Elkhart Public Library Catalog.

Facts
Albert and Elizabeth Beardsley moved into their home in 1910 and for 14 years, Ruthmere was a place where they entertained friends and business associates.  Elizabeth and Albert died within a few months of each other in 1924.  Albert's nephew, Arthur Beardsley and his wife Stella lived at Ruthmere until Stella's death in 1940 and Arthur's death in 1944.

The Sherill and Helen Deputy family moved into Ruthmere in 1945, raising six boys in the house—the first and only children to ever call Ruthmere home.  In 1969, the Deputys sold Ruthmere to the Beardsley Foundation, which restored the home to its former glory, with the express purpose of creating a museum for the community and the region.

Notes

References
 The Elkhart Truth newspaper, July 22, 1972.
 Ruthmere Foundation Inc., Newsletter, Fall 2006
 Stephenson T. (1972, July 22). Ode of praise to E. Hill Turnock. A.M., The Elkhart Truth, pp. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.
 Succumbs. (1926, July 6). E. Hill Turnock Dies at Age of 70. The Elkhart Truth, Obituary
 Turnock Committee. (1996). Discovering Turnock. Pamphlet from Ruthmere Museum
 Abraham Weaver: Standard History of Elkhart County (vol.2, pp. 899–901 (Ind 977.281 W36)
 Funk, Laura. Docent, Ruthmere House Museum. August 10, 2007.
 http://www.ruthmere.org/architecture
 http://www.nationalhistoricalregister.com/IN/elkhart/state.html
 https://web.archive.org/web/20070927220149/http://www.historicalandmarks.org/noted/LOM/lom05archive.html
 https://web.archive.org/web/20070829225337/http://www.artseverywhere.com/
 https://web.archive.org/web/20041015081511/http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/
 https://web.archive.org/web/20070813222820/http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/fa267/1893fair.html

External links
 Ruthmere - official site

Museums in Elkhart County, Indiana
Historic house museums in Indiana
Historic district contributing properties in Indiana
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Indiana
1908 establishments in Indiana
Houses completed in 1908
Houses in Elkhart County, Indiana
National Register of Historic Places in Elkhart County, Indiana
Buildings and structures in Elkhart, Indiana

Ruthmere Mansion


Goldfinger is an American punk rock band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 1994. In their early years the band was considered a contributor to the movement of third-wave ska, a mid-1990s revitalization in the popularity of ska.  However, the releases of Open Your Eyes and Disconnection Notice saw the band shed most of the ska influence, and they have been more commonly placed in the punk rock genre in later years.

History

Formation, Goldfinger, and Hang-Ups (1994–1998)
Goldfinger was formed by former Electric Love Hogs member John Feldmann on vocals and guitar, Simon Williams on bass, former drummer of Zero Tolerance Darrin Pfeiffer on drums, and Charlie Paulson on guitar. At the time the band was formed, Feldmann and Williams were working at the same shoe store where they were discovered by A&R Executive Patrick McDowell. Before they were signed to a major label, they released an EP titled Richter on the independent label Mojo Records, which received favorable reviews and a substantial amount of airplay on college radio, leading to Goldfinger and Mojo signing a major-label contract with Universal Records.

Many of the songs on Richter are demo versions of songs on the band's full-length debut, Goldfinger, which was produced by Jay Rifkin and released by Mojo Records on February 29, 1996. The song "Here in Your Bedroom" from the album was especially popular and helped the band gain a solid fanbase. In 2006, Alternative Press listed the self-titled Goldfinger album as one of the "10 Albums That Shaped 1996" alongside No Doubt, Weezer and others.  The band released its second album, Hang-Ups, on September 9, 1997. Founding bassist Simon Williams left the band following Hang-Ups.  During this time, Goldfinger released a popular cover of the song "More Today Than Yesterday" by Spiral Starecase, which also helped the band stay out of obscurity.

Darrin's Coconut Ass: Live from Omaha, Stomping Ground, and Open Your Eyes (1999–2003)
On November 9, 1999, Goldfinger released Darrin's Coconut Ass: Live from Omaha, a collection of 8 cover songs from the band.  Goldfinger's third studio LP was Stomping Ground, which was released on March 28, 2000. The album sold poorly in the US but was a modest hit in some European countries, thanks to their cover of Nena's "99 Luftballons" sung partly in German. In 2000, during their tour of England, Goldfinger recorded one of their sets, issuing the live Foot in Mouth, available only at shows and through the band's official website. In 2001, Goldfinger announced that Charlie Paulson was leaving the band and was being replaced by former Ünloco member, Brian Arthur. Their next album, Open Your Eyes (2002), was the first for their new record label, Jive/Zomba.  On this album, the band abandoned much of its ska influences in favor of a more heavy sound.  Furthermore, some of the lyrics discussed animal rights, a subject which had not been touched upon in earlier albums.  The band recorded a music video for the title track of the album, which was also focused on animal rights.

Disconnection Notice and return of Charlie Paulson (2004–2006)

In early 2005, they released its first album for their new label, Maverick Records, titled Disconnection Notice, which was written, produced and recorded all throughout 2004. The song "Wasted" from the album was released as a single. The CD was less well received compared to former Goldfinger albums. In 2005, Brian departed from the band after the release of the album. Shortly after Brians departure, Goldfinger announced that their original guitarist Charlie Paulson would return.  Charlie returned to the stage playing three songs at the Key Club in LA when the band finished a Western USA tour.

Hello Destiny... (2007–2010)
Goldfinger signed to the independent record label Side One Dummy in 2007. On April 22, 2008, the band released their sixth full-length record called Hello Destiny.... To promote the album, the band embarked on a successful North American tour with Less Than Jake in summer of 2008. They also played in the UK at the Reading and Leeds Festivals on August 22–23, 2008.

Recently, frontman John Feldmann has produced records for Mest, The Used (whose vocalist Bert McCracken sang some guest vocals on "Open Your Eyes", "Woodchuck", "Ocean Size", and "Handjobs for Jesus"), Hilary Duff and Story of the Year.  He also produced Good Charlotte's single "The Anthem" (whose guitarist Benji Madden provides guest vocals on "January", which was originally named "Oracle of Elcaro"). He also signed the band Ünloco with Maverick Records.

In November 2010, Goldfinger played a handful of shows on a small, west coast tour with Reel Big Fish. These are the first shows performed without Darrin Pfeiffer on drums. Drumming duties were handled by Branden Steineckert of Rancid. Also, on the Los Angeles show at the House of Blues, original bassist, Simon Williams came out to perform several songs off their first album. This was the first time Williams had performed with the band in over a decade. He played the Las Vegas show as well.

The Knife (2010–2020)
In the November/December 2010 issue No. 43 of SMASH magazine, Feldmann stated that a new EP or a possible full-length album was "in the works" with Feldmann having penned 4/5 new tracks, and Pfeiffer having recorded the drum tracks. Feldmann also states in the article that with the release of any new material would be supported with an extended tour. According to Feldmann, Goldfinger was expecting to have their new album out sometime in 2012. The band released a new song, "Am I Deaf", on Friday May 24, 2013.

In 2015, Feldmann did an interview with Fuse, noting that the band's future largely amounts to the occasional tour: "We'll probably release a song or two but I don't know if we're going to release albums anymore. We play the same songs we've always done."

On July 21, 2017, the group released The Knife, the band's first album featuring Mike Herrera, Travis Barker, and Philip Sneed (Moon Valjean). Darrin, Kelly, and Charlie left the band prior to its release. Darrin Pfeiffer left the band due to personality conflicts with Feldmann. Darrin spoke about some of the conflicts with Feldmann on an episode of Mike Herrera's podcast. Kelly Lemieux currently tours with Buckcherry, along with other bands and has cited that for his reasoning behind not being an active participant with Goldfinger. Charlie Paulson did rejoin the band on stage for the 2019 Back to the Beach festival and Vans Warped Tour 25th Anniversary. Paulson has since rejoined the band as he has played with them in all their recent shows as well as joining them on their "Fueling The fire" tour with Less Than Jake in September 2019. The band's live lineup generally consists of Feldmann, Paulson, Herrerra and Sneed, with Barker occasionally playing live shows and other friends of Feldmann playing drums. Other musicians fill-in on guitar and bass when Paulson, Sneed, and Herrerra are not present at shows as well. Their live shows often feature horn players from numerous other ska bands, including Ruben Durazo, Matt Appleton, Billy Kottage, and numerous others.

During the 2020 Coronavirus Pandemic, Goldfinger began producing and releasing a series of live performances to YouTube, designated "Quarantine Videos". Individual members recorded their performances in their own homes, to be subsequently mixed and mastered by Feldman. The first performance was a rendition of "Here in Your Bedroom". To date, the band have released eight "Quarantine Videos" for songs including their cover of Nena's "99 Luftballons" and original song, "Superman". Notably, seven of the eight video performances featured musician and entrepreneur, Nick Gross, on drums.

Never Look Back (2020–present)
December 4, 2020, marked the release of Never Look Back with members John Feldmann, Charlie Paulson, Mike Herrera, Philip Sneed, and Nick Gross.  It is the first album since 2008's Hello Destiny to feature Paulson, the group's original guitarist.

On December 10, 2020, the band held an online-only release party in support of the album where they live streamed an entire set. Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, an in-person event was not feasible. The band started playing shows again in late 2022 and early 2023, with The Planet Smashers, Mustard Plug, and Catch 22.

On July 29, 2022, the band announced the deluxe version of Never Look Back, which features three rerecorded tracks (that of Here in Your Bedroom with Avril Lavigne, Superman with Biffy Clyro, and 99 Red Balloons) and four new bonus tracks. It was released on August 5.

Animal rights
Since the band began, Feldmann became a vegan and animal rights supporter, as can be seen briefly in the music video for "Open Your Eyes". They also donated the song "What Gives You The Right" to the Southern Animal Rights Coalition benefit CD, Until Every Cage Is Empty, as well as writing the song "Free Kevin Kjonaas", an animal rights activist in prison, known as the most involved individual in the SHAC 7. One of the songs, "FTN", harshly criticizes Ted Nugent and Jennifer Lopez for their hunting tactics and fur fashion, respectively. He also advocates and supports the Animal Liberation Front.  For the song "Behind the Mask" from the album Disconnection Notice, Feldmann convinced PETA president and co-founder Ingrid Newkirk to allow him to sample one of her speeches on animal cruelty.

In film and video games
Goldfinger songs have made several appearances in motion pictures. Their cover of "99 Red Balloons" is featured in the movies Not Another Teen Movie, Eurotrip, Our Lips Are Sealed, and Rocket Power: Race Across New Zealand. Their cover of "More Today Than Yesterday" by Spiral Starecase is featured during the ending credits of The Waterboy.  "Superman" is featured in the Disney film Meet the Deedles and the comedy Kingpin. "Walking in the Dark" is featured in the movie Dead Man on Campus. "Hopeless" appears on the soundtrack of BASEketball.

The band's video game debut was in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater with the song "Superman" and was reused as part of the soundtracks in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2. Another song, "Spokesman", was used in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4. "I'm Down" was featured in the game MTV Sports: Skateboarding Ft Andy Macdonald. "99 Red Balloons" is also featured in Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec. Goldfinger's song "I Want" from Disconnection Notice is featured in Burnout Revenge on the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Xbox 360, and is also featured in Burnout Legends on the PlayStation Portable."My Everything" is featured on SSX On Tour also by Electronic Arts. Goldfinger also appeared in the Reel Big Fish video "Sell Out" for a couple of seconds. The song "Counting the Days" is featured on Shaun White Snowboarding. The song "Superman" was released as downloadable content in the music videogame Rock Band 4.

Band members

Current members
 John Feldmann – lead vocals, rhythm guitar (1994–present), lead guitar (2013–2016)
 Charlie Paulson – lead guitar, backing vocals (1994–2001, 2005–2013, 2019–present)
 Philip "Moon Valjean" Sneed – rhythm guitar (2019–present), lead guitar, backing vocals (2013–present)
 Mike Herrera – bass, backing vocals (2016–present)
 Nick Gross – drums (2020–present; touring member 2018–2020)

Former members
 Darrin Pfeiffer – drums, backing vocals (1994–2016)
 Simon Williams – bass, backing vocals (1994–1999)
 Brian Arthur – lead guitar, backing vocals (2001–2005)
 Kelly LeMieux – bass, backing vocals (1999–2014)
 Travis Barker – drums (2017)

Touring members
 Cyrus Bolooki - drums (2018–2019)

Timeline

Discography

 Goldfinger (1996)
 Hang-Ups (1997)
 Stomping Ground (2000)
 Open Your Eyes (2002)
 Disconnection Notice (2005)
 Hello Destiny... (2008)
 The Knife (2017)
 Never Look Back (2020)

See also
Animal rights and punk subculture

References

External links

Goldfinger official website
About "Disconnection Notice" album
Interview with Bombshellzine.com

Musical groups established in 1994
Third-wave ska groups
Musical groups from Los Angeles
Pop punk groups from California
American ska punk musical groups
1994 establishments in California
Skate punk groups
Punk rock groups from California
Universal Records artists
American punk rock groups

Goldfinger (band)


Jakobsberg Telecommunication Tower is a 142-metre-tall TV tower built of reinforced concrete on the 238-metre-high elevated Jakobsberg near Porta Westfalica. Jakobsberg Telecommunication Tower was built May 1, 1974 and September 28, 1978 as replacement for a small telecommunication tower also equipped with an observation deck, which was built in 1952 on the site
of the former Bismarck column, erected in 1902.
Jakobsberg Telecommunication Tower is equipped with a room for technical equipment in a height of 50 metres and an observation deck in a height of 23.25 metres. Its main purpose is the transmission of television and radio signals, since 2006 the television signals are sent in DVB-T.
For access to the observation deck, there is a stairway running like a srewline around the tower. This stairway gives the lowest sections of Jakobsberg Telecommunication Tower, which is property of Deutsche Telekom, its characteristic design.

External links

 Entry at Skyscraperpage
 View on Google Maps
 http://www.senderfotos-owl.de/nrw.html

Communication towers in Germany
Observation towers
1974 establishments in West Germany

Jakobsberg Telecommunication Tower


In enzymology, a zeatin O-beta-D-xylosyltransferase () is an enzyme that catalyzes the chemical reaction

UDP-D-xylose + zeatin  UDP + O-beta-D-xylosylzeatin

Thus, the two substrates of this enzyme are UDP-D-xylose and zeatin, whereas its two products are UDP and O-beta-D-xylosylzeatin.

This enzyme belongs to the family of glycosyltransferases, specifically the pentosyltransferases.  The systematic name of this enzyme class is UDP-D-xylose:zeatin O-beta-D-xylosyltransferase. Other names in common use include uridine diphosphoxylose-zeatin xylosyltransferase, and zeatin O-xylosyltransferase.

References

EC 2.4.2
Enzymes of unknown structure

Zeatin O-beta-D-xylosyltransferase


Litomyšl is a town in the Czech Republic. The population is 10,000. It is in the Pardubice Region in eastern Bohemia. A famous composer, Bedřich Smetana, was born there in 1824. Litomyšl Castle is on the UNESCO Heritage List.

Landmarks
The most important landmarks there are Litomyšl Castle, Knights´ Hall, Church of the Raising of the Holy Cross, Piarist Church of the Discovery of the Holy Cross and Piarist college, New Church of the Church of the Brethren, Portmoneum (Museum), Smetana´s Cultural House, Indoor swimming pool.

Litomyšl Castle
The dominant feature of Litomyšl is a monumental Renaissance castle. It was built from 1568 to1581 by the House of Pernštejn. Litomyšl Castle was originally a Renaissance arcade-castle of the Italian type. Its design and decoration is fantastic. There is a rich sgraffito decoration on the walls. Later, the Baroque features were added in the 18th century. The architect of the building was Giovanni Battista Aostalli. The first owner and the donator was Vratislav II. from Pernštejn. In the castle grounds there is Castle Brewery, too. In Catle Brewery there was born Bedřich Smetana, a famous composer. The castle was written on the UNESCO Heritage list in 1999. The International Smetana´s Opera Festival takes place there every June.

Knights´ Hall: the oldest house in Smetana Square
This is one of the most beautiful houses in Litomyšl square. It was built by a stonemason Blažek after a fire in 1540. It was finished in 1546. The stone facade is decorated with decorative and figurative motives. On the sides of the middle window there are 2 statues of the knights. They are famous from story by a popular writer Alois Jirásek. The house is decorated with other figures (a merchant, a mermaid, a lion, a unicorn). There is a town gallery today.

Church of the Raising of the Holy Cross
The church was founded in 1378 (638 years ago) in gothic style. Most of equipment is from the second half of the 18th century. The main altar was built in 1767, sculpture decoration was made by František Pacák. The altar image of the Holy Cross was painted by Ignác Raab. There was a massive renovation of the building from 1995 to 2000. In May 2000, the new organs were instaled there The church is a dominant of the historical part of the town, now.

Church of the Discovery of the Holy Cross and Piarist college
This church is located opposite Litomyšl Castle. The church was built in baroque style. It was designed by Giovanni Battista Alliprandi. He was a famous architect from Italy. The church was constructed from 1716 to 1726. There is a former piarist college on the left of the church.

It is a Catholic church. It was demaged in the 20th century. The renovation was done at the beginning of the 21st century. Now people come here to pray, listen to the concerts and visit exhibitions. You can climb up to the roof and have a look around the historical town centre.

In front of the church there is Regional Museum Litomyšl. The museum building used to be a grammar school.

Behind the church there is Monastery garden. It is a renovated garden which is a very popular park now.

New Church of the Church of the Brethren
This modern building was built from 2008 to 2010. The church was designed by an architect Zdeněk Fránek. There are artworks by Karel Malich and Vojtěch Cígler as well. The church has got a room for 150 people, 2 clubs and a social lobby. Worship takes places there every Sunday at 9:30. Sometimes you can visit concerts or exhibitions there. Eeverybody can come there.

Portmoneum (Museum)
The history of the Museum of Jan Vachal began in 1920 when an artist Váchal decorated a house of his friend. Vachal's wall paintings in the Portmoneum are very complicated.The paintings are citations from Váchal´s stories. The painted topics are a country and a number of devils, spirits and ghosts. The museum was opened thanks to the Paseka publishing house in the honour of Vachal's work. It was opened in 1993. It was called the Portmoneum after the house owner Portman.

Smetana´s Cultural House
The construction of this cultural hall began in 1903. The chief builder was J. Kreml from Litomysl. The foundation stone was laid on April 4, 1903. Smetana's house is named after a famous composer Bedřich Smetana. He was born in Litomyšl in 1824. Smetana's house is a theater and a cultural centre. Smetana's house consists of a big auditorium, a small auditorium and a lounge. Its style is the Art Nouveau. You can visit concerts, balls and theatre performances there.

Regional Museum
The building of the museum was originally the piaristic grammar school. Alois Jirásek taught there. It is situated next to the Piaristic Church and opposite the castle. There was a big reconstruction of the building from 2012 to 2014. Today you can visit a new interactive display show of the history of the town, smaller displays of the Cabinet ancient history or Guild of shooters to target. Other contemporary exhibitions often take place there.

References

Towns in the Czech Republic
Pardubice Region

Litomyšl


Duncan Farm is an archaeological site located on a farmstead south of Illinois Route 100 in Jersey County, Illinois, near the city of Grafton. The site, which dates from the Woodland period, includes two burial mounds and a habitation site. The site was part of the Hopewell exchange system in Illinois and is the closest neighboring village site to the Golden Eagle regional transaction center, a major trade and social hub in the system. Archaeologists have suggested that the site is a local transaction center in the Golden Eagle site's region due to its two large mounds, which are roughly  long and  wide each. In addition, the site is archaeologically significant due to its distinctive stratification, which allows its artifacts to be easily dated.

The site was added to the National Register of Historic Places on August 24, 1982.

See also
Smith-Duncan House and Eastman Barn, historic buildings on the same farmstead

References

Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Illinois
Geography of Jersey County, Illinois
Mounds in Illinois
National Register of Historic Places in Jersey County, Illinois

Duncan Farm (Grafton, Illinois)


Oscar Berger (May 12, 1901 – May 15, 1997) was a well-known caricaturist and cartoonist.

Biography
Berger was born in Prešov, Slovakia. He became a cartoonist in Prague and studied art in Paris and Berlin.
In Berlin, he secured an assignment with one of the largest Berlin daily newspapers and was one of the few journalists admitted to the 1923 Munich trial that followed Hitler's abortive putsch.

Later, when Hitler came to power, Berger's cartoons angered Hitler and Berger was forced to leave the country. He spent time in Budapest, Paris, and Geneva, where he attended numerous sessions at the League of Nations.  He finally settled in London in 1935, where he worked for the Daily Telegraph. During the 1950s, Berger attended many sessions at the United Nations and illustrated virtually every important world leader to be seen there.

His work subsequently appeared in Life, the New York Times, the New York Herald Tribune and Le Figaro, among numerous other publications.

Oscar Berger's works were described by a contemporary as:

kindly rather than critical, mildly satirical but never vicious. They aim to entertain, to identify a sitter so unmistakably that a few telling lines will be telegraphed at a glance.

Some of Berger's books:

Aesop's Foibles (1947)
 a' la Carte - The Gourmet's Phantasmagoria in Fifty Cartoons (1948)
 Famous Faces - Caricaturist's Scrapbook (1950)
 My Victims - How to Caricature (1952)
 I Love You - A selection of love poetry (1960)
 The Presidents - From George Washington to the Present (1968)

Personal life
Berger married Aran (Anne) Varga, from Kispest, Hungary.  Anne and Oscar Berger emigrated to the U.S. from England and spent the rest of their lives on Central Park South in Manhattan.  Their niece, L.O. Aranye Fradenburg, is an English Professor at UC Santa Barbara. He is survived by cousins in NY through an aunt, Hermina Berger Tisch.

External links
 Official Website
 Cultural Contributions of Americans with Roots in Slovakia. The Visual Arts.

1901 births
1997 deaths
American editorial cartoonists
American caricaturists
American people of Slovak descent
Czechoslovak emigrants to the United States
Slovak caricaturists
Slovak cartoonists
People from Prešov

Oscar Berger (cartoonist)


Funke Mediengruppe (formerly WAZ-Mediengruppe) is Germany's third largest newspaper and magazine publisher with a total of over 500 publications in eight countries. WAZ-Mediengruppe is privately held by the Funke family and is headquartered in Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia.

The group's largest paper is Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, the largest newspaper in the Ruhr metropolitan region. Other properties in Germany include the TV magazine Gong and the woman's magazine Die Aktuelle. Besides Germany, Funke Mediengruppe has publications in Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Albania, and Russia. The company formed Media Print Macedonia and owns several newspapers and magazines in Macedonia. It also partially owns the Austrian Kronen Zeitung and Kurier.

In December 2010 WAZ Mediagroup sold all its assets in Bulgaria to a joint venture between Austrian investors and local tycoons. Until then the company had owned the two largest daily newspapers Trud and 24 hours, the weekly newspaper 168 hours, and a large portfolio of magazines.

In 2012, the Funke family bought out the shares of the Brost family and renamed the company. In 2013, Funke acquired several papers and magazines, including Berliner Morgenpost, Hamburger Abendblatt, Bild der Frau, and Hörzu, from Axel Springer AG.

References

External links

Companies based in Essen
Magazine publishing companies of Germany
Mass media in Essen
Newspaper companies of Germany
Pan-European media companies

cs:WAZ

Funke Mediengruppe


Męcina  is a village in the administrative district in the Malopolska province of Gmina Limanowa, within Limanowa County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, in southern Poland. It lies approximately  east of Limanowa and  south-east of the regional capital Kraków. In the years 1975–1998 the town administratively belonged to the province of Nowy Sacz.

Location
Męcina rests at the edge of the mountain called Łososińskiego. In the middle of Męcina there is a stream called Smolnik. It is a tributary of a well known river called Dunajec, at the district road Limanowa-Chełmiec.The yellow trail leads to the mountain ridge of Łososińskiego.

History
The oldest traces of human activity in this area are documented between Męcina and writers. Archaeological excavations have revealed here urnowe burial from the times of the Lusatian culture, which lands Polish lasted in the period 1300–400 BC.

The first mention of the village comes from a knight Męcina pence from 1326 and relate to the local parish.

At the end of the sixteenth century. Męcina divided into Niżna and religion, noble families ruled here Krzeszów and Marcinkowskich. In the mid-sixteenth century. Męciny heir Sebastian Krzesz fell into a dispute with the local parish priest, who soon turned into open conflict. Victorious from this battle came Krzesz, who eventually exiled priest, seized his property, poniszczył parish registers, and the place had brought two preachers Arian . In the temple instead of altars set plain wooden cross. During the Reformation the church served the local congregation ariańskiemu (brothers Polish).

It was only in 1605. Arrived at the place of a new Catholic priest that his ministry had to start from the renovation of the church, in which he helped finance the next heir of the House of Krzeszów – Stanislaw, who converted to Catholicism.

In the nineteenth century. Męcinie pastor was Father Vincent Wąsikiewicz, researcher of folk culture, the author of books and ethnographic studies. During this period Męcinie were several noble mansions and manors. In Męcinie Lower the court called "White" (today the area opposite the school) in the nineteenth century. Gostkowskich family farmed, while close Kłodnego was a mansion called "Bobrówka" (today, leaving behind 2 small spichlerzyki). In the Upper Męcinie was in the nineteenth century. Mansion called "oak" (approx. 1 km from the church, at the top of the village, on the right side of the road to the writers), which also gospodarzyła another branch of the family Gostkowskich.

After the war Męcina became famous throughout the country and beyond its borders thanks to the label hockey sticks Bronislaw Smolen .Bronislaw Smoleń initiated the construction of a school in Męcinie and many other social actions. On the wall of the school is a plaque dedicated to his person, unveiled on 1 September 1997.

Interesting and historic buildings in the village
In the center of the village on the road to Nowy Sacz is a church. St. Abate from the end of the seventeenth century, wooden, built on the framework of a tower pole construction. Inside preserved rainbow beam with a Baroque crucifix, the choir edging profiles and Baroque. At the altar, there is a stone crypt heirs Męciny and local pastors. The porch hangs a painting of St. John Cantius and St. figure. John of Nepomuk from 1740.

Built between 1984 and 2006 a new church is acting as a parish church.

Chamber memory Zdzislaw Smolen – Inspector District Podhalańsko – Carpathian Rifle Association "Sagittarius", which gathered quite a rich collection of family memorabilia, including photos, a collection orzełków military uniforms soldiers and weapons (including Russian saber, captured in the Battle of Warsaw 1920).

House of creative work and Zygmunt Jolanta Kłosowskich, local painters and sculptors.

The historic chapel from the seventeenth century in the hamlet Miczaki at which celebrated worship Catholics męcińscy at a time when the local church was converted into a church Arian.

Above Miczakami is a large sandstone quarry (recently resumed work).

In the lower part of the village, on the road to Krasne Potocki you can see ruined, two hundred years old mill . Fragments of the old mill wheel.

In the center of the village there is also a group of schools, fire station OSP, a few shops, a railway station.

Born in Męcina
 Ferdinand Piwowar and Wladyslaw Pociecha , victims of the Katyn massacre

See also
 Męcina Mała,
 Męcina Wielka

References

External links
GUS – Local Data Bank

Villages in Limanowa County

Męcina