Paul Klee quotes - page 5

Paul Klee was a Swiss-born painter and graphic artist associated with Expressionism, Cubism, and Surrealism. His work is characterized by inventive use of color, abstract forms, and playful imagination. He influenced generations of artists through his teaching at the Bauhaus and his remarkable artistic legacy. Here are 115 of his quotes:

Graphic work as the expressive movement of the hand holding the recording pencil.. ..is so fundamentally different from dealing with tone and color that one can use this technique quite well in the dark, even in the blackest night. On the other hand, tone (movement from light to dark) presupposes some light, and color presupposes a great deal of light. (Paul Klee)
I am armed, I am not here, / I am in the depths, am far away ... / I am far away ... / I glow amidst dead. View quote
Paul Klee
[commenting French Cubist art] ..Trees are violated, humans become incapable of life; there is a coercion that leads to the un-recognazibility of the object, to a picture-puzzle. For here what counts is not a profane law, but a law of art. View quote
Paul Klee
The harbor and city.. ..were behind us [Klee's first glimpse of Tunis], slightly hidden. First, we passed down a long canal. On shore, very close, our first Arabs. The sun has a dark power. The colorful clarity on shore full of promise. Macke too feels it. We both know that we shall work well here. View quote
Paul Klee
Tunis. My head is full of the impressions of last night's walk. Art-Nature-Self. Went to work at once and painted in watercolour in the Arab quarter. Began the synthesis of urban architecture and pictorial architecture. Not yet pure, but quite attractive, somewhat too much of the mood, the enthusiasm of traveling in it-the Self, in a word. Things will no doubt get more objective later, once the intoxication has worn off a bit. View quote
Paul Klee
Simple motion strikes us as banal. The time element must be eliminated. Yesterday and tomorrow as simultaneous. In music, polyphony helped to some extent to satisfy this need. A quintet as in 'Don Giovanni' is closer to us than the epic motion in 'Tristan [und Isolde]'. Mozart and Bach are more modern than the [music of the] nineteenth century. View quote
Paul Klee
..I thought I had come into the clear in art when for the first time I was able to apply an abstract style to nature. View quote
Paul Klee
I can dimly recollect Kandinsky and Weisgerber, who were fellow students of mine.. .Kandinsky was quiet and mixed the colours on his palette with the greatest diligence and, so it seemed to me, with a kind of studiousness, peering very closely at what he was doing. View quote
Paul Klee
Art does not reproduce the visible; rather, it makes visible. View quote
Paul Klee
In art, too, there is room enough for exact research.. .What was accomplished in music before the end of the eighteenth century has hardly been begun in the pictorial field. View quote
Paul Klee
We [at the Bauhaus, in Dessau - where Klee was art teacher with Kandinsky ] construct and construct, and yet intuition still has its uses. Without it we can do a lot, but not everything.. .When intuition is joined to exact research it speeds the progress of exact research.. (Paul Klee)
And what is the relationship of muscle to bone? Through its ability to contract or shorten itself, the muscle brings two bones into a new angular relationship.. ..The position of two bones toward each other must change if the muscle so decides. Bones give support to the total organism; also when in motion. Muscles have a higher function because they act beside each other. One bends, the other stretches. One bone alone achieves nothing. View quote
Paul Klee
The father of the arrow is the thought: how do I expand my reach? Over this river? This lake? That mountain ? View quote
Paul Klee
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. View quote
Paul Klee
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. View quote
Paul Klee

Paul Klee

Paul Klee - Image
Occupation: Swiss Artist
Born: December 18, 1879
Died: June 29, 1940
Quotes count: 115
Wikipedia: Paul Klee

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