Visitors to the Met Breuer’s new show, Humour and Fantasy: the Berggruen Paul Klee Collection (until 31 December) can read an interview with the artist’s son Felix, which has been reprinted for the New York show. Felix recalls his father’s narrow escape from being sent to the front to serve in the Kaiser’s army during the First World War. His mother pulled strings and the artist-conscript ended up in a flying school near Augsburg becoming indispensable to a paymaster who couldn’t count. When an aspiring Red Baron crashed during training, “my father, armed with scissors, would rush to the field and cut off pieces of linen with which the planes were covered,” Felix Klee recalled. His father painted on the linen whenever he had a moment, hiding his works in his desk, bringing to light how one of the 20th century's most influential artists began his creative career.
