DOI issue:
Barr, Alfred H.: Paul Klee
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62262#0209
live in a world of the mind
far removed from circumstantial
reality. Klee’s work sometimes
suggests the painting and orna-
ment of primitive peoples, espe-
cially palaeolithic bone carvings,
Eskimo drawings and Bushman
paintings, the pictographs of the
American Indian. Drawings ma-
de subconsciously or absentmin-
dedly or while under hypnosis
occasionally suggest Klee’s de-
vices. In fact Klee has himself
at times made “automatic” dra-
wings with some succes. The
child, the primitive man, the
lunatic, the subconscious mind,
all these artistic sources (so
recently appreciated by civil-
ized taste) offer valuable com-
mentary upon Klee’s method.
But there are in Klee’s work qualities other than the naive, the artless, and the spontaneous. Frequently
the caricaturist which he might have been emerges in drawings which smile slyly at human pretentiousness.
Der goldene Fisch, Berlin, Nationalgalerie
Often he seduces the interest by the sheer intricacy and ingenuity of his inventions. At times he charms
by his gaiety or makes the flesh creep by creating a spectre fresh from a nightmare.
Of course he has been accused of being a “literary’’ painter. For the person who still insists upon
regarding painting as decorative, or surface texture, or merely formal composition the accusation is just.
But Klee defies the purist and insists do de Chirico and Picasso upon the right of the painter to excite
the imagination and to consider dreams as well as still life material for their art.
Nothing is so astonishing to the student of Klee as his infinitive variety. But variety is naturally to be
expected of one whose forms and compositions are born of the mind.
Vorwort zur Klee-Ausstellung
ım
Museum of Modern Art New York
März 1930
209
14
far removed from circumstantial
reality. Klee’s work sometimes
suggests the painting and orna-
ment of primitive peoples, espe-
cially palaeolithic bone carvings,
Eskimo drawings and Bushman
paintings, the pictographs of the
American Indian. Drawings ma-
de subconsciously or absentmin-
dedly or while under hypnosis
occasionally suggest Klee’s de-
vices. In fact Klee has himself
at times made “automatic” dra-
wings with some succes. The
child, the primitive man, the
lunatic, the subconscious mind,
all these artistic sources (so
recently appreciated by civil-
ized taste) offer valuable com-
mentary upon Klee’s method.
But there are in Klee’s work qualities other than the naive, the artless, and the spontaneous. Frequently
the caricaturist which he might have been emerges in drawings which smile slyly at human pretentiousness.
Der goldene Fisch, Berlin, Nationalgalerie
Often he seduces the interest by the sheer intricacy and ingenuity of his inventions. At times he charms
by his gaiety or makes the flesh creep by creating a spectre fresh from a nightmare.
Of course he has been accused of being a “literary’’ painter. For the person who still insists upon
regarding painting as decorative, or surface texture, or merely formal composition the accusation is just.
But Klee defies the purist and insists do de Chirico and Picasso upon the right of the painter to excite
the imagination and to consider dreams as well as still life material for their art.
Nothing is so astonishing to the student of Klee as his infinitive variety. But variety is naturally to be
expected of one whose forms and compositions are born of the mind.
Vorwort zur Klee-Ausstellung
ım
Museum of Modern Art New York
März 1930
209
14