In Pictures: Zentrum Paul Klee

1 of 8 A new centre opens in Bern, Switzerland, on Monday to celebrate the life and work of modern artist Paul Klee.

2 of 8 The Zentrum Paul Klee celebrates the work of a key figure in the movement from impressionism to abstract art, who was born in 1879.

3 of 8 Klee's rich, colour-soaked canvases were considered a model by American abstract artists like Jackson Pollock.

4 of 8 Klee described himself as "intangible". He expanded the vocabulary of painting by using line, colour, and texture in powerful juxtapositions.

5 of 8 Although he was born and died in Switzerland, Klee was actually German and spent his formative years in Germany.

6 of 8 The Zentrum Paul Klee houses more than 4,000 of Klee's 10,000 works, making it one of the largest collections of pieces by a single artist worldwide.

7 of 8 The centre was designed by architect Renzo Piano, who helped create Osaka's Kansai airport and the Pompidou Centre in Paris.

8 of 8 Paul Klee at work in his Bern studio in 1939. He went into exile in Switzerland after he was included in a Nazi ban on "degenerate" artists. He died in 1940.