On Paul Klee
From The Diaries of Paul Klee 1898=1918
( # refers to the entry nummer in the book )
The more horrible this world ( as today, for instance) , the more abstract our art, whereas a happy world brings forth an art of the here and now. ( entry # 951- year: 1915)
One eye sees, the other feels. ( # 937)
Works as shaping of form in the material sense : the primitive female component.
Works as form-determining sperm: the primitive male component .
My drawings belong to the male realm. (# 943)
The scene which we had already taken in from the train yesterday, was so uniquely timeless that is was a shame to intrude on it with our anachronistic early twentieth century costumes. ( # 926 n - in Tunisia)
Europe's victory over Africa, it now turned out, had been of questionable value! ( # 926 I)
The evening is indescribable. And on top of everything else a full moon came up ... the evening is deep inside me forever. Many a blond northern moon rise, like a muted refection, will softly remind me, and remind me again and again. it will be my bride, my alter ego. An incentive to find myself. I myself am the moonrise of the South. ( # 926 K)
Do not laugh reader! Children also have artistic ability and there is wisdom in their having it! The more helpless they are, the more instructive are the examples they furnish us; and they must be preserved free of corruption from an early age. Parallel phenomena are provided by the work of mentally diseased; neither childish behavior nor madness are insulting words here, as they commonly are. All this is to be taken seriously, more seriously than all the public galleries, when it comes to reforming today's art. ( # 905 - year 1912)
The realization that there exists a line that benefits from Impressionism and at the same time conquers it has a truly electrifying effect on me . " Progress possible in the line!" ( # 899- year 1910)
He was able to reach deep, very deep into his heart. [ about Van Gogh] ( # 899)
The longer my production moves in a definite direction, the less gaily it progresses. But just now something new seems to be happening to the stream: it is broadening into a lake. I hope it will not lack a corresponding depth. I was the faithful image of a part of art history; I moved toward impressionism and beyond it. I don't want to say that I grew out of it; I hope this is not so. ( # 899)
To represent light by means of light elements is old stuff. Light as color movement is somewhat newer. ( # 844)
.... each degree of tonal value , that is, corresponds to one color; in other words, one must not lighten a color by adding white to it or darken it by adding black, but there must always be one color to a degree. For the next degree, the next color. Ocher, English red, caput mortuum, dark madder, etc. ( # 870)
Limited palette: 1. white, 2. black, 3. naples yellow, 4. caput mortuum, 5. and 6. Possibly also permanent green and ultramarine. And the grays need watching! A warm grey: Naples yellow - black. Coll grey: white - black. ( # 878)
If my works sometimes produce a primitive impression, this "primitiveness" is explained by my discipline, which consists in reducing everything to a few steps . It is no more than economy: that is, the ultimate professional awareness . Which is to say, the opposite of real primitiveness. ( # 857)
Whenever a gallery-mad Munich artist or some dauber newly arrived in the city has his erotic crisis, he composes an "Adoration of Woman." You see a female nude, a waitress, a salesgirl, or the like, and kneeling in front of her, Herr Painter, also naked. ( # 849)
I am just not to be evaluated by bourgeois standards. ( # 757)
Democracy with its semi-civilization sincerely cherishes junk. The artist power should be spiritual. But the power of the majority is material. When these worlds meet occasionally, it is pure coincidence. ..... the worst state of affairs is when science begins to concern itself with art. ( #747)
I have definite feelings but have not yet transformed them into art .... So now I have to struggle again, chiefly against the inhibitions that prevent me from exploiting my original talent.... I still struggle too impetuously. ... furious surges and fits of depression alternate in a frightful way. ( # 693)
Photography was invented at the right moment as a warning against materialistic vision. ... what does nature count for? the real point is the law according to which "nature"" functions and how it is revealed to the artist. ( # 677)
Do you like nature?" I answer: "Yes, my own." (# 681)
The subject in itself is certainly dead. What counts are the impressions before the subject. The growing vogue of erotic subjects is not exclusively French, but rather a preference for subjects which are especially likely to provoke impressions.
As a result an outer form becomes extremely variable and moves along the entire scale of temperaments. According to the mobility of the index finger, one might say in this case.
The technical means of representation vary accordingly.
The school of old masters has certainly seen its day. (# 670)
Things are not quite so simple with "pure" art as is dogmatically claimed. In the final analysis, a drawing simply is no longer a drawing, no matter how self-sufficient its execution may be. It is a symbol, and the more profoundly the imaginary lines of projection meet higher dimensions, the better. In this sense I shall never be a pure artist as the dogma defines him. We higher creature are also mechanically produced children of God, and yet intellect and soul operate within us in completely different dimensions. Oscar Wilde: " All art is at once surface and symbol." ( # 660)
More and more parallels between music and graphic art force themselves upon my consciousness. ( # 640)
Individuality is not an elementary sort of thing, but an organism. Elementary things of different sorts coexist in it, inseparably. If one tried to separate them, the components would die. My self, for instance, is a dramatic ensemble. Here a prophetic ancestor makes his appearance. Here a brutal hero shouts. Here an alcoholic bon vivant argues with a learned professor. Here a lyric muse, chronically love-struck, raises her eyes to heaven. Here papa steps forward uttering pedantic protests. Here the indulgent uncle intercedes. Here the aunt bubbles gossip. Here the maid giggles lasciviously. And I look upon it all with amazement, the sharpened pen in my lefts hand. A pregnant mother wants to join the fun. "Pshtt!" I cry, "You don't belong here. You are divisible." And she fades out. ( # 638)
In ancient Rome, emetics were set on the table. Now, clothed in tails and white tie, set on chairs, they are neatly distributed among the guests. I have seen it in artistic society. ( # 637)
I personally find the monolog form more and more attractive. For, in the end we are alone on this earth. even in our love. ( #635)
One more thing can be said about " The Comedian": the mask represents the art , and behind hides man. The line of the mask are roads to the analysis of the work of art. The duality of the world of art and that of man is organic, as in one of Johann Sebastian's compositions. ....
Dissertations could be written about the significance of "ugliness" of my figures. ( # 618)
See "The Comedian" on these sites:
http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/YMMj_kKtsPI/maxresdefault.jpg
http://s263.photobucket.com/user/ailimes/media/Comedian.jpg.html
pix of 2 faces
The fragmentariness which is typical of so many Impressionist works is a consequence of their fidelity to inspiration. Where it ends, the work must stop too. And so the Impressionist actually has become more human than the sheer materialist. The notion of sober, practical craft ceases to be valid at any cost. (# 615)
War on intellect! I may say this, having gone through it. ... I must strive father , or else I shall grow poor in this clean orderliness. Or else it will turn into an idyl.
What was recorded is no longer alive. Amidst such surroundings I must not settle in the long run. Or else I shall lose myself. ( # 611)
War on intellect! I may say this, having gone through it. ... I must strive father , or else I shall grow poor in this clean orderliness. Or else it will turn into an idyl.
What was recorded is no longer alive. Amidst such surroundings I must not settle in the long run. Or else I shall lose myself. ( # 611)
" The Threatening Head" is a gloomy conclusion to this set of engravings. A thought more destructive than action. Pure negation as demon. The physiognomy for the most part resigned. ( # 610)
Now comes The Threatening Head" ;
I am almost inclined to believe that this will be
the last print in the strict style and that something
entirely new will follow. I turn my eyes toward
Spain where Goya’s grow. ( # 602)
Others have interpreted the "Comedian" long before me. Gogol, Dead Souls, I, Chapter 7. " ... that there exists a kind of laughter which is worthy to be ranked with the higher lyric emotions and is infinitely different form the twitching of a mean merrymaker."
He calls this novel " a world of visible laughter and invisible tears ...." Further on, the Russian saying: "To carry the laughing tear emblazoned on one's scutcheon" [ escutcheon] ( # 607)
I have developed a cunning practical strategy . I know exactly how to recognize all the dangers; during the years when I was still halfway childish, some few moments gave me fleeting glimpses of the hell, and that was enough.
Since then what is most intimate for me remains most sacredly locked up. By this I mean not only love - for it is easy for me to talk about this - but all the exposed positions around it, upon which the assaults of fate in one form or other have some prospect of success.
Whether this strategy may not lead to a certain impoverishment will appear in time. I did not choose it freely, it developed early in me.
Perhaps it is because my instinct as a creative artist are more important for me. Or perhaps the whole matter should not be interpreted so rationally: perhaps an ageless philosophic spirit holds sway, who overcomes this world. even if it means leading us into wilderness.
One thing is quite certain: in creative moments I have the great privilege of feeling thoroughly calm, completely naked before myself, not the self of a day but the whole sum of self, totally a working instrument. A self that is subject to quiverings and convulsions cheapens its style and steps out of the frame wearing a top hat.
One sometimes feels like saying to a "work of art" : "Good day Herr self, what kind of necktie did you put on today?"
This I stand armed , should an Opus 2 come upon me.
Should nothing new come, I shall have nothing to say anymore. As an omen, I break off relations with everything that lies behind me. ( # 605)
The "Aged Phoenix" does not represent an ideal figure; he is really 500 years old, as it can be seen, all sorts of things happened to him during that time. This cross between realism and fable is what produces the comic effect. Its expression is not without a tragic side, and the thought that this creature will soon be reduced to parthenogenesis doesn’t open my cheering perspectives. The rhythm of failure, with a 500- year periodicity, is a sublimely comical notion.( # 602)
A tendency toward the abstract is inherent in linear expression: graphic imagery being confined to outlines has a fairy-like quality and at the same time can achieve great precision.
The pictorial work was born of movement, is itself recorded movement, and is assimilated through movement (eye muscles).
Formerly we used to represent things visible on earth, things we either liked to look at or would have liked to see. Today we reveal the reality that is behind visible things, thus expressing the belief that the visible world is merely an isolated case in relation to the universe and that there are many more other, latent realities. Things appear to assume a broader and more diversified meaning, often seemingly contradicting the rational experience of yesterday. There is a striving to emphasize the essential character of the accidental.
The fragmentariness which is typical of so many Impressionist works is a consequence of their fidelity to inspiration. Where it ends, the work must stop too. And so the Impressionist actually has become more human than the sheer materialist. The notion of sober, practical craft ceases to be valid at any cost. (# 615)
War on intellect! I may say this, having gone through it. ... I must strive father , or else I shall grow poor in this clean orderliness. Or else it will turn into an idyl.
What was recorded is no longer alive. Amidst such surroundings I must not settle in the long run. Or else I shall lose myself. ( # 611)
" The Threatening Head" is a gloomy conclusion to this set of engravings. A thought more destructive than action. Pure negation as demon. The physiognomy for the most part resigned. ( # 610)
Now comes The Threatening Head" ;
I am almost inclined to believe that this will be
the last print in the strict style and that something
entirely new will follow. I turn my eyes toward
Spain where Goyas grow. ( # 602)
single face her
§Attributed from posthumous publications
Art should be like a holiday: something to give a man the opportunity to see things differently and to change his point of view.
As quoted in the film Der Bauhaus, produced by TV-Rechte in Germany (1975)
the bird here after the rhythm of failure a 500 year of ...
( after the rhythm of failure a 500 year ......
What does an artist crate? Forms and spaces! How does he crate them? In certain chosen proportions …. o satire, you plague of intellectuals! ( # 599)
This fellow will burn himself out prematurely, if he undertakes everything with the same unstrained energy. The fire that burns in him also burns with thought about . the purpose of the project.
A peculiar person with imposing gifts. But this without grace. And all intellect. I am beginning to realize that this is one-sidedness. For me, as a creative artist, it would even be a hindrance I have just enough of it.
Yes, the follow who plays the second fiddle understands many things quite well. ( # 592)
Last Saturday two Russian greyhounds violently attacked a local dog pulling a cart. The people at once sided with the one that was working for the dairy business. Now were they taking sides against the foreigners ( strange riff –raff), I asked myself or with the proletarian? This problem constantly preoccupies me. Moilliet is not real ally, foe he said : “ Let them bite each other's assess!” Moilliet is a man of the world, and becoming more so every day. (#591)
When looking at any significant work of art, remember that a more significant one has had to be sacrificed. (# 583)
....at the time a slight fear seizes me. Is a further broadening of my realm to come? ( 559)
I was somewhat constipated. What especially hindered my emancipation was my copying from nature, which I did sometimes consciously and sometimes involuntarily. ( # 556)
There are two mountains on which the weather is bright and clear, the mountain of the beasts and the mountain of the gods. But between them lies the crepuscular valley of men. If perchance one of them gazes upward, he is seized by a premonitory, unquenchable yearning, he who knows that he does not know, for those that do not know that they do not know and those who know that they know. ( # 539)
Striving toward the purification and the isolation of the masculine type in me. In spite of a readiness for marriage, to reduce oneself completely to oneself, to prepare oneself for the greatest solitude. Distaste for procreation ( ethical supersensitivity). ( # 538)
Our initial perplexity before nature is explained by our seeing at first the small outer branches and not penetrating to the main branches and or the trunk. But once this is realized, one will perceive a repetition of the whole law even in the outermost leaf and turn it to good use.
The first fruitful period is interrupted. The danger mentioned in 513 became apparent . Nature lured me onto paths which did not agree with the simple abstraction of the first successful works. These contains the germ of further works, which, for the time being, were not yet in the realm of the creative possible. Nature had already became a useful crutch which I was then forced to sue too long, I would say until the year of 1911, inclusively. The engraving that followed were executed from an accumulation of knowledge that no longer fitted the latest experiments, and therefore already contained the germ of death. After then came the loosening and the contact with the impressionistic world ( 1908- 1910) . ( # 536)
More on Klee (from the web)
To emphasize only the beautiful seems to me to be like a mathematical system that only concerns itself with positive numbers.
Nature can afford to be prodigal in everything, the artist must be frugal down to the last detail.
It is interesting to observe how real the object remains, in spite of all abstractions.
We construct and keep on constructing, yet intuition is still a good thing.
1900's
My mirror probes down to the heart. I write words on the forehead and around the corners of the mouth. My human faces are truer than the real ones.
The main thing now is not to paint precociously but to be, or at least become, an individual. The art of mastering life is the prerequisite for all further forms of expression, whether they are paintings, sculptures, tragedies, or musical compositions. (# 136)
The beautiful, which is perhaps inseparable from art, is not after all tied to the subject, but to the pictorial representation. In this way and in no other does art overcome the ugly without avoiding it.(# 583- 1904)
To emphasize only the beautiful seems to me to be like a mathematical system that only concerns itself with positive numbers.(December 1905), # 733
He has found his style, when he cannot do otherwise, i.e., cannot do something else.(March 1906), # 759,
Nature can afford to be prodigal in everything, the artist must be frugal down to the last detail.
Nature is garrulous to the point of confusion, let the artist be truly taciturn (Munich, 1908), # 825
All the things an artist must be: poet, explorer of nature, philosopher!(Munich, 1909), # 857,
§1910s
These are primitive beginnings in art, such as one usually finds in ethnographic collections or at home in one's nursery. Do not laugh, reader! Children also have artistic ability, and there is wisdom in their having it! The more helpless they are, the more instructive are the examples they furnish us; and they must be preserved from corruption at an early age. Parallel phenomena are provided by the works of the mentally diseased; neither childish behavior nor madness are insulting words here, as they commonly are. All this is to be taken very seriously, more seriously than all the public galleries, when it comes to reforming today's art.
Diary entry (January 1912), # 905, quoting his "Munich Art Letter" in the journal Die Alpen
Colour possesses me. It will always possess me. That is the meaning of this happy hour: colour and I are one. I am a painter.
Diary entry Tunisia, (16 April 1914), # 926
Polyphonic painting is superior to music in that there, the time element becomes a spatial element. The notion of simultaneity stands out even more richly.
Statement of 1917, as quoted in Abstract Art (1990) by Anna Moszynska, p. 96
We document, explain, justify, construct, organize: these are good things, but we do not succeed in coming to the whole ... But we may as well calm down: construction is not absolute. Our virtue is this: by cultivating the exact we have laid the foundations for a science of art, including the unknown X.
Statement of 1917, as quoted in Teaching at the Bauhaus (2000) by Rainer Wick and Gabriele Diana Grawe, p. 231
Everything vanishes around me, and works are born as if out of the void. Ripe, graphic fruits fall off. My hand has become the obedient instrument of a remote will. (January/February 1918), # 1104, The Diaries of Paul Klee, 1898-1918 (p. 387)
§1920s
1920s
Diesseitig bin ich gar nicht fassbar. Denn ich wohne grad so gut bei den Toten, wie bei den Ungeborenen. Etwas näher dem Herzen der Schöpfung als üblich. Und noch lange nicht nahe genug.
I cannot be grasped in the here and now. For I reside just as much with the dead as with the unborn. Somewhat closer to the heart of creation than usual. But not nearly close enough.
Exhibition catalogue, Galerie Goltz, Munich, published in the gallery's house journal Der Ararat (May 1920). These words were later used as Klee's epitaph.
As quoted in Paul Klee : His Work and Thought (1991) by Marcel Franciscono, p. 5
Color is primarily Quality. Secondly, it is also Weight, for it has not only color value but also brilliance. Thirdly, it is Measure, for besides Quality and Weight, it has its limits, its area, and its extent, all of which may be measured.
Tone value is primarily Weight, but in its extent and its boundaries, it is also Measure.
Line, however, is solely Measure.
"On Modern Art," lecture, Kunstverein, Jena (26 January 1924), trans. Paul Findlay in Paul Klee: On Modern Art (London, 1948)
It is interesting to observe how real the object remains, in spite of all abstractions.
Statement of mid-1920s, as quoted in Abstract Art (1990) by Anna Moszynska, p. 100
It is possible that a picture will move far away from Nature and yet find its way back to reality. The faculty of memory, experience at a distance produces pictorial associations.
Statement of mid-1920s, as quoted in Abstract Art (1990) by Anna Moszynska, p. 100
The longer a line, the more of the time element it contains. Distance is time whereas a surface is apprehended more in terms of the moment.
Exact Experiments in the Realm of Art (1927)
We construct and keep on constructing, yet intuition is still a good thing.
Statement of 1928, as quoted in Abstract Art (1990) by Anna Moszynska, p. 98
§Creative Credo (1920)
Creative Credo [Schöpferische Konfession] (1920)
Kunst gibt nicht das Sichtbare wieder, sondern macht sichtbar.
Art does not reproduce the visible; rather, it makes visible.
A tendency toward the abstract is inherent in linear expression: graphic imagery being confined to outlines has a fairy-like quality and at the same time can achieve great precision.
The pictorial work was born of movement, is itself recorded movement, and is assimilated through movement (eye muscles).
Formerly we used to represent things visible on earth, things we either liked to look at or would have liked to see. Today we reveal the reality that is behind visible things, thus expressing the belief that the visible world is merely an isolated case in relation to the universe and that there are many more other, latent realities. Things appear to assume a broader and more diversified meaning, often seemingly contradicting the rational experience of yesterday. There is a striving to emphasize the essential character of the accidental.
§Attributed from posthumous publications
Art should be like a holiday: something to give a man the opportunity to see things differently and to change his point of view.
As quoted in the film Der Bauhaus, produced by TV-Rechte in Germany (1975)
************
Few links on Paul Klee:
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Paul_Klee
Paul Klee for ages 3 to adult
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxOHF6GzXyI Video
http://www.biography.com/people/paul-klee-9366304
( # refers to the entry nummer in the book )
The more horrible this world ( as today, for instance) , the more abstract our art, whereas a happy world brings forth an art of the here and now. ( entry # 951- year: 1915)
One eye sees, the other feels. ( # 937)
Works as shaping of form in the material sense : the primitive female component.
Works as form-determining sperm: the primitive male component .
My drawings belong to the male realm. (# 943)
The scene which we had already taken in from the train yesterday, was so uniquely timeless that is was a shame to intrude on it with our anachronistic early twentieth century costumes. ( # 926 n - in Tunisia)
Europe's victory over Africa, it now turned out, had been of questionable value! ( # 926 I)
The evening is indescribable. And on top of everything else a full moon came up ... the evening is deep inside me forever. Many a blond northern moon rise, like a muted refection, will softly remind me, and remind me again and again. it will be my bride, my alter ego. An incentive to find myself. I myself am the moonrise of the South. ( # 926 K)
Do not laugh reader! Children also have artistic ability and there is wisdom in their having it! The more helpless they are, the more instructive are the examples they furnish us; and they must be preserved free of corruption from an early age. Parallel phenomena are provided by the work of mentally diseased; neither childish behavior nor madness are insulting words here, as they commonly are. All this is to be taken seriously, more seriously than all the public galleries, when it comes to reforming today's art. ( # 905 - year 1912)
The realization that there exists a line that benefits from Impressionism and at the same time conquers it has a truly electrifying effect on me . " Progress possible in the line!" ( # 899- year 1910)
He was able to reach deep, very deep into his heart. [ about Van Gogh] ( # 899)
The longer my production moves in a definite direction, the less gaily it progresses. But just now something new seems to be happening to the stream: it is broadening into a lake. I hope it will not lack a corresponding depth. I was the faithful image of a part of art history; I moved toward impressionism and beyond it. I don't want to say that I grew out of it; I hope this is not so. ( # 899)
To represent light by means of light elements is old stuff. Light as color movement is somewhat newer. ( # 844)
.... each degree of tonal value , that is, corresponds to one color; in other words, one must not lighten a color by adding white to it or darken it by adding black, but there must always be one color to a degree. For the next degree, the next color. Ocher, English red, caput mortuum, dark madder, etc. ( # 870)
Limited palette: 1. white, 2. black, 3. naples yellow, 4. caput mortuum, 5. and 6. Possibly also permanent green and ultramarine. And the grays need watching! A warm grey: Naples yellow - black. Coll grey: white - black. ( # 878)
If my works sometimes produce a primitive impression, this "primitiveness" is explained by my discipline, which consists in reducing everything to a few steps . It is no more than economy: that is, the ultimate professional awareness . Which is to say, the opposite of real primitiveness. ( # 857)
Whenever a gallery-mad Munich artist or some dauber newly arrived in the city has his erotic crisis, he composes an "Adoration of Woman." You see a female nude, a waitress, a salesgirl, or the like, and kneeling in front of her, Herr Painter, also naked. ( # 849)
I am just not to be evaluated by bourgeois standards. ( # 757)
Democracy with its semi-civilization sincerely cherishes junk. The artist power should be spiritual. But the power of the majority is material. When these worlds meet occasionally, it is pure coincidence. ..... the worst state of affairs is when science begins to concern itself with art. ( #747)
I have definite feelings but have not yet transformed them into art .... So now I have to struggle again, chiefly against the inhibitions that prevent me from exploiting my original talent.... I still struggle too impetuously. ... furious surges and fits of depression alternate in a frightful way. ( # 693)
Photography was invented at the right moment as a warning against materialistic vision. ... what does nature count for? the real point is the law according to which "nature"" functions and how it is revealed to the artist. ( # 677)
Do you like nature?" I answer: "Yes, my own." (# 681)
The subject in itself is certainly dead. What counts are the impressions before the subject. The growing vogue of erotic subjects is not exclusively French, but rather a preference for subjects which are especially likely to provoke impressions.
As a result an outer form becomes extremely variable and moves along the entire scale of temperaments. According to the mobility of the index finger, one might say in this case.
The technical means of representation vary accordingly.
The school of old masters has certainly seen its day. (# 670)
Things are not quite so simple with "pure" art as is dogmatically claimed. In the final analysis, a drawing simply is no longer a drawing, no matter how self-sufficient its execution may be. It is a symbol, and the more profoundly the imaginary lines of projection meet higher dimensions, the better. In this sense I shall never be a pure artist as the dogma defines him. We higher creature are also mechanically produced children of God, and yet intellect and soul operate within us in completely different dimensions. Oscar Wilde: " All art is at once surface and symbol." ( # 660)
More and more parallels between music and graphic art force themselves upon my consciousness. ( # 640)
Individuality is not an elementary sort of thing, but an organism. Elementary things of different sorts coexist in it, inseparably. If one tried to separate them, the components would die. My self, for instance, is a dramatic ensemble. Here a prophetic ancestor makes his appearance. Here a brutal hero shouts. Here an alcoholic bon vivant argues with a learned professor. Here a lyric muse, chronically love-struck, raises her eyes to heaven. Here papa steps forward uttering pedantic protests. Here the indulgent uncle intercedes. Here the aunt bubbles gossip. Here the maid giggles lasciviously. And I look upon it all with amazement, the sharpened pen in my lefts hand. A pregnant mother wants to join the fun. "Pshtt!" I cry, "You don't belong here. You are divisible." And she fades out. ( # 638)
In ancient Rome, emetics were set on the table. Now, clothed in tails and white tie, set on chairs, they are neatly distributed among the guests. I have seen it in artistic society. ( # 637)
I personally find the monolog form more and more attractive. For, in the end we are alone on this earth. even in our love. ( #635)
One more thing can be said about " The Comedian": the mask represents the art , and behind hides man. The line of the mask are roads to the analysis of the work of art. The duality of the world of art and that of man is organic, as in one of Johann Sebastian's compositions. ....
Dissertations could be written about the significance of "ugliness" of my figures. ( # 618)
See "The Comedian" on these sites:
http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/YMMj_kKtsPI/maxresdefault.jpg
http://s263.photobucket.com/user/ailimes/media/Comedian.jpg.html
pix of 2 faces
The fragmentariness which is typical of so many Impressionist works is a consequence of their fidelity to inspiration. Where it ends, the work must stop too. And so the Impressionist actually has become more human than the sheer materialist. The notion of sober, practical craft ceases to be valid at any cost. (# 615)
War on intellect! I may say this, having gone through it. ... I must strive father , or else I shall grow poor in this clean orderliness. Or else it will turn into an idyl.
What was recorded is no longer alive. Amidst such surroundings I must not settle in the long run. Or else I shall lose myself. ( # 611)
War on intellect! I may say this, having gone through it. ... I must strive father , or else I shall grow poor in this clean orderliness. Or else it will turn into an idyl.
What was recorded is no longer alive. Amidst such surroundings I must not settle in the long run. Or else I shall lose myself. ( # 611)
" The Threatening Head" is a gloomy conclusion to this set of engravings. A thought more destructive than action. Pure negation as demon. The physiognomy for the most part resigned. ( # 610)
Now comes The Threatening Head" ;
I am almost inclined to believe that this will be
the last print in the strict style and that something
entirely new will follow. I turn my eyes toward
Spain where Goya’s grow. ( # 602)
Others have interpreted the "Comedian" long before me. Gogol, Dead Souls, I, Chapter 7. " ... that there exists a kind of laughter which is worthy to be ranked with the higher lyric emotions and is infinitely different form the twitching of a mean merrymaker."
He calls this novel " a world of visible laughter and invisible tears ...." Further on, the Russian saying: "To carry the laughing tear emblazoned on one's scutcheon" [ escutcheon] ( # 607)
I have developed a cunning practical strategy . I know exactly how to recognize all the dangers; during the years when I was still halfway childish, some few moments gave me fleeting glimpses of the hell, and that was enough.
Since then what is most intimate for me remains most sacredly locked up. By this I mean not only love - for it is easy for me to talk about this - but all the exposed positions around it, upon which the assaults of fate in one form or other have some prospect of success.
Whether this strategy may not lead to a certain impoverishment will appear in time. I did not choose it freely, it developed early in me.
Perhaps it is because my instinct as a creative artist are more important for me. Or perhaps the whole matter should not be interpreted so rationally: perhaps an ageless philosophic spirit holds sway, who overcomes this world. even if it means leading us into wilderness.
One thing is quite certain: in creative moments I have the great privilege of feeling thoroughly calm, completely naked before myself, not the self of a day but the whole sum of self, totally a working instrument. A self that is subject to quiverings and convulsions cheapens its style and steps out of the frame wearing a top hat.
One sometimes feels like saying to a "work of art" : "Good day Herr self, what kind of necktie did you put on today?"
This I stand armed , should an Opus 2 come upon me.
Should nothing new come, I shall have nothing to say anymore. As an omen, I break off relations with everything that lies behind me. ( # 605)
The "Aged Phoenix" does not represent an ideal figure; he is really 500 years old, as it can be seen, all sorts of things happened to him during that time. This cross between realism and fable is what produces the comic effect. Its expression is not without a tragic side, and the thought that this creature will soon be reduced to parthenogenesis doesn’t open my cheering perspectives. The rhythm of failure, with a 500- year periodicity, is a sublimely comical notion.( # 602)
A tendency toward the abstract is inherent in linear expression: graphic imagery being confined to outlines has a fairy-like quality and at the same time can achieve great precision.
The pictorial work was born of movement, is itself recorded movement, and is assimilated through movement (eye muscles).
Formerly we used to represent things visible on earth, things we either liked to look at or would have liked to see. Today we reveal the reality that is behind visible things, thus expressing the belief that the visible world is merely an isolated case in relation to the universe and that there are many more other, latent realities. Things appear to assume a broader and more diversified meaning, often seemingly contradicting the rational experience of yesterday. There is a striving to emphasize the essential character of the accidental.
The fragmentariness which is typical of so many Impressionist works is a consequence of their fidelity to inspiration. Where it ends, the work must stop too. And so the Impressionist actually has become more human than the sheer materialist. The notion of sober, practical craft ceases to be valid at any cost. (# 615)
War on intellect! I may say this, having gone through it. ... I must strive father , or else I shall grow poor in this clean orderliness. Or else it will turn into an idyl.
What was recorded is no longer alive. Amidst such surroundings I must not settle in the long run. Or else I shall lose myself. ( # 611)
" The Threatening Head" is a gloomy conclusion to this set of engravings. A thought more destructive than action. Pure negation as demon. The physiognomy for the most part resigned. ( # 610)
Now comes The Threatening Head" ;
I am almost inclined to believe that this will be
the last print in the strict style and that something
entirely new will follow. I turn my eyes toward
Spain where Goyas grow. ( # 602)
single face her
§Attributed from posthumous publications
Art should be like a holiday: something to give a man the opportunity to see things differently and to change his point of view.
As quoted in the film Der Bauhaus, produced by TV-Rechte in Germany (1975)
the bird here after the rhythm of failure a 500 year of ...
( after the rhythm of failure a 500 year ......
What does an artist crate? Forms and spaces! How does he crate them? In certain chosen proportions …. o satire, you plague of intellectuals! ( # 599)
This fellow will burn himself out prematurely, if he undertakes everything with the same unstrained energy. The fire that burns in him also burns with thought about . the purpose of the project.
A peculiar person with imposing gifts. But this without grace. And all intellect. I am beginning to realize that this is one-sidedness. For me, as a creative artist, it would even be a hindrance I have just enough of it.
Yes, the follow who plays the second fiddle understands many things quite well. ( # 592)
Last Saturday two Russian greyhounds violently attacked a local dog pulling a cart. The people at once sided with the one that was working for the dairy business. Now were they taking sides against the foreigners ( strange riff –raff), I asked myself or with the proletarian? This problem constantly preoccupies me. Moilliet is not real ally, foe he said : “ Let them bite each other's assess!” Moilliet is a man of the world, and becoming more so every day. (#591)
When looking at any significant work of art, remember that a more significant one has had to be sacrificed. (# 583)
....at the time a slight fear seizes me. Is a further broadening of my realm to come? ( 559)
I was somewhat constipated. What especially hindered my emancipation was my copying from nature, which I did sometimes consciously and sometimes involuntarily. ( # 556)
There are two mountains on which the weather is bright and clear, the mountain of the beasts and the mountain of the gods. But between them lies the crepuscular valley of men. If perchance one of them gazes upward, he is seized by a premonitory, unquenchable yearning, he who knows that he does not know, for those that do not know that they do not know and those who know that they know. ( # 539)
Striving toward the purification and the isolation of the masculine type in me. In spite of a readiness for marriage, to reduce oneself completely to oneself, to prepare oneself for the greatest solitude. Distaste for procreation ( ethical supersensitivity). ( # 538)
Our initial perplexity before nature is explained by our seeing at first the small outer branches and not penetrating to the main branches and or the trunk. But once this is realized, one will perceive a repetition of the whole law even in the outermost leaf and turn it to good use.
The first fruitful period is interrupted. The danger mentioned in 513 became apparent . Nature lured me onto paths which did not agree with the simple abstraction of the first successful works. These contains the germ of further works, which, for the time being, were not yet in the realm of the creative possible. Nature had already became a useful crutch which I was then forced to sue too long, I would say until the year of 1911, inclusively. The engraving that followed were executed from an accumulation of knowledge that no longer fitted the latest experiments, and therefore already contained the germ of death. After then came the loosening and the contact with the impressionistic world ( 1908- 1910) . ( # 536)
More on Klee (from the web)
To emphasize only the beautiful seems to me to be like a mathematical system that only concerns itself with positive numbers.
Nature can afford to be prodigal in everything, the artist must be frugal down to the last detail.
It is interesting to observe how real the object remains, in spite of all abstractions.
We construct and keep on constructing, yet intuition is still a good thing.
1900's
My mirror probes down to the heart. I write words on the forehead and around the corners of the mouth. My human faces are truer than the real ones.
The main thing now is not to paint precociously but to be, or at least become, an individual. The art of mastering life is the prerequisite for all further forms of expression, whether they are paintings, sculptures, tragedies, or musical compositions. (# 136)
The beautiful, which is perhaps inseparable from art, is not after all tied to the subject, but to the pictorial representation. In this way and in no other does art overcome the ugly without avoiding it.(# 583- 1904)
To emphasize only the beautiful seems to me to be like a mathematical system that only concerns itself with positive numbers.(December 1905), # 733
He has found his style, when he cannot do otherwise, i.e., cannot do something else.(March 1906), # 759,
Nature can afford to be prodigal in everything, the artist must be frugal down to the last detail.
Nature is garrulous to the point of confusion, let the artist be truly taciturn (Munich, 1908), # 825
All the things an artist must be: poet, explorer of nature, philosopher!(Munich, 1909), # 857,
§1910s
These are primitive beginnings in art, such as one usually finds in ethnographic collections or at home in one's nursery. Do not laugh, reader! Children also have artistic ability, and there is wisdom in their having it! The more helpless they are, the more instructive are the examples they furnish us; and they must be preserved from corruption at an early age. Parallel phenomena are provided by the works of the mentally diseased; neither childish behavior nor madness are insulting words here, as they commonly are. All this is to be taken very seriously, more seriously than all the public galleries, when it comes to reforming today's art.
Diary entry (January 1912), # 905, quoting his "Munich Art Letter" in the journal Die Alpen
Colour possesses me. It will always possess me. That is the meaning of this happy hour: colour and I are one. I am a painter.
Diary entry Tunisia, (16 April 1914), # 926
Polyphonic painting is superior to music in that there, the time element becomes a spatial element. The notion of simultaneity stands out even more richly.
Statement of 1917, as quoted in Abstract Art (1990) by Anna Moszynska, p. 96
We document, explain, justify, construct, organize: these are good things, but we do not succeed in coming to the whole ... But we may as well calm down: construction is not absolute. Our virtue is this: by cultivating the exact we have laid the foundations for a science of art, including the unknown X.
Statement of 1917, as quoted in Teaching at the Bauhaus (2000) by Rainer Wick and Gabriele Diana Grawe, p. 231
Everything vanishes around me, and works are born as if out of the void. Ripe, graphic fruits fall off. My hand has become the obedient instrument of a remote will. (January/February 1918), # 1104, The Diaries of Paul Klee, 1898-1918 (p. 387)
§1920s
1920s
Diesseitig bin ich gar nicht fassbar. Denn ich wohne grad so gut bei den Toten, wie bei den Ungeborenen. Etwas näher dem Herzen der Schöpfung als üblich. Und noch lange nicht nahe genug.
I cannot be grasped in the here and now. For I reside just as much with the dead as with the unborn. Somewhat closer to the heart of creation than usual. But not nearly close enough.
Exhibition catalogue, Galerie Goltz, Munich, published in the gallery's house journal Der Ararat (May 1920). These words were later used as Klee's epitaph.
As quoted in Paul Klee : His Work and Thought (1991) by Marcel Franciscono, p. 5
Color is primarily Quality. Secondly, it is also Weight, for it has not only color value but also brilliance. Thirdly, it is Measure, for besides Quality and Weight, it has its limits, its area, and its extent, all of which may be measured.
Tone value is primarily Weight, but in its extent and its boundaries, it is also Measure.
Line, however, is solely Measure.
"On Modern Art," lecture, Kunstverein, Jena (26 January 1924), trans. Paul Findlay in Paul Klee: On Modern Art (London, 1948)
It is interesting to observe how real the object remains, in spite of all abstractions.
Statement of mid-1920s, as quoted in Abstract Art (1990) by Anna Moszynska, p. 100
It is possible that a picture will move far away from Nature and yet find its way back to reality. The faculty of memory, experience at a distance produces pictorial associations.
Statement of mid-1920s, as quoted in Abstract Art (1990) by Anna Moszynska, p. 100
The longer a line, the more of the time element it contains. Distance is time whereas a surface is apprehended more in terms of the moment.
Exact Experiments in the Realm of Art (1927)
We construct and keep on constructing, yet intuition is still a good thing.
Statement of 1928, as quoted in Abstract Art (1990) by Anna Moszynska, p. 98
§Creative Credo (1920)
Creative Credo [Schöpferische Konfession] (1920)
Kunst gibt nicht das Sichtbare wieder, sondern macht sichtbar.
Art does not reproduce the visible; rather, it makes visible.
A tendency toward the abstract is inherent in linear expression: graphic imagery being confined to outlines has a fairy-like quality and at the same time can achieve great precision.
The pictorial work was born of movement, is itself recorded movement, and is assimilated through movement (eye muscles).
Formerly we used to represent things visible on earth, things we either liked to look at or would have liked to see. Today we reveal the reality that is behind visible things, thus expressing the belief that the visible world is merely an isolated case in relation to the universe and that there are many more other, latent realities. Things appear to assume a broader and more diversified meaning, often seemingly contradicting the rational experience of yesterday. There is a striving to emphasize the essential character of the accidental.
§Attributed from posthumous publications
Art should be like a holiday: something to give a man the opportunity to see things differently and to change his point of view.
As quoted in the film Der Bauhaus, produced by TV-Rechte in Germany (1975)
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Few links on Paul Klee:
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Paul_Klee
Paul Klee for ages 3 to adult
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxOHF6GzXyI Video
http://www.biography.com/people/paul-klee-9366304
