Style Imitating Art: Castle and Sun by Paul Klee

About Style Imitating Art

Style Imitating Art is hosted by Salazar of 14 Shades of Grey, Terri of MeadowTree Style, and Shelbee of Shelbee on the Edge. Style Imitating Art challenges us to draw style inspiration from pieces of art. Every other Monday, one of the hosts, acting as curator, selects an inspiration image that they will each post on their blogs. The following Monday, each host shares her art inspired outfit. Participants are invited to submit their art inspired outfits to the curator by 10:00 p.m. EST on the Tuesday following the hosts’ art inspired outfit posts. The following day, Wednesday, the curator will share all of the submissions on her blog.

You don’t have to be a blogger to join! You are invited to share your images on Instagram or other social media platforms. Just be sure to tag Salazar, Terri, and Shelbee or use #TeamLOTSStyle and #StyleImitatingArt so the hosts know you have joined. Go have some fun in your closets and join the SIA challenge next week!

The Inspiration Artwork

The inspiration artwork was chosen by Salazar. You can read why she picked this work here.

Castle and Sun by Paul Klee (Oil on Canvas, 1928)

About the Artist: Paul Klee

Paul Klee was a Swiss born German artist who was brought to life on December 18, 1879, in Münchenbuchsee, Switzerland, the second child of German music teacher Hans Wilhelm Klee and Swiss singer Ida Marie (Frick) Klee. He had an older sister Mathilde, born on January 28, 1876. Klee’s parents met at the State University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart, a professional school for musicians and other performing artists in Stuttgart, Germany. Encouraged and inspired by his musical parents, Klee was able to develop his own musical skills from an early age. Klee began taking violin lessons at the age of 7 at the Municipal Music School. At the age of 11, he was considered such a talented violinist that he received an invitation to be an extraordinary member of the Bern Music Association.

During his early years of childhood, Klee remained focused on music as it was fulfilling his parents’ wishes. By his teen years, however, he entered a rebellious phase and thought modern music lacked meaning, which transitioned his focus from music to the visual arts. He felt that the visual arts provided him with the freedom to explore radical ideas and styles which music was not affording him. By the age of 16, Klee’s landscape drawings were illustrating considerable skill.

In his later teen years, around 1897, Klee began writing his diary which he continued until 1918. These journals have provided art and history scholars with valuable insight into the philosophies and life of Paul Klee.

Klee barely passed his final exams at the “Gymnasium” of Bern where he qualified with a degree in the Humanities. In 1898, with reluctant permission from his parents, Klee enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. While he excelled at drawing during this time, he seemed to lack any natural color sense, which led him to believe that he would probably never learn to paint. During this time in his late teens and early 20s, Klee spent much time in pubs and engaged in illicit affairs with artists’ models and other pub dwelling women. As a result of one affair, Klee had a son in 1900 who died a few weeks after birth.

After receiving his Fine Arts degree in 1901, Klee traveled to Italy with a friend to study the master painters of the past. While he still struggled with color, by 1905 Klee was developing experimental techniques like drawing with a needle on a blackened pane of glass as well as zinc plate etchings. In 1906, Klee was still dividing his focus between music and art. He played violin in an orchestra and also wrote theater and concert reviews.

In 1906, Klee married Bavarian pianist Lily Stumpf. They had one son, Felix Paul, who was born the following year. They kept their residence in a Munich suburb where Lily taught piano lessons and occasionally gave performances. Klee was the primary housekeeper as he also tended to his artwork which continued to progress slowly over the next five years. After a failed attempt at magazine illustrations, he finally had his first solo art exhibition in 1910 which traveled to three Swiss cities.

In 1914, as Klee was experiencing some artistic breakthroughs as well as some commercial success, World War I began. At first he was detached from any concerns of the war, but in 1916 he joined the reserve forces of Prussia (Imperial Germany) after being greatly affected by the deaths of two friends who were lost in battle in he previous year. He continued painting during the war, even managing several exhibitions.

After the war, Klee was denied a teaching position at the Academy of Art in Stuttgart in 1919 but secured a three year contract with an influential art gallery. He taught at the Bauhaus from 1921-1931, was a member of Die Blaue Vie from its inception in 1923, and taught at the Düsseldorf Academy from 1931 to 1933 where he was targeted by a Nazi newspaper.

In 1933, Klee was at the peak of his creative output, producing nearly 500 works in that year alone, when he began experiencing symptoms of scleroderma, which would not be diagnosed until after his death. The progression of this fatal disease which made swallowing difficult can be traced through Klee’s works over the next several years. His artistic output decreased steadily until he was encouraged by a visit from Pablo Picasso. In 1939, he focused on simpler and larger designs which allowed him to increase his output, creating nearly 1,200 works that year. Back in Germany however, 102 of his works in public collections were seized by the Nazis in 1937.

During the final months of his life, Klee created 50 drawings of angels. He died in Muralto, Locarno, Switzerland, on June 29, 1940, without ever having obtained Swiss citizenship despite his birth in that country. Swiss authorities considered his art work too revolutionary, and even degenerate, to grant him Swiss citizenship. However, they did accept his request for citizenship six days after his death. His legacy comprised of approximately 9,000 works of art. He is buried at Schosshaldenfriedhof, Bern, Switzerland.

About the Art: Castle and Sun

Castle and Sun is a 1928 oil on canvas painting in the Expressionist style created during Klee’s Bauhaus period. He created the image of a castle using different geometric shapes and various shades of color with the lone circular sun shining above to create the background sky. He mixes cubism against a dichotomy of abstract and reality by deconstructing the forms to create more interesting figures. He combines rich, deep colors against a dark clay colored background allowing the image to break apart and come back together with new interest for the viewer’s eye. For an artist who seemingly struggled with color sense, Castle and Sun is evidence that he eventually found his color sense in this stunning representation of expressionist art.

The canvas measures 50 x 59 cm (19.7 x 23.2 in) and is currently maintained in a private collection.

References/Resources:

• Paul Klee: Wikipedia
• Castle and Sun: WikiArt
• Castle and Sun: Totally History
• Castle and Sun: Paul Klee
• Vertical Geometries | The City in Art

About My Outfit Inspired by Castle and Sun

I am generally not drawn to geometric prints on clothing so I knew that I didn’t have much to work with for this challenge. With one glance around my newly cleaned and organized closet room, however, my favorite kimono ever jumped out as my outfit salvation. I have worn this kimono countless times on the blog but I am always ready for a new reason to style it. The geometric print and the colors in my kimono seemed perfect to represent the cubist style of the painting while also reflecting a very close color palette match.

Here are a few of the other ways I have styled this kimono…

• How to Style a Kimono for Winter (Part 1)
• Style Imitating Art: Simultaneous Dresses (Three Women, Forms, Colours) by Sonia Delaunay
• Inspired by SpyGirl: All the Prints
• My Bluegrass Summer

In fact, the only color in the painting that does not appear in my kimono is blue so I brought in little blue bits with my necklace (which is another made-by-Michelle original), my belt, and my shoes. I really had my heart set on these blue sandals but despite my cleaned and organized closet room, I couldn’t find them anywhere. I hate when my shoes mysteriously disappear!

I wore an olive green sundress because I liked how well it pairs with this kimono and I have never styled these two pieces together before. I wore my new glass yellow heart earrings that the boys brought back for me a few weeks ago from their trip to the Coudersport Ice Mine. And I completed my outfit with my straw cloche hat, hoping that it would appropriately represent the sun in the painting. And if it doesn’t, at least it protects me from intense sun exposure!

Overall, I was really pleased with this outfit and would definitely wear it again. Have you tried to create an outfit inspired by art yet? It really does help you to view the pieces in your wardrobe in entirely new and creatively fun ways.

Be sure to check out Salazar’s interpretation of the painting as well as Terri’s take on it. If you would like to participate in this challenge and have your photo included in Salazar’s round up post on Wednesday, August 10, 2022, be sure to email your photos to her by Tuesday, August 9, 2022, by 10:00 p.m. EST. I can’t wait to see what you all style for this one! 

Keeping it on the edge,

Shelbee

Linking up with these Fabulous Link Parties.

Outfit Details: Dress and Belt-Torrid / Kimono-Rosegal / Shoes and Hat-Target / Necklace-Gift from Michelle of My Bijou Life / Earrings-Gift from my kids