Paul Klee is hard to classify. His works are instantly recognizable and belong in a category of their own. They are abstract, expressionist, Bauhaus, cubist, surrealist but when trying to describe his work one ends up grasping for something more. His work does not fit into any box of art history but rather it seems to be a natural extension of himself.

When stumbling upon his works in museums, the word childlike is sure to appear on many lips. This quality is quite whimsical, romantic and even a bit humorous. It makes it hard to not instantly love Klee.

In his early years, Klee struggled with art-school. Color was the hurdle. He seemed to lack a natural sense of using color, but he continued with art. Klee was also a gifted musician but felt that he had something to add to abstract art not music. It was this element of avant garde in art that excited him, he did not sense this in music.

It was when Klee met famed artist, Kandinsky that he began to open up to the possibilities with color. This turning point reach it's clarity when he quipped “Color has taken possession of me; no longer do I have to chase after it, I know that it has hold of me forever. That is the significance of this blessed moment. Color and I are one. I am a painter.”

Artemisia

Starring: Valentina Cervi, Michel Serrault

Release: 1997

Artemisia (1997) follows the early career of Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi, often credited as the first genuinely successful Western female painter. At a time when women were reliant on their male relatives for everything, Gentileschi supported herself, her husband, and their children with her often large original oil paintings. The film ends before any of this occurred, when Gentileschi was a teenager under the tutelage of her father Orazio and the painter Agostino Tassi. In particular, the film focuses on her physical relationship with Tassi, a relationship that would lead to jail time for him.

The film represents their relationship as passionate and intellectual. Their physical and artistic relationships are intertwined – they are shown lying in bed together animatedly debating sketches for her oil painted pictures. When Orazio discovers the affair, the film says, he put Tassi on trial for rape, despite Artemisia’s protestations. In reality, while the facts surrounding the relationship and trial are controversial, this doesn’t seem to have been a grand sweeping love affair.