Paul Klee

Reinaldo Laddaga | 4Columns | 5th January 2026

The Nazi’s pursued Klee as a “degenerate” artist. Sacked from the Bauhaus, he went into exile where his art changed. His “wiry, scratchy black line” drawings, previously so often focused on idealised nature, turned to irony and satire as ways to confront fascism and political violence. This interpretation isn’t explicit in his work leading to complaints of “curatorial over-reach”. However, such criticism seems to deny the obvious that, disenfranchised by the Nazi’s, Klee would respond through his art.