Reviews (1)

The Book Every Aspiring Artist Should Keep On Hand
When I picked up the Paul Klee Diaries it fell open to the sentence every artist must secretly yearn to see: "...I am still incapable of painting, in spite of my sharp observation of tonal values and inspite of my clever way of determining the proper gradations of light and dark." Well! If he had trouble, there must be hope for the rest of us! The diaries, edited by his son and published posthumously, cover his 19th to 40th years as he travels, attends concerts, draws, paints and engages in intense artistic discourse with friends like Kandinsky and Macke. An exquisite writer, Klee captures whole experiences in a few brief words. The book is a chronicle of the development of both the artist and the art of his time. I especially liked the precise descriptions of his drawing experiments and periodic review of his progress. His grasp of techniques and insights into the creative process can be returned to again and again. ... Read more

Book Description

Now available in paperback, this illuminating work examines the fascinating bond between music and painting in Paul Klee’s art. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

The paintings, drawings, and philosophy of Klee
This beautifully illustrated and wonderfully informative monograph is devoted to the reasonable (and wholly accepted) thesis that Paul Klee's dedication to, and love for, musical forms informed his prolific life in art, specifically drawing and painting. Duchting has chosen illustrations that consistently reinforce his assertions. The commentary is smart, informed, and lively. Even if you dozed in Art History, this book is excellent. Duchting has done his homework, consulting Klee's own (published) diaries, notebooks, and sketchbooks, and the extensive writings of Klee friend and biographer Will Grohmann, and additional early biographers. In addition Duchting has spent a lot of time looking at the paintings themselves. Some of Klee's incredible lecture notes (which you must see to believe) from his years of teaching art are included, as are several quick drawings and works of artists who were associated with Klee.

This book has terrific production values. The paper is good,and the approximately 100 color reproductions are exquisite. Photographs of Klee, his wife Lily, and his studio. Page layout is a visual treat. It's really a gem of a book, right down to the lemon-yellow endpapers. There is a a short biography, pages of good endnotes, and a 'Selected Bibliography' (page 111).

poliphony and rhythm in colour
This book is a very good introduction to the artistic work of Paul Klee. The author explains in easy and helpful manner how the music influenced the painting production of Klee. A carefully attention is given how Klee tried to reproduce musical concepts as poliphony and rhythm in his painting. The book is rich in good quality photos. The only lacks are the absence of a bibliography and Duechting doesn't tell any anectodes about Klee, because anectodes are very usefull to remember the works and the life of artists. I advice to read this book all people they are interesting in modern painting. ... Read more

Book Description

Produced in close cooperation with the Klee Foundation in Bern, this catlogues gathers together the artist's outstanding masterpieces of the years 1917-1933.This extraordinary survey, which includes works which Klee originally intended to keep for himself, has been made possible by loans from the collection of Angela Rosengart in Lucerne, the Klee Foundation in Bern, and many private collectors.Many of these works are being presented to a wide audience for the first time. ... Read more

Book Description

This colorful monograph features and surveys the 150 best-known works of Paul Klee, an artist famous for the playful complexity of his multi-media images.Klee never ceased his quest for new subjects and sources of inspiration, and he experimented with geometry, materials, and color to represent fauna and flora, music, the diurnal, and the nocturnal.

As a teacher at the famous Bauhaus School in Weimar, Klee played an important role in the evolution of applied arts.Author Jean-Louis Ferrier provides an insightful text that explains the complex, often misunderstood work of Klee.In addition, this monograph includes extracts from Klee's theatrical work, including the famous Pedagogical Sketchbook used by his students at the Bauhaus.

Comprehensive and fresh, this new study of Paul Klee will delight students and enthusiasts of twentieth-century art. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Careful and thorough introduction to Klee
This is an efficient and careful monograph that succeeds on many levels. Grohmann was Klee's biographer and longtime friend. He is respectful without being sycophantic, and thorough but never plodding. He uses a variety of source materials, including Klee's own writings (diaries and letters). Grohmann establishes Klee's lasting importance to art and to painting by asserting, "It is as though he were still among us, to be consulted on every problem of life and art." Grohmann's generous(40 pages, 58 illustrations) and lively essay on Klee is also charming and personal. It combines biography, criticism, a wealth of references, and thought-provoking appreciation. It's generously illustrated with photographs of Klee and his studio, plus ink, tusche, chalk, and pencil drawings, collage, watercolor, tempera, and oil paintings, a woodcut study, and etchings.

The text that accompanies the following forty color plates (a selection of paintings) is the calm, clear art criticism that Grohmann is so good at. The plates' reproduced colors are good but not great. What's best is that Grohmann is such an able teacher. He describes each painting straightforwardly, and then asks intelligent questions, suggests answers that seem well-thought-out, and inspires one to further thought and research. His friendship with Klee gave him some additional understanding of his friend's work and lifelong passions and motives.

A very worthwhile book on a great artist. ... Read more

Book Description

Paul Klee, best known for his mastery of color and semi-abstract patchwork paintings of squares, completed more than 10,000 paintings, drawings, and etchings during his life. His work is difficult to classify but widely admired and highly sought after. Carl Djerassi, scientist, novelist, philanthropist, most famous for inventing the birth control pill, was a great fan of Klee and amassed one of the most important private collections of his work in the world.

This catalog reproduces highlights from the collection, now owned by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, including full-color images of nearly one hundred rarely published works. These drawings, sketches, gouache and watercolors reflect the whole of Klee’s short but prolific career and are among his most beautiful and important works. The text includes background and critical commentary from noted Klee experts. In addition, an interview with Djerassi reveals his artistic endeavors and passion for Klee, a creative genius whose energy, versatility, productivity, and vision speak volumes to the scientist and anyone interested in the inventive power of the imagination. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Great monograph on Klee
Internationally recognized Klee expert Douglas Hall begins with a perceptive biographical essay on Klee that is illustrated sparingly but effectively with photographs of Klee, his wife Lily Stumpf (whom he married in 1906), his tidy Munich studio in 1920, along with several etchings and paintings.

Hall has read and thought about everything the painter ever wrote, and he quotes from the diaries in his text. Klee fought in World War One. He had begun his working life as a draughtsman, but soon moved toward finer "art." His early doubts about himself as well as his eventually confident assertions are here. The result is a clear picture of Klee the man and the artist - as well as a feel for his artistic and deeply thought-out process - over the years of his too-brief life. (He died at 61, in 1940.)

Hall discusses Klee's significant contributions to theories of color, composition, the relationship of music to visual art; edges, textures, the use of the frame; !abstraction and symbolism. Klee's participation in the Bauhaus at Weimar (closed by the Nazis in 1931) is detailed. He was fired from his teaching job at the Dusseldorf Academy in 1933. The Fascist persecution of modern artists began and Klee and his wife left Germany to return to the safety of their native Switzerland.

The plates' color is good and best of all, many of the paintings in this book are in private collections, so you're seeing some things you won't ever find in museums. Some of the plates show only a detail of the full painting, with the full painting reproduced in black and white, opposite. This is occasionally frustrating.

Finally, Klee's well-known late paintings : boldly colorful, starkly minimal and emotionally expressive - each about his own imminent death - are included with trenchant and sympathetic commentary. There is an Outline Biography, a Select Bibliography, and 48 color plates spanning Klee's entire painting life.

A great book. ... Read more

Book Description

Paul Klee (1879-1940) is one of the most significant and best-loved artists of the twentieth century. For the nine volumes of this landmark project, the Berne-based Paul Klee Foundation has researched the artist's 9,600 drawings, prints, watercolors, and oil paintings, allowing the artist's complete works to be assembled and published for the first time. Each volume contains an introduction in German and English, an explanation of the catalogue system, a German-English glossary, a bibliography, and indexes. All the entries are illustrated and include catalogue numbers, technical descriptions, measurements, references to related works, details of provenance and location, relevant literature, and a list of exhibitions and auctions in which works have appeared. Klee's own entries from the catalogue he maintained from 1911 onwards are also included, and the most important works are illustrated in color. From 1923 to 1926, Klee was active as a professor at the Bauhaus, first in Weimar and then in Dessau. Volume 4 includes striking examples of new color harmonies in works inspired by the artist's visits to La Coruna (1923) and Italy and Sicily (1926). Over 1000 illustrations, 100 in color. ... Read more

Book Description

Paul Klee (1879-1940) is one of the most significant and best-loved artists of the twentieth century. For the nine volumes of this landmark project, the Berne-based Paul Klee Foundation has researched the artist's 9,600 drawings, prints, watercolors, and oil paintings, allowing the artist's complete works to be assembled and published for the first time.

Each volume contains an introduction in German and English, an explanation of the catalogue system, a German-English glossary, a bibliography, and indexes. All the entries are illustrated and include catalogue numbers, technical descriptions, measurements, references to related works, details of provenance and location, relevant literature, and a list of exhibitions and auctions in which works have appeared. Klee's own entries from the catalogue he maintained from 1911 onward are also included, and the most important works are illustrated in color.

In 1939, Klee was settled in Berne. His work from the period, especially the masks, alludes to the political situation in Europe and reflects Klee's consciousness of threat. Over 1000 illustrations, 100 in color. ... Read more

Book Description

Paul Klee (1879-1940) is one of the most significant and best-loved artists of the twentieth century. For the nine volumes of this landmark project, the Berne-based Paul Klee Foundation has researched the artist's 9,600 drawings, prints, watercolors, and oil paintings, allowing the artist's complete works to be assembled and published for the first time. Each volume contains an introduction in German and English, an explanation of the catalogue system, a German-English glossary, a bibliography, and indexes. All the entries are illustrated and include catalogue numbers, technical descriptions, measurements, references to related works, details of provenance and location, relevant literature, and a list of exhibitions and auctions in which works have appeared. Klee's own entries from the catalogue he maintained from 1911 onwards are also included, and the most important works are illustrated in color. Klee's work during the years 1931-33 reflects his travels to Sicily, Venice, and the South of France. In 1931, after terminating his teaching contract with the Bauhaus in Dessau, Klee took up a professorship at the Dusseldorf Academy of Art. Two years later he came under attack from the Nazis and was dismissed, and in December 1933 he left Germany to settle in Switzerland. Over 1000 illustrations, 100 in color. ... Read more